SHINY THING$ 0148 ✨

This week, in the 149th installment of Shiny Thing$, we piece together a quick view on what’s been happening outside of the alternative investment landscape, and how it could be affecting your investments here on Rally and beyond. While epic global sports highlights, unveilings of priceless works of art, and luxury events reserved for the 1% often create great fodder for group chats, they also have the potential to drive portfolio performance. 

Here’s some insight how how it all went down around Rally in August.

Daniel Arsham X The Zuckerbergs

A couple weeks ago, Mark Zuckerberg unexpectedly shared an image on Instagram featuring a new sculpture of his wife, Priscilla Chan, by contemporary artist and Rally collaborator Daniel Arsham. Zuck was apparently planning the piece with Arsham for some time, speaking to his motivations on instagram in a collab-post with Arsham with the caption “Bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife. Thanks @danielarsham.”

While every artist has their own consistent characteristics, Daniel Arsham sculptures are the true signature of the artist, and this one is undeniably recognizable. It’s life-sized, utilizes multiple materials and finishes, and portrays Chan walking forward with a chrome sheet billowing around her. The oxidized blue/green copper and polished stainless steel are signature elements of Arsham's work, blending ancient and modern aesthetics and matching the Arsham signature color palette that the he used when designing the RWBA Porsche the IPO’d on Rally in late Spring 2024.

While it’s impossible to directly apply a boost in value to Rally’s Arsham portfolio as a result of the sculpture, its certainly sparked new interest in Arsham’s work within the tech community. It was also a really smart play on a few themes within tech, with media outlets dubbing Zuckerberg "the ultimate wife-guy” and giving a nod to the viral “how often do you think about the Roman Empire?” trend.

The King’s Last Run

USA Olympic basketball has always had star power and has consistently been one of the must-see competitions on the world stage, but in late July, LeBron James became Team USA's first ever men's basketball player to serve the Olympic Opening Ceremony as flagbearer.

The image of LeBron crossing the Seine in the rain triumphantly carrying the American Flag at the bow of the carrier ship drew immediate comparisons to the iconic image of George Washington crossing the Delaware River, and turned into a meme almost instantly. While there’s no way to quantify what iconic image does for a players memorabilia, it certainly contributes to their future legacy and their ability for future generations to connect with a player through video and imagery.

The image itself was impressive, but James’ performance on his way to Gold was the stuff legends are made of - averaging 14.2 points, a team-high-tying 8.2 rebounds and team-best 10.2 assists, earning him the Olympics MVP. Keep in mind, he’s turning 40 this year. There is NO ONE who has ever done anything even close to this in professional basketball. Last week, news hit the wire of a full length documentary highlighting the Team USA Olympic run with a focus on LeBron will be debuting soon on Netflix.

When it comes to the national stage and his NBA career, that too took some meaningful steps forward, even though we’re in the off season. While in late June he opted out of the final year his contract, its expected that he will stay in Los Angeles and finish his career as a Laker — especially with his son, Bronny James being drafted by the team and setting the stage for the first ever father/son professional sports duo. Highlights of LeBron in a Lakers jersey for this coming season, which many have speculated could be his last, will be celebrated on an entirely new level should this in fact be his farewell.

We’ll be continuing to look for opportunities to both add to the King Collection on Rally (a collection of 10 LeBron game-worn photo matched jerseys), as well as opportunities to exit individual jerseys as we get closer to the sunset of one of the most important careers in sports history. 

Monterey Car Week

One of the biggest events for auction houses in the high end collector car market took place in mid August - Monterey Car Week - which is typically a bellwether for the overall health of the collector market and the spending habits of the high net worth individuals who partake in the buying and selling of the rarest vehicles in the world. 

This year, as Hagerty put it, “Monterey’s Ups and Downs Point to a Nuanced Market.”

Overall, the auctions reflected the habits of an exceedingly "picky" buyer, with overall sales totaling $391.6 million, slightly down from 2023. Though sell-through rate (the amount of cars that sell at any given auction - an important metric for auction houses) was up 3% year over year. The market for high-end cars like Enzo-era Ferraris struggled, with only about a third meeting reserves, but even with some disappointments, over a dozen individual vehicles set world records.

One meaningful statistic that came from the Car Week was that half of all vehicles sold exceeded their price guide values, pointing to opportunities to achieve outsized returns even in a choppy market. That said, it still speaks to unpredictability, with significant variances between segments and individual cars.

Overall, the Monterey auctions indicate a cooling from pandemic-era highs, with buyers becoming more selective. Shifting tastes, economic uncertainties, and a growing disparity between high-demand vehicles and struggling segments create both opportunities and challenges for sellers and collectors alike.

Rally comps were amongst some of the more important sales, including an olive green 1989 Lamborghini LM002 which sold for $703,500, a new record nearly 50% over the previous record and a significant premium to the LM002 on Rally, and a low mileage 1993 Jaguar XJ220 sale on online platform Bring A Trailer during Car Week that sold for an impressive $680,000 (above the current trading value of a very comparable XJ220 on Rally). 

Next Week, we’ll be releasing a deeper dive into metrics and data from around the Rally platform, as well as a preview of our newest IPO, coming the Fall. 

Until Then…