Jul

2

"Investors are being enticed into exotic assets such as diamonds, oriental art and even violins to cash in on the biggest boom in alternative investments since the late 1980s." Cash in On the Global Wealth Boom by David Budworth, Sunday Times, July 2, 2007

From the article there looks to be quite a run on to develop the specialized funds to meet the niche collectible areas favored by the multi-national, new, super rich.

A little more detail on the numbers (the world economies all seem to be doing quite nicely), and the approach to marketing these individuals, is presented in the Merrill Lynch/CapGemini Global Wealth report.

In the 80s rare coins became quite the investment. Prices on such esoteric items as MS-65 (grade), Full Bell Line (FBL) Franklin halves soared. American Morgan (the standard of investment coins) and Peace Silver Dollars were "slabbed" (graded by "experts" on both sides of the coin and encased in non-tarnishing clear plastics) as the buying frenzy moved along. Novice coin buyers often overpaid on the buy side and were killed by the esoteric and qualitative aspects of coin grading on the sell side.

At one point there was even a story of two coins being slabbed together that happened to have very different grades on both sides of the coin. The two coins were made to appear as if they were one "super" graded coin and sold at a very high price many times their individual value. Collectibles it seems are a ripe area for excessive markups and deception. Much better in most cases to consider them a hobby unless you have the time to develop the necessary valuation expertise.


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