Building Value Legends on the Auction Block
Today's (Monday, October 8, 2007) Wall Street Journal has a fascinating front page article on shenanigans in the high end watch business, focusing on the relationship between the Swiss Antiquourum auction company and two watchmatkers, Patek Phillipe and Omega.
It's particularly timely since Saturday's Journal had a huge advertising insert (twelve pages, an expense at which the mind boggles) called "Collecting and Investing in Watches" which was "produced in cooperation with Christie's".
Today's article, called "Invisible Hand: How Top Watchmakers Intervene in Auctions" reports that some of the record sales of Patek Phillipe watches at Antiquorum sales, and at least one Omega record at the April 2007 Antiquorum single marque "Omegamania" sale, have been to the manufacturers or their senior executives.
The practices noted in today's article don't have specific relevance to collector car auctions since -- with the exceptions of Ferrari (and Maserati), Porsche and Mercedes-Benz -- none of the marques which have collector market visibility still exist. But the same practices can be successfully employed by collectors and dealers to exploit the collector car auction market to build value legends.
Rick Carey
It's particularly timely since Saturday's Journal had a huge advertising insert (twelve pages, an expense at which the mind boggles) called "Collecting and Investing in Watches" which was "produced in cooperation with Christie's".
Today's article, called "Invisible Hand: How Top Watchmakers Intervene in Auctions" reports that some of the record sales of Patek Phillipe watches at Antiquorum sales, and at least one Omega record at the April 2007 Antiquorum single marque "Omegamania" sale, have been to the manufacturers or their senior executives.
The practices noted in today's article don't have specific relevance to collector car auctions since -- with the exceptions of Ferrari (and Maserati), Porsche and Mercedes-Benz -- none of the marques which have collector market visibility still exist. But the same practices can be successfully employed by collectors and dealers to exploit the collector car auction market to build value legends.
Rick Carey
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