The recent price rises have increasingly made me compare Pokémon cards against other collectables, art in particular.
As values reach into the mid 6-figures and potentially beyond for certain high end cards, what forces that are present in the art world might come into play for Pokémon?
Some thoughts that came to mind included:
Public display? I understand that most high end cards are currently held in secure facilities designed for that purpose. However, does there eventually become an incentive to arrange for display of these items, perhaps as exhibitions or at events?
Does printing diminish the value? Most paintings and art are 1/1, and a large amount of the value is in the unique and tangible link to the artist. As cards are printed (even if only 1-20 for some cards), does this place a ceiling on the importance?
Security? Some well known instances of cards ‘going missing’ have occurred, but there doesn’t appear to be a way to leverage a black market in stolen cards, beyond personal appreciation. Recent thefts in the art world have allegedly been to order to provide bargaining tools for organised crime when attempting to avoid custodial sentences (www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53934954).
Ownership? Linking to the last point, will we reach a stage where corporations, arms length government bodies or even states would consider investment in cards, as significant cultural assets or status symbols?
Some of this sounds a bit extreme now I read it back, but I honestly think in 50-70 years the cultural significance may elevate some of these cards towards these considerations.
Would appreciate any thoughts people have, even if it’s to disagree completely!
Interesting point. I suppose that’s a part of the public vs private sales discussion that’s come up recently that hasn’t been mentioned. I imagine some of the auction houses or consignment sellers would eventually force a degree of regulation or accountability.
Not much regulation can be enforced in collectibles to be honest.
Look at the recently discovered ‘Uncle Jimmy’ collection. Its owner was a factory worker/janitor all his life and yet he had millions of dollars worth of cards in his attic. Who’s to say one of his nephews isn’t a drug smuggler who invested the proceeds of his activities into buying as many collectibles as possible and stashed them in the old man’s attic in order to have plausible provenance once he decided to cash in on them?
PSA and PWCC have no regulatory obligation to determine whether the story holds true. And even authorities would have a hard time disproving that this low wage 90+ year old man who was a huge fan of baseball all his life didn’t amass such an expensive collection all by himself.
Obviously that is a ridiculously farfetched notion and I am sure Uncle Jimmy was an upstanding citizen, but it goes to show that collectibles in general can be a great store of value for small scale money laundering if the intent is there.
As we move more and more towards digital money and AML regulation, collectibles may actually be the most inconspicuous store of value of modern times.
All good points to be honest, thanks for that. I suppose there’s two aspects to that example (which I think actually works quite well for this discussion); a) investing the proceeds to begin with, and b) having the ‘legitimate’ provenance when attempting to sell.
PSA/PWCC/Heritage can probably only ever do minimal checks on sales. Is there a registry of stolen collectables, like there is for high end art? Given PSA/grading companies have cert numbers, do they at least track those? I know from discussions here on items such as trophy cards, the damage and holo pattern can be identifiers even if cracked out.
The first part might be more complicated though, and it seems like this is where the US/EU are trying to regulate. I’ve seen reference to new laws around art dealers having to submit more detailed records for any purchase above 10,000 Euros, including the source of the funds. I don’t think this applies to collectables though, and you’re probably right in that it’s basically impossible to properly enforce. (www.riskscreen.com/kyc360/news/art-in-the-frame-for-money-laundering)
@macarver, one thing that ocurred to me in the past was to have a blockchain ledger in which your PSA cert number gets tied to a digital token and you pass that token along with the item if you sell it/give it to someone else. Actually, I’ll start a new thread asking the community for thoughts on this.
Very interesting post, I’ve thought about this too. I do think Pokémon cards will move in that direction, but states investing in cards as cultural assets? Idk hahah
