Welcome to Cultural Assets Insider for March 2nd, 2022 – FREE edition.
Each week we give you the scoop on undervalued, mispriced and hidden gems in Alternative Investing.
Table of Contents
Cultural Assets performance 2022
So far, 2022 has not been a great year for cultural assets on the fractional marketplaces. That being said, I don’t think it’s the asset class’s fault. There’s some platform risk here, and I think that has a lot to do with what we’re seeing.
We track books separately (and have a separate newsletter for that), but the asset classes are fairly well-correlated, and we’re seeing blood in the water there despite an industry-wide high-tide.
Last Week in Cultural Assets
Fractional secondary markets
Broadly speaking, cultural assets were down last week, with Music struggling the most while historic items did their best to prop up the sub-index.
Auctions
Do you speak Klingon? If so, last week was “ngoD” for you.
Heritage rocked its Star Trek Signature event led by a Captain Kirk tunic and trousers set that sold for $125k.
A few auction superlatives:
- Most awkward pair of lots goes to an alternate Kirk uniform went for $50k, which was just nudged out by a Spock alternate uniform ($55k) from the same episode.
- Grossest item: Spock’s ears. Hands down.
- The item most likely to end up on a Google senior engineer’s desk we have Spock’s campfire coffee mug
- And last but not least, the item most likely to be used to facilitate the creation of another generation of Trekkies, we have This luminescent beauty.
This Week in Cultural Assets
Fractional IPOs
Just the one fractional IPO this week.
’63 BEATLES FAN CLUB CARD (SIGNED)
- Market Cap: $25k
- Inferred Value: $20k
- Drop Details: 3/2/22 on Rally
- Our view: [INSIDERS ONLY]
At Auction
Let’s stick with the Beatles, shall we? RRAuctions has got a very similar Beatles signed fan club card ending on 9th March. Currently, at around $11k, this will be a great comp for Rally’s offering. The signatures aren’t quite as nice, and it’s not been authenticated by PSA, but anything over $20k will mean my above view was wrong.
RR has also got a letter written by and signed by Karl Marx up with an estimate of $300k+. I don’t have an investment view on this other than it’s f-ing weird to auction off Marx’s stuff. There’s also a signed letter from Nikola Tesla with an estimate of $200k+.
Other notable figures with handwritten letters up for auction:
- Robert E Lee
- Napoleon
- Malcolm X
- Walt Disney
- John Hancock
- JFK
- Albert Einstein
- Marilyn Monroe
- Lee Harvey Oswald
- Elon Musk
- Gandhi
- Picasso
- Tupac Shakur
Do you do Banksy?
If so, you’re in for a treat.
Forum Auctions is running an event dedicated to the anonymous artist Tommorow (March 3rd). It features over a dozen of their most recognizable works, including CND Soldiers, Morons, and Girl with Balloon.
Her (prove me wrong) works feel particularly relevant right now, given Russia’s unforgivable actions in Ukraine.
And now, for something completely different…
Hake’s is running an auction with a bewildering collection of high-value lots that all fit together somehow (but I don’t see it).
The lots range from political pins to Star Wars toys to very old baseball cards to Pokemon cards to original art from comics.
This is the kind of garage sale diversity you typically see from lower-end auctions or eBay, but there are some exceptional lots in here.
This Boba Fett rocket-firing prototype (they nixed the eye-piercing rockets for the final run) is estimated to go for up to $200k. An AFA 85 version (today’s is AFA 50) went for $185k in 2019, and an unpainted version sold for $165k in summer 2021. Where this piece lands on the $100k to $200k spectrum will tell us a lot about where the toys market is going. I’m very bullish and expect to see this one do well.
Have a sniff around the auction, there are some gems in there… OK, maybe not that one, but this could be a great pickup if you want to get it regraded by AFA.
