Cards = Investments

[Nashvol]

Originally Posted by tiger8mush

Good point. So lets you buy a card at auction (more than anyone else is willing to pay, of course) for $1k. Then lets say 15% buyers premium of $150 + $20 insured shipping. So you have $1,170 invested in this card. You hold the card for 5 years as investment and then decide to consign it to an auction company that has 0% sellers premium. You spend another $20 to ship to them, insured. $1,190 now. So the card has to sell at auction for AT LEAST 20% higher than it did 5 years ago just for you to break even. You are taking a risk that it sells lower, you are NOT GUARANTEED it'll sell for that price. Did you also spend extra $ on home insurance for the card or a safety deposit box? So if you want to make 10% in 5 years (only 2% a year), it'll have to sell for at least 30% higher than its previous hammer price. Heck, inflation is higher than 2% a year! So even then you are probably losing money.

And, if there are better options to invest in a recovered economy (savings/CDs, for example) wouldn't today's card investors be a shrunken market? Where would prices be then?

[EvilKing00]

personally if i was making an extra 500 or 1000 due to my CD interest rate i would just spent it on more cards,

[Sean1125]

Originally Posted by Nashvol

And, if there are better options to invest in a recovered economy (savings/CDs, for example) wouldn't today's card investors be a shrunken market? Where would prices be then?

IMO if there was no investment in cards there would be absolutely no way to determine prices and I think they would be ALL over the place. The one collector that "needs" the card will buy it, then there will be no more demand (or much lowered).

Edit* that would all be speculation of course, I don't think in the near future investments will be pulled out of cards

[Leon]

I don't recommend it whatsoever but approx. 13 yrs ago I took all of my money out of the stock market (except a few 401k rollovers in bonds) and put it all into pre-war cards. Best decision I have ever made, financially. I don't recommend it but it's been a lot of fun. And I enjoy the cards a heckuva lot more than I would have pieces of virtual paper. I think I have done ok on ROI too....though I can't know for sure until I sell. I have always been somewhat of a (calculated) gambler.

[Jlighter]

I was reading an article where people put up expensive artwork as collateral for a mortgage. I wonder if the same could be done with vintage Baseball cards?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Jlighter

I was reading an article where people put up expensive artwork as collateral for a mortgage. I wonder if the same could be done with vintage Baseball cards?

I took out an SBA loan for a little over a half a million dollars nine years ago (paid back last year). I scheduled my cards, on the loan, as assets. They were used in the equations. They weren't collateral but they were listed as assets and were taken into account.