Financial History Issue 126 (Summer 2018) | Page 37
will need many of the same types of tools
and statistics to help them make informed
investment decisions.
An Appealing Investment
Most people who begin collecting trad-
ing cards and other ephemera—like those
who collect artworks or fine wine—do so
primarily out of a passion for the objects
themselves. They may not have any partic-
ular exit strategy in mind. But rare items
will naturally increase in value if demand
outstrips supply, and serious collectors
do make acquisitions with an eye to their
long-term resale value as well.
More and more people are attracted
to the idea of investing in collectibles to
diversify their portfolios or hedge against
inflation, and many find that owning
physical objects offers a different, more
visceral type of pleasure than the satisfac-
tion provided by looking at a string of
numbers in an account balance. Particu-
larly in this era of digital everything, vin-
tage items hold undeniable appeal.
Like works of art, trading cards com-
bine aesthetics and the sheer enjoyment of
collecting. However, unlike art and other
alternative investments, trading cards are
highly accessible, even to small investors.
And because trading cards are not one-
of-a-kind items like artworks, they lend
themselves more readily to stock-market-
style analytics, which require millions of
data points. Seeing how a specific item and
its peers have fared in the market, both
recently and over time, can help collectors
avoid overpaying and mitigate risk.
No investment is without risk, of
course, and no financial advisor on earth
would counsel collectors to put their
entire life savings in baseball cards, but
when acquired judiciously, with an eye
to market analysis, trading cards can be
a valid component of a diversified invest-
ment portfolio.
* Brent Huigens is the CEO of PWCC
Marketplace. The PWCC indices can be
found at www.pwccmarketplace.com/
market-indices.
Editor’s Note: The Museum of American
Finance does not endorse any particular
investment product or index.
WALL STREET
WALKS
Wall Street Walks takes visitors through the historic capital
of world finance — the one-square-mile of downtown Manhattan
known as “Wall Street.” Our visitors learn about people, places and
events comprising over 200 years of history, as they walk among
locations where it all happened.
• Regular public tours daily, except Sunday.
• Group and private tours available.
Proud walking tour partner of the Museum of American Finance.
CONTACT:
www.WallStreetWalks.com
tours@wallstreetwalks.com
212-666-0175 (office)
212-209-3370 (ticket hotline)
www.MoAF.org | Summer 2018 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 35