10K for a Young portrait in a 5

[steve B]

Originally Posted by bounce

And the same thing was at one point or another said about:
Beanie Babies
Hot Wheels / Matchbox cars
Precious Moments figurines
Antique miniature trains
Cabbage Patch kids
All those limited edition plates
Tons of Franklin Mint stuff

Just because someone says it doesn't make it so.

It's impossible to deny that in the past 3-4 years specifically, the talk of "alternative asset class" and "investment portfolio of cards" has reached a whole new crescendo.

Yes, it's increased lately, and with more flowery language.


But the number of people who were expecting to put their kids through college on their holdings of 1990 cards was really large. And buying lots of 100 or 500 or more of the "can't miss" rookies was a thing in at least the early 80's.

[Snapolit1]

Originally Posted by steve B

Yes, it's increased lately, and with more flowery language.


But the number of people who were expecting to put their kids through college on their holdings of 1990 cards was really large. And buying lots of 100 or 500 or more of the "can't miss" rookies was a thing in at least the early 80's.

None of the above were collected by 50 year old + financially set rich men. Not many filthy rich dudes on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley were collecting Beanie Babies or match box cars.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

None of the above were collected by 50 year old + financially set rich men. Not many filthy rich dudes on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley were collecting Beanie Babies or match box cars.

The original statement was that it's only been in the "last few" years that cards have been considered and investment.


to me last few is somewhere around 5 years give or take maybe a couple.


Here's a pretty serious article about collectibles as an investment from 1999 sadly behind a paywall.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2647019...n_tab_contents


Grading companies were started mostly to attract the guys with big money. Enough people wanted to collect, wanted quality, but didn't want to spend a lot of valuable time learning how to tell what was great and what was average. PSA got into it around 1990? 91?
So roughly 28 years ago.


From 2012, the toy boat collector in the article had been collecting for 30 years. And it seems wasn't exactly short of cash...
https://www.cnbc.com/2014/04/11/inve...ible-toys.html