A Gibson Les Paul guitar sold for $54,970 at Webb’s auction house last month. <\/p>\n
A Fiona Pardington art photo, K\u0101rearea, Hunter (2024), sold for $80,662, almost twice the expected price. <\/p>\n
Caolan McAleer, Webb\u2019s director of marketing and operations, says Pardington\u2019s exhibition of her photographic portraits of museum taxidermy specimens at this year\u2019s Venice Biennale probably helped boost the price, but still. <\/p>\n
Fiona Pardington’s K\u0101rearea, Hunter (2024) sold for $80,662 at Webb’s auction house last month.<\/p>\n
And Cordy\u2019s owner, Andrew Grigg, says that although Te Papa holds works by Gordine, who is head of Te Takap\u016b o Rotowhio (School of Bone and Stone Carving) at the New Zealand M\u0101ori Arts and Crafts Institute in Rotorua, the tiki\u2019s sale price was still impressive.<\/p>\n
They are examples that show if the right buyers are bidding at the same time, auction prices can go well beyond expectation. However, Grigg warns not to be fooled by unexpected or one-off prices, driven by \u201ctwo incredibly hot buyers\u201d who go head to head. <\/p>\n
The market can be fickle and if bidders are buying only for investment reasons, they might well lose out. <\/p>\n
\u201cA few months later you put something up that\u2019s very similar and it makes nothing like that price.\u201d <\/p>\n
Take the Jane Birkin handbag, Grigg says. The record price, reached after an exhilarating 10-minute phone bidding battle at a Sotheby\u2019s auction in Paris last year, might never be reached again. <\/p>\n
The bag was bought by Japanese businessman and collector Shinsuke Sakimoto, who founded Valuence Holdings, a \u201ccircular design\u201d company that specialises in buying and selling pre-owned luxury goods.<\/p>\n
The original Herm\u00e8s Jane Birkin handbag sold for $17.1 million at Sotheby’s in Paris last year. Photo \/ Dmitry Kostyukov<\/p>\n
Sakimoto, who described the Birkin bag as a \u201ctruly artistic piece\u201d, vowed it would not be on-sold. Maybe not, but Grigg points out that the sale won\u2019t have done the company any harm. The record-smashing price will inevitably drive up the value of other Birkin bags the company sells. <\/p>\n
The bag dates back to the early 1980s when style icon, singer and actor Jane Birkin sat next to a Herm\u00e8s executive on a flight and complained most of the Herm\u00e8s bags, like the Kelly (named after American actress of Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly), were too small. The Jane Birkin bag was born and soon became a status symbol. <\/p>\n
Jane Birkin handbags rarely come up for sale in New Zealand and when they do, don\u2019t sell for millions. But there are other treasures to be spotted and bid for. <\/p>\n
Two years ago Cordy\u2019s sold a sterling silver presentation box for $95,640. Although it was beautifully made and in almost perfect condition, it was the history that gave the \u201cGreat White Fleet\u201d casket its value. <\/p>\n
In 1908, US President Theodore Roosevelt sent 16 white-painted battleships on a global tour to show off American naval might. When they steamed into the Waitemat\u0101 Harbour for six days of celebration, Queen St was jammed with thousands of well-wishers. <\/p>\n
The American fleet of battleships at Auckland in 1908. <\/p>\n
To mark the event, the Auckland Harbour Board commissioned Queen St jeweller Adolph Kohn to make a silver presentation casket as a gift for the commander of the American fleet, Rear Admiral Charles S Sperry. Carved in the front are the words \u201cNaumai Ki Akarana\u201d, Welcome to Auckland. The intricate box was decorated with pounamu tiki, gold Kiwi, silver carvings and ferns, and topped with a pounamu bar and gold. <\/p>\n
This sterling silver presentation casket, decorated with pounamu tiki and gold kiwi, was given to Rear Admiral Charles S Sperry, commander of the visiting American fleet, in 1908. <\/p>\n
Buying a piece of history can create a whole new depth of research and knowledge on a subject for the purchaser, which becomes part of the enjoyment, Grigg says. He warns auction-goers to buy for the pleasure and appreciation of an item, not just as an investment. <\/p>\n
Andrew Grigg, owner and director of Cordy’s Auctioneers.<\/p>\n
Think back to the astonishing prices people paid for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) a few years ago, which provided digital ownership of an asset like art. In 2021, an NFT artwork by digital artist Beeple sold for $116.8m at Christie\u2019s. <\/p>\n
Snoop Dogg fans paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for a plot of virtual land near the American rapper\u2019s mansion in the Snoopverse. But in 2022, crypto art valuations and the NFT market crashed, with values plunging by 90%. Suddenly, virtual objects were worth virtually nothing. <\/p>\n
Trends driven by nostalgia<\/p>\n
Auctioneers say collectors need to keep an eye on trends, which can be hiked or hit by the movement of generational nostalgia. That explains why millennials and Gen Z are not particularly interested in Grandma\u2019s fine bone china, Victorian furniture, silver-plate cutlery and crystal that can\u2019t go in the dishwasher. These days, items that grandparents coveted and collected go for prices that would make them weep. <\/p>\n
Instead, nostalgia drives bidders who want to buy back a slice of their childhood, so they\u2019ll fork out for a Star Wars toy from the 1980s, an unopened Nintendo video game from the 1990s or a rare Pokemon card. <\/p>\n
A collection of Disney Ooshies figurines from supermarkets won\u2019t be worth much now but could well have nostalgia value for future generations of Gen Alpha, much like the Labubu Pop Mart boom in recent years. A human-sized Labubu doll sold for more than $270,000 at a Chinese auction house last year. <\/p>\n
The frenzied buying of Nike Air Jordan retro sneakers has also cooled but rare collaborations or shoes owned by a celebrity are still in demand. In 2023, a Sotheby\u2019s bidder paid $3.77m for a pair of Air Jordan 13s worn \u2013 and signed \u2013 by basketball legend Michael Jordan during game 2 of the 1998 NBA finals. They are more likely to hold their value than the 3000 pairs of NFT sneakers released by NBA player Steph Curry in 2021, before the crash. The digi-sneakers are now selling for around $5. <\/p>\n
Instead, buyers want something they can touch. Fuelled by the back-to-analogue trend, vinyl records and cassette tapes \u2013 never known for their sound quality \u2013 are selling well. <\/p>\n
Taylor Swift, one of the smartest pop artists in the business, was an early retro-analogue adopter, releasing many of her albums as vinyl records and on cassette tapes. <\/p>\n
But it\u2019s the originals, in near-perfect condition, that collectors are after. A selection of old jazz LPs sold for $1494 at Auckland auctioneers Cordy\u2019s earlier this year.<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean old LPs and cassettes are always going to be hot-ticket items, Grigg says. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt moves with a generation and once that generation is done, then it\u2019s got to catch up and move with another generation who has something else that appeals to them.\u201d <\/p>\n
That generational move away from a constant digi-focus worked well for a Webb\u2019s sale of guitars and other instruments from a private collection. Crowds from the Auckland music scene turned up beforehand to sample what was on offer. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very noisy, melodic week, shall we say,\u201d McAleer says. <\/p>\n
Many of the instruments, including the Les Paul guitar, sold well above their expected prices.<\/p>\n
Caolan McAleer, director of marketing and operations at Webb\u2019s auction house.<\/p>\n
Webb\u2019s fortnightly estate sales are also popular with a younger audience, who pore over the catalogues and buy objects or furniture, he says. That generation is more open to buying second-hand objects and furniture for their homes. <\/p>\n
The demand for minimalist mid-century (1950s to 1970s) furniture has softened, with younger buyers now searching for comfy, carved furniture from the arts-and-craft era in dark colours. Buyers, following fashion and interior influencers, are looking for something with more history and patina, McAleer says.<\/p>\n
\u201cA more eclectic look for a home that\u2019s warm and inviting rather than the minimalism that we\u2019ve seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, minimalist modular furniture like the European USM brand\u2019s designs are still considered investment pieces. <\/p>\n
Two vintage felt Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret dolls sold for $3825 to a doll collector at Cordy’s auction house earlier this year. <\/p>\n
Sterling silver, too, is making a comeback, most likely because the price of silver is buoyant. <\/p>\n
A sterling silver Crest of Windsor tea and coffee set by Poole, Massachusetts, sold for $16,730 at Webb\u2019s this year, well above the estimate. <\/p>\n
A sterling silver Crest of Windsor tea and coffee set by the Poole Silver Company, Massachusetts, sold for $16,730 at Webb’s auction house.<\/p>\n
Prices at the top end of work by well-known New Zealand artists are also buoyant. Last month Bill Hammond\u2019s 1999 painting, Zoomorphic Lounge III, sold for $1.65m at a Webb\u2019s auction. <\/p>\n
Space memorabilia is also proving popular. Webb\u2019s held an auction of Apollo and Nasa memorabilia earlier this year, with prices again going well above expected levels. <\/p>\n
A signed photo of Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to walk on the moon, sold for $8000, double its estimate. And a minute sample of insulation from Columbia, the Apollo 11 command module, autographed by Buzz Aldrin (the second man to walk on the moon) sold for $3500, again double its estimate.<\/p>\n
Zoomorphic Lounge III (1999), an acrylic-on-canvas painting by Bill Hammond, sold for $1.65 million last month.<\/p>\n
Grigg says mechanical watches, including sports and diver\u2019s watches, have sold well in recent years, particularly rare ones \u2013 Grigg calls them the \u201cJames Bond or first-man-on-the-moon\u201d examples \u2013 but prices have started to soften. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople were paying a huge premium. It has slowed down a bit lately. That\u2019s an international trend.\u201d <\/p>\n
Military items and artefacts with an interesting back story are also popular. But Grigg warns buyers about filling up their homes with \u201cstuff\u201d they\u2019ve bought at auction, thinking it will be worth a fortune one day. That day may never come, he says. <\/p>\n
People might spend their lives collecting teaspoons or elephants but that doesn\u2019t mean the collection will be worth much when it\u2019s time to sell. Instead, he says, buy an item to enjoy having it in your home.<\/p>\n
Jane Phare is a senior journalist based in Auckland. Her roles at the Herald have included assistant editor of NZ Herald, editor of the Weekend Herald, founding editor of Viva, features editor and deputy print editor.<\/p>\n