1 AM Rant: In Highly Speculative Collectible Markets, Hoarding is the Norm and Hoarders Always Lose! 

I found your channel a couple days ago and since then I have watched almost every video that you've put out in the last 2 years. This has been a life-changing discovery for me. As a FORMER Timmy, with striking similarities to Kimmies, trapped the the thrall of too-many too-talkative Poindexters I must thank you from the bottom of my heart for setting me straight and bringing me this message that I've admittedly heard before - I've read A Random Walk Down Wall Street many times - but I hadn't put together in the way that you put financial principles against the collectibles market in this channel. I am financially established , but not to the point where I no longer need to work, and I am blessed to be so but my financial education all came after college through reading on my own... the opportunity cost and the time value of money just never sank in for me the way it did after hearing you provide examples and direct comparisons. I am now excitedly planning on downsizing my collection down to a couple TRULY rare pre-1965 comic books, liquidating the bulk of my complete runs and throwing whatever can be salvaged into a mix of diverse broad market-based ETFs, and focusing on racing towards the early retirement in my 40s that I always dreamed of. Most importantly, I am NOT headed out to the comic shop today to procure some of the mass-produced "scarce" items of today. I can connect with current storylines in other, cheaper ways while focusing on only collecting a handful of pre-1965 keys. Not too many of those for Spider-Man but everything else I am letting go of. I know you mention a lot of the vitriol that some less mature collectors come at your with but if people listen to you objectively they can't deny the truth of your message. It's right there if you are willing to open your eyes. Thank you so much for helping me to open mine, I am not exaggerating at all when I say discovering this channel has changed the trajectory of my life. I made enough to survive my poor decisions related to collecting but shedding the extra weight should allow me to thrive. You're the G.O.A.T!

Please keep pouring cold water on the hyped up insanity of modern collecting/investing. We need someone like yourself to help us keep things in a healthy perspective 👍👍

I've just realized that as a collector having less is more. The less I have the more I can appreciate what I already own, instead of trying to acquire the next best thing. Saying that, i just picked up a vintage London underground enamel sign (Oxford Circus) in a bronze frame for $2350 Sure I won't get the returns of an index fund, but I think it's pretty cool to own an iconic relic.

Been watching your videos for awhile now and have been consolidating my collection into higher value, rarer pieces instead of hundreds of small dollar items. I always appreciate your perspective and passion for the collectibles market. Thanks for sharing with us

If you're looking for the golden nugget in this 'rant', it's at 20:00. Churning and burning your inventory is key. As always, top content, Shawn! CONGRATULATIONS ON HITTING 15k! 🥳🎉

It has been my experience also that many quick small profits outweigh holding onto things with hopes of bigger profits that may never come. There are a few instances I regretted not holding onto things longer, but the rule is to profit and keep the money working, and it pays off if you can keep the risk low.

Hey Shawn, been watching you since early 2020 and want you to know you're not falling on deaf ears completely for us younger people, me being 25. during the graded video game boom it appealed to me greatly, but per your warnings I sold off and avoided losing thousands, and instead profited thousands. I've since bought back a couple of the games I love recently for a FRACTION of the prices at the time. You've given me great insight into how to analyze speculative hype and start to get nervous when a market goes too high, and consider it when they get far too low. I've started contributing more to my 401k and started a personal brokerage account, mostly investing in long term index funds after going back and forth choosing which I think is best. I understand there is no guarantees and I don't hold you personally accountable for any future problems I may face by any means, but you've definitely helped me understand how to set a solid financial foundation I feel, and I just wanted to thank you! Sorry for the ramble, just letting you know it's all very appreciated.

I completely agree! One must have a solid understanding in microeconomics in my view when it comes to collecting collectibles

So much truth is such a short video. Churn and burn and reinvest is how you make money, was telling that today to someone who lost seven figures sitting on bored apes, meanwhile the three core index funds I store my money in keep my account ticking upward with a thousand times less stress. (And before anyone hates on me, I didn't buy into any NFTs or Crypto. I took two looks at those and went 'with my luck, I'll be the fool with it in hand when the music stops.')

I took a punt on a silly collectible just recently. An unsealed New Zealand VHS copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire from 2006. One of the last official VHS film releases ever, only printed in limited quantities in select countries. Not due to mass produceds scarcity but limited demand, as DVD had all but driven VHS out of the market place by that time. I probably overpaid for it. It remains to be seen if VHS takes off or not. I like the item because it has what you call organic collectibility and absolute rarity (or at least scarcity). If we do see a significant bubble form around VHS, I'd love to get it graded and put it up for auction. If not, it will sit in my closet being hoarded just as you mention. Even when I do empty out my hoard and sell all the bits and bobs, another wave of nostalgia takes its hold over me and new items will materialise in their place as if of their own volition...

Another 1am rant to make little Timmy have nightmares 😂. Thanks for all the vids and advice. I'm looking forward to the next episode of the new hit show, "Timmy has a meltdown".

Youngish guy here, If I had the space I would love to get a cheap vintage lionel train or one or two vintage sci-fi or B movie monster since those markets are dwindling in collectors. Just recently picked up a couple cap guns from the 50s or 60s without the orange cap. Not looking to invest in them, just had a few as a kid in the 1990s that weren't vintage.

always appreciate your videos - you've altered my philosophy a lot over the last couple of years and motivated me to start liquidating collections to eventually and hopefully adopt a more churn and burn approach in the future. Thanks man.

I got rid of a lot of my Funko Pops and especially after they dumped them too I sort of lost a bit interest but I still have some grails.

You're right about the hoarders, I plan on selling my few boxes of sorcery into the hype. Let the hoarders hold the bag.

Love these Shawn. Thanks for updating us and giving your insides and information.

Your video was shared to me by fellow content creator. If my name hasn't given it away I'm a collector a video games and action figures. I never really collected for monetary gain. Growing up my family didn't have a lot of money. So I didn't get a lot of things that other kids had. When I got old enough to start getting funds I went a little crazy buying a bunch of things that I wanted and I had an nostalgia for. When the limited publishers and FOMO inducement began it was kind of cool. Now the market is overflooded and oversaturated with new video games and action figures coming out all of the damn time! It's gotten to the point where it's quite exhausting and I look over at my PS4 collection that's probably pushing close to 500 physical games. And I think there's no possible way I'm ever going to live long enough to play all of these. Not to mention I'm sure a lot of these games I'm probably not really going to fall in love with. So I've really been debating if I want to downsize a lot of things. And only keep the games and figures that really mean something to me. I'm not a seller I don't understand finance I hate dealing with people who always want to lowball you or cheat you. It's not been in enjoyable experience when I tried to sell something. I'm not good at listing prices or asking for deals. But watching your video was really inspiring You give some great information. I know there's a lot of people that are starting to feel the strain of collecting. It's better to have quality over quantity. So I think I want to downsize. But I'm not sure if I should sell them bulk or sell individually. I've been wanting to discuss this on my own channel. Possibly in my podcast series. But if I do discuss it I definitely want to mention your channel because you give some great insight and sage wisdom that we all need to hear. Those big RU-vid and TikTok channels with their "HIDDEN GEMS" ARE lying to us. They're only feeding the scalpers and trying to make their own collections worth more because they're in the position of getting a lot of these "rare and expensive" games antiques in collectibles for free. Keep up the great work man.

I would make a wild estimate and guess that at least 50% of the "87% of commercially unavailable classic games" are composed of sports titles like previous editions of Madden and FIFA that thus far have shown very little legs in terms of garnering collector's interest, at least from people on the classic gaming side. On the sports collectables side though? Maybe, who knows.

Found this channel because of his beautiful Currency collection ❤

Thank you for what you do and the time put in for these videos. You always keep me thinking about how to handle my collectibles. I have to remember that they aren't all investments going to the moon.

Very informative!

I love when the Timmy's, Kimmies and Poindexters get triggered....lmao.😂

thank you!

firstly, i think when they say commercially available, they mean available to buy new. they're just simply ignoring the billions of copies of everything floating around in video game stores, storage lockers, collector's hands, etc etc.... secondly about the companies being able to decide to not let something they made available, i understand they have the rights, but thats just some shit we made up. copyright exists to help incentivize people to create art by giving them a narrow window of time to be the exclusive ones able to profit off of them. companies have lobbied, bullied and cried their way into making copyright last way too long, because they want all the money. archivists don't care about and shouldn't be stopped by a company wanting to prevent people from consuming art that should have been public domain long ago. the oligarchs and plutocrats that run the world need a healthy dose of fear injected directly into their veins, they would grind us all up and sell us as dogfood if they could make a thin dime off it and get away with it. i know, i know, you're a realist and all, and thats fine, much love, i just feel like i gotta interject at times, sorry

Informative video, as always. What a great channel. Thanks, Shawn

Appreciate this commentary. This is why I have a heavily curated collection of items that before I buy each, I ask myself if the items/hobby went to zero tomorrow, would I still want the item? the answer is usually: no. But the items that I do have, that I said "yes" to, I love immensely and am happy to hold them long-term. I don't see them as an investment, even though for many of the items they have a non-zero chance of appreciating in value (10-20 years down the line), and I'm aware I won't hold them forever, so I'm sure I will sell them. It's just not my primary goal.

“I don’t make the rules, I just teach them.”

...Gotta watch this again...Not clear on what eventually happens to hoarders...The rest of the message sure resonated though!!!!

I wish more people would realize this early, but most people have to "learn the hard way".

I always discourage people from collecting cartridge based consoles. I always give them the "It's cheaper to emulate and Raspberry pie" speech. It's just cheaper and more convenient. I'm an idiot and I love collecting gray cartridges..LOL WATA should grade the Mona Lisa and send it to their pals at Heritage Auctions hehehehehehehe

The sealed video game market puzzles me, its really the graded box market. You have no idea if the game is in there or it even works.

Like the idea of quick, repetitive churn vs long term hold - interesting way of stating it.

The future will be a boon for collectors who just want prices to go down so that they can simply own the item, but it will likely be a bust for the speculative investor collector.

Facts🎉 concept can be related to all markets. To include real estate. So many people unwilling to take huge losses right now, which makes everything appear to be short supply.

Wow Barbie have a huge successful box office this weekend. It means Timmy and kimmy are buying all Barbie in the store right now.

Smaug was the biggest hoarder and he lost big time

Shawn shouts out Ebay Thrifters. LOL

Shawn never blows smoke up our proverbial aces.

Totally agree with the churn and burn method. I got lucky back when flesh and blood blew up and I was too lazy to open the boxes, I ended up making huge profits from it and put it into buying a house. I have a very small MTG and Pokemon sealed box collection and I have been slowly selling it off since it just takes up space and I would rather use that money for something I would rather collect such as a graded MTG card or vintage sports cards. Again, moreso for collecting rather than thinking of it as an "investment." I already portion that out in my budget and make sure that gets prioritized first. Great insight and discussion as always Shawn!

But but Shawn YOU DONT UNDERSTAND!!!! Love❤timmothy poindexter kimmensky

Awesome video, I always look forward to your new content.

Thank you Shawn.

I collect books was buying lots of cheap books which trebled in profit within a week of selling out , so dropped £1500 on a Paul McCartney book that’s now £5000+ within a week of release

I love me some Shawn rant from time to time

Thank you very much

Hoarders are like bears they are attracted by the buzzing bees that make hype honey for them to eat. 🐻🐝🍯💥💀💸

Great points Shawn. For me the hoarding comes in because I'm primarily a player of Magic. While it would be better to own a piece of vintage power, play sets of dual lands are worth more to me. Fortunately you opened my eyes and a sold off all my modern cards. Made the hoard smaller at least! 😆 I now try to only buy cards I'm going to play with or are true investments.

Video games are an art form: classic video games are an art form that can be emulated :)

I appreciate your videos Shawn. Please know a few of us understand what you're saying.

Very interesting and cogent video - best wishes!

shawn throwing the truth bomb right away with that sign. it relates to me sadly T_T

I've thought about this a long time, as a collector. Speculation crops up around the idea that most of the market is holding and hoarding. The dangerous breed are the speculators who also hoard to be the only winner when the mythical market explosion happens.

As always, great content!

How much of a factor do you think having internet is going to help this type of modern investing. Compared to older and more established investment categories.

F-zero gx? I have that on a usb stick to play on a homebrewed Wii.

An observation that I’ve had for a few years now. When collecting anything that is of a particular vintage, there exists group of people who grew-up with the thing and have a certain nostalgia that establishes its value. When those people pass or move on, they - the target demographic - are no longer there to support the value that they established. Look at Elvis memorabilia. 1970s, 1980s.. his real fans and society wanted his merch and it commanded a good price. Today, who is so inspired and moved by Elvis? His talent didn’t diminish. He is a historical figure.. yet, no one really seeks his stuff. Those who made his demand aren’t amongst us anymore.. and so is not his stuff. Atari is much like this too. The generation that grew up with it, is aged out or no longer with us. The market doesn’t much exist anymore.

VERY VERY Good Video. Bravo!

I reckon physical video games will definitely lose their collectability and value over time. When you think about it, most kids growing up now are not emotionally attached to physical games, they're just used to downloading them. Those of us in our 30s and 40s have the nostalgia for the whole 'experience' of buying a NES/SNES/Genesis game in the 90s, but this won't be the case once today's kids get to our age. Probably some of the 'firsts' in a franchise (e.g. first Mario, first Pokemon, first Castlevania etc.) will still be sought after in the future (providing the franchises are still popular), but not to the extent they are now.

Less is more Churn and burn 🔥

Pre Nintendo games imo are pretty much unplayable... that's why the prices are balls on those systems..

Sir, as always, thanks for your sharing your knowledge. I’ve got much better putting feelings aside and embracing the ‘Turn & Burn’ although admittedly certain parts of my collection still hold me prisoner (in a good way). Do you or have you had item(s) that your brain says sell but you struggle with moving.

If everybody's doing it, don't do it. If something is mass market, there is a lot out there and when the hype settles in a decade, there will be less demand and you know what happens to price. Another issue is when companies advertise something as collectable, it isn't. Certain rare ones will stay fairly rare but it's relative. 95% of cds are out of print yet most don't sell for much. The company that originally sold it couldn't make it currently sell as that is most likely why it is out of print. The collectable doesn't earn money for you either. Sealed VHS sold for $1 will almost always sell for more.

It's crazy to me that people can pour $1000s into Funko Pops/Pokemon and other speculative assets but can't stand to sit through a 20 minute video from someone they disagree with... Another great video as always Shaun! 🙂

"churn & burn"

Can’t find games or good deals anymore on flee markets. I used to buy ps1 and ps2 games for cheap years ago. I would never collect LRG or whatever would be easy to emulate or reproduce. I would never expect Tomba/Tombi would get a remake, but look they are remaking it. BUT they don’t have the rights of the music so it won’t be the same, hence makes the OG version more desirable?

Have you actually looked at the current 8 track tape market is at? Was dead, now it's a scary expensive zombie! I've been making a killing on 8 tracks this year.

Hey Shawn what are your thoughts on VGA grades new 3ds and 2ds consoles? They seem to be doing pretty well right now on Heritage and eBay. I’ve sent you an email asking for some advice on a particular decision pertaining to these kinds of items. Would be great to hear back from you soon! Thank you

there was an interesting argument that its better to buy collectibles people are consuming to hold (Ex. Peyton Manning rookies) than cards that are still in a speculation mode (Ex. Jalen Hurts rookies).

I like comics and I buy what I like. Thing is I've been doing it long enough I have my hoard. I worry that comic collecting is ageing out. I really don't see where the next generation of collectors is coming from. That prevents me making big 'investment' buys.

People need to be very selective about what they are buying. I collect in an investment minded way, while buying the stuff I like when applicable. There is no willy nilly in this, or you will lose money in the long run.

Timmy, Kimmy and Poindexter count = 1

I buy the collectable at a down market sell it on the high market

Noticed you patreon link and think you are missing a trick with the tier naming. One should be called the "Stale Donut" level, another should be 'Shower Fresh Shawn', maybe 'Cut me up in the comments' etc :D

Wish I would've sold off some coins when the prices were going crazy during the height of covid. The 1921 peace dollars were selling for ridiculous money. They are selling for less than half now. I sold some of my high end vintage lunch boxes last year and made a pretty good profit. The rare boxes in mint condition have preformed pretty good over the years. The lower end boxes under $200 aren't doing so well.

Your the best

Shawn what do you think would be good first steps for getting over an attachment disorder? Your previous video where you spoke about them really struck a cord with me

Are you planning to make a video about the new beanie babies movie come out in July 25

Only thing I'm hoarding anymore is certain stocks and CRTs

Curious what amount you recommend to invest in the S&P500

I'm very interested to see what happens to physical video game prices when all systems go digital only... probably a major increase ( when I sell most of what I have ) and then a slow decline as years go by.

Ok Shawn, time to nut up, how do we get in on the scams of collecting that beat the stock market. How do I get to become an art collector that gets invited to double or quadruple my purchase of an up and comer?

I found a copy of Amazing Spiderman #50 ungraded at a swapmeet for $1200 bucks. Thought about getting it but decided to pass. Was that a bad call?

I have a general question to ask you (perhaps others that watch your video may want to also know), how much are your fees? Is it on on a per hour basis? Is there a minimum? What can one expect from your consultation? sort of a critique of what one has, versus strategizing to either hold, keep? speculate on selling into the future Trends? etc., etc.

I don't know, I think if society collapses. The only markets to survive will be Funko pops and video games

I wouldn't put my cash in comic books or video games unless for reading/playing purposes. Actually to be honest I wouldn't put any money in anything. It is all junk (including most overpriced cars). Better go minimalistic and I don't mean this sarcastically.

How do you feel about one share of Funko stock trading at less than one Funko pop at retail?

2030+ prediction: Graded above ground caskets, with a translucent top to peer in and see your great uncle’s Funko and MTG collections. 🤷😂

You see Barbie new movies next week. It is a huge hype. It means Barbie collectors will go up crazy.

Curious about less speculative markets, like coins? What's your opinion on coin hoards and the like?

Are you from Boston? You have that vibe

The only part I disagree with this time my man is that those articles will lead to an influx of people buying up the 9 out of 10 games that aren’t readily available. I’m not sure that will happen and I don’t know if that’s what the articles were intending on this occasion. I might be wrong, but I think the purpose of those articles was purely from a preservation perspective rather than a hyped-up investment perspective. There’s plenty of other outlets to hype shit up, for example, Heritage and their Pokemon Ruby that you referenced yourself. I’m no investor or ‘Timmy’, just someone who enjoys your content relating to my hobby ✌🏻

Rudys going to lose his money?

alot of youtubers use nostalgia like a drug, pushing retro games, hyping the value...THEY DONT EVEN PLAY THE GAMES EVER! bunch of frauds if you ask me and me and others are exposing them

people tiered from the movies 🎥, because they went "woke"....!

How do hoarders always lose? If you look at sealed pokemon booster boxes which supposedly everyone is hoarding according to you. Every single box 10 years or older, at bare minimum is at $2000. Yes, you heard that right, every single one! One of those being emerging powers which is considered to be the worst set of all time! You literally could have been blind and picked ANY box 10+ years ago and at bare minimum 20x'd your money. Team up booster boxes are at $2000 now and aren't even 5 years old yet! You have been calling for the doom of pokemon for years now and all you have been is wrong.

I took at least 2 Wii U cosoles permanently off the market by hacking them to emulate. Don't buy the video games they are free dudes.

2nd!