After sustaining an extensive post-crisis run of losses, “the sense that wine prices can also decline is stronger in the minds of collectors," according to Tommy Keeling, an analyst at International Wine & Spirit Research. Among spirits, Keeling expects malt whiskey to perform best this year, followed by cognac.

Coupe de Coeur

Bidding for a Ferrari once owned by the president stopped at $240,000 at the April auction, $10,000 below its expected lower bound. The lot did end up changing hands in a private sale for $270,000, according to a statement from the auction-house -- yet that price still fell short of estimates.


Gambino, a portfolio manager at Heron Bay Capital LLC, says he was recently on the opposite side of a similar transaction. “I had a broker looking at two cars for me but we passed on both, and both did not sell," he said of the pair of automobiles, a 1974 Porsche Carrera 2.7 and an early 1970s BMW 3.0CS. “The reserve was too high."

The dip in Ferrari prices is reflected across the market for high-end collectibles more generally, with the overall Hagerty Collector Car Index extending its slump in 2017.

According to Brian Rabold, vice president of Hagerty Valuation Services, there’s a divergence taking place in the upper and lower ends of the market.

He says the sell-through rate for vehicles valued above $100,000 has fallen from 69 percent to 64 percent, while the rate of those below $100,000 has increased by a similar margin over the last 12 months.

“Over the next year we expect growth at the top of the market to continue to slow down while more affordable first-tier substitutes will continue to excel," Rabold said. He sees demand shifting from Porsche to BMW, from Datsun 240Z to Datsun 280Z and from Ferrari Testarossa to Ferrari 456, for example.

Elevators, Me & You

A narrowing in the fortunes of high- and low-end segments is taking place in property, as in classic cars. Consider Manhattan apartments: the cost of renting one with a doorman fell for the seventh consecutive month in April compared with the year before, while the cost of one without the perk rose to a record.