Last month, a one-of-a-kind 2009 Mike Trout rookie sold at auction for $3.84 million, setting a record for the most expensive sports trading card sale in history.
Unless you are Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos or Trout himself, who signed a 12-year contract worth more than $400 million last March, you probably don’t have almost $4 million kicking around in your couch cushions — or anywhere else. Hence, a rare sports memorabilia item like the Trout card will never be yours.
At least that was the case before Collectable, the first fractional ownership platform dedicated to sports memorabilia, available today.
Headed up by former Wall Streeter Ezra Levine, Collectable allows everyday sports fans to purchase shares in pieces of high-end sports memorabilia, the same way investors buy stock in a company.
And just like with stocks, Collectable investors have the chance to earn money as their shares become more valuable over time as the item they own a piece of appreciates in value. Even better, though they are registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Collectable’s offerings can be bought and sold without a fee being paid.
“When you buy one share of Amazon stock, you don’t own the entire company of Amazon, you own a fractional interest in Amazon. You make money as Amazon stock appreciates over time,” Levine tells InsideHook. “Same concept here with fractionalization on memorabilia. We source the best items in history, ones that we have specifically curated that have the highest degree of authenticity, cultural relevance and scarcity. We slash the value of the item and issue shares to the public. You can buy shares of these items in the same way you’d buy a share of Amazon stock for $200, even though the value of the company is $1 trillion.”
Though items including vintage and modern sports cards, game-used items, championship rings and historical sports documents will be offered across the platform at a continuous rate soon (the company already has $30 million worth of memorabilia under management), the first Collectable item that’s available for fans to invest in today is a rare 1953 Topps Mickey Mantle card that’s been deemed a Gem-Mint 10 by Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA).
One of only two ’53 Topps Mantle cards to have ever received a Gem-Mint 10 rating by PSA, the card is being offered at $2.5 million, with shares starting at $25.
According to Levine, the team at Collectable’s goal is to make owning a high-end item like the Mantle card accessible to the average sports fan for the first time.
“There’s a tremendous amount of money going into this space,” he says. “There are record prices being set all across the board. With those rising prices, average sports fans are just getting more and more priced out of the market. We wanted to provide a way for everybody, all sports fans of any income bracket, to participate in memorabilia. So that’s the opportunity. Our mission is to break down barriers to entry for all sports fans and to try to create a new alternative asset class for the masses.”
In addition to providing a new platform for sports fans to invest in their passion, Collectable is also giving pro athletes a way to sell shares in the personal memorabilia (championship rings, trophies, game-used and autographed items) they’ve collected over the course of their own careers. For example, as part of Collectable’s first athlete partnership, Dallas Cowboys legend Emmitt Smith is going to be listing some of the most prized items from his career on the platform in the near future.
“He recognized the need for athletes to have a platform to share their accomplishments directly with fans and that there previously was no way for athletes to reap any of the benefits of their items as they appreciate in value over time,” Levine says. “The beauty of our platform is athletes can retain equity in their own offerings. So as the value continues to go up over time, the athlete also stands to financially benefit from that.”
In addition to having the chance to make money, a perk of investing in offerings from Collectable’s athlete ambassadors is having the opportunity to attend exclusive shareholder events, such as hoping on a Zoom call with Smith to shoot the breeze.
“We’re going to be doing a lot of these shareholder events,” Levine says. “Investors will be able to interact with these athletes and get to hear exclusive content, exclusive storytelling. We will be doing a lot of these ambassadorships. We’re always talking to prominent pro athletes.”
Wanna play ball? Download the Collectable app for iOS or Google Play.
Game on.
More Like This
Whether you’re looking to get into shape, or just get out of a funk, The Charge has got you covered. Sign up for our new wellness newsletter today.
