SECTION I — OPENING MARKET PULSE
For our clients and readers, this environment creates both opportunity and obligation. The obligation is to understand what is actually driving markets — not the surface narratives, but the underlying capital flows, monetary dynamics, and structural forces. The opportunity is to position intelligently in assets that benefit from the very conditions that make traditional fixed income and paper assets less attractive. We believe — and the data increasingly supports — that the collector car market is one of the clearest beneficiaries of the macro environment we are operating in today.
World auction records have been broken this year. The collector car market is experiencing a revaluation of finite, irreplaceable hard assets in a world awash in paper money. We will explain precisely why we believe this strength continues through the summer and beyond based on our current data we’ve gathered and observed to date.
SECTION II — FINANCIAL MARKETS
The headline numbers from 2026 tell a story of remarkable underlying economic strength. The S&P 500 is up 8% year-to-date with approximately 30% gains year-over-year. Corporate earnings growth is tracking at 28% YTD — a number that would be considered exceptional in any environment, let alone one characterized by geopolitical conflict and the highest inflation readings in years. First quarter GDP grew at a 2% annualized rate. Factory orders have come in stronger than expected. Consumers continue to spend, we’ve heard this from all of the travel companies on their earnings call and we’ve seen the numbers show up in the data. Initial jobless claims are at their lowest levels since 1969 — a statistic that bears repeating: the U.S. labor market is tighter today than at any point in more than half a century. As for the Collector Car World, we have seen values get pulled forward, records shattered and an increase in new capital flowing into the asset class.
The bond market is telling a different and more complex story. The 10-year Treasury yield sits at 4.45% while the 30-year has crossed 5.00% — both driven higher by geopolitical tensions from the Middle East engagement and the re-acceleration of global inflation. New Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh finds himself between a rock and a hard place: political pressure to lower rates, a dual mandate requiring price stability and maximum employment, and economic data that points clearly toward holding rates steady — or potentially even hiking.
Markets are now pricing in the possibility of a rate hike, not a cut. This is a significant sentiment shift from the start of the year and has material implications for capital allocation across every asset class.
Bond yields across the globe are spiking, Japan is at 29 year highs as they are fighting record high inflation and rising energy costs. The United Kingdom, meanwhile, is in genuine turmoil — slowing growth, rising inflation, political instability, and 10-year Gilt yields at their highest levels since the Global Financial Crisis. Continental Europe faces its own structural challenges. China is also in a league of their own with deteriorating conditions in real estate values, government tax shortfalls and elevated debt levels that are exceeding 300% of GDP. China is offering stimulus to jumpstart growth which will contribute to more inflation of their own.
All of this is the market telling governments across the globe that we have a debt crisis, poorly run governments and sticky inflation that is rearing its head again.
The U.S. has accumulated $39trln in debt, which is 120% of our GDP, the highest it’s been since WWII. With our elevated rates, comes higher interest payments on our debt which is growing faster than the money we are taking in. The bottom line, we have a spending problem and congress is whistling past the graveyard on the way to the next election.
For the collector car market specifically, this is elevating prices as collectors and investors are looking for places to park capital and to hedge against inflation. Collector Cars have proven to be a haven for a store of value and have increased in value, especially as the dollar has depreciated.
Global Capital Flows — The U.S. as the World's Safe Harbor
Perhaps no data point is more instructive than the foreign capital flow numbers: private international investors purchased a record $717 billion in U.S. equities over the past year and now hold a total of $9.5 trillion in U.S. Treasuries.
The U.S. remains, emphatically, the best house in a bad neighborhood. Global capital continues to flow into U.S. markets and U.S. assets
SECTION III — COLLECTOR CAR MARKET
Record Prices, Record Volumes, and the Structural Case for Continued Strength
Auction Market Overview — YTD 2026
The public auction data through mid-year 2026 is unambiguous: this is an exceptionally active and robust market. Twelve major auctions have been conducted globally year-to-date. Of 7,420 cars presented across the block, 5,834 have publicly transacted — a sell-through rate of approximately 79%, which is historically strong. Total public auction sales YTD have reached $750.6 million. World records have been broken. The market is not consolidating. It is advancing.
The market leadership in 2026 is concentrated in two clear categories: limited-production examples from the modern era (roughly 2000–2015), and hyper-cars cars. Within those categories, the following have seen the most sustained bid. The market has seen an accelerated generational shift to the mid-1990’s to current limited production super cars over the last ten months.
Why This Market Has Structural Momentum
When we are asked whether the current collector car market represents a bubble, our answer is categorical: no. We do feel there are some examples that overshot to the upside, and some that have been underpriced for so long that they just got brought up to market and some models whose values were pulled forward by a few years. The price appreciation we are witnessing is the rational output of identifiable, measurable, durable forces. The macroeconomics we discussed above have given this asset class measurable tailwinds.
The most important of these is the greatest wealth transfer in history. The Baby Boomer generation is sitting on approximately $90 trillion in net worth and is actively transferring that wealth to their children and grandchildren. This is not a future event — it is happening now, and the recipients are putting capital to work in exactly the asset classes they grew up aspiring to own. We are also simultaneously in the midst of a K-shaped economy in which UHNW individuals have seen extraordinary capital creation over the past five years and are now deploying that excess capital into hard, appreciating assets. Collector cars sit at the intersection of both trends.
There is also a pure monetary argument that we believe is underappreciated. The U.S. has printed more dollars than at any point in its history. M2 money supply is currently standing at $22.69 trillion. National debt is $39 trillion — 120% of GDP, a level not seen since World War II. Global governments are debasing their currencies in real-time. Market participants are looking for places to park money into something tangible. Cars provide hard, tangible and are experiential. Not many asset classes can produce those qualities. They are systematically allocating toward finite, irreplaceable hard assets. Limited in quantity, as we outlined earlier, ie: A 288 GTO of which only 272 produced, an F50, 349 produced, an Enzo, 499 produced, 997.2 GT3 RS 4.0, 600 produced. This represents the antithesis of debasement. You cannot print more of them.
Finally, momentum itself is a force; momentum begets momentum. As auction prices break records and media coverage expands, new buyers gain confidence and have deployed new capital into the market. Most of our new buyers are new to the collector car world and are making their first purchases which are very high six-figure and seven figure purchases. FOMO — Fear of Missing Out — is a real and documented driver of demand acceleration in collectible markets. Cars that were considered niche investments a decade ago are now on the radar of new collectors looking to what has strength, what has moved already, what is next to move and veteran collectors reallocating and diversifying their collection.
The post-2020 environment has accelerated the institutionalization of collector cars as a recognized alternative asset class. As global wealth creation reached unprecedented levels over the past six years, portfolio managers advising ultra-high-net-worth clients have increasingly incorporated hard assets into formal allocation frameworks.
At the UHNW level, where aggregate net worth figures have scaled materially, advisors are now prescribing defined percentage allocations to tangible assets as a structural component of diversified portfolios — not as a discretionary lifestyle consideration, but as a deliberate risk-adjusted strategy. Collector vehicles, particularly those with documented provenance, limited production histories, and verifiable market liquidity, satisfy the core criteria: scarcity, non-correlation to public markets, and long-term capital appreciation.
In our assessment, this isn’t a short-term spike, this is a longer trend upward. The collector car market has structural forces behind it. The capital entering this market today keeps coming in at each new price level; we are seeing more capital come off of the sidelines and into the market with each continued sale as a new data point. This doesn’t mean that all cars are created equal, so make sure you are selecting the right cars.
SECTION IV — GTMC INVENTORY FEATURES
Featured Highlights & Active Acquisition Mandate
Our current inventory reflects our highest-conviction thesis: the finest documented examples of Ferrari's most significant cars, sourced with Classiche certification, verified ownership history, and original condition. Here are two examples we are highlighting this month. (We don't advertise a majority of our stock inventory).
Ferrari 288 GTO
Ferrari 550 Barchetta
Rosso Fiorano / Cuoio Interior
10k miles | Fresh full major service | All new interior | Last Numbered Ferrari
SECTION VI — LOOKING AHEAD
90-Day Outlook — Summer of Strength
We enter the summer collector car season digesting a solid five months’ worth of data that we have absorbed. We have two big sales this weekend and then a bit of auction reprieve until Monterey Car Week.
Currently the trends YTD have been the new money entering the space has been more active in the auction room as the new buyers are wanting buyer affirmation seeing other bidders with their hands up. The questions leading into the summer months, with the lack of auctions, will the buyers feel comfortable outside of the auction room?
The macroeconomic backdrop — elevated inflation, surging equity markets, record wealth concentration at the UHNW level driving new buyers, and structural currency debasement — maps almost perfectly onto the demand conditions that drive the collector car market. These are not temporary factors. They are multi-year, structural forces.
On the near-term catalyst calendar: Mecum Indy has a lineup of Halo Cars that we will keep an eye on, F40/F50/Enzo, Maserati MC12, Bugatti EB110SS (one of our ex cars), Veyron (we have been telling people to buy these cars the past year) just to name a few. Broad Arrow in Villa d’Este is running an eclectic mix of cars from pre-war to modern examples with their feature car being a Pagani Zonda Roadster (also relatively underpriced compared to many of the Halo cars that have moved this year).
With the Fed's June meeting approaching, all of the core inflation data, the consensus is clear — rate cuts are off the table, and strengthening economic data has actually tilted the odds toward hikes. Tariff headwinds remain a live variable, as the duty on any imported vehicles continues to pressure supply dynamics across the broader collector car automotive market. Against this backdrop, we remain highly constructive on the collector car segment: prices are holding firm, and the rarest, lowest-production examples continue to demonstrate exceptional resilience and demand.
We expect to see accelerating capital flows into the collector car market as investors increasingly seek hard, tangible assets that will provide inflation protection along with proven store-of-value characteristics.
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