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Modern Wax Fund Modern Wax Fund A Unique Investment Opportunity Offered By Attic Investments and Blowout Cards 1 Modern Wax Fund Why Private Equity Funds for Trading Cards? Attic Investments founder David Arons, CFA has spent most of his career either in the institutional investment management or the private equity sector. As a long-time collector/investor in trading cards he sees their potential and that of other collectibles to become a small portion of Institutions’ private equity allocation. In order for this to happen there would need to be a history of investment vehicles up to the standard that Institutions are familiar with. This is believed to be the first time that trading cards are being packaged to this standard as a private equity fund. David believes that Funds and/or other investment vehicles will provide the performance history needed to attract institutional investment. Therefore, this Fund will be managed with the same fiduciary duty expected by institutions. This includes the oversight and reporting that institutions expect. Blowout Cards, as one of the leading retailers of factory-sealed trading card products has benefited from the growth in the trading card market over the past decade. The Executive Team has also long realized the investment potential of the product and has strategically held product back that they feel holds the most potential for an increase in value. Blowout is offering $3M of some of this product for the Fund, not because they want or need to sell the product, but because they understand the potential benefits to the industry that new money would bring, and in particular, institutional money. 2 Modern Wax Fund Management is Fully Committed to Making this Fund a Success Management is aware that the first fund in an alternative asset class is going to require pioneering investors. In recognition of this, the Manager is taking the following steps to help ensure the Fund’s success, to provide downside protection and ensure that the interests of the Manager and Investors are aligned. • Maintaining ownership of at least 50% of the Fund. • Providing a put to investors to create liquidity for investor if needed. • An Origination Fee well below market at less than 0.8%. • A small nominal annual Asset Management Fee of $18,000 per year. • Deferring all fees to be paid to Manager for Management, Storage and Insurance until they can be covered from asset sales in Year 4. • Will come out of pocket if needed to cover any third-party fees until they can be paid with proceeds from asset sales in Year 4. • Will cover 50% of any Fund establishment costs above $60,000. The Manager believes in this asset class and has a long-term view related to investments in trading cards/collectibles packaged as private equity Funds and is taking the above steps for this Fund only, and as the market matures, the above steps will be curtailed. 3 Modern Wax Fund History of Trading Card Market Most people are familiar with trading cards, specifically baseball cards, from what is now called the ‘junk wax era’. This is when baseball cards exploded in popularity in the late 1980s through the mid-1990s. This period was the first time the general public viewed investing in sports cards as a legitimate investment. The era came to a crashing stop primarily due to the reasons discussed below. Elements of the Junk Wax Era Supply & Demand Demand – Dramatic increase in the demand for cards ranged from kids going to their local chain/retail/drugstore and buying up packs of cards at 25¢ a piece right up to Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall famously buying the holy grail of cards, the T206 Honus Wagner in 1991 for $451,000. Supply – The manufacturers of cards reacted to this increase in demand primarily in one way: running the printing presses. This also included a few instances of the additional printing of cards from previous years’ product. Supply shot past demand, causing many of the cards to be worthless or ‘junk’ – and the bottom fell out of the industry. Market Efficiency This era ushered in the opening of thousands of baseball card shops around the country as well as a plethora of baseball card shows where dealers would set up to sell their cards. These shops and dealers benefited greatly from the increase in demand and the increase in prices of cards on the secondary market. However, if the average collector/investor wanted to sell a card they would likely have to go back to the same card shops or dealers and be offered only a fraction of what the card was worth. In retrospect it is easy to see why this was an unsustainable market for a collectible. 4 Modern Wax Fund Modern Trading Card Market The current trading card industry attracts more money, has a wider collector/investor base, operates more efficiently and has provided returns greater than those unfamiliar with it realize. The elements of the current market and the modern product that have fueled the growth: Manufactured Scarcity – Having learned the lessons from the junk wax era, manufacturers now realize that in order to create a healthy, long, sustaining market the answer is not just increasing supply. Packs of cards no longer cost a quarter and it is not uncommon for the MSRP of a box of cards to be in the thousands. On some of the most limited product, every card in the set may be serial-numbered. And even in the higher-produced product there are always some serial-numbered or parallel cards included, with the odds of finding these cards stated on the product. By utilizing the publicly-available odds, collectors/investors are able to back into the total number of cards produced for each product, eliminating the chance a manufacturer will just continue to run the presses. Increase in Quality of Cards – Manufacturers have not just used improved paper stock and printing technology but most product in today’s market includes: • Autographed Cards • Cards with Game Used Material Embedded • Serial-Numbered Parallel Cards. Efficient Marketplace – eBay in its own way played a major role in the re-emergence of the industry. Through eBay the average collector/investor has a way to sell cards on the secondary market at fair market value. Graded Cards – Third-party grading companies now encapsulate and assign a grade to cards based on condition, similar to the grading of coins that previously existed. While these grades are objective and assigned by a human, they provide a way for a buyer to gain confidence in the authenticity and quality of a card which can be critical when the buyer is unable to inspect the card in person. This has also created a tiered market for a specific card. The higher-graded cards often sell for multiples of what a lower-graded or ungraded version of the same card sells for. 5 Modern Wax Fund Modern Trading Card Market – Autographed / Game Used Cards Below are some of the more recent elements of the trading card market, certified autographs and Game Used material. To the right are examples of a Game Used jersey from Panini Flawless and a Game Used bat card from Topps Heritage. To the left is an example of an autographed card from Bowman Chrome Draft Picks. To the right is an example of a rookie patch autograph (RPA) from Panini National Treasures and to the left is an example of a booklet patch autograph, also from National Treasures. 6 Modern Wax Fund Modern Trading Card Market – Serial-Numbered / Parallel Cards The examples of variations/parallels below can all possibly be pulled from the unopened product in the Fund. Some are numbered to as low as 1/1. As unopened supply decreases, the chase for these variations/parallels is a key reason for the sustainability of a product price and price growth. The parallels also help to maintain and grow the value of unopened product because player-collectors still desire them, even when they are not rookie cards. Some of the Variations Available of the Mike Trout RC from 2011 Topps Update: Base Cognac Diamond Diamond Gold #’d /2011 Black #’d /60 Blue Hope Canary Diamond Anniversary Anniversary Diamond #’d /60 #’d /1 Some of the Image Variations Available of the Ronald Acuna RC from 2018 Topps Update: These variations are considered to be Short Printed (SP) or Super Short Printed (SSP) and none of them are numbered. 7 Modern Wax Fund Modern Trading Card Market – Graded Cards Below is an example of how the grade a card is assigned can greatly impact value. Many covet unopened product because of the likelihood that the condition of cards will be high since the only defects would be manufacturing rather than handling of the card on the secondary market. 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan Price* Grade: PSA 10 $32,947 Grade: PSA 9 $5,815 Grade: PSA 8 $2,684 Grade: PSA 7 $1,896 Grade: PSA 6 $1,438 Grade: PSA 5 $1,419 *Prices per VintageCardPrices.com on 1/2/20 8 Modern Wax Fund Growth in Industry The overall growth in the industry is hard to quantify due to a lack of public information. There is only one public company in the industry which is the parent of Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA). The largest manufacturer, Topps, was acquired in 2007 by a group led by Michael Eisner after he retired as CEO of Disney. Data provided by Collectors Universe (NASDAQ: CLCT) reported the following information regarding its trading card unit, PSA: Trading Cards Increase in Trading Card Revenue Trading Card Revenue CLCT Fiscal Year Graded Cards Graded Generated Increase Q1 2020 vx.
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