Luxury Goods
Handbags, watches, jewels and sneakers. Only the Hermès allocation game, a few Chanel classics and the right steel sports watches hold value; almost everything else loses money once it leaves the boutique.
Desk data as of 2026-11-06 · Invest Alternative radar
Luxury Goods sub-index · accruing history
Target weight 2.1% of the IA Composite · accruing history — KicksDB handbag basket live
Sneakers sub-index · accruing history
Target weight 1.9% of the IA Composite · accruing history — KicksDB basket live
The guide
The guide
Investing in Luxury Goods
One handbag sold for €8.6 million; almost everything else loses money once it leaves the boutique.
Inside · 23 sections
The Hermès machine · The honest track record · Diamonds: lab-grown breaks the floor · Worked examples: a Birkin, a Flap, a pair of Jordans · The IA view
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Articles & Guides
Investing in Independent Watchmakers
A dozen makers produce perhaps two thousand watches a year between them; access, not money, sets the price.
41 min read
Investing in Sneakers
Sneaker resale premiums collapsed after 2021; a few hundred colourways still clear retail, and almost nothing else does.
38 min read
Investing in Signed and Vintage Jewellery
The name stamped inside a bracelet is now worth more than the diamonds set into it.
47 min read
Investing in Hermès
Birkins resell above retail because Hermès rations them; the arithmetic works only at the boutique price.
37 min read
Investing in Rolex
A steel Daytona: $16,900 at the dealer, $34,800 on the street; the gap is the whole market.
35 min read
Investing in Luxury Watches
A $35,000 steel watch sold for $470,000.
33 min read
Recent sales and data
As of 2026-11-06
Data we track
The observations the desk collects each day, unadjusted. Change is against the prior observation, so a monthly series shows a monthly move. Each row carries the date of its last observation.
| Series | Trend | Latest | Change | Source | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IDEX diamond composite63 obs | 77.86 | -0.31% | IDEX | 2026-11-06 | |
| IDEX index drivers63 obs | 15 | 0.00% | IDEX | 2026-11-06 | |
| Watchfinder basket, median ask60 obs | $7,523 | -0.79% | Watchfinder | 2026-11-06 | |
| Handbag basket, liquid references6 obs | 16 | 0.00% | KicksDB | 2026-09-08 | |
| Handbag basket, median resale6 obs | $4,166 | +0.35% | KicksDB | 2026-09-08 | |
| Sneaker basket, median resale6 obs | $280.5 | +1.08% | KicksDB | 2026-09-08 | |
| FCRF fancy-colour index, quarter on quarter1 obs | — | -0.1% | — | FCRF | 2026-04-01 |
Also in Cultural Assets
Objects whose value is scarcity plus attention: art, wine, cars, cards, luxury goods and watches, and NFTs.
Fine Art
The most spectacular prices in finance, and a real return of about 2.4% a year before costs.
Fine Wine
A €30B market whose supply shrinks every year and whose returns have trailed equities since 1900.
Collector Cars
Two cars sold for $25.9 million. The median car sold for $26,513.
Sports Cards & Trading Cards
A hobby-box pull sold for $11 million. The median card on eBay sold for $1.25.
NFTs
A Bored Ape floored at $430,000 in April 2022. It floors at $16,935 today.
New to the field? Start with The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Investing — What the wealthy quietly own: fourteen markets, one guide.
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