Bargains vs. Best-in-Class

The Joy of a Great Deal vs. Owning the Best
…and knowing the difference

^{Rob Petrozzo, for Rally}

A quick one this week, as the public markets are actively separating the assets worth owning vs. the “other stuff.”

There is a very specific kind of joy that comes from getting a deal.

Even in a world where everyone seems to live waaaayyyyyyyy beyond their means and we’ve gotten comfortable with a cheeseburger costing $30, everyone’s dopamine still spikes when they stumble upon a find and feel like they got a better price than their friends, family, and, most importantly, strangers. It’s the classic “small win.”

It triggers the same part of the brain that lights up when you win a game or uncover a secret. In the collectibles space, this feeling is almost addictive. Everyone who’s ever read an auction headline or watched prices go parabolic on an object they’ve always wanted knows the classic stories: the rare comic book discovered in an attic or the vintage $400K Rolex pulled from a dusty estate sale, or the baseball card bought for pocket change that quietly turns out to be a five-figure asset. Even though these examples are far rarer now than in the past (every attic on earth was searched by every family during Covid like an FBI forensics team) public headlines fuel this dream constantly.

A thrift-store shopper in Pennsylvania once bought a $4 painting only to discover an original copy of the Declaration of Independence hidden inside the frame. It later sold at auction for $2.4M (and then not long after again for $8M). In 2013, a family found a bowl at a yard sale for $3 that turned out to be a thousand-year-old Northern Song Dynasty "Ding" bowl worth over $2M. These stories are legendary because they reinforce a powerful idea: that knowledge + a little luck can beat the market. The “great deal” narrative is the lead for all of these stories. It’s telling random people that theres a huge potential reward for sharp eyes and persistence.

But bargains are unpredictable by nature. They require timing, access, and above all, randomness. For every miraculous find, there are thousands (probably millions) of purchases that remain exactly what they were: worthless items with modest futures buried in a garage or deep in the basement with the christmas decorations and empty iPhone boxes. The great deal and the chance it’s a priceless thing feels amazing in the moment, and thats the tradeoff: bargains deliver momentary excitement, but rarely certainty, and even MORE rare, an eventual payout.

The power of “the best one”

On the opposite end of the spectrum lives a very different mindset: owning the highest quality version of something - which typically means paying the very top of the market price. This is less about adrenaline or the “I Got It!” feeling, and more about confidence - and in may cases, its really about turning conviction into investment, which by nature is a slower moving iceberg.

In this case, the pleasure doesn’t come from paying less than everyone else. It comes from knowing you own something that is truly exceptional that you may never see again.

History shows that the very top of any category tends to pull away from the rest over time. When the finest known Mickey Mantle rookie card sold for $12.6 million, nobody called it a bargain or spoke to “the crazy deal” the buyer got. When Paul Newman’s personal Rolex Daytona sold for $17.8 million, the buyer wasn’t thinking about the floor price. And when Michael Jordan’s game-worn Flu Game sneakers crossed the auction block for $1.38 million 3 years ago - which at the time was still insane to spend on sneakers - the price wasn’t the point. PS, those are likely closer to $10M sneakers now based on the prices printed for Jordan game-worn sneakers and jerseys that came to market and sold for astronomical prices after the Flu Games - a “great deal” in retrospect, some might say.

In each case, the buyer was purchasing clarity, and more-so, permanence. Trophy assets behave differently than ordinary collectibles because they benefit from cultural gravity and momentum as much as the provenance and past-tense story around them. As the world gets wealthier and more global, competition for the very best objects intensifies. There will always be more average watches, average cars, and average cards, but there will never be another “best,” particularly with the items from the past from the brands, moments, and athletes that will not be repeated or remade. It’s a long game, and only the top end of the market is typically willing to play it. The investor who buys the pinnacle piece isn’t betting on a temporary mispricing - they’re betting on history itself - and that bet has proven remarkably resilient through every type of market and macro climate.

Over decades, the highest-quality items tend to become more desirable, more recognized, and more expensive almost by default.

Rally exists at the intersection of these two philosophies.

Our platform is built on the idea that you shouldn’t have to choose between the joy of a smart purchase and the power of world-class quality. Fractional ownership allows everyday investors to participate in assets that historically were reserved for a tiny handful of buyers. Instead of needing millions of dollars to own a museum-grade sports card or a one-of-a-kind historical document, you can own a piece of it at a price that feels like (and acts like) a deal. At the same time, we obsess over acquiring items that represent the top of their categories – assets with bulletproof provenance, undeniable stories, and long-term relevance.

Sometimes that means we’re able to buy well and pass along attractive entry prices to our investors. Other times it means paying market value for something truly irreplaceable because we believe the future potential far outweighs the sticker price.

The real goal is to combine both approaches: to identify best-in-class assets at moments when the broader market hasn’t fully caught up. A bargain requires perfect timing whereas a trophy requires nothing more than patience. Rally investors get exposure to both dynamics at once. Over the years we’ve seen that the most successful outcomes usually come not from the cheapest purchases, but from the most important ones. Our job is to find opportunities where quality, culture, and price meet in a way that makes sense today and typically only looks obvious tomorrow (or, in some cases, many tomorrows away - but time tends to moves quick these days).

In the end, the greatest feeling isn’t just getting a good deal, it’s realizing you own part of something truly great.

And that’s what we’re up to these days at HQ, as we prep for the summer (more to come soon 🤫).

Until Next Week…