THE WILD RIDE OF COLLECTIBLES

Stocks, bonds, real estate and other mainstream investments get a lot of attention in financial media. But there's also an entire world of niche investments people park their money in — think collectibles, wine, art and other alternatives to the mainstream options.

Marketplace interviewed a few of these investors back in 2019. Today, many of those same investors say the pandemic has caused them to re-think whether those investments are worth it.

About 13 years ago, Nate Tobik was helping his parents move out of their old house. He and his wife were about to have their first kid, so he pulled some of his old Lego sets out of the attic. Over the next few years, Tobik and his family started putting those sets together.

[We] started to look up missing pieces on eBay, and realized these things were going for a lot of money, Tobik said.

Some of them were going for hundreds of dollars. Tobik said he saw a Lego train set with a crane on it that was going for over $1,000. He started buying up cheap Lego sets from local garage sales and thrift stores, and he'd sell them online — typically for double what he paid, at minimum.

People also realized how valuable their Legos were, and as they saw prices go up, they started selling their Legos for more, too. Suddenly, Tobik's buy-low and sell-high investment strategy no longer worked.

We couldn't find anything at a deep enough discount to where we could sell it again, and lock in a profit, Tobik said.

The same thing happened with the fantasy card game Magic: The Gathering, which has a strong secondary market for individual cards.

Seth Robertson has been playing the game for years, and he'd often buy up one or two extra boxes of cards hoping they'd appreciate in value. When the pandemic hit, card values skyrocketed.

I remember seeing cards worth dollars going up to tens of dollars, Robertson said. It's like the penny stocks of the collectible world.

The cards that I bought mid to late pandemic have all come down in value, Robertson said.

If you're interested in artwork, it's the time to buy right now, said Mike Kraus, an artist in Rochester, New York who's been investing in art for around 25 years.

Kraus said galleries and art fairs basically shut down when the pandemic started, and many have struggled ever since. That's meant that a lot of art just isn't selling.

There's a glut of artwork to be had, Kraus said. I've been able to buy some pieces at very reasonable rates.

To read the complete article, see:
Alternative investments went on a wild ride during the pandemic (https://www.marketplace.org/2023/12/19/alternative-investments-went-on-a-wild-ride-during-the-pandemic/)

Perhaps little Hot Wheels cars are the next big thing:
Remember those Hot Wheels you had as a kid? They're still popular and worth a fortune now. (https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2023/12/21/hot-wheels-collector-popular-55-years/71877707007/)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web