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Mrs. Little, you simply must control your young son, Chicken.

Recently I was the recipient of several e-mails containing the dire headline “A Rough Ride in Collectible Cars”, published in the Wall Street Journal.

Followers of this hobby don't generally look for news about their passion in the WSJ. However, I'm certain that it piqued everyone's curiosity to discover what this influential newspaper might have to say.  While the conclusion reached in the title of the article is without doubt accurate, the road to that conclusion, and where it leads going forward, may contain more twists than reported.

The opening line of the article had an air of mystery: “For some, the first sign of trouble was a Daytona Spyder”. Who were these prescient some that could foresee the downturn of a multi-faceted industry/sport triggered by the failure of a single car to reach the minimum bid? As stated in the article, there was more to it than that. Since we know that the collector car market is not immune from the influences of outside forces, I went back to the August auction reports to find answers other than those stated in the article about what was being predicted at that time.

Michael Sheehan, a Ferrari collectibles expert quoted for the piece, writes a column in Keith Martin's Sports Car Market magazine. He felt there were numerous factors in play at the August auctions. In the November issue, he mentions enough good reasons to take the non-sale of the Daytona as a harbinger. He cites worries about the stock market, changing US currency values vs. the Euro, possible changes in tax regulations affecting capital gains and the possibility of a new Democratic tax and spend Congress. Also of interest was his view that the aging ownership population might view the previous factors as reason enough to divest themselves of portions of their collections. These, plus the current financial situation, have undoubtedly created an atmosphere where “the Ferraris market has fallen 20% to 30%”, as quoted in the article.

In fairness, many people's portfolios fared far worse. If, in August, people were looking for a correction for all the reasons stated in Mr. Sheehan's article, and the Wall Street and subsequent messes are also factored in; perhaps the collectible cars are not having such a rough ride after all.