Industry insiders told me that the price of popular cards is soaring as sophisticated investors as well as small traders transform the world of sports collectibles from a fusty hobby into a major investment market.
One example: Earlier this month, a Michael Jordan rookie basketball card in pristine condition sold for a record $738,000 at an auction. It went for nearly $215,000 just weeks before.
“There’s never been a time like this in the history of the business,” Ken Goldin, whose company ran the auction, told CNN Business. “I would bet that for every person who wanted a Michael Jordan rookie card in 2019, there’s 100 [now].”
Professionals like Goldin — who’s fielding calls from interested hedge funds — acknowledge that factors such as rock-bottom interest rates, which have encouraged investors to hunt for returns in creative places, are benefiting their business. But they think the enthusiasm will hold.
“This is now part of our culture,” Goldin said. “I wouldn’t go anywhere near the word bubble.”
Watch this space: It’s not just big money getting into the game. Fractional trading has also reshaped the trading card industry, allowing everyday buyers to purchase a small stake in a LeBron James or Patrick Mahomes card that would have otherwise been too costly.
“We realized the potential fractional ownership could have to break down a massive barrier to entry,” said Ezra Levine, the CEO of Collectable, which buys sports cards and converts them into tradable assets registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Disney is still getting hammered by the pandemic
The pandemic continues to slam Disney’s theme parks and movie business. But its streaming service, Disney+, is shining.
The latest: Disney’s revenue came in at $16.2 billion during its most recent quarter, down 22% compared to the previous year, the company said Thursday. Yet Disney+ is growing, and Wall Street is still loving it.
The streaming service now has nearly 95 million subscribers, up from the 86 million it had in December. The news sent shares up 1% in premarket trading. They closed Thursday at a record high, despite the massive hit from Covid-19.
Still, CEO Bob Chapek made clear on a call with analysts that Disney doesn’t plan to abandon movie theaters altogether, my CNN Business colleague Frank Pallotta reports.
The company faces questions about what it will do with “Black Widow,” its latest Marvel film due to open in theaters on May 7. Could Disney put a film from the biggest blockbuster brand in the industry on Disney+, as it did with “Mulan” last year?
Doesn’t look like it. At least, not yet, per Chapek.
“We are still intending it to be a theatrical release,” he said Thursday.
Bumble’s IPO is a milestone for female founders
See here: At 31, Bumble chief Whitney Wolfe Herd has become one of the youngest female CEOs in tech to take her company public, my CNN Business colleague Sara Ashley O’Brien reports.
“You don’t have to be one type of person to find success in the business world or in the tech industry,” Wolfe Herd told CNN Business in an interview Thursday. “I’ve truly just always tried to build what I wish existed, what I wish could help make lives better for the women I care about and the people I love, and I think it doesn’t always have to follow the same path.”
Wolfe Herd, who is based in Austin, Texas, started her career at another dating service, Tinder. She initially set out to create a women-focused social network before landing on the concept of a female-focused dating app. Bumble requires women searching for heterosexual matches to make the first move, a feature meant to boost women’s empowerment.
Sarah Kunst, managing director of early-stage venture capital firm Cleo Capital and a former senior adviser to Bumble, told CNN Business that Wolfe Herd’s IPO sets a meaningful example to other founders who don’t fit the mold of what a “tech entrepreneur” typically looks like.
Wolfe Herd’s success story bucks the notion that “you can only start a company credibly if you have multiple prestigious degrees [and] all the right experience,” Kunst said. “She played this game on her own terms.”
