We normally think that the world’s real investment action happens in London, New York, Hong Kong or some other global financial capital. We imagine that powerful and wealthy investment bankers, titans of industry and hedge fund managers gather around dark wooden conference tables and pitch their investment plans to each other. As a result, we assume, the price of oil increases or an 80 floor office building is added to some city’s skyline, or a well-known, publicly traded company is bought-out.
And while these sorts of things definitely do happen, small investors like you and me actually have a much bigger advantage in the marketplace than it might appear. The big boys in the investment world – investment banks, pension funds, hedge funds and other large institutions – have one major Achilles heel. They need to be able to purchase an investment in volume for it to make financial sense.
And when I say “volume” I mean tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars worth. This is why Wall Street loves stocks, bonds and (sometimes) real estate. These are the only investments with enough market value and liquidity to meet their voracious appetites. In light of this revelation, it becomes easy to see why big institutional investors are the battleships of the investment world. They might be impressively large and awe-inspiring, but they are also slow and can’t change direction easily.
And this is what gives small investors a tremendous edge. A regular person can sink anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars into an alternative investment and have it positively impact his net worth once it appreciates even modestly. In contrast, anything less than about $100 million is a rounding error to Goldman Sachs and its investment bank peers.
This small investor advantage is perhaps most pronounced with antique investments. Antiques are the great unsung investment opportunity of our time. Antiques today are the equivalent of New York City brownstones selling for $50,000 in the late 1970s or gold trading at $275 an ounce back in 2001. Investment grade antiques are phenomenally good deals, but they are completely overlooked, neglected and ignored.
And a big reason why this is the case is because the large institutional financial firms can’t make any money on them. The market is too small. Even the niche financial players, like private equity, special situation hedge funds and angel investors are generally too large to effectively squeeze into the antiques market.
That leaves average people like you and me to exploit this cornucopia of investment opportunity. Right now a modest $10,000 investment can buy you a dozen fine vintage mechanical wristwatches, or a half-dozen luscious old mine cut diamonds, or nearly a hundred exotic silver rupee coins from the Indian Mughal empire. Of course, it is possible to get started in the field of antique investments with much less than $10,000. Even a couple hundred dollars is enough to enter the lucrative world of old, glittering objet d’art.
The deals are real and anybody can buy. You don’t need to be a business magnate or a financial wizard to acquire tangible investments that will perform well for years to come. In fact, most of these bargains are only available to small investors in antique investments. Institutional sized players need not apply.
Now there is no such thing as something for nothing in this world. And this situation is not an exception to this ironclad rule. If you’re interested in buying into the world’s most undervalued asset class, then you’ll need a little bit of knowledge. You’ll have to decide on an area of concentration and buy a book or two to gain a deeper understanding of your chosen niche. And the Antique Sage website, filled with hundreds of useful articles on antique investments, can certainly help.
But it is important that you take action. Much like prime New York City real estate and precious metals, fine investment quality antiques will not stay at their current price levels forever. In fact, while still undiscovered by the general public, fine antiques have already skyrocketed in price by a factor of 2 to 4 times over the past 10 to 15 years! And they still have plenty of room to run. Savvy small investors have been acquiring antique investments for years already. Don’t be left behind.
