The speculative demand that has pushed the prices asked – and paid – for what were once just "old cars" that used to be driven by high school kids back in the '80s higher than the cost of new luxury cars by the early 2000s seems to be waning.

An excellent barometer of this is the Pebble Beach Classic Car Auction – which is one of the highest-end markets for concours-level classic cars.

Instead of the usual up-bidding into the six (and even seven) figures, the bidding isn't rising. Especially for the highest-end vehicles, which either didn't sell or sold for much less than the seller had expected to get.

Why?

Part of the reason is the same reason why more and more people aren't buying $50k new cars. People can't afford them, either.

But there's a more significant – and permanent – reason.

Baby Boomers – the generation that is chiefly responsible for what used to be just old cars becoming investments – like paintings – are selling rather than buying. Which they are doing because they are reaching the age at which people generally stop driving. Soon to be followed by no-longer-living. This is just a fact of life. It will happen to every generation, in time – including the currently youthful Gen Z people.

The youngest Baby Boomers are pushing 70 and the bulk of this demographic – born shortly after the end of World War II, which ended in 1945 – is well into their 80s. Each year, there are fewer Baby Boomers – and that trend is beginning to look like the proverbial hockey stick because once a generational cohort gets into the '80s, in short order there will not be very many of that cohort left.

Joe Biden, for instance, is probably already at or very near the point in life that he is no longer physically able to drive – much less work on, if he ever did – his classic 1967 Corvette. It is of value to him because of the history and the memories; he was gifted the car when he was a young man back in the late '60s by his father as a reward for becoming a lawyer – so the story goes. He has kept it all these years since and for all of those years, its value has waxed rather than waned, in part because GM wasn't building any more '67 Corvettes and also because there was a lot nostalgia for these kinds of cars as young Boomers became middle-aged Boomers.