Looking back, everything I’ve ever invested in has increased in value (17.6.× move since 1990, or roughly +1,290%)
50 benchmark assets (10 comics, 10 cards, 10 pens, 10 coins, 10 stamps).
Monthly rebalancing.
Equal weighting so no single ultra-rare item dominates.
Real transaction prices from auction houses and marketplaces rather than asking prices..
From 100 in 1990 to 1,760 in 2026, or about 17.6× over the period.
Without tampering, nearly everything I have ever bought has gone up in value. If there is tampering, retribution eventually comes. Markets have a way of correcting distortions over time..
I think about the conversations I had with antique book dealers, the Roman Empire gold coins I collected, and the pen dealers I visited in Milan. What seemed like niche interests at the time have, in many cases, appreciated substantially.
A city mourns: selling the call and spilling the tea
I sit here with a coffee laced with cacao—fuel for both kinds of STEM—and watch a city mourn. It’s the feeling of being in Manhattan on November 5th after an election: the air thick with disbelief, the collective psychology still adjusting to what already happened.
I think about the autographs I collected as a kid. In many ways, autographs are in a structural bull market because they serve as anchors of scarcity within the memorabilia industry. As digital content becomes infinite, authenticated signatures become increasingly valuable precisely because they remain finite.
I also remember collecting on a limited budget.
Sometimes the only way I could build a collection was by convincing my parents to buy cereal because it was both a household essential and came with collectible cards. Looking back, that simple strategy taught me that great collections don’t always begin with wealth—they begin with curiosity and patience.
Today, I have discovered that one of those childhood keepsakes—a Nintendo Link card I saved from a cereal box—could be worth around $500 in top condition. It wasn’t an investment at the time. It was simply something I chose to preserve.
The lesson is simple: scarcity often rewards patience.