Rally Rd. is an app-based investment platform providing widespread access to rare collectibles. The platform acquires and securitizes “one-of-a-kind” assets across the following categories: cars, memorabilia, watches and luxury items, comics and literature, and wine and whiskey. These assets are divided into shares that are offered as equity investments with minimum investments varying from $1 to upwards of $100. This offering is supported by an exchange-like platform, listing a set price for items on predetermined offering dates, much like an initial public offering of stock. After an initial offering, Rally Rd. holds regular trading windows that allow investors to buy and sell shares in the invested asset. In addition to charging no fees to investors, Rally Rd. differentiates itself from competitors in two meaningful ways: it has chosen an attractive space, leveraging its early entry to provide an abundance of options, and has a proven platform with secondary liquidity available.
Rally Rd. is the only site to provide a full suite of offerings, covering all core facets of the collectibles market. Drops are frequent and run the gamut, as a single Friday drop often includes multiple cars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, antique literature from famous authors, and game-worn jerseys or high-value sports trading cards. Notable items have included a Honus Wagner T206 card, Hermes Birkin Bags, a 1980 Lamborghini Countach Turbo, and a signed first edition of The Great Gatsby. This stands in stark contrast to competitors, who either provide fewer options or have concerned themselves with other asset classes with different investment dynamics. Sites such as Vinovest (wine) and Mythic Markets (memorabilia and comics) have focused on single categories that are included within Rally Rd.’s suite of offerings. Meanwhile, Otis (art, memorabilia, and comics) and Masterworks (art) largely concern themselves with fine art, which is categorically different from collectibles. Collectibles tend to constitute simple appraisals based on condition and scarcity, while fine art’s appraisals are highly ambiguous and frequently change. Additionally, Otis has branded listings on its platform as “high-culture,” compared to Rally’s focus on simplicity and assets that the ordinary investor can understand. Rally’s literature offerings, for example, may be considered high-culture, but the key difference between the site’s offerings and those on Otis is that the underlying asset, a famous book such as Orwell’s Animal Farm, is clearly discernible to the average person.
Benefiting from its position as a first-mover in the collectibles space, Rally Rd. has built out a platform that makes investing simple and provides sufficient information to make an informed decision. The app is easy to navigate, sorting assets by category, share price, and availability. For each asset, the platform goes beyond providing basic financials and specifications like historical prices and in-app trading history – it also provides significant qualitative information on the asset. The app provides a media gallery for each asset alongside an explanation of the asset's history and significance, providing the potential investor perspective as to what has, and (hopefully) will continue to, make the asset valuable. As for vetting and acquiring assets, Rally Rd. incorporates a number of basic and data-driven factors into its pre-investment diligence and has, with time, built out an extensive network among vendors.
The platform’s relative maturity has also enabled it to create an in-app secondary marketplace. Contrary to similar platforms that provide investors the ability to buy equity shares in an asset and subsequently liquidate shares in the event of a price increase or sale, Rally Rd., through its secondary marketplace, allows users to trade their equity shares of an asset with other users during scheduled trading windows. This has the effect of dramatically reducing duration risk--a valuable feature for investors. While secondary offerings are not yet available on other collectibles sites, both Mythic Markets and Otis plan on providing secondary trading in the future.
Rally Rd. stands out as a leader within the collectibles space, with a variety of options and a platform that is more extensive and mature than competitors. Its inclusion of a secondary marketplace and focus on recognizable items both clearly differentiate the platform from others. Whether it be a car aficionado, a sports enthusiast, or someone simply interested in co-owning a piece of history, Rally Rd. helps the average investor diversify his or her portfolio by backing assets with a story.