Like all investors, collectors also run risks, especially when a brand becomes a fad and new buyers push prices up to unsustainable levels. The market for Leica cameras peaked in 2012 when a rare O-Series from 1923 sold for $2.79 million at a WestLicht auction in Vienna. “Some cameras were selling for 10 times their estimates,” said WestLicht owner Peter Coeln. “All these cameras went through the roof.”
Then prices plunged as much as 50 percent. A rare black Leica MP from 1958 sold for 264,000 euros in June, down from 600,000 euros for a similar model at the height of the market.
Perhaps the most exotic item attracting a following is agarwood. Prized for thousands of years for its scent, the wood’s aroma derives from resin the tree produces to fight off infection. At an L&H Auction sale in Hong Kong in May, a 58 gram (2 ounce) agarwood bracelet sold for HK$2.99 million.
“It’s simple arithmetic, there is a limited supply” says Paul Kan, a collector of 40 years who says he prefers the scented wood to more traditional collectibles. Kan says prices have risen 10-fold in the past decade as the number of buyers from China skyrocketed.
And if the market slumps? “You can always smell it,” he says. “Chinese porcelain and ceramics don’t give you that.”