SHINY THING$ 0166 ✨

This weeks installment of Shiny Thing$ was originally intended to be a 3-part update on all things LeBron, Dino Market, and our upcoming IPO of one of the most important historical documents in American history. 

But sometimes, events in the world remind us that there are things far bigger than our usual routines.

As many of you have seen, the devastating fires in California have disrupted lives and communities. Although our headquarters are in New York City, Southern California boasts the largest concentration of Rally users in the country. Beyond that, we have close friends, family, many of the corporate investors on the Rally cap table, and connections in the collectible community that we interface with on a near daily basis that have found themselves in affected areas requiring evacuation. 

On Wednesday, a close friend of ours and one of the earliest supporters of Rally, Jeremy Padawer, was directly impacted by these events. A well known collector of some of the most incredible pieces to come to market over the last few years and a universally respected personality in the collecting landscape, Jeremy took to social media on Wednesday to share his reflections with the community. 

His words offer a heartfelt, firsthand perspective on resilience, loss, and what truly matters when everything feels uncertain. Today, we wanted to share this piece with you, unedited…

Dear Friends,

I’ve collected stuff my entire life.  All of that is gone.  I am at peace with it.  My family is safe.  Pets are safe.  I pray for my neighbors in the Pacific Palisades.

Because I’ve been rich, poor and everything in between in my life, I’m very pragmatic and realistic.  We are insured.  The loss is unimaginable, but the financial impact, assuming the insurance companies do their part, will be negligible.  

Let me share my lifelong collecting dream with you.  A dream that’s now lost.  I thought I would be an old man surrounded by amazing things at a named auction celebrating all the rare, cool, one of a kind things I collected during my entire lifetime. Some items incredibly valuable, others less valuable, but all in celebration of the things that made up my interests, passions and career.  A celebration of a life spent making and collecting things, curating things and shaping culture.  I’m going to mourn that auction.  It won’t ever happen.  

I don’t need it to happen either.  I’ve been incredibly blessed with other dreams that more than make up for the loss of this one.  That collecting dream… I’ve set on a ship to sail into the deepest, bluest sea...  Also, that dream was trivial and it’s ok to have some trivial dreams.

I’ve had other dreams come true that are far more substantive that includes wife, kids, family, friends, pets, experiences, colleagues and business in a category that I absolutely adore - toys and collectibles. ❤️

Now to the part I realize after about 18 hours of thinking through this… is NOT trivial.

Our community.  Our kid’s school.  Our neighbors.  Our neighborhood.  Our grocery store.  Our library.  Our playgrounds.  Our places of worship or spirituality.  Our friend’s homes and things - things out of my power  to insure or protect as it’s out of my control.  The feelings of others.  The lost dreams of others.  The young people doing everything right who lost everything and can’t see their dream right now; The old people whose dream was realized and lost.  This really breaks me up… an entire community temporarily gone.  And, I pray that loss of life is minimal.  

I pray for the safety and security of those who lost important things, trivial things, dreams achieved and future dreams big and small.

Don’t get me wrong.  It’s not lost on me that I have had the freedom to dream and that not everyone shares that freedom. 

Anyway, I now know what I’d take from my house if I had 15 minutes…. Nothing.  As it turns out. 

I thought we’d be back today.

So, back to the bigger points…

1) Dream your dream.

2) Get insurance.

3) Don’t wait for old age to celebrate something really cool.

4) Dream more than one dream.

And…  

5) People matter way more than stuff.

I appreciate everyone who has reached out. 

And yes that collectible is gone too. The one you thought was cool.  It’s ok. 💔

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As always, we’re grateful to have you as part of the Rally community, and our thoughts are with everyone affected by the horrific fires that have forever changed the lives of so many. Thank you for taking the time to read this week’s newsletter and for supporting not just our mission but each other. Stay safe, stay connected, and we’ll see you next week. ✨