Portland, OR -- (SBWire) -- 07/14/2009 -- The Ferrari market has returned to a refreshing level of liquidity, with cars selling again -- although they're 30% below last year's prices. Simply put, too many would-be sellers are lost in the ozone of last year's prices, using the 2008 peak-of-the-market numbers to gauge the value of their cars. Conversely, an equally large number of would-be buyers dwell in a fairyland of Ferraris at 60% or more off. Neither is in touch with today's reality.

Just as the real estate crash led the U.S., England, Spain, and Ireland into this recession, so a real estate recover will ignite the long climb back to prosperity. As real estate begins to hit bottom, let's quantify the recession's effect on the Ferrari market. Some believe that RM's May 2008 auction at the factory in Maranello and the Monterey auctions of August 2008 were the high points of the 2003-08 Ferrari boom. So where are we now?

One only needs to compare a few same-model, same-condition sales from the RM auctions at Maranello in 2008 with the RM auction at Maranello in 2009 for statistical answers. For example, 250 Lusso s/n 5143 was the subject of a five-year restoration and so brought "all the money" at the 2008 auction at $1,174,533. What a difference a year makes: 250 Lusso s/n 4405, also freshly restored (admittedly to a lesser standard), sold at the 2009 auction for $605,000, a drop of 49% in just one year.

Further up the food chain, 250 LWB California Spyder s/n 0923 sold for $3,659,838 at the 2008 auction, while 250 LWB California Spyder s/n 1487 sold for $2,911,563 at the 2009 auction, a drop of 21%. Shifting to newer cars, Euro model F40 s/n 89307 sold for $674,091 at the 2008 auction while Euro model F40 s/n 88835 sold for $393,250 at the 2009 sale. That's a drop of 39% for similar cars.

In only a year, the planet has experienced deleveraging on a breathtaking scale. The good news is that relative to banks and real estate, the drop in Ferrari prices has been modest -- especially compared to the severe drops in the 1990-95 collector car price crash.

Read more about the Ferrari market as well as other important cars featured in the August issue of SCM, including a 1970 Aston Martin DB6 Mk II sold for $135,145, a 1930 Citroën Kégresse "Forestiere" Autochenille sold for $46,575, and a 1980 BMW M1 Coupe sold for $186,300. Plus, this issue is loaded with analysis of 175 more collector cars with sales totaling $43m.