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We’ve all heard the traditional advice that the best investments are those made in the stock market, saving in a 401(k), and buying a home. But younger generations have started touting non-traditional investments as buy a Birkin bag or other collectibles as a surefire way to earn extra cash.
Influencer and WWE wrestler Logan Paul recently said that going beyond normal investments can be worth it.
“If you’re young, there are ways to spend and invest your money in a way that might mean more to you than in a traditional conservative environment like the stock market,” he said. said on Fox Business “The Big Money Show” Tuesday.
And Paul has certainly taken a non-traditional investment route: he recently auctioned off a rare Pokémon card that he purchased in 2022 for $5.3 million. The former WWE United States Champion actually wore the card – which he says is “the rarest card in the world” and the “Holy Grail” – around his neck while competing. The card is a PSA graded Pikachu Illustrator 10, and only a few dozen copies exist in the world. But Paul’s card is the only one to receive a 10/10 rating from the Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA).
Paul said he plans to auction the card in early 2026 and estimates it would sell for between $7 million and $12 million, which would net him about $2 million to $7 million. He also claimed that collectibles like Pokémon cards had “outperformed” the stock market over the past two decades.
“If you have money, don’t be afraid to take risks, especially if you’re young,” Paul said.
Are collectibles really a good investment?
According to a global wealth management company AESCollectibles like wine, manuscripts, vintage cars, rare artwork and much more can produce a “reasonable» returns for investors, but they often don’t come with the same long-term gains as investing in stocks.
Between 1900 and 2012, collectibles produced a nominal annual return of 6.4% and a real return of 2.4%, according to the AES report.
“While the return is reasonable, it falls well short of the long-term rewards of investing in the stock market,” wrote Sam Instone, CEO of AES. But “that doesn’t mean these collectibles aren’t for some investors.”
Yet Gen Z men have become obsessed with investing in these collectibles, which some believe will surpass Nvidia stock and the S&P 500. And they might be right: Pokémon cards have seen the largest long-term increase in value of any card category. They have increased by 3,261% over the past 20 years, according to data provided to FortuneThis is Preston Fore from Card Ladder. Even a one-year investment is up 46%, which is higher than Nvidia’s 35% jump and the S&P 500’s 17% year-to-date increase.
“The trading card hobby has entered a new era, driven by technology, innovation, community and a great balance of modern creativity – with new settings, storylines and characters – alongside good old nostalgia,” Adam Ireland, vice president and general manager of global collectibles at eBaysaid previously Fortune. He also said that eBay users searched for “Pokémon” nearly 14,000 times per hour in 2024.
Other collectibles, like the Hermes Birkin bag, have attracted the attention of young investors, who say buying one may be more valuable than investing in gold. But recent reports have shown that these rare handbags I don’t have the same return on investment they did it once. The average resale premium for Birkin and Kelly bags — a metric that compares the auction price to its retail cost — rose from 2.2 times its original value in 2022 to 1.4 times in November, according to Bernstein Research’s Secondhand Pricing Tracker. To put this into perspective, a Birkin bag originally purchased for $10,000 and resold in 2022 would have cost over $22,000, but a bag originally sold for the same price and resold today would only be worth $14,000.
Overall, while investing in collectibles can bring big returns, they can also be a very risky investment due to liquidity risks, concentration risks, costs and maintenance, bubble potential and tax treatment, according to a study. analysis by Economic times.
“It is also true that some people generate income regularly by buying and selling collectibles,” according to Consumers Credit Union. “However, fortunes are determined by the whims of buyers as well as the waxing and waning popularity of particular items. Although the stock market may experience a down year, over time its value tends to increase.”
