Any thoughts on Rally Rd? 1 1

[Kryptic1]

On 7/28/2022 at 2:11 PM, lou_fine said:

Yes, have they sold all of the allotted shares for their Larson copy of Batman 1 or have they withdrawn that offering after all this time?    

They shut off new investments to the Batman 1 a few weeks ago.  They had sold about 50% of it (including the 20% retained by the prior owner) but it had slowed to a trickle.  They made a vague comment about doing some promotion for it later in the year, but I’m guessing they’re hoping for a strong auction comp to generate some interest.

They are still just running 2-3 IPOs per week, almost all of them for lower value items.  Since this is where they generate most of their revenue, I’m wondering how long they can survive.  They raised more venture capital money last year so they might be OK for a while but they have to be burning cash much faster than they expected.  I’d love to hear what they’re doing internally to turn things around because from the outside it doesn’t look like they’re doing anything.

[batman_fan]

On 7/31/2022 at 8:56 AM, Kryptic1 said:

They shut off new investments to the Batman 1 a few weeks ago.  They had sold about 50% of it (including the 20% retained by the prior owner) but it had slowed to a trickle.  They made a vague comment about doing some promotion for it later in the year, but I’m guessing they’re hoping for a strong auction comp to generate some interest.

They are still just running 2-3 IPOs per week, almost all of them for lower value items.  Since this is where they generate most of their revenue, I’m wondering how long they can survive.  They raised more venture capital money last year so they might be OK for a while but they have to be burning cash much faster than they expected.  I’d love to hear what they’re doing internally to turn things around because from the outside it doesn’t look like they’re doing anything.

Does anyone know if CGC has updated their registry to allow multiple people to enter the same cert #?  If they did, do you think you would only get points associated with your fractional ownership?

[Point Five]

On 7/31/2022 at 12:00 PM, batman_fan said:

Does anyone know if CGC has updated their registry to allow multiple people to enter the same cert #? 

CGC responds to the request:
 

 

[Cat-Man_America]

Looking at this seriously, from several different angles, while this might be an absolutely brilliant concept in a fluid or consistently rising market, it seems like a very risky investment strategy tying up money in something you can't control with an ongoing threat of a recession.  

For one thing, there's no guarantee investors can get their initial investment capital out if needed when investment books are tied to an unsettled market that may change dramatically in the short term.  Books you own can be held or sold at a time of your choosing; the risk is still there, but you're in control.  Also, this risk isn't really spread around by having more investors on board and tied to digital currency.  

In fairness, they do warn prospective investors of the risk, but from my perspective, this looks too much like a driverless vehicle waiting for a nervous wreck.   

[ThothAmon]

On 7/31/2022 at 12:00 PM, batman_fan said:

Does anyone know if CGC has updated their registry to allow multiple people to enter the same cert #?  If they did, do you think you would only get points associated with your fractional ownership?

Curious as to this books sales history if known?

 

 

[lou_fine]

On 11/9/2022 at 6:04 AM, ThothAmon said:

Curious as to this books sales history if known?

If you are referring to the Larson copy of Batman 1, I am sure others here would know more than me, but a few sales are as follows:  

Sold by CC as part of the Marc Lasry Collection in one of their Event Auctions for $390K back in December of 2016:  

https://www.comicconnect.com/item/682290

 

After that, it looks like it was resold once again by Metro/CC in what was possibly not an auction for $850K in February of 2021:  

https://www.comicconnect.com/item/863244

 

It was then auctioned off by Goldin for $1.47M a few months later in September of 2021 with the winning bidder then apparently selling a 80% stake in it to Rally Road while retaining a 20% ownership stake in the book in a rather convoluted transaction, although it's hard to know if the Rally Road share offering was ever successful or not or still a work in progress:  

On 3/9/2022 at 1:33 PM, Kryptic1 said:

Rally bought 80% of the Larson 8.0 for $1.34M from the person who won the auction in September.  The previous owner retained the other 20% so they will own 20% of the shares if Rally can fill the IPO.  

 

On 3/9/2022 at 9:26 PM, lou_fine said:

So, based upon these numbers here, it would appear that the buyer of the Larson copy of Bat 1 from Goldin is well on his way to making some pretty fast money here if Rally is able to sell out the shares on this offering.  The previous owner (i.e. Goldin purchaser) paid $1.47M for the Larson Bat 1 and then immediately sold off 80% of it for $1.34M which basically gives the book a theoretical 100% market value of $1.675M.  Not too bad at all, but even better, Rally now offers the book up for fractional shares sales with a total market cap of $1.8M with the previous owner retaining 20% of the shares.  This means the previous owner or the Goldin purchaser is now out of pocket by only $130,000 (i.e. $1.47M - $1.34M) , but retains a 20% stake in the Larson Bat 1 which is worth $360,000 (i.e. $1.8M X 20%) if Rally is successful with their share offering of this book here.    

And if Rally is able to resell the book for an even higher amount going forward after a successful IPO, the Goldin purchaser with his use of leverage will really be     in terms of his real rate of return on his actual out of pocket expenditure of only $130,000.  

 

[Kryptic1]

On 11/10/2022 at 1:04 AM, lou_fine said:

It was then auctioned off by Goldin for $1.47M a few months later in September of 2021 with the winning bidder then apparently selling a 80% stake in it to Rally Road while retaining a 20% ownership stake in the book in a rather convoluted transaction, although it's hard to know if the Rally Road share offering was ever successful or not or still a work in progress:  

 

Rally is going to reopen the IPO for the Larson Batman 1 next Friday.  Demand for all new IPOs had crashed during the summer.  I guess people were tired of overpaying and then watching their investment drop over 50% as soon as it started trading.  They have had some recent success with IPOs, but they’ve done it by taking little to no markup and offering things for market value.  That’s nice for investors, but it’s not sustainable.  Rally has been around for 3 or 4 years now and still haven’t found a revenue model that works.  Their latest idea is selling an NFT collection.  Seriously.

There’s still very little liquidity in their secondary market.  At this point I’m just waiting for the announcement that they’re going out of business and sending everything out to auction.  I like the idea of fractional ownership and I wish things had gone better for Rally, but they built a business that only works in a bull market for collectibles.

[batman_fan]

On 11/11/2022 at 5:19 PM, Kryptic1 said:

Rally is going to reopen the IPO for the Larson Batman 1 next Friday.  Demand for all new IPOs had crashed during the summer.  I guess people were tired of overpaying and then watching their investment drop over 50% as soon as it started trading.  They have had some recent success with IPOs, but they’ve done it by taking little to no markup and offering things for market value.  That’s nice for investors, but it’s not sustainable.  Rally has been around for 3 or 4 years now and still haven’t found a revenue model that works.  Their latest idea is selling an NFT collection.  Seriously.

There’s still very little liquidity in their secondary market.  At this point I’m just waiting for the announcement that they’re going out of business and sending everything out to auction.  I like the idea of fractional ownership and I wish things had gone better for Rally, but they built a business that only works in a bull market for collectibles.

Sadly they suffer from not enough people subscribing to the belief that all exponential growth continues forever.

[tth2]

On 11/12/2022 at 9:30 AM, batman_fan said:

On 11/12/2022 at 8:19 AM, Kryptic1 said:

Rally is going to reopen the IPO for the Larson Batman 1 next Friday.  Demand for all new IPOs had crashed during the summer.  I guess people were tired of overpaying and then watching their investment drop over 50% as soon as it started trading.  They have had some recent success with IPOs, but they’ve done it by taking little to no markup and offering things for market value.  That’s nice for investors, but it’s not sustainable.  Rally has been around for 3 or 4 years now and still haven’t found a revenue model that works.  Their latest idea is selling an NFT collection.  Seriously.

There’s still very little liquidity in their secondary market.  At this point I’m just waiting for the announcement that they’re going out of business and sending everything out to auction.  I like the idea of fractional ownership and I wish things had gone better for Rally, but they built a business that only works in a bull market for collectibles.

Expand  

Sadly they suffer from not enough people subscribing to the belief that all exponential growth continues forever.

Also skepticism over the concept of fractional ownership of collectibles.

[batman_fan]

On 11/11/2022 at 6:36 PM, tth2 said:

Also skepticism over the concept of fractional ownership of collectibles.

Really?  You think so?  

[Aman619]

Rally I do.

[ThothAmon]

With the unsealing of indictments in the FTX crypto debacle I’m curious if the machinations in the structure of Rally Rds finances would withstand scrutiny?  When I read the sec filings many months ago I was most concerned that the valuation/ownership of the underlying assets was different depending on whether you were an insider or retail investor. Also, what was the basis for some of the valuations? They seemed crazy to me. Weren’t there some boardies who were proponents?  Anyone still a fan?

[D84]

On 12/13/2022 at 8:25 AM, ThothAmon said:

With the unsealing of indictments in the FTX crypto debacle I’m curious if the machinations in the structure of Rally Rds finances would withstand scrutiny?  When I read the sec filings many months ago I was most concerned that the valuation/ownership of the underlying assets was different depending on whether you were an insider or retail investor. Also, what was the basis for some of the valuations? They seemed crazy to me. Weren’t there some boardies who were proponents?  Anyone still a fan?

Never was.  RallyRD. I hope they go the same way as FTX.

[buttock]

On 12/13/2022 at 7:25 AM, ThothAmon said:

With the unsealing of indictments in the FTX crypto debacle I’m curious if the machinations in the structure of Rally Rds finances would withstand scrutiny?  When I read the sec filings many months ago I was most concerned that the valuation/ownership of the underlying assets was different depending on whether you were an insider or retail investor. Also, what was the basis for some of the valuations? They seemed crazy to me. Weren’t there some boardies who were proponents?  Anyone still a fan?

You see what it took for anyone to care about FTX despite all the blatant signs.  No way anyone cares about RR.  

[ThothAmon]

On 12/13/2022 at 12:34 PM, buttock said:

You see what it took for anyone to care about FTX despite all the blatant signs.  No way anyone cares about RR.  

Cest vrai. I attribute it to the adage “anyone dumb enough to invest in that deserves to be burned”. As a comic book collector I refuse to ascribe to it personally. 

[buttock]

On 12/13/2022 at 12:35 PM, ThothAmon said:

Cest vrai. I attribute it to the adage “anyone dumb enough to invest in that deserves to be burned”. As a comic book collector I refuse to ascribe to it personally. 

Truth.  "A fool and his money..."

[MrBedrock]

On 12/13/2022 at 11:34 AM, buttock said:

 No way anyone cares about RR.  

I really think Rally Rd would have had much better results if Valiantman had been more adamantly defending it in these threads.

[adamstrange]

On 12/13/2022 at 7:01 PM, MrBedrock said:

I really think Rally Rd would have had much better results if Valiantman had been more adamantly defending it in these threads.

Don't drag me into it!

[Terry JSA]

 

[tth2]

Can someone remind me what Rally Road pay for it?