INVESTING IN COINS AND COLLECTIBLES 上市 Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 7, Number 36, September 5, 2004, Article 19
INVESTING IN COINS AND COLLECTIBLES
The August 29, 2004 issue of The New York Times had an
interesting article about investing in art and collectibles such
as coins. Professor Michael A. Moses, who teaches
management at New York University, spent four years
studying the value of artwork, and has created "an index that
tracks the value of art sold, mainly by the Sotheby's and
Christie's auction houses in New York. [The] index includes
more than 13,000 transactions going back to 1875."He and his coauthor "published a report on the index in the
American Economic Review [in 2002]. By their calculations,
the value of art has kept pace with the Standard & Poor's
500-stock index over the last 50 years, though art's returns
have zigzagged more. "For people who have a 20- to 30-
year horizon, I have no problem talking about art as an
investment," Professor Moses said.His view is not an orthodox one. Other people with knowledge
of financial matters and collectibles are far less convinced of
the investment potential of art, antiques, fine wine and rare
coins.""Stocks and bonds go up in value because they're priced at
the present value of their future cash flows," Professor Guay
said. "An antique isn't going to generate any earnings or throw
off any cash. Stocks and bonds do. The only way you're
going to make money on an antique is selling it to someone
who likes it more than you do.""There are only so many buyers for a given set of works,
and they're not all sitting ready to spend money on you,""When dealers sell such a work, they typically get a bigger
cut than brokers who sell stocks and bonds, said Jeffrey E.
Daniher, a Cincinnati financial planner and coin collector.
Markets for collectibles tend to be small and inefficient, he
said, and dealers have often incurred high costs for storage
and insurance they want to pass along to buyers."On the other hand: "When my WorldCom stock went sour, I
didn't have anything but a piece of paper," Dr. Brager said.
"If the market for wine takes a downturn, I've still got the
wine to drink."To read the full article, see: Full Stroy
(Registration required)- 2004-09-05
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