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How many people do you guys know that both collect baseball cards and invest in crypto? I personally know zero people who do both.

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Originally Posted by packs (Post 2386197)

How many people do you guys know that both collect baseball cards and invest in crypto? I personally know zero people who do both.

Mostly the modern guys I can’t think of many vintage hard core collectors of prestige that were big into the crypto crap, I could be wrong but I think that’s where most of it came from …the nft Geoff Wilson’s, Vegas Dave, Gary Vee types ect.

I can see that in the modern crowd. I’m curious if the pre-war crowd got into crypto. I never dabbled myself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by packs (Post 2386197)

How many people do you guys know that both collect baseball cards and invest in crypto? I personally know zero people who do both.

I own only prewar vintage cards and I invested in crypto. In late 2020 (I think), I funded a guy and we mined for etherium. It was a great investment until 2022, when the cost of electricity spiked, which caused (in part) the value of crypto to go down. In mid 2022, we sold all of our hardware, and did well on that since there was a shortage of GPUs (remember the chip shortage) but still decent demand from basement warriors looking to do personal mining. Then, late last year, I had the guy liquidate my etherium. It was a solid transaction soup to nuts.

Not sure how it all shakes out, but personally, I believe there is a “there there” with crypto.

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Originally Posted by Exhibitman (Post 2385793)

Wasn't an ethics issue, just a crappy business model. The deal structure to get these items overvalued most of them in the first place. They had to. The only way they lured owners of valuable items to go with them rather than sell with an AH was to give the seller a substantial cashout and a chunk of the float. It is the same thing that has brought down more than one auction venture: if the cash advance is too large and the item underperforms, good luck in getting the money back from the consignor.

The fractional interest model counted on a market for these shares that would generate commissions, but it turned out that people who like to trade baseball cards don’t like to trade shares in them. No one was trading. When prices stopped rapidly escalating on the securitized items, the nascent market for these shares locked up tighter than a bullfrog’s butt.

This is not to say that securitization cannot work and is not something that will be tried again. The securitization of cards was an interesting idea, just badly executed. The financial model was based on a bet on continuous and rapid price increases on the assets that would fuel both profitable sales and a vigorous trade of the shares on its internal market. When the pace of gains sputtered, the flaw in the model was revealed. There have been successful securitizations in other fields (notably, music catalogs) but those rely on an existing owned asset that generates income being turned out to investors, not on a flipping model of the asset itself. If a flipping model is to work the asset has to be obtained at an extreme discount to current market so that it can weather a lull or downturn. To go on the market and buy something in the hope it will soar and pay off quickly enough to keep the investors from forming a lynch mob, that would be a foolish and risky bet on a set of atypical circumstances. In other words, quintessentially American.

Great insight, and well said. It seems like it should have been somewhat predictable, but I think most people didn't see that coming.

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Originally Posted by Republicaninmass (Post 2385909)

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"X gets the square" ah too old for that reference amongst the stubbbe-beards.

You guys are cracking me up with the stubble/beard shaming. I don't even own a razor. I've probably been clean-shaven for maybe 10 days of my entire life. Never trust a man in a suit. Especially if he's clean shaven :)