Catching Up On All Things SPACs and Collectibles

What a long strange trip COVID has been from my small footprint of Phoenix, Coronado and a few days in LA. I have still not been on a plane since February.

I was out for a socially distanced lunch in San Diego today with an old friend and finally caved and bought a Peloton as the store was staring me in the face. The store experience was incredibly efficient. They have done a great job channeling the Apple store concept.

I joked on Twitter – ‘I bought a Peloton today finally. Trying to figure out where it will look best when I stop using it …’

I do think it will be my most used piece of home hardware/furniture and look forward to getting it delivered in 2024.

Onwards…

Today I want to share two video interviews I did on subjects near and dear to me as I continue to invest in 2020…SPACs and Collectibles.

JC and I do weekly videos that are really well produced if you actually watch them and this week I riffed on SPACs.

I also did a Zoom with my friend Rob Petrozzo at Rally Road on all things collectibles.

I really miss my founder/investor dinners in New York and the last great one I did was a doozy at Carbone’s in New York in late February as COVID chatter was exploding and SPAC chatter was just that …chatter. I wrote :

While all this may be the sign of the ‘top’, the optimist in me thinks that smart people with big ideas are tired of looking at a shrinking universe of public stocks. They see opportunity. It’s both amazing and ridiculous that just FIVE companies make up 18 percent of the S&P 500.

The SPAC world has indeed exploded since February so I got that one right. My friend Shai at Silicon Valley Bank nails just how early we still are in the process:

With the world changing, the markets have changed too. I have listed the big changes so far in 2020 below:

An acceleration of $QQQ over $SPY as the investment of choice.

The traders and investors have Robinhood et al.

The wanderers have Zillow and low rates to move wherever they like.

The fitness people have the outdoors and of course their Pelotons. While I did get Peloton right, the big percentage winner in this space has been Nautilus ($NLS) which after rising a bazillion percent this year is a $700 million market cap compared to $35 billion for Peloton.

Families and businesses have their internet and zoom and Netflix to stay sane and keep up the productivity.

The nesters have Pinterest, Wayfair and Restoration Hardware.

The porn people have Onlyfans.com

The gamblers have Draftkings and their sports.

We kind of have weed. Try Eaze if you are 21.

The Direct to Consumer (DTC) companies have Instagram, Shopify, Stripe, and Fedex to get them their stuff.

AND as I mentioned earlier, the financiers now have SPACS…SPACs as far as the bankers can see. Even SHAQ now has a SPAC.

These trends are going to last much longer than most people expect.

The value people will have a new set of companies to be trapped in.

It would be easier to riff on all the destruction but I am paid to avoid that and find growth and clean opportunity. As always, money and people find a way…