$2m worth of baseball cards went missing

Hello and welcome to Alts Cafe

Highlights from the full issue:

  • Macro: The US economy’s soft landing is still on track
  • Real Estate: Houston’s luxury home sales surged 34%
  • Startups: Cybersecurity startup Wiz raised $1 billion
  • Private Credit: Silver Lake raised $20.5 billion for its 7th fund
  • Crypto: Crypto venture capital funding surpassed $1 billion
  • NFTs: NFTFN’s presale hit $550,000
  • Art: Jeff Bezos’ painting sold for nearly $53 million
  • Vintage Autos: A 1973 BMW CSL is up for auction
  • Coins: A 1776 Libertas silver medal sold for $180,000
  • Farmland: Farmer confidence is at an all-time low
  • Luxury: Luxury Brands have entered the dining space
  • Wine, Tequila, and Spirits: San Diego wine hit a sales record
  • Film & Music: Warner Music Group is up 7% from last year
  • Precious Metals: The silver market is on the rise
  • Collectibles: $2 million worth of baseball cards are missing
  • Websites: AI topped the keyword chart for March

Let’s go.

Wyatt

Macro View

Bullish News

Bearish News

  • IMF chief called the US’s $34 trillion debt “​mind-boggling​,” warning it may limit growth as it uses 17% of federal revenue.
  • Economist David Rosenberg noted the US ​might face recession​ with Q1 GDP growth at 1.6% and manufacturing contracting 17 of the last 18 months.
  • Gov. Newsom proposed eliminating 10,000 state jobs as California faces a budget deficit of at least ​$45 billion​.
  • Over 25% of US metro areas ​still have not recovered​ the jobs lost during the pandemic recession.
  • Russia’s military spending has outstripped oil and gas salaries, deepening a labor crisis with a ​40,000 worker shortfall​.

What are the odds?

Get $25 to play around with using this link.

What are we doing?

​Altea​ Highlights

Investor Field Trips

We’ve locked in Nashville 🎸 for a music-themed investing adventure to Music City, USA.

Get your boots spit-shined and your guitar tuned.

Est. dates: October 21 – 25

We’ll discount the first few members who make a deposit. Let me know if you’d like to join.

​ALTS 1​ Fund news

We’re accepting new commitments this month and will have the portal live in a couple of weeks for signatures and wires.

Real Estate

Bullish News

Bearish News

How to invest in real estate right now:

Looks like Metro is Boomin.

Startups

Bullish News

Bearish News

How to invest in startups right now:

I too consider a needle piercing a computer chip into my brain as “invasive.”

Private Equity and Private Credit

Bullish News

Bearish News

How to invest in PE and Private Credit right now:

If Bain Capital was cool they’d buy PowerSchool and change it to PowerRecess.

Crypto

Bullish News

Bearish News

How to invest in Crypto right now:

Does anyone still believe in stock-to-flow?

NFTs

Bullish News

Bearish News

How to invest in NFTs right now:

Make some trades on Magic Eden.

Artwork

Bullish News

  • Art auction sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips over the next two weeks are expected to ​total $1.2 billion​.
  • Jeff Bezos’ most prized possession, a painting, broke ​historical auction records​ at almost $53 million.
  • TEFAF’s opening night showed strong sales and ​raised $480,000​ for Memorial Sloan Kettering.
  • A 1904 Diego Rivera painting was appraised at $1 million on Antiques Roadshow, ​the highest​ in the show’s history.
  • Christie’s New York will auction Jean-Michel Basquiat’s rarely seen 1982 painting “The Italian Version of Popeye has no Pork in his Diet” with a ​$30 million estimate​.
  • A painting stolen from Chatsworth House 45 years ago in a smash-and-grab raid ​was discovered at auction​ and safely returned after a three-year negotiation.

Bearish News

  • Christie’s ​took its website offline​ due to a “cyberattack” by hackers days before the crucial May sales week in New York.
  • Sales of works by ​young artists​ at Christie’s and Sotheby’s major auctions fell from $213.2 million in 2021 to $110.2 million in 2023.
  • A website posing as the Van Gogh Museum was ​shut down​ after selling fake tickets and harvesting credit card information.
  • AI tools have identified ​at least 40 counterfeit​ Monet and Renoir works on eBay, signaling a rise in fake masterpieces.

How to invest in Artwork right now:

Anybody else surprised Bezos’ most prized possession is a painting?

Vintage Autos

Bullish News

Bearish News

How to invest in Vintage Autos right now:

Make sure your insurance covers fires.

Rare Coins

Bullish News

Bearish News

How to invest in Rare Coins right now:

Time to start ripping up the hardwood.

Farmland

Bullish News

Bearish News

How to invest in Farmland right now:

I don’t live or work on a farm either. Where’s my check?

Luxury Goods

Bullish News

Bearish News

  • The value of Swiss watch exports ​fell by 16.1%​ in March compared to the same month last year.
  • Salvatore Ferragamo’s first-quarter revenues ​fell 18.3%​ to £227 million, with a 19.3% decrease in the Asia Pacific region.
  • Recent disclosures show Gucci’s wholesale revenue ​down 7%​ and Bottega Veneta’s dropping 14%.
  • Burberry faces critical challenges; shares ​fell over 50%​ year-over-year with a profit warning issued early this year.
  • Burglars broke into a Cape May jeweler and ​stole over $300,000​ in designer handbags.

How to invest in Luxury Goods right now:

Nothing screams luxury quite like Walmart.

Wine, Tequila, and other Spirits

Bullish News

Bearish News

How to invest in Wine and Spirits right now:

Mini liquor bottle consumers are left with a choice: recycle or buy a bigger bottle.

Last chance to get in on our ​tequila SPV​. ​Let me know​ if you’re interested.

Music and Film

Bullish News

Bearish News

How to invest in Music and Film right now:

At a certain point artists will have to pay Spotify to stream their music.

Metals and Gems

Bullish News

Bearish News

How to invest in Metals and Gems right now:

Turns out lab-grown doesn’t rock after all.

Collectibles

Bullish News

Bearish News

How to invest in Collectibles right now:

Don’t attempt a Pokémon robbery unless you’re prepared to get tackled.

Websites and Domains

Bullish News

  • AI topped ​the keyword chart​ for March on Afternic, indicating strong demand for AI-related domains.
  • Afnic reported a new all-time record for .FR domain name ​create operations in 2023​, with a growth of 3.4%.
  • DomainAgents CEO Ryan McKegney disclosed that his company brokered a three letter domain name ​for $2 million​ earlier this year.
  • Squarespace saw ​a 27% increase​ in .com registrations in January 2024, reversing a downward trend since acquiring Google Domains.

Bearish News

How to invest in Websites and Domains right now:

Florida investors, make sure you didn’t fall for the SunPass scams.

That’s all for this week

Cheers,

Wyatt

Disclosures

  • We hold BTC, ETH, and a couple Star Wars Action figures in our ​ALTS 1 Fund​.
  • There are a couple of affiliate links above. If you click them, we may get a couple of bucks.

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Author

Picture of Wyatt Cavalier

Wyatt Cavalier

With a background in finance & intelligence analysis, Wyatt has an unhealthy obsession with finding the best blue chip investment opportunities. His previous newsletter, Fractional, resonated deeply with subscribers, bringing actionable insights and unconventional trading strategies. His rare book collection specializes in banned editions. He currently lives in Spain with his beautiful wife, three young boys, and dog Monty.

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