The story begins with Ken Golding.
He has been engaged in the trade of football star cards for 40 years and has experienced numerous storms, but what happened this month still shocked him.
In early February, at an auction held by Golding's company, a well preserved Michael- Jordan The rookie card sold 738000 US dollars (the following are all US dollars), setting a record. Just a few weeks ago, the transfer price of this star card was only 215000 yuan.
Throughout 2020, Goldin Auctions, which was founded by Goldin eight years ago, ignored the impact of the epidemic, economic depression and unemployment, and witnessed unprecedented explosive growth.
In January this year, they auctioned more than 1000 pieces with a total value of more than 33 million - more than the total amount of their auctions in 2019. In 2020, their auction volume reached 100 million, which has set a record, and this year may exceed 200 million.
On the e-commerce platform eBay, the high priced star card can reach the level of 3 million to 5 million yuan. It's no joke that you can buy an island with two cards. In 2019, the transaction volume of ball star cards on eBay platform exceeded 600 million, an increase of 40% over 2016.
Both professional investors and retail investors have flocked here. Collecting football star cards was an outdated hobby, but now it has become a popular fried chicken in the investment market.
Golding's fate also ushered in a huge turning point. In February, The Chernin Group announced that it would invest 40 million shares in Golding's auction house. Golding himself would become the executive chairman, and the CEO of his company would be taken over by Ross Hoffman, who had served as an executive in both Twitter and Google. In other words, Golding's auction house is no longer his personal small business, and the arrival of industry leaders will push the company to a new stage.
In this group of investors, there are many familiar names. For example, Kevin Durant, Rich Hoffman and Mark, the core figures of Thirty Five Venture Ventures- Kuban ； For example, Bill Simmons, a former ESPN executive and the founder and CEO of The Ringer sports website; For example, Dwayne Wade, the boss of Wade Ventures; And famous actor and entrepreneur Mark Walberg.
As an alternative asset class, the annual return rate of star cards and sports collections has far exceeded the Pu500 Index, with a profit rate of 270%. No wonder so many celebrities and rich people are flocking to it. It's really "get on the bus immediately, and make sure".
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Since 1980, the United States has held the National Sports Collectors Convention every year. At that time, the sports collection market was just emerging. The conference was basically a holiday in Los Angeles for industry insiders and business owners. But by the time of business expansion in the 1990s, it had become the largest gathering in the industry, with 100000 participants.
However, after overproduction, the sports collection industry also experienced a "bubble collapse". The value of the star card plummeted, and the number of participants in the conference also decreased exponentially. It only rebounded to about 45000 person times in 2018.
For example, the basketball star card market even stopped production in the 1980s because it was too cold, which is why in today's economic recession, the market of these collectibles is boiling against the trend, which makes so many experts puzzled.
Last year's collectors' conference was first postponed and then completely cancelled due to the epidemic, but to some extent, the epidemic has inspired more enthusiasm. The reasons may be multifaceted.
People are locked in their homes and haven't watched sports games live for a long time. It is normal for some sports fans to start sorting out old things and find out old football star cards. As people spend more time in front of computers and mobile phones, trading star cards has gradually become an entertainment instead of sports betting.
In addition to retail investors, the power of capital should not be underestimated. The sudden rise in the price of star cards has attracted the attention of investment professionals. During the epidemic, governments and central banks of all countries launched extremely vigorous economic stimulus plans, and many investors had a lot of cash in their hands. But the extremely low interest rate makes it more difficult for them to find profitable projects, so creative alternative investment becomes more attractive.
Golding also revealed that many of his clients are hedge fund managers and venture capitalists. Some people with hundreds or even billions of current assets told me that they did not regard this as short-term investment: from now on, the star card will become part of their asset allocation. "
Under the joint efforts of many parties, the transaction volume of the football star card can be regarded as staggering:
At the end of January, Kobe The news of his unexpected death stirred the sports commodity market. His star cards were sold everywhere on the Internet, and eBay's trading volume soared by 600%.
In April, Jordan's documentary "The Last Dance" greatly pushed up the price of Jordan's collection, and the transaction volume of Jordan's star card increased by 370%.
From May to June, eBay sold more than 40 star cards with a unit price of more than 50000; By July, it had increased to 96, of which 35% had a unit price of more than 90000 yuan.
Golding's auction house sold a signed star card of LeBron and Jordan (the only one) and a signed rookie card of baseball legend Mike Trout (only five) for 900000 yuan.
In July, LeBron's signature rookie card sold for a record price of 1.8 million yuan. Later, Brother Alphabet's signature rookie card broke the record, reaching 1.812 million. It is not uncommon that the number of rookie cards of popular new stars such as Dongqi, Williamson and Morant has reached more than 50000.
At the end of August, Trout sold a rookie card for a record price of 3.9 million yuan; At that time, the demand for Jordan's collection was at its peak. A pair of shoes for competition sold 615000 yuan, and a box of Jordan rookie cards for the 1986-87 season sold 1790000 yuan.
The most exaggerated thing is that a star card packing box of the 86-87 season has been bought at a price of 105800 yuan, even though it is essentially recyclable garbage.
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When individual behavior is concerned by the system, its fate can be described as different. The aftereffect of Gamestop retail investors' impact on Wall Street has not yet dissipated, and Wall Street has quietly taken action in the sports collection market.
Collectable, the sports enthusiast investment platform, has been exploring the business of fractional trading of star cards. In short, it is selling star cards as stocks: they purchase star cards, convert them into tradable assets registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and sell star card "stocks" on its platform through initial public offering (IPO). Ordinary retail investors can buy a share of a LeBron star card and expect to get appreciation.
Since last autumn, Collectable has completed nearly 40 such IPOs, making a lot of money. A 1986 Jordan Card was worth $10 per "share" last October, and now the transaction price has risen to $60; A LeBron's 2003 signature card has seen its "share price" soar 50% since December last year.
In the face of such madness, the NBA certainly could not sit still for a long time. In fact, they have not only got on the bus, but also played the role of market drivers to a certain extent.
According to Adrian O'Keefe, vice president of NBA Global Partnership, the league began to explore the possibility of making profits by using blockchain as early as 2018, signed a multi-year license agreement with the blockchain company Dapper in 2019, and launched NBA Top Shop the same year.
This product is a blockchain based platform that allows fans to buy and sell some specific and officially authorized video collections, namely digital star cards.
The investors of NBA Top Shot include NBA, Dapper, and the Players' Union (including Jarrett Temple, Andre Iguodala and other trade union leaders' personal capital injection). Its goal is to bring "revolutionary new experience to fan users. The amazing star performances and unforgettable highlight moments will become collections you can always have".
In other words, the NBA wants to combine the star card with the cryptocurrency principle, so that the star card is more like the coin, but even the star card is no longer a physical object.
It is also very simple to play. The NBA is responsible for providing copyrighted content. Dapper marks and sets a price for these videos, which are generally priced between $9 and $230. After purchase, the video will enter its encrypted security wallet for viewing and resale.
This soon attracted the attention of gold miners (including traditional football star card collectors, sports gamblers with deep wallets, cryptocurrency investors and stock market traders). At the time of internal testing, the supply was in short supply and they needed to queue up to buy.
At the beginning of this year, this product, which has only been released for more than half a year, has seen explosive growth. In a natural month, its sales exceeded 30 million yuan. One of LeBron's limited edition collections sold for a high price of 71000 yuan. Since then, the highest price of LeBron's collections has soared to 250000 yuan.
But you think that only Super Giant has such treatment, that's wrong. In fact, before LeBron's collection, a dunk collection of Morant that shocked the market sold 35000 yuan because its serial number was 01 (49 pieces in total). By February, the online price of this video had also risen to 250000 yuan.
Faced with this heat, industry insiders are eager to get on the bus. Bogdan Bogdanovic said that he bought 46 collections, including his own, one of which has a serial number of 13, which is just his jersey number. He spent 2300 dollars to buy it (but he said he intended to keep it privately and would not sell it). Cuban himself has also bought some highlights, including those of the lone rangers.
At the deadline, the NBA Top Shot revealed the data of 54 million transactions a week and 35000 people queuing online to buy; The platform has obtained a new financing of 250 million yuan, and its valuation has reached 2 billion yuan. It is believed that this will also give great comfort to the league that suffered heavy losses due to the epidemic last season - they have once again become the pioneers of the entire sports industry, creating a vast blue ocean.
Although the outside world has doubts about "bubble theory", people who stand in the air believe that everything is just beginning.
Today's young people are not so interested in the portfolio of 60% stocks and 40% bonds. They no longer trust the greed of Wall Street. They are eager to invest in the future. As long as they have faith, they will stir up cards, collections, coins and digital works of art.
Even if you don't know whether these things are legal investment tools, it doesn't matter. As long as these trading armies with unprecedented channels, information and technology believe, it is enough.
