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John Kapon knew the bottle of 1945 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti sold at his auction by a New-York-based wine dealer last month was good. After all, it was one of only 600 bottles of burgundy produced in the year marked by history as the end of World War II, and is considered one of the greatest vintages of all time.
Still, it was a bit of a shock when the bottle sold for $812,500—setting a new world record for a bottle of wine sold at auction for nearly 50% more than the record price fetched for the same bottle in 2018. “Scarcity drives the bus,” Kapon said. “When it comes to really rare, and really old wines among the greatest, people don’t really care what they pay for them.”
Wines aren’t the only category of collectibles to see a rise in auction value. Last month, the 1969 black Fender Stratocaster guitar that Pink Floyd member David Gilmour played on the band’s most iconic albums, including “Dark Side of the Moon,” fetched $14.55 million at a Christie’s auction. That’s more than double the $6 million record set in 2020 for a single guitar, a 1959 Martin D-18E that Kurt Cobain played on Nirvana’s “MTV Unplugged” show decades ago. Just weeks before that, a rare Pokémon Pikachu Illustrator card, one of only 29 made for a contest in the 1990’s, was sold by influencer and wrestler Logan Paul for $16.5 billion—triple what he paid for it in 2021.
What these things have in common is that they are very unique, different things that also tell a story. In the case of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, over time, fewer and fewer bottles of wine were available, with perhaps only a few left, Kapon estimates.
Acker’s Fine and Rare index, which tracks a cross-section of the top 100 wines sold at auction, rose 11% in the first three months of the year, one of the strongest jumps he has seen in 25 years. Other collectibles have seen effervescence at their higher end: TCGplayer, a platform owned by eBay for trading cards of all kinds, said it was seen double- and triple-digit percentage gains of more rare cards in 2025. And online music instrument marketplace Reverb found that by 2025, the total value of a range of quality vintage instruments, not just the multimillion-dollar headline grabbing ones, increased by 10% to 30% last yearwith rare models getting the biggest increase. The market for rare collectibles is distinct from a slow-growing art market: The new Art Basel and UBS Art Market report found that the sector grew by a modest 4% last year, after several years of decline.
Collecting expensive and special items is not new, of course. And it’s not uncommon to raise auction prices. It’s usually a story that makes something into something different—and therefore valuable. On the Gilmour guitar, Christie’s Nathalie Ferneau explained, “It kind of became this mythical holy grail thing.” The instrument is part of a Christie’s auction of the collection of Jim Irsay, a billionaire who owns the Indiana Colts football team. The auction generated more than $84 million in sales from 44 items, setting 23 world records.
The guitar was modified by Gilmour himself, who changed the neck several times and drilled holes in it. Such modifications usually damage the value of an instrument, but not in this case, because the modifications show that this is a guitar that Gilmour himself adapted to get the sound he wanted on the classic albums. “For a true fan, that makes it even more desirable,” Ferneau said.
In the case of the Pokémon card, most of its value comes from its pristine, original condition, verified by an authentication agency. It helped that Paul sweetened the pot by selling the card inside a custom necklace he was wearing, and that he would deliver it to the winner’s hand.
Not every valuable collectible is meant to be kept in a display case or resold. Wine, for example, is meant for drinking. Similarly, guitar collectors want to hang out with friends and actually play their prized possessions, rather than treat a multi-million dollar guitar like a Monet painting. “It’s a great conversation piece,” said Martin Nolan, executive director of auction house Julien, which in 2015 sold its first guitar for $1 million.
Another possible reason for the rise of collectables: The truly unique pieces are an opportunity for the ultra-rich to flex among a sea of identical high-end personal items. “Traditional luxury goods are losing their luster,” said Columbia Business School marketing professor and former LVMH executive Silvia Bellezza. “The 1% is moving away from this kind of benefit, and so what are they going to do next? They’re not going to stop signaling. They’re going to do it in a more sophisticated way.”
