How to Invest in Ferraris (and Other Exotics) for Maximum ROI

Let’s say you buy a Ferrari 488 for $300,000 (I’m not sure about the original price) and hope to sell it for at least $500,000. It’s possible, but it’s a bit tricky since the 488 is a new supercar. It’ll drop in value significantly in the second year until it stabilizes at its residual value. From there, the price might go up if there’s demand — but determining if there will be demand isn’t exactly easy.

There are a few ways to gauge future demand for supercars. Basically, if the car is rare or highly sought after, the price will stay high. But here’s the question: do you have the money for that? The 488 is a pretty common Ferrari, so it’s unlikely its price will rise much. It’s not a special edition or a milestone model for Ferrari, so if you’re planning to hold onto it, it might take a while before you can really enjoy it. In some ways, buying stocks or other financial assets could be a more profitable move than buying supercars.

The problem is, we’ll never really know if certain supercars will be worth a lot more in the future or not. Sure, they’ll stay expensive, but that doesn’t mean you’ll make a guaranteed profit—especially if the demand is low. That’s usually the case with more common supercars, since there are so many of them around. Most collectors make real money off one-offs or limited-edition models. Those are getting harder to find, and when they do pop up for sale, the price is sky-high—sometimes even out of reach, no matter how much cash you’ve got. Those are the cars that actually go up in value.

A surefire way to do that is to buy the special edition. For example, let’s say in the early 2000s you bought a Ferrari F40 for $200,000. Chances are, by 2020, you could sell it for $1 million because of the demand and rarity. It’s a special Ferrari that people love, so the demand will be there. From what I know, an F40 today could cost up to $1 million or even more because it’s rare and in demand.

The same goes for other models. Take the 250 GTO — you might’ve been able to grab one for $20 million back in 2010, and now it’s worth $50 million because it’s rare, just like other exotic classic cars. But to buy one of those, you’d need a lot more money, and I’m not sure how many regular folks can afford that. So, you’re probably looking at those more affordable Ferraris, which makes things a bit trickier. We can’t say for sure whether their value will increase in the future because the number is still large, as demand goes, as long as there are many vehicles and the demand is stagnant, the price will not increase drastically.

Yet,the most effective strategy is to buy at the lowest price and sell at the highest. How do you do that? Honestly, I’m not sure. Maybe you hit up an auction or search around in the countryside or at a workshop — you just need to find it at a cheap price. If you’ve got more money, you could pick up a model that’s starting to rise in value and sell it a few years down the road, but that’s a pretty tough game. You can’t always predict which model will be in demand later.

But I think that move only really works for hardcore petrolheads. I mean, you're basically leaving your expensive supercar sitting in the garage for years, just waiting to sell it for a higher price. If you drive it daily, you’re constantly worried it’ll get scratched or wrecked, which kills the resale value—and that whole process usually takes time. Sure, there are some cars you can flip for a quick profit, but it’s not easy. Most of the time, you’ve got to be patient, and honestly, there are other types of investments that might work out better than buying a car like that.

Basically, you need deep pockets for that. If you’re working with limited funds, you won’t get far.