Stocks and cryptocurrencies had a banner year in 2023, staging rallies that defied market gurus' gloomy outlooks – but it was a much rougher year for collectibles.
Following the pandemic, collectibles surged in popularity, with luxury watches and fine wines comfortably outperforming equities. In September 2022, Swiss bank Credit Suisse even said that Chanel handbags, Rolexes, and traditional Chinese art would offer better inflation protection than so-called safe havens like gold and long-duration bonds.
But indexes tracking the price of non-traditional assets like whiskey and trading cards and luxury watches tumbled in 2023 as consumers responded to high inflation and rising interest rates by cutting back their spending on big-ticket items.
Meanwhile, the AI investing craze powered the benchmark S&P 500 stock index to 24% gains – and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin shook off a dismal 2022 to rack up triple-digit returns. When those assets are performing better, there's less incentive for investors to try to diversify their portfolios by piling into collectibles.
"In 2023, traditional markets experienced a resounding recovery, while collectible markets suffered a continued decline that spread across nearly every sector," Altan Insights, which provides data and analytics on the market for collectibles, said in a recent research report.
"Yes, the bubbles have popped. The frothy markets of 2020 to 2022 are no more."
Here are four collectibles markets that slumped in 2023.