Feeling the Economic Impact - Jewelry and Fine Wines

Over the next week or so there will be a couple major sales for fine wine and jewelry at the international auction houses. Christie's has a fine and rare wine sale in London on the 13th, followed by an important watch sale in Geneva on the 17th. Sotheby's is selling what they call four fabulous cellars in New York on November 22nd.

Reuters is reporting due to the world financial concerns the international auction houses are contacting jewelry and wine consignors and discuss the lowering of reserves. According to the report "We've seen a readjustment of prices, 20 to 30 percent lower. We've called many owners of jewelery and watches and wine selling items next week in Geneva and asked them to adjust their reserve prices to what we think is the new level of prices," Francois Curiel, international director of Christie's worldwide jewelery department, told Reuters.

The good news is the Reuters article states jewelry prices, although down considerably over the past six months, they are still nearly 15% higher than prices of two years ago. It will be interesting to see how these pre-holiday, luxury items perform at the sales.

To read the short Reuters article, click HERE.

Again, we have a situation where knowing market trends is very important. This applies not only to auction houses, property consignors, but to appraisers as well. Know your market.