2020 review – COVID and F1 diecast and book values

Looking back at 2020, it’s certainly been an overwhelming year with COVID outbreaks globally. Similar to the market shift to online retail and the surge in demand for home based goods – I think COVID has definitely re-invigorated the resale values of rare F1 diecast car collectables and to a lesser extent rare F1 books.

Looking at some ebay sales during 2020, resale values appeared to be generally higher than previous years.

What are some noticeable trends?

I think 1:18 scale values have recovered and moved up – the gap to 1:43 values (even though new 1:43 model prices have increased) have widened.

Lewis Hamilton’s record equally 7th world championship seems to be translating into his world championship winning cars – especially the Minichamps 1:18 model of his 1st championship winning McLaren Mercedes MP4/23. The Minichamps 1:43 and 1:18 of Lewis’ other earlier Mercedes AMG cars have also been fetching eye popping prices (especially the US GP Mercedes W06 and Mexican GP W07 in 1:43 scale!)

Historically, Senna models (in all scales) have consistently been the most valuable 1:18 scale Minichamps cars – in 2020, it’s been Lewis’ 2018 Mercedes AMG W09 car and Nigel Mansell’s Williams FW14B that have been smashing resell price records in the 1:18 scales. The FW14B admittedly is always a model in great demand in any brand (Exoto prices are high and even Quartzo 1:18 fetch good prices). Honourable mention goes to Minichamps 1:18 Alonso McLaren MCL33 Abu Dhabi racecar (wonder if his return to Alpine will affect this model’s appeal…). Spark also produce Hamilton Mercedes resin cars in 1:18 and 1:43 scale with equally good prices. Arguably the Spark resin models have better detailing too…

Lewis’ McLaren MP4/23 has notably notched up higher resale prices

The value of the World Champions edition of Nigel’s Williams Renault FW14B has also leapt up the charts

Minichamps world champion 1:43 cars like Fittipaldi’s 1974 M3 are no longer commanding sky high prices due to the fresh releases of Minichamps – expect this to take a year or 2 for the market to absorb.

Previously Max Verstappen cars were getting extraordinary prices – this seems to have settled down in 2020; although his limited edition Toro Rosso and Red Bull cars have retained premium values.

In the Minichamps 1:43 scales, it’s actually recent season cars from the mid and lower field teams that have surprisingly good values – see Force India’s (Perez VJM07), Haas (Grosjean VF-16), Sauber (Kimi and Leclerc C37) and Williams (Massa/Bottas FW37 & FW38).

A few Spark models have fetched good prices too – Andretti Lotus 79 (1:43), Stirling Moss Lotus 18 Monaco GP (1:43).

In the F1 book space, you would think that COVID has increased book sales. In terms of resale values, it’s the vintage and pre-1981 Autocourse F1 annuals that have regained a bit of premium resale value. As a book fan and collector, I do hope the extra COVID downtime allows more fans to explore F1 books and diecasts.

A happy new year to all F1-nut.com readers. Wishing you a safe and a better 2021!

P.S. I’ll add a table of notable 2020 F1 ebay sales in next few days – I’ll also need to update (sometime early in the new year) several of my old posts and rare lists to reflect 2020 values.

Below are some diecast sales on ebay in 2020.