Jerry Seinfeld's Porsches shine at an auction that might be the peak for classic car market

Mathieu Heurtault/Gooding & Co.

Ferrari remains the top dog in the collector car market. It has been that way since prices began to take off, and remains so during the current decade, as prices began to outperform most other asset classes.

But at a Gooding & Company auction at the famous Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance next week, it will be Porsche that steals the show.

This will in large part be due to comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who will sell 16 Porsches from his personal and extensive collection, considered to be one of the finest Porsche collections in the world.

"It's really unprecedented," Hans Wurl of Gooding & Company said.

But what the auction means for the incredible growth rate of collector car prices — or the market for Porsches alone — is a matter of debate.

"I really think the Porsche market is expanding ... but it's a wave that's going to crest," Phil Skinner, senior market editor at Kelley Blue Book said.  

And that crest, Skinner said, may take place at the Amelia Island auction — meaning Seinfeld has picked the perfect time to sell.

Brian Henniker/Gooding & Co.

Wurl agrees, and expects that to a certain degree the market will experience a "correction" in the near future. 

But while prices on most models will fall, certain cars will likely remain immune to such a correction.

"We're at a time where collectors are paying top, top money for every top, top example that comes up," Garth Hammers, also of Gooding & Co, said. "Those are cars that will continue to accelerate."

 And that is pretty much the consensus among experts; the very best models will likely not settle, even if the rest of the market does. 

"We are still in a market that can set records," Hammers said.

Mathieu Heurtault/Gooding & Co.

Even within widely-produced models, examples that have a notable heritage or are immaculately restored or original create their own kind of rarity, inoculating them from the market's ebb and flow. And smart collectors know this.

"We have always advised our clients to look for the best possible examples," Wurl said. And Seinfeld's collection is made — almost exclusively — of some of the best possible examples of each model represented.

As for the rest of the market, the astronomical growth in prices is most likely a thing of the past.

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