Reserved Investments was created to serve the antiques and collectibles community by offering an education in the fundamentals as to how the financial side of the trade operates. Hosted and created by collectibles consultant and published columnist Shawn, Reserved Investments breaks through the hype driven speculative nature of the antiques and collectibles trade of today, and provides critical thinking and understanding as to how these markets truly operate. This in turn benefits collectors, investors, dealers, and speculators of all types.
Thanks for all your insights. Fast question. Do you think the first edition of Pokemon is a valid investment -as it seems organic to me-. I'm not talking about anything else that came later as I think its BS and fake scarcity.
One thing I want to add, if you are dealing in stuff that has no grading companies that offer grading, things are very different. I dealt in vintage tobacco pipes for 19 years and now since 5 years in vinyl records, there is no grading company and so ALL selling works by trust only. As my feedback was and is always 100% positive, I know how to grade and that is all a buyer has, my personal grading and my reputation.
Not so much a 'necessary evil' for collecting at the lower end because the attendant cost and price bumps can make items prohibitively expensive, but you're right that the cost is almost certainly worth it at the high-end.
I am a fan of third party grading for rare coins as it really helps me to avoid paying too much for coins that have been cleaned, scratched, etc. I am getting better at grading than I was a few years ago. Buying graded coins has taken a lot of risk off of me as I was buying cleaned coins quite often without noticing the cleaning. Regarding graded video games and comic books, I have not invested here, and probably never will. Ifind it interesting to learn about graded toys, video games and comics, however I dont want my item to be sealed away forever. I would want to open it, view it, touch it and that is not what mint / High grade collectors want.
Indexen tend to go up behouden most onder companies get outperformed and replaced. Ik RU-vid hold individual shares of the companies in the index 30 years ago tou Will find many of thema gone. An index is a very complex concept to grasp it is nearly impossible to go down in 30 years unless to are in a 80 year war
Raw books are selling better than graded currently. Graded are just sitting unsold. It used to be, but many people are sick of CGC and what they've done.
@ReservedInvestments what do you think of graded movie tickets? I have a ton of movie tickets I've kept. I couldn't believe PSA grades them. Must be something new. I looked in the past and never seen graded movie tickets until recently. Thoughts? It's a bit different.
Hers my 2 cents on grading: do you have to go collage & study to get a master's degree in grading or can you be an ex-McDonalds employee to work at any grading company.
I personally collect graded and upgraded stuff and have been doing for many years and in that time I have seen Wata grade resealed video games and I have seen VGA grade 90+ on a video game with a tear on the edge. I also have pcgs graded coins which are MS66 which are full of scratches. Grading only really exists to give confidence to people that can't be bothered to learn their collecting subject.
If a collector knows how to grade raw items, they can exploit a genre that has professional third-party grading. Buy raw at a discount, get the items graded, then profit either instantly or down the road. Even "never-slabbers" will eventually be forced to get their collectibles graded at the end of their collecting journey to get top dollar for the collection. Any other choice is a disservice to their heirs...
Yeah, if you are comfortable and confident in how to estimate what grade to expect ,then I totally agree. There is a huge gap occasionally in price to be made on buying an ungraded item that will grade well and pay for the service and make up that large delta. To be honest if you are investing in any item , you should be confident in your ability to identify quality of that item. If you aren’t willing to be an expert in your investment item . If you don’t invest your time in a collection , then don’t invest your money in a collection
I think the grade/ having something graded matters less the rarer the coin is. Am talking from the ancient coin corner of the market though where NGC is just Vagi who to a lot of long time dealers is just another guy whose grade opinion is not really held up above the major auctioneers particularly outside of the US
To be honest I watch ebay for fun PSA 8 and 9 Pokemon cards of some of my favorites with a max spend of $12 a card. Gamestop selling graded is nice but they charge you $4 shipping *per* card :/
I would love to see a video with your take on toy grading (AFA). With Collectors/PSA starting comic book grading next year and already the market leader in sports cards/TCG, coins and video games it makes you wonder if they will eventually take on AFA and go after that market as well. Thanks for great video!
"Dude, you can barely afford to buy a house, you're not a f*cking central bank" 🤣🤣🤣 I'm sorry, I know that was a serious point but that sentence cracked me up. 😂😂
Shawn, I appreciate your "f*ck yo feelings", no BS approach to these topics. I feel I may have fallen into the hoarder trap over the last couple of years and I needed to hear this. Thanks.
Funny that use frequently use the word "Pointdexter". Last time I heard so much that word was in "Toejam and Earl" a '90 Sega genesis game and when leveling up, the highest level was "Pointdexter". Nice information too btw.
There's a 90%+ chance the underpriced collectable you buy won't boom in value over the next decade. It's extremely hard to predict what market will take off. Maybe it'll be something no one's thinking about, like Bluey merchandise.
I couldn't add anymore to that last comment but I'm scared because this tech could one day be cheap enough for everyday people like a 3d printer although we are 10-20 years away most likely if ever.
So what you’re saying is, because there’s significant expected growth by 2033 but it’s impossible to predict where exactly, that I should put ALL my money into collectibles, right?? Got it Shaun, thanks for the tip 🌚
Been looking forward to this upload. People need to have a deep understanding of their own collectable market rather than having a shallow understanding of all markets. The honesty is so refreshing, great video
Of course, they had to throw in the AI buzzword into the article. People need to understand for AI to work effectively, you need a huge amount of high quality data. The nature of collectabes is scarcity, so how can "AI" then know when something is more likely to be real or fake?
Tom Lee of Fundstrat Research who is also on CNBC all the time predicts the S&P 500 will grow the 15,000 by 2030. That's almost a triple from where it is right now. I think many people will get left behind in the coming years if they don't focus more on investing in stocks and ETFs vs speculative gambling on collectibles.
There are A LOT of people out there who are screaming blue bloody murder over how much they lost in watches and comic books and diamonds and whisky... the list is extensive! Articles like this are designed to try and encourage more cash inflows to pump markets so these individuals can cash out hoping to not loose too much capital.
I just really need you to tell me what I can sell the Timmy’s, Kimmy’s, and Poindexter’s over the next 20-years 😜. Thanks for the video Shawn; looking forward to your next masterclass.
it should happen for you at some point. 1st step is self awareness and recognition of what a dopey mcdope dope you've been. 🤣When your income outweighs your spending and you live below you means for 20-30 years. then you can have appreciation for these kinds of things. Good luck on your journey.
The media, while of course exaggerating do play a useful role in stimulating the collecting markets and of course brings new collectors into the market. Yes newbie collectors will make mistakes, but that's all part of the game isn't it. So long as you come out on top overall then a bit of over speculating here and there doesn't hurt :)
Just spent 20k on Japanese Vintage Space Toys. I feel very bullish. JK Shawn, keep up the good work, I admire your patience in preaching to the Timmies, Kimmies and Pointdexters.
