Sports Cards/Collectibles are now an Asset Class according to Jay-Z and Steve Cohen
Growing up in the Chicago Suburbs, Michael Osacky would ride his bicycle to the nearby pharmacy and purchase wax packs of Topps Baseball Cards. The late 80’s/early 90’s showcased numerous card manufacturers printing billions of cards. Today, there isn’t much value in cards from this “junk” era.
Michael is one of a limited amount of people in the world that has been actively involved in the sports collectible industry in the last 25 years. Back in the day, collecting trading cards was considered to be a worthless endeavor as there wasn’t really much demand for these items. Today, sports cards/collectibles are seen as a serious asset class with billions of dollars being spent annually on these items. Billionaires, musicians, athletes, hedge funds, etc are seeing the sports collectibles market as an asset class that is in the very early innings of an extra inning game. Billions of dollars are spent on art each year at high end auctions. Today, men and women under the age of 40 much prefer buying a sports card instead of high-end art. A card is easy to store/transport and it creates such an intriguing conversation to show off to your friends at dinner parties.
Michael Rubin (Fanatics Chairman), Steve Cohen (New York Mets Owner and CEO of Point 72), and Jay-Z/Blackstone have all opened their wallets to the sports collectibles industry. Of course, they all want to make money on their investment. However, each has noted how “cool” it is to be involved in the hobby. Rubin recently made news when his company was chosen to make baseball cards starting in 2026. Topps will NO longer be making baseball cards after having a 70-year stranglehold on the hobby. Fanatics will also be the exclusive manufacturer of football and basketball cards. Imagine watching a football game and you see a commercial marketing football cards by Fanatics! It’s coming soon.
Steve Cohen paid $853 million to acquire Collector’s Universe (Parent Company of PSA. Full Disclosure: Michael is the head appraiser for PSA & PSA/DNA) It’s a minimum of $200 to grade a single card by PSA. Their backlog is at least 3 million cards. Last year it was over 10 million cards.
Jay-Z and Blackstone have spent millions to buy a majority stake of a comic/card grading company. The company is valued north of $600 million. Other high-profile musicians/artists are reported to own several seven figure cards. Years ago, it was unthinkable to see this type of activity.
Michael spends lots of the time on the “road” seeing clients across the country/world. He has appraised some of the most valuable and rare cards in the world. He is the head appraiser for PSA which is the world’s largest third-party grading company. Michael writes a buy/sell/hold column for Forbes Magazine. He also advises clients on what to buy and what to avoid.
Michael will be conducting a webinar exclusively for Family Office Clients on October 28th at 1:00 p.m. EST click here to RSVP. Check out Michael’s website in advance of the webinar (www.baseballintheattic.com)
