www.google.com/amp/s/sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/goldin-auctions-sells-billionaire-steve-123049292.html
Same group that bought CU/PSA just scooped up Goldin. What are your thoughts on this?
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Smart. They already made good moves with the short time they’ve had with Psa.
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The company that assigns the grades now owns one of the marketplaces where said products are bought and sold. I don’t foresee any shenanigans.
EDIT: Interesting opportunity - PSA could set up a competing vault / auction storage similar to PWCC specifically run on Goldin. You can now grade cards and have them go directly to storage / vault / auction.
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Great, CU might actually become a universe to trade and collect cards without the need of any outside company or infrastructure. As long as integrity is held high, I think it´s a great step for the company and also the consumers!
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First Jocelyn, now Adhemar
I’m wary of the potential vertical monopoly (in this case, PSA grades the cards and also now has an avenue to sell them, which could incentivize high grades), especially in areas where things are kind of subjective.
PWCC got away with it because they delegate to the 3rd party grader, and even then there were issues with the whole BGS black label thing from sports card forums. Now that both are the same company there’s avenues for abuse that could not be easily uncovered.
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This was my first thought too. A bit of a conflict of interest
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Somewhat related, but CCG sent out an email this morning saying that they’ve reached a deal with Blackstone who will now own a majority stake in the company. They also list the following “Besides Blackstone, new investors in CCG include Roc Nation; Michael Rubin, Founder and Executive Chairman of Fanatics; SC.Holdings, a growth equity platform; Mastry, founded by Rudy Cline-Thomas; Andre Iguodala; Daryl Morey, President of Basketball Operations for the Philadelphia 76ers; and Main Street Advisors, a leading investment advisory firm for prominent athletes, recording artists and other leaders across entertainment and business.”
Lots of acquisitions in the collectibles world today.
Their upcharge system is a big conflict as well, and lots of people spoke about it when it first started but I’m not sure it’s been as bad as anticipated. Who know now though lol
Hypothetical for fun:
- Collector sends card in. Collect fees.
- Collect extra fees on upcharge to higher grade on questionable in-between grade
- Have collector send direct to Goldin for sale
- Collect extra fees again on sale and buyers premium.
Really nice business model tbh lol
Might be a matter of time before both beckett and pwcc gets acquired too
Lots of dry capital in investment markets. Lots of SPACs looking for targets too so a merger with a SPAC to go public is another potential outcome for those not yet acquired
The thing is within the finance world, the financial assetization of collectibles is a very relatable story to buy into… And when it’s combined with passion (many of these investors like Cohen have a history of acquiring art etc.), the propensity for deals to happen is very high
Investment funds have been circling sports team acquisitions and this seems to be the obvious next frontier
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Not so concerned about a “monopoly.” This is just an example of vertical integration that exists probably in every industry. It’s just PSA’s answer to trying to capture more value from the grading & selling process. Nothing really to be concerned about.
There are still viable alternatives for grading (BGS, CGC) and auctioning (PWCC, HA etc).
With the other news coming out that Blackstone have acquired CGC, it’s definitely an interesting time. It will be interesting to see what the big plans are for CGC and also to see what kind of move BGS will make (if any) in order to keep up with the competition.