Master P Tastes, Gekko Returns

By Travis

We at Zero Hedge always strive to present you with profitable ideas, feeding the inner Gordon Gekko in us all. While “greed is good” it can most certainly lead to spending lavishly. But how many of us spend lavishly whilst spending wisely? By reading some of your comments- um, “not so much”- however, there’s still hope for some of you out there.

Spending money on baubles and toys can be fun (and it could get you laid in the right circles- remember Darryl Hannah?), when you lose your last Thomas Pink shirt to the market and have to liquidate all the crap you bought (after the girlfriend grows fat and lazy, or you grow fat and lazy and she dumps you anyway) or you drop dead (after all, we all default to zero on a long enough timeline, right?) someone will find that not only did you lose your self worth, but to add insult to injury- some of the shit you thought was the “barter of last resort” even on a rainy day, really isn’t.

It's one of my many jobs to monitor the “price of poker” in many areas, and perhaps advise decent stores of value, so while its up to you to make money, maybe Tyler and Company can help you enjoy it more by spending it on the crap that really matters.

Buying material things is rarely an investment. Well, I have to skirt around the meaning of investment, true- anything you buy at a price and sell at a higher price can be labeled an “investment,” but if you lose money, well, that’s outright “depreciation?” Or is that a “bad investment?” Call it what you have to… Fine art, cars, jewelry, wristwatches, houses, property- these are all things on a long enough time line- while you default to zero- these things may appreciate. Maybe.

Take fine watches, they’re bought and sold daily, there’s even a market that looks to auction houses to set the tone- houses like Christies, Sotheby’s and Antiquorum. An excellent store of value that not only serves a valuable function- measuring the time by the second before we all default to zero- but in some cases can payoff in spades.

Antiquorum, the “Worlds Premier Watch Auctioneer” last week had their Spring Geneva Auction and despite a fledgling economy with even the Gordon Gekkos of the world not making and spending as much as they’d like to, posted impressive results- SFr 5,419,584 worth, or about $4.75 million.

Dually impressive was that about 78% of the some 481 lots sold, up slightly since the last auction earlier in March, which hammered down about 75%. So roughly one person in four is still walking away with his old crap, having to resort to the likes of eBay or the local pawn shop.

Auction highlights include a handful of complicated Patek Philippes, widely regarded as the blue chip/gold standard of collectible watches. Consistently earning strong six figure results in most any auction, regardless of venue or mere economic downturn, to quote Henry Hill from Goodfellas- they’re “better than Citibank.”

More notable was the surprising crown jewel of the March auction- a one-off Rolex Daytona Cosmograph from 1985. While these watches generally command around $25,000 in standard steel Ref. 6263 (not a bad rate of return either, considering they were about $1,500 new); this 18K example, custom Ref. 6270, encrusted in diamonds and sapphires went for a whopping SFr 360,000, or about $317,000. This wasn’t your typical bit of bling from 1985, but rather a bespoke factory reference purported one of about a handful made for the Sultan of Oman.

Generally bejeweled sport watches encrusted in rare metals and stones are rarely considered valuable (or in good taste) so before you run to the local Diamond Exchange for that clapped out Rolex only Master P would find appealing, think twice before you waste your money.

But remember, Antiquorum takes a buyer’s premium and commands a seller’s fee, sometimes totaling up to 20% at the end of the day. Like in the “price of poker,” most often “the house always wins.”