Pokémon card winner Scaramucci says collectibles are asset class

Social media influencer and wrestler Logan Paul made historical past final week when he auctioned and bought a uncommon Pokémon card for $16.5 million, a world file value for an auctioned buying and selling card. The winner views it as an funding.

AJ Scaramucci — son of investor and former White Home communications director Anthony Scaramucci — received the bidding warfare for the “Pikachu Illustrator” card, made in 1998 and one in every of solely an estimated few dozen to exist. 

It is the crowning achievement within the Solari Capital founder’s quick amassing profession, which began with buying and selling playing cards throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I imply, Picassos are nice,” he stated in an interview, explaining the Illustrator card’s significance. “However Pokémon means far more than only a Picasso portray to folks.”

After successful, Scaramucci stated the cardboard’s buy was the primary motion in what will likely be, as he dubbed, a “planetary treasure hunt.” He stated the objective, which he’s embarking on together with his youthful brother, is to gather a variety of real-world, scarce belongings throughout various classes. 

Buying and selling card markets have exploded in recent times. In keeping with information from Card Ladder, an analytics agency that tracks buying and selling card costs and gross sales, the month-to-month gross sales quantity in secondary buying and selling has practically doubled within the final two years.

EBay CEO Jamie Iannone within the firm’s earnings name final week detailed that the most important contributor to gross merchandise quantity development within the fourth-quarter have been collectibles, notably “pushed by continued energy in buying and selling playing cards.”

Paul himself purchased the illustrator card in 2021 for practically $5.3 million, indicating he bought it with a greater than 200% return. Card Ladder’s “Pokémon index” has grown 145% prior to now 12 months. Examine these beneficial properties to the S&P 500, which is up 15.2% prior to now 12 months. Or evaluate it to “Magnificent Seven” darling Alphabet, which is up 73.4% prior to now 12 months. 

“Particularly in 2025, the expansion has been astronomical,” stated Ken Goldin, founder and CEO of Goldin Auctions, which is owned by eBay. Goldin ran the public sale for the illustrator card final week. “We now have people who find themselves shopping for solely both as a result of they completely adore it or they firmly consider that buying and selling playing cards and collectibles are a reputable various asset class.”

Scaramucci is somebody who’s shopping for Pokémon playing cards for each of these causes: his personal pleasure and the funding potential. 

“The compounded annual development fee of those playing cards is uncontrolled,” he stated. “And they need to be handled as investments as a result of that is what they’re. It is simply apparent.”

Scaramucci added the playing cards are a strategy to play the “debasement commerce,” the place traders fearful of nations devaluing their currencies transfer cash into laborious belongings. 

Viewing collectibles instead asset just isn’t new, even when unorthodox. 

Paul Karger, co-founder and managing companion at wealth advisory agency TwinFocus, stated he works with shoppers who accumulate artwork, wine, watches and even guitars. However whereas some view these things as investments, Karger would not advise shoppers to get into that mentality. 

“Consider it as a ardour first, and type of an funding second,” he stated. “You hope they go up over time, however they’re completely not a alternative to monetary belongings, it is simply possibly a complement on the margin.”

Karger warned that the illiquid nature of collectibles, and the dependency they’ve on others figuring out their value, usually through auctions, are added dangers. 

Kaycee LeCong, managing director of the household workplace at Brighton Jones Wealth Administration, additionally famous a threat is that capital beneficial properties on collectibles are taxed at 28%, greater than capital beneficial properties taxes on shares which can be round 15% and 20%.

Regardless of the dangers, Goldin initiatives extra folks will view collectibles, notably buying and selling playing cards, as various belongings. He stated as extra headlines come about detailing main gross sales — like that of Paul’s — and value discovery turns into simpler to do with extra information, it’ll solely entice extra members. 

Scaramucci will embark on his treasure hunt by way of a brand new firm known as Treasure Trove. Nevertheless, he didn’t disclose any particulars about what that firm will likely be nor the way it will function, past that it’ll obtain funding from Solari Capital. Scaramucci additionally did not disclose if he plans to promote the Illustrator card, or every other of his collectibles, if it grows extra in worth. 

And whereas Scaramucci stated he’d prefer to acquire the Declaration of Independence as a part of his hunt after he received the Illustrator card, he acknowledged to CNBC that it is a objective that can take a lot work to realize whereas not addressing a plan on the best way to do it. 

However in the mean time, the shortage of readability in his future plans is the purpose. 

“For now, for those who assume I am only a loopy particular person shopping for up real-world, scarce belongings,” he stated, “that is all it is advisable to know.”