Every week for the past two years, I’ve posted an original article under the banner of “Market Monday.” In these lengthy reports, I preview upcoming live auction events, provide occasional snapshots of specific segments of the market, analyze live auction results, and share other content that I feel will be of interest to the collector car community. For the first Market Monday of the new year, I’m sharing my predictions for the 2026 collector car market.

You may be asking yourself “what makes this guy qualified to provide a credible prediction on the 2026 collector car market?” — and that would be a fair question. I don’t have the considerable resources of Hagerty, which publishes a yearly printed and online price guide. Nor do I have the reams of data a publication like Sports Car Market has at its fingertips.

In my work as an appraiser, it’s important to keep up-to-date on the state of the overall collector car market as well as the many segments that comprise it, and to maintain that knowledge I frequently study the aforementioned resources (and more). In 2025, I appraised 31 collector cars ranging from vintage pickup trucks to modern sports cars and everything in between.

Market research is perhaps my favorite aspect of the appraisal profession and something I’d be doing anyway even if my work didn’t demand it. Aside from appraising vehicles in a professional capacity, I published 50 “Market Monday” articles in which I previewed 15 live auctions from the major auction houses. Post-sale analysis was performed for 12 live auctions, and included overall sales results, highlighted vehicle lots and more. Throughout the year I also published deep-dives into the market for 6 different marques or genres of vehicles.

The work above represents nearly 800 hours of research and study, and doesn’t include the other 400 hours spent preparing my Good Find Friday vehicle features. A number of trends emerged over the course of working on these reports last year, and those insights are what I’m sharing with you here today.

I’m probably going to butcher this, but allow me to retell a tale from Mr. Jerry Seinfeld: Jerry asked a financial guru friend of his for a take on the state of the stock market. The man’s reply was a dryly delivered “Markets vary.” Jerry’s telling of the joke is far funnier, but the response has truth to it. Essentially, there really isn’t a collector car “market.” What exists is a bunch of smaller markets for various genres of vehicles and individual makes and models, and the performance of those segments observed together provides some sense of the state of collector car values overall. The Hagerty Market Rating is a good example of this.

With all that set up out of the way, below are the trends I observed in 2025 and expect to continue into 2026. One final caveat: I’m no more a nostradamus than anyone else (including the “experts”), and if one thing is true it’s that past performance doesn’t necessarily indicate future results!

The word I used most to describe the overall market in 2025 was “cautious.” The spending spree of the pandemic was well over and buyers were much more careful when evaluating a potential purchase. I expect this behavior to continue into this year. The collector car market is active and robust, but political and economic turmoil is a near daily occurrence and I can’t see a massive Covid-era-like buying spree in our future. Anything’s possible, and if the United States starts dropping ordinance on Tehran the picture could change dramatically.

Used car prices are very strong, driven by the astronomically high price of the average new car, the impact of tariffs on imports, and inflation. Compounding the problem, supply is down as people hold onto their money and fewer cars are being sold. The collector market may benefit from this, especially for cars from the 2000s-2010s, which — while aged — can be fun and reliable daily drivers at reasonable cost. A counter-point is this article on used car giant CarMax’s intention to lower prices to move bloated inventory, however I see this as a situation unique to CarMax than to the market as a whole. We may see a stronger Q1 as tax returns and lower interest rates help with affordability.

A clear trend in 2025 was the growth in value of cars from the 1990s and 2000s, especially rare and desirable vehicles. Some of the halo vehicles of this period were profiled in my Market Snapshot on the Last of the Analog Cars. Expect to see the Porsche Carrera GT’s average value to soon reach $2M or more, for example. Lower tier vehicles, such as non-M BMW E39 5-series cars, will continue to appreciate as the values of halo cars reach new heights. If you want something special from this period, get it while you can.

Cars worth in excess of $100,000 will generally stay at those heights, with some market-specific exceptions. Vehicles such as 964-generation Porsche 911s, Ferrari Testarossas, and Lamborghini Countaches will continue to perform well due to wealthy buyer’s insulation from macroeconomic concerns and their continued popularity.

A somewhat shocking trend we’ve seen in the classic Porsche world, though it’s been true for years in the muscle car market, is that performance-themed modified cars bring all the money. This is true even if the build isn’t necessarily as well-executed as a factory-correct restoration. Given the astronomical costs of bringing  #4 “Fair” condition cars to a good standard, vehicles that are already restored will be the most desirable for the collector and well-done outlaw builds will see high demand from owners who prioritize driving their classics.

The earliest SUVs, such as Land Rovers, Ford Broncos, and FJ Toyota Land Cruisers will be either flat or continue to soften. However, the collector SUV market will still see some growth thanks to younger generations’ demand for newer models from the 1990s and 2000s.

A disheartening outcome of the pandemic was the development of an obvious gap between the value of #2 Excellent and #1 Concours condition cars relative to #3 Good and lesser vehicles. This is especially true for some cars, such as E-Type Jaguars or Porsche 356s. In 2026, expect values for the best condition and lowest miles cars to be stable or continue to rise while “good” and “fair” condition cars drift down, as there doesn’t seem to be any relief for increasing restoration and parts costs.

As an appraiser, I look at each car individually and evaluate it based on condition, specification and provenance. As enthusiasts, it’s a smart move to do the same. When looking to buy or sell, it’s best to compare the subject vehicle to completed sales of the same make, year and model in similar condition and with the same attributes. For example, for much of 2025 I heard that the Porsche 356 market was collapsing. This is far from true, it’s just that “good” and “fair” condition cars aren’t seeing the strong values of “excellent” and “concours” cars.

To close us out, here’s a quick Buy – Sell – Hold picture for the coming year. Please take note that I am not a financial advisor and this list is just for fun. As enthusiasts, we should be buying cars we love and selling cars we don’t, not chasing performance. It should be an interesting exercise to evaluate my predictions come December!

Buy:  1990s and 2000s (analog era) sports cars
Sell: Good cars in order to buy great ones
Hold: Rad-Era cars from the 1980s

In the coming weeks, I’ll be looking at ways to improve or strengthen the appeal of these posts while hopefully reducing the considerable effort required to prepare them. If you find this content useful and want to continue to see it, please let me know in the comments!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Wolf and Mare provides car finding, appraisals, and auction services for buyers and sellers of collector European cars. If you’re interested in acquiring an overseas car, give us a call or drop a line!