Headlines

Jewelry Overtakes Classic Cars As a Favorite Luxury Investment

Published

7 years ago

October 13, 2017

INSTORE Staff

Prices have risen 4% over the past year.

Jewelry is now more popular than classic cars as a luxury investment, a new report finds.

Classic cars have dropped to the No. 6 in the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index, which monitors price growth of 10 luxury investment classes. For several years, such cars had led the pack, but in the year that ended in the second quarter of 2017, their average price rose by only 2 percent, according to Knight Frank.

Jewelry now claims the No. 5 spot in the index, with prices climbing 4 percent over the same period.

Over the past decade, jewelry prices have increased 142 percent, according to Knight Frank.

“While pearls are still the top performer (+282% across the last decade), their growth is starting to level out and more modern jewellery, especially pieces from the Belle Époque/Art Deco era, are starting to set the pace (+93% across the last decade),” the company writes.

Wine landed at No. 1 on the index, with average prices showing a 25 percent increase.

On the whole, the index has climbed 5 percent over the past year.

“Jewelry continues to capture the imagination of wealthy collectors and is a genuine investment of passion,” says Andrew Shirley, who compiled the index, “offering not only great pleasure to its owner, but also, as novelist Barbara Taylor Braford points out in the report, acting as a highly mobile store of wealth.”

The report includes interviews with Taylor on her love of jewelry and with Susan Abeles, head of jewelry, Bonhams US, on jewelry trends.

Click here for the report.

You Wouldn’t Cut Your Own Hair. Why Run Your Own Retirement Sale?

After being in business for over a quarter of a century, Wayne Reid, owner of Wayne Jewelers in Wayne, Pennsylvania, decided it was time for a little “me time.” He says, “I’ve reached a point in my life where it’s time to slow down, enjoy a lot of things outside of the jewelry industry. It just seemed to be the right time.” He chose Wilkerson to handle his retirement sale because of their reputation and results. With financial goals exceeded, Reid says he made the right choice selecting Wilkerson to handle the sale. “They made every effort to push our jewelry to the forefront of the showcases,” he says, lauding Wilkerson for their finesse and expertise. Would he recommend them to other jewelers who want to make room for new merchandise, expand their business or like him, decide to call it a day? Absolutely he says, equating trying to do this kind of sale with cutting your own hair. “The results are going to happen but not as well as if you have a professional like Wilkerson do the job for you.”