Collectables: Collect or forget?

Earlier this year, auction house Grays reported record buyer interest in a classic car sale. It saw buyers pay top dollar for a number of cars including a 1978 Ford XC Cobra that sold for $194,000.

It’s a similar story across a variety of collectibles including stamps and coins. But they won’t always be a money spinner.

Picking investment-grade collectibles is a specialist skill. Get it right, and you can certainly pocket capital gains. According to the latest Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index[1], coins have appreciated 72% over the last decade. Classic cars have scored 10-year gains of 193%. But the big winner is rare whiskey, which has jumped in value by 478% over the past 10 years.

So, how do collectibles stack up against mainstream investments like shares? Frankly, not very well in many cases.

By comparison, Australian shares dished up capital gains averaging 6.23% annually over the last ten years[2]. To put that in perspective,  if you’d invested $10,000 in a diversified portfolio of Aussie shares back in 2011, it would be worth about $18,301 today. That’s a 10-year gain of 83%.

However, shares don’t just deliver capital gains. They also pay tax-friendly dividends. If we include dividends, shares generated total returns averaging 10.8% annually over the past decade. By reinvesting dividends, a $10,000 share portfolio in 2011 could have grown to around $27,887 by 2021. That’s a total  10-year return of 179%.

What really sets shares apart from collectibles is their low maintenance nature. When you invest in a collectible it makes sense to insure it. You also need to store it securely. If it’s something like a vintage car, you need to pay for maintenance and possibly annual rego costs.

If you’re investing through a self-managed super fund (SMSF) there can be serious pitfalls around collectibles. The Tax Office makes it clear that collectables must not be stored in the private residence of fund members. Artworks can’t even be displayed in a SMSF member’s business premises where they can be visible to clients and employees. This avoids the possibly that the assets will give members a benefit prior to retirement, which is a big no-no for SMSFs.

Long story short, collectibles often come with ongoing expenses yet rarely deliver an ongoing return. The only financial benefit is a potential profit on sale further down the track.

Sure, shares may not come with the same bragging rights – or physical beauty, as a prized artwork or rare jewellery. But they have a lot going for them as a financially rewarding long term investment, and it typically takes a lot less upfront capital to get started as an investor.

Paul Clitheroe is Chairman of InvestSMART, Chair of the Ecstra Foundation and chief commentator for Money Magazine.