Collecting cars and watches is (now) for suckers
There was a time, not too long ago, when the time was just right to buy an old thing you always wanted, keep it for few years and then selling it on for more money than you paid it for, it was perfect and it was not meant to last.
Somehow what was little more than an hobby for rich losers became a whole industry with market analysts and trend-setters (and trend-chasers).
I’m here to say, this cycle has come to an end for cars and mechanical watches, for two reasons, but really it’s only one reason under different lighting.
1. No one cares anymore
You heard me right, no one cares about a Ferrari GTOb 256h/121, no one that is below the age of 25 at least. They grew up with a Tesla being a cool car and they still don’t drive because Uber takes them everywhere.
Car culture is old people culture.
When did Fast and Furious come out, 2004?2 Is Fast and Furious today a a car-culture-centric movie franchise?
I frankly don't know, stopped following at the peak of the series, which was obviously Tokyo Drift.
The point I’m making is that no one young has a car, cares about cars enough to make it their identity, and if they care, it is not about their grandpa dream car anyway.
Repeat the same, but worse, for mechanical watches.
Here, really the things have been doom and gloom for a while.
Some new interest was injected when the easy money WSB / GME frenzy in early 2020s gave a lot of money to people that had zero taste or personality (classic watch guy match) but really, watch-culture is dead, and will be beyond dead in 10 years - it’s already over.
2. Supply-pocalypse
You know who cared a lot, and has a lot, of old cars and old watches? Grandpa boomerthal.
You know who is about to dump all of that on the market because they could do with some cash? Uncle-X and Mama-llennial when granpa is gone.
That’s right, i just made up three bad puns to say boomers have all this stuff, gen-x and millennials will get it soon and dump it all for some easy cash.
And if you think they will not, watch as they see the price of those collapse… it will be a game of chicken first, a run for the exit later.
1+2= 3. Demographics
It is all demographics. New generations care about what they can relate to, old smelly dinosaur-juice drinking bucket of rusts and gear-porn from the swiss alps to tell time badly, is not what new gens care about.
They care about other stuff, pokemon cards?, some old piece of tech? Like the first ipod or iphone or whatever they wanted as kids and could never afford, that’s their collection journey, that’s their chance of buying something later on for cheap, enjoying the hell out of it, and still sell it on for more… but they will not sell it on, they will pass it to their kids, who will dump it on the market, because an old iphone in 2087 is just some junk, a relic.