Private Sales Mean Nothing? Investing into Hype! Alpha Edition MTG Black Lotus Sells for $3 Million

Recorded at 12 AM EST in a cozy basement office somewhere in a suburb of King of Prussia/Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
Welcome back to Reserved Investments...the ultimate non-hype driven collectibles finance channel on KZbin where we discuss, you guessed it...collectibles and finance (two of my favorite things). Today, we discuss the private sale of the $3 million dollar CGC Pristine 10 graded alpha edition MTG Black Lotus card! I want to be very clear and state that this is most likely a legitimate sale; however, should collectors and investors care about this private sale overall? Let's discuss!
Link to the announcement of this record breaking sale from CGC's own website:
www.cgccards.com/news/article...
Link to the video I did regarding the private sale of the sticker-sealed Super Mario Bros NES game graded by WATA Games in 9.4 condition many years ago:
• IGNORE THIS SALE! RARE...
Email for Antique and Collectible Consulting Services: [e-mail]
Patreon: / reservedinvestments
Disclaimer: Videos are not intended to provide direct investment advice. Don' be a Timmy!
Also, please remember, I am just a figment of your imagination, kind of like Max Headroom or Tyler Durden or even Mr. Robot (if you get the reference; great television show by the way). Please don't get slapped in the face with a stale donut. It's not sexy at all.
And yes, more content is coming soon. A Reserved Investments video is born out of the matrix and just appears, it is not planned or on some kind of set schedule. We don't do that here as of yet...

[@katielowen]

“The real stale donuts were the ones that slapped us in the face along the way 🍩🤜🥰”

[@christhemagnif]

Im just happy to see the Alpha Lotus back on top. It was really bizarre that the previously most expensive card was something that came out last year 😅

[@monkey39128]

Serialised cards really are are complete "Emperor's New Clothes". 😂

[@timreierson26]

Shaun, thank you for your commitment to deliver high quality videos. I know this isn’t easy. It tales a lot of hard work. I appreciate your insights and perspectives.

[@AlphaHoarder]

He's completely right. I know of lots of sales that have all kinds of extra details attached that make the "sale price" not quite what it seems, including payment plans, partial trades given arbitrary dollar valuations, contingent additional sales at discounted prices, etc.

[@monkey39128]

I thought about you when I saw that sale. If a CGC 10 is worth that much then your BGS 9.5 cant be far off! 😂

[@adamchace]

This content continues to be somehow simultaneously compelling and informative and entertaining. Well done.

[@TheSillySils]

Since the vintage market did a recent pullback, it would make sense for them to try to do the ol pumperdumper. Unfortunately this time around, the money just isnt there as it was 3 years ago.

[@mattstrott753]

Shawn is the voice of reason. 👍🏻

[@HermannTheGreat]

Thank you for all these videos RV, you've been grinding out great content for what seems like a short time as a viewer but looks to be a long-time when you said 4 years lol.

[@DualBrainMTG]

THANK YOU. I tried to say similar stuff days ago. Other creators are spreading FUD about this. Like I said. The point of the article/sale/announcement: Attention. A BGS 10 beta lotus sold privately for 1Mil. An alpha lotus is 3X rarer 🤷‍♂️ Makes sense to me! (Especially in a world where the 1/1 ring got 2.2!!)

[@actionic135]

A timely video! Heritage's latest premium comic book auction in early April had a Tales of Suspense #39 (first Iron Man) in a CGC 9.8, the single highest grade. Curiously at about the same time, the same book was disclosed as being sold by Comic Connect for $2 million (non-auction) in January (can't remember if it was 2023 or 2024). It went for $840K. Making the private sale public didn't seem to help in this case.

[@chris-xh6bs]

Just like the psa 9 Pikachu illustrator that sold on Goldin privately for 2 million and then just a little while later one auctioned for I think it was under 500k lol

[@ReservedInvestments]

💯

[@mattelder]

You do always have to ask why certain things happen, who are the players and what their interests are. Thanks for the video

[@Kurtle001]

Shawn is the Goat 🐐

[@davidlanders5369]

You do commentaries on markets that I'm not even interested in and find ways to make it interesting!

[@monkey39128]

Was hoping you'd cover this!

[@carnivalhands2884]

Would love to see you do an update on NFTs. I’m sure all of those people that defended it are wildly rich by now.

[@ReservedInvestments]

I did do a video on this several months back.

[@monkey39128]

Kind of like Logan Paul's Illustrator Pikachu. Private sale that was made public. Cool to watch but relatively meaningless to anyone not directly involved.

[@JeffYPbPr]

I love this channel ha. Dude spits hot 🔥

[@DeltaFH]

Time to crack out a PSA Black Lotus to get it graded by CGC. The whole Magic the Gathering market is going to the moon! Joking aside, great video. It would be interesting to look at the reverse as well, when items are listed at high prices, but are routinely selling privately or best offer accepted on eBay (most likely for significantly less). Though, I imagine it will be harder to find concrete examples of that at any given time. Essentially artificially inflated prices and the lower sales are kept hidden to maintain the perceived value of the item.

[@jayz6706]

I am trying to decide whether to pick up some sword and shield era booster boxes while they are still cheap, namely Lost Origin. Had the chance to grab an evolving skies booster box case for 2500 cad 6ish months ago and didn’t now it’s pushing 6k cad. What’re your thoughts on that era of Pokémon cards? I know they’re heavily printed but it seems like demand is keeping up with supply quite well and prices have been spiking since they’ve sold out on the Pokémon Center

[@tomneijnens4048]

Thank you very much

[@Weewoo12]

An important thing to remember is that an item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. This one person was willing to pay 3 million, realistically how many more are there?

[@Joe-mc7ze]

Would love your thoughts on Collector’s Edition MTG

[@GymleaderJon]

So the owner was announced he’s on instagram he’s very well known big money player in the tcg community. He’s owns very high end Pokemon, yugioh, and Dragon ball as well. But I agree this was overpaid by a landslide. Guys like post Malone I don’t think would’ve paid this amount. I think there might be some market manipulation for this card. The auto alpha lotus only went for like 1m so for that card in a cgc slab to go that high is very questionable. Magic direction over the last few years has been very concerning. The sets haven’t been doing well by any means and then with the serialized cards and now this card going for so high just too many red flags for me. Now I know the owner is in the net worth of 10s of millions but still very concerning

[@user-qt2hb3zl1d]

Shawn, wonder if you may do a video at some point of the pros and cons of buying a raw comic book over a graded comic book.

[@OMG-ws6lx]

CGC playing the same game like WATA back in 2020. Here we go again!

[@ReservedInvestments]

The dynamics are different here.

[@TheSillySils]

By purchasing this piece of card board for 3 mil, you are essentially giving up 150K a year in interest payments to yourself. Is a card like that worth losing out on 150K a year that can be compounded? Yeah, Ill keep the 3 million in a brokerage fund.

[@misterogers9423]

I agree with you say about private sales. Nobody wants to pay the margins and the fees on either side when items are that expensive plus it is better to be anonymous. If anything, it only means if you have the ultra high end in any market, you just need to find one rich idiot to buy it versus trying to move anything else. Also the ultra high end is usually more resilient or appreciates more than the low and mid tier due to lack of price history and scarcity. Agree or disagree?

[@themagictraindriver]

Adam Cai is one of the most reputable people in the graded card space. Owns some of the highest graded cards in the world. Card was crossgraded to CGC. Buyer made their fortune in crypto

[@KeyKiller74]

Wonder if buying expensive items through private sale is a good way to beat the buyer's premium loophole. 🤔🤫🤑

[@artmusicliterature9859]

Can you do a video on rare books? First editions and what not. Curious on your opinions if they are the same as comic books and video games. Or if you see differences in the market and potential. Thanks for reading!!

[@ReservedInvestments]

Already did.

[@kotto7877]

Metamorphic rise? Do you mean meteoric rise?

[@ReservedInvestments]

Look it up…

[@nunya1337]

Poindexters lol

[@Johndeplume.]

If I sold a 20/30 year-old board game card for $3M, I'd be shouting it from the roof-tops too! I supoose the question remains: Is there a 'bigger idiot' that will pay more in future? It's absolutely mind-boggling! Have a great weekend, Shawn (and everyone else), and thanks for the content. 👍

[@philiprobbins8089]

incredible how mtg continues to be the best investment of all time. still love collecting coins tho just no significant ROI in it

[@ReservedInvestments]

Just say you didn’t even watch the video. lol. 😂

[@lordbenji1989]

How does CGC compare to PSA grading wise? I see a lot of pokecards, same grade go 10-20% lower for CGC gradings (vintage). Is it just popularity in the Pokemarket? Cause I also see BGS graded cards go lower than PSA in europe a lot.

[@ReservedInvestments]

PSA is considered (at present time) the market leader for card grading. Do with that statement what you will.

[@lordbenji1989]

@@ReservedInvestments Gotcha!

[@keithwelch8563]

Don’t waste your time with CGC many people will not buy anything but PSA 10’s a lot of times people crack cgc and submit it to PSA

[@Sinapz218]

CGC marketing stunt to try to save their rep but having the opposite effect as intended lol

[@le_med]

I would really like you to make a video I could point to about the fact that people in pokemon for example on youtube use the word 'investing' instead of 'speculating'. There are so many 'investmentbros' channels out there that stroke each other constantly pushing what they call investments. They don t like to be told that they are not investing but just speculating. I think you should make a video on this topic that we could point them to.

[@ReservedInvestments]

Already did. Check my previous videos. It’s there…

[@monkey39128]

Look for a video called "1AM Rant Pokémon Investing" from 4 months ago. That was a good one. The Pokémon "Investing" scene is insane right now. The vintage stuff is quiet and everyone's buying the modern stuff. Feels like a disaster waiting to happen. What's stupid is most of them could sell now and probably make a tidy profit. The ones I've spoken to don't seem keen on doing that though.

[@2hugebros241]

Shawn please do a video on the Cgc back ground where they have a 12yr old grading your book to where they grade your book on a table that has books stacked like pancakes on top of each other

[@TOSStarTrek]

CGC Comics sells for 10% to 15% more because they are king of the hill.

[@matthewbryant2972]

What does CGC 10 even mean in the card world? This sale feels like some marketing stunt for CGC, who had the worst scandal they could have recently.

[@lowrollerscratcher3563]

If this magic the gathering is psa 10. This will go for at least 7 million dollars or more

[@walkingtourist4k185]

Doubt it. The premium was paid for the pristine labeling

[@kenrogers1948]

I'll try to remember this shotgun-blast of advice next time I plan to buy an 8-figure($) collectible... Hire a good editor and you can trim these videos down to a concise 3 minutes and not have to sacrifice anything in the process... I'm not saying there's anything WRONG with the videos!.. I'm not saying there's any shenanigans going on here... but it seems that 15 minutes to tell your audience to be skeptical of and to draw few conclusions from high-end private collectibles sales is, well... manipulation of our time...

[@ReservedInvestments]

So your solution is simple…don’t watch! It’s a free video.

[@nunya1337]

I enjoyed every minute

[@wolfkillatus]

Thanks for the input Timmy!

[@ReservedInvestments]

It is truly amazing how some people can get triggered by a free KZbin video and actually come into the comments to interact with the very KZbin video they take issue with. Dear Lord, just don't watch the dang video. Solution solved. You seriously think the content creator cares? Who are you, Jesus or something?

[@kenrogers1948]

@@wolfkillatus Hey Poindexter!

[@joelarc7635]

News, pump and dump.

[@patiencezero-xc9zl]

Actually, legally they are not doing anything wrong, but ethically they are possibly walking a tightrope and if this market was financially regulated, legal lines may indeed be crossed. They know most people are ill informed and will take a sale price at face value.

[@ReservedInvestments]

Never said they did anything wrong legally or otherwise. There is a fine line between market hype and market manipulation and in most cases, these markets are unregulated. There are no penalties for market manipulation in the antiques and collectibles trade...in most cases.