Just released: Our latest Sports Collectibles Market Report!
Coming Soon: Fractional collectible platform, Rally Road, begins promoting their ‘museum’ which will exhibit the assets held on their platform. The site touts “a full spectrum of collectibles from first-edition books and vintage watches, to game worn sports memorabilia and the rarest handbags in the world.”
The Museum: Rally has a unique opportunity to show off their exciting array of assets in a physical space that they control. Though, the term museum is usually reserved for non-profit, permanent collections–we will allow it for now as we are excited to see how they will cohesively fit cars, fine art, comic books, trading cards, and video games into one space.
The Trend: A few weeks ago we reported on another fractional platform, Masterworks, spinning up a gallery subsidiary named “Levels”. These two events are representative of fractional platforms looking for fresh ways to market their investments. Seems a match made in heaven, if you have museum quality objects (read: investments) to show off, then show off player!
The Bottom Line: We will have to see how successful this is as a marketing move for Rally. They seem to be putting in quite a bit of work to make it an exciting and interactive experience. I will be sure to report back when I get a chance to play some NES games next to a Warhol. RALLY
The News: Music investment firm Beyond Music based in Seoul has added a whopping $170 million to their war chest, specifically for acquiring rights to timeless Asian music. The firm now boasts a grand total of $400 million raised to date and intends to use the funds to expand its impressive music catalog.
The Collection: With a catalog already encompassing over 27,000 songs, Beyond Music was initiated in 2021 by hit songwriter Park Geun-tae and entrepreneur Jang-won Lee, known for founding Mafia Company, a renowned digital platform for Asian music scores.
The Trend: Indeed, Beyond Music's bold steps mirror the trend among investors in the music space - buying up vast, high-quality music catalogs and rejuvenating them through strategies like remakes, performance marketing, and industry partnerships.
The Bottom Line: The success of this large-scale expansion strategy by Beyond Music is yet to be ascertained. However, it appears they have mapped out an aggressive yet potentially rewarding strategy to ensure a proactive value enhancement of their music assets; only time will tell if the investment plays out in their favor. THR
What Happened: Upper Deck is suing Ravensburger due to a former employee, Ryan Miller, allegedly repurposing a game named “Rush of Ikorr” which he worked on at UD as a lead game designer. According to UD, Ravensburger’s game “Disney Lorcana” shares many similarities with the game Miller designed during his time at UD.
The Games: UD mentions in the filing that the two games are quite similar. The core gameplay mechanics have slapped different terms onto the sequences of the game, but they remain, in their words, “nearly identical”. UD purports this to be evidence of theft by Ravensburger, as the similarity between the games is too close to be coincidental.
The Bottom Line: The resemblance between the two games has led UD to accuse Miller of breaching contract and fiduciary duty and engaging in fraud. Ravensburger, on the other hand, has been charged with inducing breach of contract and negligent interference with prospective economic relations. Additionally, both parties face claims of constructive trust, conversion, and unfair competition.
The Thread: Recurring Altan Insights character and inimitable hobby lawyer, Paul Lesko, has broken down the filing in a way that only he can. Take a look at his thread breaking it down here.
In a unique auction event demonstrating the power of nostalgia, the original bar from the iconic 1980s and '90s sitcom "Cheers" sold for $675,000, as part of the $5.4 million total sales from the Comisar Collection of television memorabilia. Garnering over 58,000 page views and rivaling interest in some of the most expensive sports and comic book collectibles, the auction reveals a high degree of mainstream interest in unique TV artifacts despite the lack of a frequently active and liquid secondary market. ALTAN INSIGHTS
PSA, the world's leading card grading agency, saw a relative slowdown in its grading activity in May 2023, grading over 1 million items for the ninth consecutive month but noting a weekly decline in items graded. The slowdown, echoed by other card grading companies like SGC and CCG, raises potential concerns for the sports and trading card games markets amid an already challenging environment marked by layoffs and decreasing card prices.
DraftKings, a daily fantasy sports company turned sportsbook, is venturing into the sports card market with its inaugural Spring Sports Auctions. While the company's push into the physical and digital collectibles market may present a significant challenge given competition from established marketplaces, the opportunity to cross-sell to its captive audience of 2.3 million monthly users who already gamble on the platform could be appealing, potentially transforming the sports gambling and collectibles markets. ALTAN INSIGHTS
Magic: The Gathering's unique One Ring card from the upcoming Lord of the Rings expansion has sparked significant interest among collectors, with trading card company Dave and Adam's Card World offering a bounty of $1 million for it. The potential value of this card, if it gets pulled from the set and sold, could make it the most expensive MtG card ever, exceeding the record held by the Beta set Black Lotus sold for $615,000 (the second highest record for a TCG auction) . TWITTER
A rare Golden Age comic book, "Superman" #1, dated back to the summer of 1939 and carrying an iconic origin story of Superman, sold for a remarkable $134,400 in a Goldin auction. Despite its low CGC grading of 1.5 due to age and handling wear, this 83-year-old gem, one of just 71 copies listed in the CGC registry, continues to be a coveted artifact among collectors and a significant symbol of the transformative impact of comic books on American literature. GOLDIN
The earliest career photo-matched game-used shoes worn by Michael Jordan, worn during his debut on the international stage at the 1983 Pan American games, where he led Team USA to a gold medal. The size "12 1-2" Converse All-Star white shoes with blue trim come with a letter of provenance from the Team USA men's graduate assistant coach, a MEARS LOA, a photo match LOA from RGU, and an apparent photo match LOA from Resolution Photo Matching, with bidding currently at $17,717 with two days left. GREY FLANNEL
Metal detectorist Tyler James discovered a silver Spanish 1/2 real coin from 1786 in a private field in Maine, suggesting the coin might have been used as legal currency in the U.S. before the American Coinage Act of 1873 banned all foreign currencies. The coin, which James has no plans to sell, features a hole indicating it could have been worn around the neck or sewn into clothing, a common practice during the 18th and 19th centuries. WORTHPOINT
In 1985, Ferris Bueller attended a baseball game at Wrigley field where Lee Smith was pitching to Claudelle Washington where a ball was fouled off into the hands of young Ferris. This could have only happened on June 5th, 1985. In celebration of this momentous anniversary, Darren Rovell announces that he has added Ferris’ iconic vest to his collection. TWITTER
Continuing in the vein of iconic film memorabilia, just two days ago Goldin sold the moped and riding outfit from 1994’s classic ‘Dumb and Dumber’ for a whopping $20,408. Congratulations to the winning bidder, if they choose to sell down the road, Altan has a potential buyer in head of research, Dylan Dittrich. GOLDIN
A classic hobby story. Terry thought he lost his Mantle rookie card when he joined the army in 1952, when his mom got rid of his collection. Thankfully, his brother saved the card, and it has been safely sitting in a cheese box for the last fifty years. It is currently being graded by PSA and will be up for sale in Heritage’s July auction. TWITTER
SCP Auctions is selling Wilt Chamberlain's home uniform from his 1959-60 rookie season with the Philadelphia Warriors, a season where Chamberlain broke multiple NBA records and won his first MVP award. Currently sitting at a bid of $1.17 million with eight days left, the uniform, showing significant game use and including photo-matching analysis, may become the highest-selling vintage game-used basketball piece ever. Adding yet another record to Wilt’s catalog. SCP
Heritage sold Michael Scott’s Best Salesman Dundie Award trophy earlier this week. Ending up with a final bid of $10,625.00. Ironically enough, this prop in the universe of the show was not worth ten dollars, let alone over ten thousand. We are curious if Heritage rewarded the plucky specialist who got this work consigned with a Dundie of their own…HERITAGE
Feel free to reach out to Keenan@Altaninsights.com for any questions/comments.
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