00:00 Speaker A
I want to save this one Alexis because I think this is is also in your wheelhouse and it’s also in the wheelhouse of my dear friends at Yahoo Sports. Why are collectibles having a moment? And what is next in this industry?
00:09 Alexis
It is, it has been an amazing ride. Uh, we love our partnership with Mantle and Yahoo. We’ve got some hobby awards right now, actually. Um, I think this industry is starting to professionalize, right? The hobby was always a very mom and pop type business.
00:23 Alexis
And during COVID, everyone was locked down. Uh, everyone was feeling pretty anxious and nostalgia became really, really desirable. And so that’s when I got back into the hobby. I collected cards as a kid, you know, like a lot of kids in the ’90s, I thought that collection was going to help me retire one day.
00:36 Speaker A
it did not. Same here.
00:38 Speaker A
I just found my Batman cards the other night, Alexis from the 1990s movie. I got a whole collection of them.
00:45 Alexis
90s. Yeah, it’s tough. That’s that’s probably not worth much. I’m sorry.
00:48 Speaker A
Thanks a lot.
00:48 Alexis
You know, the good news is, uh, the card producers are being a lot more savvy with how they’re, you know, the big problem is over over supply, right? Supply and demand will tell you what happens there. So the card producers are getting a lot smarter now, a lot more creative, limiting supply. And here’s the way I look at it, very simply, collectibles are our generation’s art.
01:05 Alexis
And at the end of the day, if I can show you a, you know, Serena Williams rookie card on my desk or, you know, 86 Fleer Jordan, right? that that feels like a flex. That for me, you know, having a war hall or having, you know, pick your favorite modern or contemporary artist, it doesn’t really do a lot for me.
01:19 Alexis
Um but if you abstract it away, right? What is, you know, art on a wall is ink or something on a dead tree. And, you know, that 86 Fleer Jordan is just ink on a dead tree, but there’s a cultural significance for a generation of us who grew up during the rise of sports, really the commercialization of sports. uh and and I think I I I think whether it is trading cards, comics, collectible video games, collectible music, uh even match worn uh jerseys and outfits. I think these kinds of culture assets are still undervalued.
01:39 Alexis
Obviously, do your diligence, don’t, you know, ask your wife before spending your entire IRA on these things. But, but very, very important is and the thing that I really do believe is that, you know, art and and these culture assets have always been a part of, you know, sort of the financial world. And you may not, you know, agree with it, right? A a a crate of wine, uh priceless Van Go or a what not. And I think this is just a new generation’s version of that same thing.
01:59 Alexis
And thanks to the hyper connectivity of the internet, so sports has never been more valuable. And I’d say in particular, if you think of this AI age, I’ve only gotten more bullish about the value of sports since that tweet in 2019, not just because it’s been working and working well, but because across entertainment, AI is going and already going to up-end every other pillar, right? Hollywood, television, all those industries you’re seeing, right? The cost of production is going to drastically fall.
02:23 Alexis
There’s a chart-topping song right now that I think is entirely AI generated. It’s a bop, right? But but the music industry is going to look very, very different. Taylor Swift, I’m still taking my daughter to see Taylor Swift, that’s a religious experience. Kendrick Lamar is going to be just fine. But if you think of more vapid sort of shallow like one hit wonder type artists, right? It’s going to be very challenging when, you know, a talented producer or a 16-year-old can spin up a really catchy beat, one of those earworms. And so every other form of entertainment is going to be really reimagined because of this technology.
02:50 Alexis
But I’m never taking my kids to go see robots play soccer. Uh I’m never taking them to go see see robots hit 18 hole-in-ones, right? Can you imagine the Ryder Cup with robots and it’s just 18 European
03:00 Speaker A
I I could, but that’s not we won’t take it. We won’t go there for this conversation.
03:03 Alexis
boring, but it’s boring.