Investing in Things? - Tangible, Useful, Collectable, Barterable?

bargain huntress on 06/04/2021 - 10:24
Last edited 06/04/2021 - 10:49

a lot of discussion recently about finance and investing

it occured to me that what has been discussed kind of falls on a spectrum of ephemerality
and each investment types exact location on this spectrum is what people are arguing about the most

i guess this is the order i would place them;

cryptocurrency
superannuation
money / currency / fiat / commodity
precious metals
real estate

it made me want to ask about the most tangible forms of investment?
you can't eat cash. you can't hold cryptocurrency.

  • collectibles are tangible. but their only use is generally to be looked at i guess?
  • survivalists aquire barter items that they think would be hard to make and valuable after the apocalypse. but how long is their storage life?
  • precious metals have numerous uses. but the solar system is full of them?
  • with real estate - at least with land and a dweilling on it - even if the real estate market tanks - even if there is a depression - as long as you fully own it with no debt, you have somewhere to live right? a roof over your head. maybe somewhere to grow food. but can the government just take it from you if they want to?

what can you put money into that you can use?
what can you put money into that other people want to use?

Financial

Comments

  • Godric on 06/04/2021 - 10:29

    Watches.

  • Hybroid on 06/04/2021 - 10:39
    -1

    Special edition 1 of 10 hypercars.
    Pokemon cards.
    Rare limited print games.

  • holdenmg on 06/04/2021 - 10:41
    +5

    The value of "The End is Nigh" signs is going to fall post apocalypse.

  • Hithere on 06/04/2021 - 10:44
    +22

    A keyboard that has uppercase on it?

  • carlJack on 06/04/2021 - 10:51
    +1

    NFT

    • Kangal on 06/04/2021 - 12:34

      No Frogs Taken

    • netjock on 06/04/2021 - 12:53

      Spend all day churning out NFTs, there will be enough fools who will buy it. Manufacturing them is where the money is.

      • bargain huntress on 06/04/2021 - 21:12

        i can actually art
        so i really should look into this more
        but there is no 'Non Fungible Tokens For Dummies' yet, so I am feeling overwhelmed

        • netjock on 07/04/2021 - 14:02

          There will be some guy who is moving in from the FBA, Property Investing and Shares Day Trading training video gang on it right now. Just a matter of time.

  • orangetrain on 06/04/2021 - 10:59

    Guns, bullets, become a raider. Don't forget to dress the part!

  • [Deactivated] on 06/04/2021 - 11:01
    +2

    I have a garden full of rare collectable plants, breed them and make some funky rare hybrids that become worth lots of money, release them in very limited quantities to keep the price high.

    • bargain huntress on 06/04/2021 - 11:05

      serious?

      • [Deactivated] on 06/04/2021 - 11:05
        +1

        Yep.
        There's a bunch of us on the Trichocereus pages on facebook.

        • bargain huntress on 06/04/2021 - 11:26

          so do you make any money from purely ornamental plants? or purely culinary plants?

          or is it all psychotropics?

  • FireRunner on 06/04/2021 - 11:13

    Lego Star Wars

    • Kangal on 06/04/2021 - 12:35

      What about Lego Porsche?

    • [Deactivated] on 06/04/2021 - 14:16
      +1

      Toy r us once had quite a large warehouse full of the 7140 X-wing and dumped them at $30. I bought a few, sold at a good profit 20 years later…but a bit of a pain to store well.

  • chriskq on 06/04/2021 - 12:49

    watches

  • Kangal on 06/04/2021 - 12:56
    +1

    What about hoarding Copper Bullion?
    That's like a precious metal, only, it's much more useful in application. Third-place ain't that bad, right?

    • bargain huntress on 06/04/2021 - 21:09

      i do think people should diversify more than just gold and silver
      i saw someone take a crack at selling bismuth bullion a while ago. bismuth is just cool.

      • terrys on 07/04/2021 - 13:15

        "bismuth is just cool."

        Gallium is cooler, more my cup of tea.

  • jimbobaus on 06/04/2021 - 13:21

    Based on the money my partner has been making of late
    i would put all ya money in Pokemon Cards

  • foxmulder on 06/04/2021 - 15:14
    +1

    Buying and selling is a form of investment that if put in the risk factor is somewhere about number four where cryptocurrencies number nine and lottery is number 10. Some UK guy has video on this. Return can be very good depending on your expertise on selling particular product types.

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 06/04/2021 - 17:39

    Magic the gathering cards D:

  • bargain huntress on 06/04/2021 - 21:08

    seeds?

  • shortgum on 06/04/2021 - 21:44

    grow some backyard ginger in australia

  • saltypete on 07/04/2021 - 08:19

    Yourself…..

  • DragonautDruid on 07/04/2021 - 12:19
    +1

    People typically collect "collectibles" that they themselves have at least some interest in, as well as for the potential value of a product. I'll use myself as an example: I like comics. I want to make comics. They have personal value to me. Some of the ones I own, are my own personal holy grail items, that also have a greater, general value. But for a while, I was buying many Image #1's, hoping for another The Walking Dead scenario (which is, a show came along based off a comic. Both mediums became very popular - the show very likely was responsible for boosting the franchise. Because of the relatively small print run of the first few Walking Dead issues, First Print #1 is now worth up to 5k. This doesn't happen very often for modern comics).

    As it stands, my collection is probably only worth a very generous maximum of $1000. But, they've all got personal value. And here we come to my greater point with collectibles: they are only ever worth what someone is willing to pay, and finding that person is not always going to happen quickly. Just because something has an estimated value, doesn't mean you can go pay rent with it.

    Antiques and art are different. But again, you need specific brokers/avenues to sell. And people to buy.

  • snooksy on 07/04/2021 - 15:42
    +1

    In all seriousness collecting classic cars can be worthwhile. Petrol engines may become extinct one day in young people’s lifetimes. Porsche 911’s seem to hold their value pretty well. If I had a net worth in the billions I’d probably collect a few classic cars. Early model T fords, 911’s with low km, 1st gen WVs - bugs, vans etc. The thing with classic cars is you have to keep them for a very long time to see their value increase. Some Australians like Australian cars from 50 years ago. Not to my taste but some are willing to pay for them.

  • snooksy on 07/04/2021 - 16:01
    +1

    Tangible things often decrease in value because more can be manufactured ie. no scarcity, they get old and need repairing or replacing or they get superseded (low effective usefulness).

    There’s two physical things I can think of that don’t fall into these categories -

    Art - no more work is available from an artist once they die.
    Inhabitable land (land generally goes up in value as it becomes scarcer close to amenities).

    I had minerals and rare earths on my list however there are actually lots of them in the world. They keep finding more deposits as technology allows. It’s just they are expensive to pull out of the ground.

  • snooksy on 07/04/2021 - 16:12
    +1

    Companies (public or private) have an underlying book value which, if you exclude trademarks and brand value, then it’s made up of the physical assets the company owns. When you buy shares in a company, a component of what you are buying is the underlying book value, ie part of what you are buying is the machinery, real estate and equipment. Similarly if you buy REITs then you are buying a share of the physical real estate as well. Therefore, Investing in shares involves physical investing. If a company is taken over then the new owner of all the shares owns all the physical assets. Shares don’t often become tangible though until you own enough of them to have a controlling stake in a company. Then you can contribute to decisions on what to do with those physical assets held by the company. If you own 100% of the shares you can pretty much do what you want with the tangible assets.

  • snooksy on 07/04/2021 - 16:16
    +3

    Superannuation isn’t a type of investment per say. Superannuation is a tax effective investment account. Inside your super account(s) you can hold other types of investments including cryptocurrency, shares, real estate. Super is just a tax wrapper for investments you can’t access until preservation age. You can hold tangible assets in super but they can’t be for personal use.

    Similarly managed funds / ETFs are a wrapper around a group of investments.

    Shares, bonds, options, currencies, minerals, rights, cfds, etc. are the underlying investments.

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