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CBS MarketWatch: Collectibles Are "The Stupid Investment Of The Week"

Started by delekkerste,

302 posts in this topic

OldSchoolTerry

OldSchoolTerry

Posted
Posted

Darth, Townsend Harris opened in '85 I think, 'cause I was there from '86 through '89. I'm surprised your counselor didn't push it. Maybe you were getting pushed more towards the parochial schools, and of course, everyone applied for the big 3 public ones (BX Science, etc)... I have no idea what their entry process is like now. When I went, the revolutionary thing about it, was that it was tied in with Queens College, so my whole senior year, I was taking college classes. That gave me head start on my undergrad degree for sure...

 

Hey, shouldn't this be a "water cooler" discussion? insane.gif

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garthgantu

garthgantu

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Posted
and even back in the '80s when I started college the University of California at Berkeley was close to $9K a year for state-discounted tuition and housing).

 

Gene, this musta been the late '80s...? I attended UC Berkeley in the early '80s, and I think my tuition was about $1,500 per year..! My apartment, one block from the south side of the campus, was $155 per month... I do recall the tuition going up pretty dramatically a few years later, however...

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sckao

sckao

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and even back in the '80s when I started college the University of California at Berkeley was close to $9K a year for state-discounted tuition and housing).

 

Gene, this musta been the late '80s...? I attended UC Berkeley in the early '80s, and I think my tuition was about $1,500 per year..! My apartment, one block from the south side of the campus, was $155 per month... I do recall the tuition going up pretty dramatically a few years later, however...

 

Hey.. I also went to UC Berkeley, but in the mid-80's. I also lived a couple of blocks on South Side (in the Co-ops.)

 

 

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sckao

sckao

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Hey.. I also went to UC Berkeley, but in the mid-80's. I also lived a couple of blocks on South Side (in the Co-ops.)

 

 

Which one? I spent a lot of time at those co-ops smile.gif Le Chateau, Barrington, etc.

 

Barrington was the drug co-op and was actually mostly shut down during my time there.

 

I lived in Cloyne, Casa Zimbabwe, and the Rochdale Apts. (on Southside.) Before that, I lived in Units III and II (Residence halls).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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jkrk

jkrk

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I advocate going to the best college you possibly can. I graduated NYU in 1974. I probably attended 100 classes in my four years. I missed so many classes that I still have nightmares that a test is being given tomorrow that I failed to be ready for. If I really attended I probably would have tried for a job on Wall Street. Instead I attended the NY racetracks and picked up another vocation. Today I trade securities for a living for one customer. I've been doing this for 20 years. It's has led to a phenominal living but I still wonder what my real potential was? I got lucky

because I had very little to fall back on if I didn't succeed.

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murph0

murph0

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What college you go to isn't everything. You can go to a great college, but have zero people skills, be a poor interview, and just really not actually "learn" much from the experience. Obviously a reasonable recruiting firm would hire a person who isn't lacking in the above skills who went to a lesser school before they'd hire the aforementioned example.

 

Brian

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jkrk

jkrk

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As you've indicated the College you attend isn't everthing. If you read my story you would have seen that I prospered despite almost never attending college. With that said, I would rather have the front door held open for me then walking in the backdoor and working my way up. You can always fail starting at the top and succeed from the bottom.. We all learn from our past and play the game from here. It's similar to the point of money will not buy you hapiness but if I had my choice to be rich or poor, I'd rather be rich.

 

Now to get back on topic- Collectible are collectibles otherwise they would be called investibles. Have fun and keep things in perspective.

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COI

COI

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Gene, that was an excellent read. I have a number of people that I will be forewarding that to. grin.gif

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delekkerste

delekkerste

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Someone forward this story to this kid before his dad teaches him the wrong things about investments and business...

 

It's probably too late. I think he's destined to see the inside of a bankruptcy court later in life.

 

Gene

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delekkerste

delekkerste

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Well, Clobberintime asked me on the ASM #121 Original Art thread whether I thought a purchase of that artwork would fall into the category of "foolish investments" as per this thread. I'll be the first to say that if I were in a position where I wasn't going to miss the several hundred grand required to pry this loose from the owner, I'd consider purchasing it - given that this book and DD #181 are my 2 all-time favorites, this is about as close to a true Holy Grail as I can conceive of...monetary value aside, it would mean much more to me than an Action #1 CGC 9.4 or the original artwork to AF 15 (if either even exist).

 

However, from a purely investment point of view, yes, I do believe that it would be foolish. As fanatically popular as the issue is for collectors who grew up in the '60s/'70s/'80s (i.e., the collectors who have money today), I doubt it will retain its current level of religious devotion for the next generation and the generation after that (just as the Kennedy assassination doesn't mean as much to the youth of today versus those who experienced that event directly).

 

Also, with the movie franchise ingraining Mary Jane as Spidey's one true love and Gwen remaining out of Spidey's life for the past 30 years (clones, mini-series, flashbacks and Ultimate Gwen notwithstanding), are the youth of today (i.e., the well-heeled collectors of tomorrow) going to bid this artwork up to $1.4 million 20 years from now ($300K at a conservative 8% CAGR)? IMO, that's not likely, particularly since this smaller and likely less wealthy (you don't think they'll make as much money as the last couple of generations made in the '80s and '90s, do you?) generation of collectors will also be inundated with tons of collectibles (of which the supply only increases with time) being puked out of the collection of today's collectors.

 

Remember, the first Baby Boomers start retiring only FIVE YEARS from now. Never mind that taxes and interest rates are metaphysically certain to rise substantially (with all that this entails) as a result of this loss of tax revenue - you are also going to see a veritable tsunami of collectibles hitting the market in the 2010s and 2020s (or sooner, if the market turns down and people scramble to lock in today's high prices). All those highest-graded CGC keys and uber-grail original art pieces currently locked up tight in collections? Well, you can't take it with you, and I'm sure a lot of owners (many of whom probably aren't all that wealthy, but were fortunate to benefit from 10,000%+ appreciation on their key books and artwork the past 15 years) are going to be cashing out to fund their retirement homes and fishing boats.

 

Finally, let's not forget that tastes change, and what might be popular for one generation may not be as popular for later generations. This may seem like heresy, but I personally doubt that Gil Kane (the penciller on ASM #121) will be all that remembered 20-30 years from now. Just as Alex Schomburg and L.B. Cole have almost zero name recognition among young collectors today, so shall pass the way of Gil Kane, as good as he was. I love Kane's work, but I don't see his legacy as being equivalent to that of a Kirby or a Romita Sr. That's just a sad fact of life.

 

Gene

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