Guy started his channel recently to discuss the collectibles market in general. Like his stuff, usually. It’s common sense to most of us here. Any thoughts on the video?
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He seems to overlook the value of nostalgia. Probably 95% of tcg collectors do it for fun which has a value all its own. We love owning them unlike our more standard investments.
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This guy is good in terms of the speculation that is happening in the collectibles market. Very knowledgeable when it comes to the economics of how speculation works. A recommended subscription.
Seems knowledgeable, went ahead and subscribed so I can watch some of his other videos later on.
Maybe he makes sense, but I find him to hard to whatch, hmkey.
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He’s knowledgeable about economics, but he clearly is not all that knowledgeable about Pokemon.
One of his main points of caution was that the 1st Edition Base Set Charizard is more likely to “roll back” from the 25K it’s selling for, even though it has been selling for around 40K for over a year now. His lack of research essentially obliterated his whole argument in that regard.
You can always use the argument he was using for ALL collectibles; not just Pokemon cards. That’s the whole point of investing in items in those categories. You know you are tying up money in the short term in order to hopefully eventually make money in the long term.
He also seems to be neglecting the basic idea of supply and demand. You cannot “flip” 1st Edition Base Set Booster Boxes, as he was saying in the latter part of the video. These are INCREDIBLY finite items, and if you are buying a box of that caliber, you aren’t doing it to flip a week later. You are holding on to it for the long haul.
The chances of you also “losing a lot of money” on a PSA 10 1st Edition Base Set Charizard are also incredibly slim because of the obscenely high demand and scarcity of it. The price of the card has increased considerably from the 25K he kept erroneously using as his benchmark for that reason: the thing is simply not readily available, and the chances of $15,000 PSA 10 1st Edition Base Set Charizards flooding the market are slim to none because of it.
I’m sure this guy understands economics and finance, but he seems like one of those typical “lol Pokemon cards?” types of people who don’t actually have a true knowledge of the market and the hobby as a whole.
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I did notice that. Wanted to watch a few of his other videos before passing judgement. Watched another video, and just couldn’t sit through the 30 minutes. I do prefer to watch SMPRATTE and ZandGEmporium.
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I think he did a fine job - what he says isn’t necessarily anything new though, since it’s on par with what other people have already said. Takeaways are that TCG in general is a volatile market and that there are better, easier investments out there, but if you have money to spare and love Pokemon/love to relive your Pokemon days/have faith in the Pokemon market, why not put money into it. He does draw out his arguments at times and makes a few blunders that someone who isn’t close to Pokemon/the Pokemon TCG market would make (i.e. thinking Charizard is 25k because a sale or two in the last few months have pushed its value upward), but I wouldn’t discredit him because of it.
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You can’t satisfy everyone. He has talked about graded video games, graded comic books, graded toys, graded currency, graded coins, Tiffany glass and now graded cards.
I don’t know anyone who knows more than this guy in terms of the overall collectibles market but I do agree that if you try to spread out your interest too wide, your knowledge becomes thinner but try looking at it from a different perspective.
Watch one of his videos about a hobby that you don’t know about, say graded video games. Everything he says will be new to you so you just soak in the information. His video about pokemon cards might have prices that are not up to date so just think of it as a video that is not for you, a long time hobbyist. Think of it as a video for beginners in the hobby.
His touch at the start of the video on 1st ed base was new knowledge for me, which I really appreciate.
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what’s the message of this video? Investing in pokemon is highly speculative? bet he wished to have bought a bunch of WOTC boxes instead of a room filled with lego or amiiboos lol
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to be fair, i think some sealed legos are worth a lot of money (and in general legos are just expensive lol)
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I love Lego and would be buying them, if they weren’t so bulky
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He’s first and foremost a coin collector but seems to flip a lot of the new popular stuff like Lego, amiibo, Wii games etc
I do.
A huge part of his argument as for why he thinks Pokemon cards might not increase in value was because of the Charizard, saying that there is a significant chance it “rolls back” in value from the 25K when it fact it has increased exponentially from that point.
If you’re going to do a video trying to teach people about investing in a certain hobby, you at least need to have your facts straight, and he completely missed on one of the most obvious ones.
His argument for 1st Edition Base Set booster boxes potentially not increasing was weak, too, as he completely ignored the basic principle of supply and demand (unless he genuinely doesn’t know the incredibly low supply of 1st Edition Base Set booster boxes, which doesn’t make him look any better, as he then shouldn’t be saying anything).
I don’t doubt that he has a whole lot of knowledge about economics, but it’s blatantly obvious that he knows nothing about the Pokemon market.
It’s actually more dangerous for beginners if he is spreading misinformation. Long-time hobbyists will know right away when they hear inaccurate information. New people to the hobby won’t be so quick to decipher it.
Like I said: I’m sure this guy knows what he is talking about in general, but he is clearly out of his league when it comes to discussing the Pokemon market. It’s like a guy who focuses almost exclusively on American sports trying to analyze soccer. He might know a few of the best players, but chances are, he is going to make some significant errors in his analysis.
Basically, what I’m saying is, stick to what you know. If you aren’t sure about something, don’t give advice on it.
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I give you guys a lot of credit for making videos. Trying to bring your expertise to others is admirable. This fellow has some skills and knowledge but he’s new to this. He’ll improve and learn as long as he gets some feedback and reads his comments.
Someone should drop him a link to this thread.
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What are the chances a beginner to this hobby instantly goes and buy the highest end cards in the hobby? Very slim. His touch on the highest priced stuff not increasing is not wrong either. Opportunity cost kicks in when you are spending that kind of money as a speculative move. $60k for a 1st edition Base set box or multiple other items that have more potential? I get supply and demand but how many people can actually afford a $60k booster box in the Pokémon hobby where the majority of the items collectors think are ‘high end’ are more than $3k? Many people would rather buy different stuff than a clear wrap $60k booster box. That pushes demand down a lot. Sure there will be the occasional buyer looking to pick up the most valuable Pokémon booster box for its last sold price but it’s not a very attractive ‘investment’ if you really analyze it.
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I’ve learned through comments. I had a viewer that commented on all my videos and enjoyed my content, once mentioned something about my audio. Something I hadn’t noticed. Turns out after he mentioned it, I heard what he was talking about. This was 2 months into making videos. I was chopping my audio along with video. That tiny chop of audio was noticeable when switching cameras in the editing. He couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong, but once I heard it I knew exactly what I was doing wrong.
It really helped me while editing and I think my channel improved because of it. It’s funny I went back and watched some of my 4 month old videos and the difference in quality in just 4 months is incredible.
I personally think Reserved Investments videos will get better and better. It does take time. That big Star Wars Lego box is distracting, it’s in the way. He should move that off to the side a bit more to the side.
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In this case it’s fine for him not to touch on supply vs demand since he essentially addresses this point when discussing volatility of prices — his entire argument (which is a valid one) is that it’s very hard to pinpoint future values (and even present values) based on supply and demand because the drivers of demand for TCG/collectibles are extremely volatile aka hard to pinpoint and quantify at any given time so that you can determine opportunity costs (thought question: how do you gauge nostalgia and legacy of Pokémon 5, 10, 50 years from now, and how do you assign that a value?) The assumption we typically make on here is that demand will continue to increase (supply is a weaker player than demand and we can think of it as being unchanging for 1st Ed booster boxes since very little of them are being opened nowadays), and that works for now, but this won’t necessarily be the case forever (especially once you reach a generation where Pokémon is no longer relevant), and we don’t even necessarily know when that will happen, which is why diversification is always harped on if you’re really trying to make money in the long run (or put all your eggs in a basket and hope to be a lucky winner).
And again, the 25k may be a deal-breaker for some people because it is objectively incorrect. However, I don’t think that means he doesn’t have his reasoning straight and makes him less credible, because for these videos the principles are more important than the actual numbers. If he were a financial adviser for specific investments on the other hand…
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I don’t mind his videos, some of his speaking mannerisms annoying a bit but that’s just me. It’s not a big deal either but I think all the stuff in front of him cretes a ‘wall’ between him and his viewers, it’s just a psychology thing regarding a barrier between him and the viewer, I think his stuff should be behind him.
Anyway one thing to understand is everything is his opinion and another perspective, he’s providing a viewpoint for you to interpret and form your own conclusions on things, just like anyone else that talks about this stuff. Nobody should blindly follow what someone else says.
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