Are classic Ferraris really expensive?

Sorry fellows,

late to the party as I just got off a grand canyon raft trip.

For me art has always been about emotion. Does that piece move you in a certain way. then you have to own it. Either for yourself ,a museum donation, or some other charitable initiative.

I guess that we could collectively kick ourselves for not buying that 275 GTS in 1996 for
$ 175 K...now almost 10 times that value.

These cars, especially the older lower production models each has their own story. They are art, but were unique in that they were of the moving variety. Nothing like the smell of petrol married to the shrill of the cam chains when the engine roars at 7,000 RPM. Nothing. makes us all feel connected to the early formula racers.

Same reason people buy precious metal. Connects us with all the ancient ones who first discovered and worked this unique metal many millennia ago.

Owning any vintage Ferrari connects us all to a simpler time, one of handwork vs computer machining. one where the imperfect was rationalized against performance.

Anyone who owns these be it a Dino or a 12 banger has that connection. this is what moves me.

I collect art, I have a few nice cars of Italian marque, and they all speak in a collective language of beauty of line,message, and performance.

They are all now made of unobtanium and in fact Ferrari could not build another 250 GTO. They would make it too perfectly.

Let's all celebrate our good fortune in owning and loving these cars.

Best, jon

 

Right on the money. Perceived value only exists when at least some surplus value is imagined. Want goes down, supply goes up, price plummets

If Bruce Springsteen was in his powerband of turning out gold records right now he wouldn't be writing about picking up Mary on the porch in a rusted out car or racing in the streets...he'd be writing songs about texting the girl who sits 2 feet away from him in class on his iPhone 6

 

And that car is a Prius, and modern Bruce S would have that Prius tattooed on his back

Man I hate the Prius!

 

I think we are all missing the point, if you can afford $170 million for a painting then you will have more than one type of investment/hobby. He probably has Ferraris too !

 

For $170MM one can buy a pretty fine NYC apartment, a beautiful chateau in the Cote d'Or or the Midi, a mountain ranch house on 1,000+ acres in Yellowstone, Montana, with corrals and stables thrown in, a Piemontese villa north of Lago di Como and still have enough left to yield the annual income to enjoy them all, flying first cabin, plus annual round trips in a Queens Grill suite on QM2. You might even come close to that with the proceeds from the sale of your 330LMB.

 

You've got it just right, Jon; it's the emotion, paintings, sculpture - static and in motion - loved ones, whatever moves us. And joins us.

 

What's the cheapest collectible Ferrari model ? I know the question sounds like an oxymoron.

 

365GT?

 

Great looking car.

 

+1 Paintings have all sorts of age related issues that require the services of a skilled conservator to manage. Restoration is even costlier. Can easily mirror the cost of a major service on a V12.

 

I wouldn't say just a service, It could easily reach rebuild money. It would very much depend on the value of the painting being restored. I wonder what the restoration costs would be on a painting like the Mona Lisa, if it ever needed one. My guess it would be in the millions, for liability reasons alone.

 

+1
I was being conservative. I'm an artist. One of my best friends is a conservator and works for one of the better known guys in NYC. It's very expensive to maintain/restore any work to a high degree, especially if you work slowly and carefully.

 

Nailed it. I would compare that feeling to a first car. It likely wasn't the greatest of machines, yet still evokes an emotional connection.

 

Precious metal connects people to the past?

So the connection was lost when gold was sub-$300 /oz? But then it grew stronger?

Why does someone have to own art because it moves them? You can own a precise replica if it is the visual impact. Much like we don't need to own the original tapes of musicians and their original recording imprints to be moved by their music.

Classic Ferraris are REALLY expensive (to answer the OP). Whether they are worth the prices they trade at today, is a different question and one I have views on. But are they expensive? Yes, yes they are.

 

Yes, especially collectible coins.

Non-Sequitur, You can't point to macro supply/demand components of gold and dismiss that precious metals have a sentimental/psychological value often associated with it. Just so you know I have zero positions in metals, so I have no horse in this race.

Who said one *has to* own art because it moves them? The poster was saying why a person would buy a work of art, not that one has to.

Again, a inaccurate comparison. One MP3 is literally exactly the same as another MP3 (same bit rate/sample size of course)...As others have pointed out here the "artist himself could never duplicate his own painting brush stroke for brush stroke..ever" No such thing as a 'precise replica' of a Mona Lisa. Also as others have pointed out "not only buying the actual work, but the history and provenance of the piece. you are in essence becoming a part of its history."
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