Collectors Universe and Optimism
§Collector’s Universe
On December 2020, I wrote up Collector’s Universe. This was a great business getting better that had an activist investor. The card authentication market was growing rapidly, and everything looked great!
Then a take-over offer came. Fortunately, the take-over offer seemed like it would be rejected by shareholders due to the low-ball offer, which created an opportunity.
One thing I did not go over in my write-up was the corporate governance issues that plagued the company. If you’re interested in this topic, let me know and I can fill you in/write it up on my website. In the meantime, you can read the activist’s open letter to the board (June 18th, 2020).
§Collector’s Universe
Two Thoughts:
§Optimism
A fantastic article I read this past week:
Bad things happen fast, while good things take longer…So most news, in any media, even responsible ones, is bad news. If newspapers and websites were only updated every 50 years, they might report: literacy is up, longevity increased, violence is down.
Kevin Kelly: The Case for Optimism
Is Kevin Kelly on to something? Is the daily news override inherently bad? Should the interval in which we consume news be lengthened?
News does tend to have a short shelf life. What were the topics in newspapers 50 years ago?
Complaints about Nixon’s wage & price controls
Having fun at softball, despite the score
News on mergers, tax changes, and factory orders, and more
Dick Gerstenberg may become General Motor’s CEO
§The Case for Optimism
§Ted Weschler
No comments, except for “wow”
ProPublica released a story recently, revealing the amount invested in some of the largest tax shielded individual retirement accounts (IRA). Among the largest was Ted Weschler, who runs ~$10B of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio. His IRA grew from $70,000 in 1989 to $264,000,000 in 2018, a 33% annual return. A tremendous return, where every $1 invested turned into $9,000!
If you want to read more about him, I have a section on my website. He is in the second tab, all the way at the bottom. There are numerous articles & case studies about Ted! You could also Google him and find some of the articles about him and his IRA.
“Start early, maximize the (employer) match, invest 100 percent in equities, and ignore all the other noise.”
Ted Weschler
§Read More About Ted
RE: Software
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how software may be eating software over the next few years. The main idea was that there are so many software companies who offer basically the same service, and don’t add any true value.
I gave the example of there being tons of alarm clock apps on the app store, despite all smartphones coming with an alarm feature.
Last week, I saw this on my twitter timeline:
But not to worry- the multiplication function is free!