Some still bristle at the thought but to anyone who has followed the market for popular high quality vintage sports cards, it’s impossible to ignore.
Most are worth a lot more than they used to be.
One of the auction companies that sells a lot of them has long touted their investment potential. Now, they’re taking the next step: PWCC Marketplace has launched an investment advisory service for trading cards.
The company now offers free counsel, analysis and related services to those interested in investing in cards and related items, including market entry and exit investment plans; card portfolio and asset management services.
PWCC is one of the largest volume dealers in the sports memorabilia marketplace, selling millions of dollars worth of vintage and modern items each year through its eBay auctions, all on consignment. The company says the new service is meant to assist newcomers to the investment side as well as those who’ve been doing it on their own. The goal, they say, is to “help new investors, as well as seasoned traders, navigate the market while creating a strategy that best suits their individual goals.”
While some collectors dislike the “cards as assets” angle, PWCC’s Brent Huigens believes the market’s strong performance related to traditional investments is turning skeptics into believers. Unlike fine art or certain other collectible markets, trading card investments can often be made for a small amount of money, which Huigens says makes them more appealing to average people, especially those with an interest in sports. The company calls them “the new working mans alternative asset class.”
“Once-casual collectors are turning into performance-minded investors with an eye on underlying strategy,” Huigens said. “As with any asset, an individual’s risk tolerance and long-term objectives should be taken into account when making investment decisions and constructing a diversified portfolio. Our goal is to help investors accomplish this with trading cards.”
PWCC says tracking and sales metrics demonstrate that trading cards have outperformed the S&P 500 by more than 200 percent, with a return on investment of 153% over 10 years.
“People will always invest in traditional instruments like stocks and real estate, but many investors also diversify into more esoteric asset classes, including trading cards, fine art, coins, wine and so on,” said Huigens. “Trading cards are particularly attractive to investors because of the sheer amount of sales data available combined with a market that is highly liquid compared to the markets for other alternative asset classes. New generations of investors are less interested in a straight mutual fund approach to investing, and cards represent an intriguing middle ground between traditional stock investments and fine art, affording investors new options for diversifying their portfolios.”
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