The normal brown brick building, tucked away inside an anonymous block on a Delaware street, probably wouldn't attract much attention were it not for the barbed wire and armed guards on the outside, suggesting that there is something inside. important, perhaps even precious.
Fort Knox is not. But the stash of collectibles housed in the building is definitely worth keeping.
There's a rare Pikachu card and a centennial of baseball great Honus Wagner, which recently sold for $ 7.25 million in a private sale. In addition to the stickers, there are baseball bats and basketball shoes, including a pair of used sneakers autographed by the late NBA great Kobe Bryant.
In total, $ 200 million worth of collectibles are stored in two vaults within the building, equipped with some of the latest technology to keep the precious stash safe from damage or thieves. “Many people don't keep their jewelry at home. They keep it in a safe deposit box, "perhaps in a secure bank, said Ross Hoffman, chief executive of the industry giant Collectors, which manages the vault, a high-security facility specializing in the protection of collectibles.
The building has no signage and the company requested that no indication of its location be disclosed. Inside is a technologically advanced structure with a protected vault, equipped with seismic motion detectors that will sound the alarm if someone tries to break through the walls with a jackhammer. To move from room to room, a security guard will guide you through a card-activated double door entrance, letting the first door close before proceeding through the next.
There are surveillance cameras everywhere. Rows and rows of boxes are filled with collectibles, including some with relatively low monetary value but representing sentimental value to their owners or one day they might be worth a lot more.
“There is pain for the things that are lost. There is pain in things that are stolen, ”Hoffman said. Interest in collectibles and sports memorabilia has increased in recent years, not only for expensive items, but also for found pieces that had been hidden in attics or basements.
In August, a Mickey Mantle baseball card in excellent condition sold for $ 12.6 million, surpassing the $ 9.3 million paid for the shirt worn by Diego Maradona when he scored the controversial "Hand of God" goal in the 1986 football world cup. "A lot of times people have collectibles to brag about showing other people so they can go ooh and ahh," said Stephen Fishler, founder of ComicConnect, who has witnessed the growing growth - and profitability - of collectibles sold. market. through auction houses.
But some people don't want the burden of being responsible for insuring their property, which they see as equity-like investments, Fishler said. These storage facilities help liquefy collectibles better by treating them as goods that can be bought and sold more easily.
Hoffman, whose company also runs a major valuation and authentication service, said his new venture is a recognition of the large amount of money now being spent on collectibles.
By 2021, that market had grown to $ 26 billion, according to research firm Market Decipher, which predicts the market will grow astronomically to $ 227 billion within a decade, fueled in part by the rise in so-called NFTs. or non-fungible tokens. Although digitized NFTs do not require deposits for safekeeping, the trade in physical collectibles is expected to remain active and profitable.