Rally | Alternative Asset Investment (2024)

The Ultimate Mantle Collectible

The ultimate Mickey Mantle collectible investment isn’t a baseball card or a jersey. It’s not autographed or in good condition. But what it lacks in traditional collectibility it makes up for in history: It’s the childhood home of Mickey Mantle.

The post Mickey Mantle: From Oklahoma to Cooperstown appeared first on Rally | Alternative Asset Investment.

Imagination Play

It’s hard to believe that dinosaurs were discovered relatively recently in human history. Here’s some context to really put this into perspective: dinosaurs were discovered AFTER the invention of infrared rays, electricity, and general anesthesia! George Washington never even heard of the term “dinosaur” and Beethoven wrote his 5th symphony before dinosaur bones were evaluated to be a different family of animals.

via GIPHY

For many children, dinosaurs are akin to fire-breathing dragons, rainbow-horned unicorns, and their favorite superheroes. Dinosaurs are an essential part of what’s known as children’s imagination play – giving life and story to something that seems elusive or fantastical. Dinosaur toy sales took off with the debut of Jurassic Park in 1993; the film caused a 40% increase in dino toy sales just months after its release. Dinosaurs are only becoming more popular as they are solidified in pop-culture, the Jurassic Park franchise continues, and scientists announce more findings.

From the beginning of human exploration of dinosaurs, we’ve been using our imaginations to fill in all that we don’t know about dinosaurs. Dinosaur bones are unearthed in messy, often incomplete, arrangements. Dinosaurs existed too long ago to be able to use carbon-14 dating, so researchers rely on radiometric dating methods instead. We can’t determine dinosaurs’ skin color or the exact sounds they made with the information we currently have. It takes imagination to believe in, and consequently research, a world where dinosaurs roamed the earth. Dinosaurs blur lines between fantasy, as seen in the Jurassic Park franchise, and evidence-based research through fossils such as Rally’s triceratops prorsus skull.

Rocky Beginnings

In 1676, English naturalist Robert Plot discovered an abnormally large femur fossil. He decided that this was a remnant of a giant, extinct human, and so did English paleontologist William Buckland when he found another large fossilized femur in Stonesfield, England in 1819.

It wasn’t until 1824 that those femur fossils were reanalyzed by biologist Richard Owen and deemed not human, but ancient reptilian. The official study of dinosaurs began with Owen naming this newly discovered species “Sauropod”, meaning “lizard foot”, which he later changed to “dinosaur”, or “terrible lizard” in 1841.

There were a lot of women involved in the discovery of dinosaur fossils as well. Women started working as researchers in the field in the early 1800s. They were always involved in paleontology, a field that was born in the 1700s, because of their roles as artists documenting and elaborating on finds. Women with money, however, could fund their own research and become independent diggers. In 1811, Mary Anning dug up an ichthyosaurus fossil near the English Channel when she was only twelve years old. Annie Alexander, founder of the University of California Museum of Paleontology, funded her own research and was able to recover one of the most intact and complete ichthyosaurs fossils on one of her expeditions. She was able to avail of many opportunities because of her privileged background, but also paved the way for other women in the field.

Dinosaurs Popularized

Initially, dinosaurs were not accepted as a discovery or as a separate term. This was largely attributed to researcher’s inability to conduct experiments to “prove” their existence; after all, much of dinosaur research is based on “informed” imaginings of what the age of the dinosaurs would have looked like, even today! Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, was incredibly invested in educating the general public on the scientific inventions, achievements, and discoveries of their time. In 1854, a collection of dinosaur fossils were displayed in London’s Crystal Park Palace for public viewing during the “Great Exhibition”. Victorian audiences were awed by the sheer sizes of these dinosaurs and subsequently demanded smaller replicas of these displays; these were the precursors to dinosaur toys today.

After being shared with the public, dinosaurs were a source of vivid imagination and inspiration for a plethora of writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. French author Jules Verne’s hit sci-fi novel Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) featured dinosaurs fighting one another, as well as the discovery of preserved dinosaur bones by the novel’s protagonists. In 1914, American animator Winsor McCay, funded by American media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, released an animated film called Gertie the Dinosaur about a diplodocus-esque dinosaur who could perform circus tricks. Godzilla (1954), the epic Japanese film by Ishiro Honda, struck fear into viewers’ hearts as they watched a gigantic, ferocious “dinosaur” wreak havoc on Japan.

When large tycoons started investing in dinosaur research because they equated these large, powerful creatures with economic prosperity, dinosaurs started to become a widely accepted “household term”. Philanthropists like Andrew Carnegie contributed to natural history museums to preserve and display these symbols of exceptionalism and grandeur. Paleontologists in the 19th and 20th centuries largely relied on private funding from the wealthiest people in society to do their research, interestingly with no obligation to disclose the details of their methodologies. The fascination with dinosaurs continues as they permeate our societies and pop cultures.

Rally’s “Deaton”

Triceratops are one of the most beloved dinosaurs to have been discovered. This matriarchal species bears physical and behavioral resemblance to today’s elephants and is known for being fiercely protective of their young. Contrary to popular belief, a triceratops’ formidable frill is not used for defense (can you believe that it was actually too weak to deflect damage?), but rather a result of “sexual dimorphism”, or a physical difference between a species’ males and females that is used to attract mates. This herbivore, known for its slow, yet steady movement, existed in the late cretaceous era and was likely made extinct by the Chicxulub Asteroid 65 million years ago.

Rally’s own triceratops skull, affectionately named “Deaton” for the late Dr. Bobby Deaton, was excavated in North Dakota by Dr. Deaton in 1999. This skull is unique because it is 50% complete by bone count (31 out of 56 bones have been recovered) and an estimate of 60-65% complete by bone mass. “Deaton” is stable enough to be displayed as the original instead of as a replica like many other dinosaur skulls.

Imagination, Investigation

Dinosaur paleontology is a science that fosters the constant intersection of myth, sci-fi and evidence-based research. Imagination play as a child leads to early interest in the field and research questions like, “How did dinosaurs get sick? How do they raise their young? What is the triceratops huge frill for?” In turn, the research adds more detail to one’s imagination. For example, the Jurassic Park franchise used actual scientific research to portray fast dinosaurs rather than slow, gentle ones, accurately represent a T. rex’s strong sense of smell, and faithfully depict the way dinosaurs move their tails. In a way, evidence-based dinosaur research is comparable to world-building, something children, filmmakers, and the most seasoned paleontologists have in common.

Rally’s triceratops skull “Deaton” was discovered in the famous Hell Creek formation, which is known for elucidating scientists on the decline of late cretaceous species such as T. prorsus. Finding “Deaton” and other Hell Creek fossils has helped scientists better understand and vividly imagine the climates and conditions dinosaurs lived in. With each new excavation, researchers and imaginative people alike can add new pieces to the puzzle of dinosaur existence.

Rally Assets

Triceratops Dinosaur Skull “Deaton”

Works Cited

Farlow, James O., Peter Dodson, and Anusuya Chinsamy. “Dinosaur Biology.” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 26, 1995: 445–71. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2097215.

Fuchs, Michael. “Richard Fallon, Reimagining Dinosaurs in Late Victorian and Edwardian Literature: How the ‘Terrible Lizard’ Became a Transatlantic Cultural Icon.” Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik [AAA] 47, no. 1 (2022).. https://link-gale-com.pacl.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A725542852/AONE?u=palo_alto&sid=ebsco&xid=c78030bd.

Gould, Stephen Jay. “An Awful, Terrible Dinosaurian Irony.” Natural History 107, no. 1 (February 1, 1998): 24. https://discovery-ebsco-com.pacl.idm.oclc.org/linkprocessor/plink?id=b938fe28-55ad-3967-bd82-0b7ed31efc0d.

Hickman, Carole S., Kelsey Vance, and Draper White. “‘Fitting In’: Freedom in the Field.” In The Bearded Lady Project: Challenging the Face of Science, edited by Lexi Jamieson Marsh and Ellen Currano, 45–48. Columbia University Press, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/mars19804.11.

Ings, Simon. “Meet the Dinosaurs of South London.” New Scientist 254, no. 3389 (June 4, 2022): 36. doi:10.1016/s0262-4079(22)00983-6.

“Introduction: Daring to Dig: Women in American Paleontology.” Museum of the Earth https://www.museumoftheearth.org/daring-to-dig.

Mobley, Josh. Jurassic Park, 2022. https://discovery-ebsco-com.pacl.idm.oclc.org/linkprocessor/plink?id=b137bf0a-ad9d-3a7b-81fd-c50c6a99329d.

Rieppel, Lukas. “How Tycoons Created the Dinosaur.” Nautilus, October 20, 2021. https://nautil.us/how-tycoons-created-the-dinosaur-238333/.

Takahashi, Clara. “Dinosaur Portrayals in the Media.” Obscure Dinosaur Facts, September 25, 2019. https://obscuredinosaurfacts.com/blog/post/2019/09/25/portrayals.html.

Watts, Christine. “Triceratops.” Salem Press Encyclopedia of Science, January 2023. https://discovery-ebsco-com.pacl.idm.oclc.org/linkprocessor/plink?id=d12b8cda-e8fc-3abf-ab5a-f2e98a1d2b79.

The post Manifestation: Kids, Scientists, and Moguls Imagined a Dino Truth appeared first on Rally | Alternative Asset Investment.

Superman and Batman kicked off the Golden Age of comic books and popularized the concept of the superhero with their debuts in the late 1930s. But did you know that pre-comic book versions of these characters were both bad guys? So much of what we know and love about the heroes today originated outside the comic realm.

Kryptonite, Jimmy Olsen, the Bat Cave and so much more started in other media before eventually being pulled into comics canon. Taking these characters off of the page to radio, TV, and movies put any missing pieces on full display and required creative thinking to solve. Sometimes it wasn’t an official Batman or Superman property that served as an inspiration for the comics, but another creator’s work entirely. We’ll take a look at lore elements from these legendary characters that most of us assumed were always baked in.

The post Superman And Batman: How Surprising Sources Shaped The Characters We Know Today appeared first on Rally | Alternative Asset Investment.

Key Takeaways

• 2022 Market Downturn – Total auction sales and average sale price declined significantly in 2022 from prior year highs. [1]
• Recent Stability – Heritage’s April Video Game Signature Auction had a 21% increase in total sales. [2]
• No Grails For Sale – There have been no public video game sales above $120,000 in 2023. [3]

Graded video games, a relative newcomer to the collectible ecosystem, experienced a rapid boom in demand during the pandemic alongside other alternative investments. The growth of the sealed vintage game market in 2021 coincided with the introduction of marquee video game auctions at Heritage (July 2021) and Goldin (September 2021), as well as the Collector’s Universe’s acquisition of video game grader WATA. [4] In the summer of 2021, record-breaking sales captured the public’s attention: a copy of Super Mario 64 sold for $1.56M in July [5], which was quickly followed by Rally’s own example of Super Mario Bros. selling for $2M just a month later. [6]

Beginning in 2022, there was a significant correction in the video game market in both total dollar volume sold at auction and the average price per game sold. At the height of the market in Q3 2021, Heritage Video Games Signature Auction achieved $8.4M in total sales with an average sale price of $17k. It is important to note, however, that two games accounted for $2.4M in sales (nearly 25% of the total volume). In the most recent Video Games Signature Auction (April 2023), Heritage had just $2.2M in total sales with an average sale price of $6k, representing a decline of 73% and 66%, respectively. [7]

While it has not returned to the highs of 2021, the video game market is exhibiting some bright spots in the first half of 2023. Firstly, more grading companies are moving into the video game space. In May of last year, CGC announced that they would begin grading video games [8] and those examples are beginning to appear alongside WATA-graded games at major auctions. Secondly, buyers and median sale price have remained relatively steady compared to other market metrics. From July 2021 to April 2023, unique bidders per auction only decreased by 14% as compared to a 73% decline in total auction sales, which suggests resilient demand among buyers. [9] During that same time period, median sale price decreased by 13% while, average sale price dropped 66%. [10] To understand this difference, it is useful to examine historical sales at the high end of the market.

In 2021, there were six games that each sold for over $500,000 at public auction. [11] In 2022, only one game sold for $500,000 and in 2023, no game has sold for more than $120,000. [12] The video game market certainly experienced a contraction in 2022, but the decline in average sale price can be explained in part by the absence of the most valuable games at auction.

Owners of rare examples seem to be hesitant to sell in adverse market conditions. Of the six games that sold for over half a million dollars in 2021, only one title had a comparable sale in 2022. A Hangtab example of Super Mario Bros. graded WATA 9.6 A+ sold for $660,000 in April 2021 [13] and a comparable copy graded 9.6 A sold for $720,000 in November 2022 [14], representing an appreciation of 9.1%. Therefore, it appears that the top of the market may be somewhat insulated from the downturn with select copies exhibiting slight appreciation and many collectors holding on to the most valuable pieces.

The results from Heritage’s most recent Video Games Signature Auction in April suggest that the market has achieved some degree of stability following the 2022 decline. Total sales volume, unique bidders, total lots, and median sale price are all up from January’s results. [15] In addition, the April auction featured a Matte Sticker-sealed copy of Duck Hunt graded WATA 9.6 A++ that tied the record for the most expensive game of 2023 at $120,000. [16] The upcoming auctions in Q3 will reveal whether vintage video games have corrected to a new normal following a bull run or whether a headline sale of a major copy can drive up prices across the market.

Figures

Footnotes

1. All calculations for total dollar volume of video games sold at auction, the average price per game sold at auction, the median price per game sold at auction, and unique bidders per auction are based on Heritage Auctions’ results for its “Video Games Signature Auctions” from July 2021 to April 2023.
2. As compared to the Heritage Auctions January Video Games Signature Auction.
3. Public auction data was collected from Heritage Auctions, Goldin Auctions and Metropolis Comics.
4. https://hypebeast.com/2021/7/collectors-universe-wata-games-acquisition-news
5. https://comics.ha.com/itm/video-games/nintendo/super-mario-64-wata-98-a-sealed-n64-nintendo-1996-usa/a/7261-28137.s
6. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/06/business/super-mario-bros-sale-record.html
7. See footnote 1
8. https://www.cgccomics.com/news/article/10201/
9. See footnote 1
10. See footnote 1
11. Based on historical public auction sales from Heritage Auctions, Goldin Auctions and Metropolis Collectibles.
12. See footnote 11
13. https://comics.ha.com/itm/video-games/nintendo/super-mario-bros-wata-96-a-sealed-hangtab-1-code-mid-production-nes-nintendo-1985-usa/a/7242-93028.s
14. https://comics.ha.com/itm/video-games/nintendo/super-mario-bros-wata-96-a-sealed-hangtab-3-code-mid-production-nes-nintendo-1985-usa/a/7290-28064.s
15. See footnote 2
16. https://comics.ha.com/itm/video-games/nintendo/duck-hunt-wata-96-a-sealed-matte-sticker-first-production-nes-nintendo-1985-usa/a/7307-28027.s

Disclaimers

Secondary market trading is offered through Dalmore Group, LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC. Neither Dalmore Group, LLC nor Rally make investment recommendations and no communication, through this app or in any other medium, should be construed as a recommendation for any security offered on or off this investment platform. Rally is not a licensed broker dealer. Brokerage accounts and services related to trading of securities are provided by DriveWealth, LLC, a SEC registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/SIPC. DriveWealth, LLC serves as the exclusive custodian for all securities issued by RSE Collection, LLC. You do have the right to opt out of the transfer of shares into a DriveWealth, LLC brokerage account by providing written notification to Rally at hello@rallyrd.com, with instructions as to where you would like your securities to be transferred. Please note that most brokers do not accept alternative assets, and that you will not be able to participate in Trading Windows in the Rally app, if you elect to opt out.

RSE Collection, LLC (“RSE Collection”), RSE Archive, LLC (“RSE Archive”) and RSE Innovation, LLC (“RSE Innovation”) are offering securities only through the use of Offering Circulars that are part of Offering Statements qualified by the Securities and Exchange Commission under Tier II of Regulation A. A copy of the RSE Collection, LLC Offering Circular may be obtained HERE, a copy of the RSE Archive, LLC Offering Circular may be obtained HERE, a copy of the RSE Innovation, LLC Offering Circular may be obtained HERE, in the “Legal” section of the Rally App, or by requesting a copy by e-mailing hello@rallyrd.com. This communication and the Offering Circulars may contain forward-looking statements and information relating to, among other things, RSE Collection, RSE Archive, and RSE Innovation respectively, their business plans and strategies, and their respective market sectors. RSE Collection’s, RSE Archive’s, and RSE Innovation’s actual results may differ materially from management’s current view of future events. Neither RSE Collection, RSE Archive, RSE Innovation nor any other person or entity assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of forward-looking statements, and is under no duty to update any such statements to conform them to actual results.

“Share” or “Stock” refers to interests in a series of RSE Collection, LLC, a series of RSE Archive, LLC, or a series of RSE Innovation, LLC. Any investment in securities contains a high degree of risk. The offer and sale of securities is being facilitated by an unaffiliated third-party registered broker-dealer (member FINRA/SIPC) only in U.S. states where such broker-dealer is registered. This communication does not represent an offer to sell or buy securities. Neither RSE Markets, RSE Collection, RSE Archive, RSE Innovation, nor any third-party broker-dealer provides any investment advice or make any investment recommendations to any persons, ever, and no communication through the rallyrd.com website or in any other medium should be construed as such. These investments are not bank deposits (and thus not insured by the FDIC or by any other federal governmental agency), are not guaranteed by RSE Markets, RSE Collection, RSE Archive, RSE Innovation or any third-party broker-dealer and may lose value. Investors must be able to afford the loss of their entire investment. Comparable asset may be materially different from, or may not be of the same value or quality as, the assets acquired by any series of RSE Collection, any series of RSE Archive, or any series of RSE Innovation depending on a number of factors, including market conditions, location of sale, associated taxes, paint quality, originality of parts, condition of the asset, operating quality, ownership history and provenance, level of wear and other factors. Further, an investment in a series of RSE Collection, a series of RSE Archive, or a series of RSE Innovation is not an investment in the underlying asset. It is an investment in the series of RSE Collection, a series of RSE Archive, or a series of RSE Innovation that owns the asset. The value of interests in a series of RSE Collection, a series of RSE Archive, or a series of RSE Innovation may materially differ from the value of the underlying vehicle for many reasons, including market factors, fees charged by the asset manager, and restrictions on liquidity. Investors should conduct their own due diligence, and are encouraged to consult with a financial advisor, attorney, accountant, and any other professional that can help you to understand and assess the risks associated with any investment opportunity. Please refer to the offering circular for full details and disclosures, including a subscription agreement should you choose to invest. Full details and disclaimers on http://rallyrd.com/disclaimer.

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Follow the incredible journey of Macallan’s 1938 Handwritten Label Scotch Whisky from barley to bottle

Macallan’s 1938 Single Malt Scotch Whisky is rare. It’s housed in a wooden case, adorned in a red ribbon and wax seal, and its details written by hand in grand script across a creamy label. If one needed any indication this isn’t just your run-of-the-mill whisky, it’s presentation does an adequate job. But it doesn’t begin to do justice to the liquid inside the bottle.

Simply put, it contains a paragon. The pre-war single malt Scotch, for all its glory, its prestige, its exquisite taste, seems to have fought a cosmic force hellbent on seeing it wiped from existence. From the moment it was extracted from the barley of the Scottish countryside, to the moment it was bottled and distributed for the world to enjoy, its hard-fought and won battle, from politics and wartime restrictions, to bombs, to the fickle tastes of the 1980s grants the bottle relic status. Not even James Bond himself could conquer the bottle so keen on seeing its contents grace the lips of Scotch enthusiasts who struggle to put its beauty into words.

Is the Macallan ‘38 giving Braveheart vibes? Yes, it kind of is.

via GIPHY

1400s: Tax Me If You Can

As if the 1938 had a scamp-like survival written into its DNA, the history of Scotch itself is one of muddied details and tax evasion. Scotch whisky has been produced in Scotland as early as the 15th century, with an entry in tax records reading, “Eight bols of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make acqua vitae.” That’s right, whisky was referred to as acqua vitae, or “the water of life”, and eight bols was enough barley malt to produce about 1,500 bottles of the life-giving spirit.

Not only was there a method for producing whisky in the 1400s, there seemed to be a healthy demand.While Friar John Cor was seemingly producing his whisky above board, illicit Scotch production was rampant for several hundred years, with about half of the whisky consumed in Scotland being illegal and untaxed. The origins of Macallan likely fell into this undocumented category. If there was any question that the drink was beloved among Scotsmen, Robert Burns waxed lyrical about the whisky for 22 stanzas in his poem Scotch Drink, declaring, “Inspire me, til I lisp an’ wink, to sing thy name!” Who was Robert Burns? He was a tax man tasked with sniffing out illicit production. One can only imagine how many lines of poetry the ‘38 would conjure.

The post The ‘38 Macallan Red Ribbon: A Stubborn Life appeared first on Rally | Alternative Asset Investment.

Intro note: This write up is published in 2023, 400 years after the release of the First Folio. Globally, there are a lot of events celebrating this anniversary and you might be surprised what’s happening in your hometown libraries and museums. The New York Public Library is displaying six different copies of the First Folio in the Polonsky Exhibition through October 1st.

In our favorite stories, the hero often says some version of, “I can’t ask you to risk X on my account [again]” It’s at the end, before they step into the worst of whatever sh*t they’re in. Their friends, always, come along anyway. The Lord of the Rings. Harry Potter. The Fast and the Furious, where someone usually insists that you don’t even need to ask. Stranger Things. It! And, the collected plays of William Shakespeare?

400 years ago, two friends of the recently-deceased William Shakespeare did a revolutionary thing for the playwright, putting together the First Folio and publishing what is now considered one of the most important books in the history of English literature. He didn’t dare while he was alive, but John Heminge and Henry Condell, who had been named in Shakespeare’s will and allotted money for mourning rings, conspired against social norms, good fiscal planning, and plain common sense to elevate and immortalize their friend’s work.

The act itself was freaking bold – not unlike printing, embossing, and binding in tooled leather a collection of really good Instagram posts that got lots of likes*. Theater was the opiate of the masses for Elizabethan Europe and “folios,” as a format, were reserved for topics of social weight, long term importance, and intellectual prestige.

And the work was hard. One play was finalized so late that it’s in the collection, but not included in the table of contents, which had already been printed. It was undoubtedly expensive, and their opening plea to readers asks to “depends [sic] upon your capacities and not of your heads alone, but of your purses. … Whatever you do, buy.”

“depends [sic] upon your capacities and not of your heads alone, but of your purses. … Whatever you do, buy.”

– the burdened editors of Shakespeare’s First Folio

The Chosen Family Steps Up

Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies (i.e. The First Folio) compiled by John Heminge and Henry Condell and published in 1623 was a revolution and, without it, University of Oxford Shakespeare scholar Emma Smith says “…we wouldn’t even be talking about Shakespeare.” [Smithsonian Magazine] They took on this expensive, frustrating, complex, bold (foolish?) project because they loved their friend’s work and we know so because they added their own sweet homages in the introduction.

“His mind and hand went together: And what he thought, he uttered with that easinesse, that wee have scarse received from him a blot in his papers. But it is not our province, who onely gather his works, and give them you, to praise him….” they write. “Reade him, therefore; and againe, and againe.” [spelling preserved from the original printing]

The First Folio collects 36 plays, 18 of which had not been previously published**. Let’s put a very fine point on that – without this work, we wouldn’t have Macbeth, The Tempest, As You Like It, or Julius Caesar today. No, “Something wicked this way comes.” Not a peep of, “All the world’s a stage / And all the men and women merely players.” And, depressingly, no 10 Things I Hate About You, which was based on The Taming of the Shrew, another of the unpublished works. Fun fact: The collection is also the first time that Shakespeare’s plays are sorted into Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies – a convention that stands today.

Each One is like Different Different

The 900-page book was also edited as it was printed, without replacing the errored pages. And so, like Honus Wagner cards, each of the 235 remaining copies are different. Some substantially. Many have reader doodles and annotations, some have entirely repeated sections filling in for missing parts, and one is pierced with a bullet hole (the round was stopped at Titus Andronicus and Shakespearian scholar Eric Rasmussen quipped, “… is clearly an impenetrable play.” [Smithsonian Magazine]). The book’s introduction also included lists of original actors in the company and what is considered the best portrait of the playwright, as it was made contemporaneously and selected by people who knew him personally.

Folio finders (a real and obsessive thing) have documented their censuses of known authentic First Folios – Rasmussen’s The Shakespeare First Folios: A Descriptive Catalogue covers his work and Andrea Mays’ The Millionaire and the Bard: Henry Folger’s Obsessive Hunt for Shakespeare’s First Folio covers Folger’s global hunt. The Folios have often been stolen and tracking them down is not unlike a Dewey Decimal Indiana Jones. A copy was brought to scholars in 2002, saying that it came from one of Fidel Castro’s bodyguards, but had actually been taken from a university library (check out the Grateful Dead poster backstory for more references to library theft that is very bad but also fun to read about). Another was hanging out in a country manor’s library after Oxford’s Bodleian Library replaced their First Folio with the “updated and enhanced” (our words) Third Folio, treating it like a new release of a chemistry textbook. In Japan, a copy was hidden from view until 13 years after the owner’s death – terms laid out in their last will and testament.

The Fourth (and Second and Third) Folios

Rally’s copy is from a small run called the Fourth Folio. Printed in 1685 and continuing the train of original publishing agreements, this edition stood as the document of record through the following century, but later scholarship refocused onto the First Folio as the closest to Shakespeare’s original language and canon. There are good reasons for both of these priorities! Each version of the folios tweaked the language to more closely match contemporary usage (common, but probably not ideal). There were also huge discrepancies between some of the plays’ quarto versions and inconsistencies between different people typesetting the manuscripts (here’s a side-eye to you, compositor E, who had “… significant difficulties in dealing with manuscript copy.” [Wikipedia excerpt, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Folio]) that were reconciled throughout Folio editions.Common practice, and generally a good thing!

Most notably, the Third Folio publisher, Philip Chetwinde, added seven plays that he attributed to Shakespeare through a faulty, but not crazypants, methodology. He turned out right on Pericles, but not the rest. Both the Third and Fourth versions contain the same extra plays.

Each edition was considered, in its time, an improvement. The Fourth, and final, Folio is the largest and (in Sotheby’s words) “stateliest” as it’s printed on larger Royal Paper stock. Many of the First Folios are variable sizes as the books were trimmed throughout the years and the Third Folio has fewer known copies than the second or the fourth, possibly due to the Great Fire of London in 1666. Wild!

Thank You for Being a Friend

There are treasures in this world that were designed to be precious from the start. And there are amazingly valuable things that are worth so much because of a combination of scarcity and an unforecastable place in history. The Shakespeare Folios are a little bit of both. The work they document was intended to be smart, insightful, and moving; but also temporary, ephemeral, and sometimes casual. The “value” was in performing the plays, yeah? But the Folios organized by John Heminge and Henry Condell, friends of Shakespeare, took up a gauntlet to not just document their friends’ work, but to force the acceptance of that work as capital-a Art. Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies is, at its core, a couple of guys unwilling to let their friend’s work fade into obscurity.

*From a social-status standpoint, not a level-of-effort standpoint, but content creation is also hard, y’all

**For more discussion on quatros, “bad quatros,” and folios; their authenticity and survival rates; and explanations of how these plays had been written down but would have been lost by now, you can start at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_quarto

[Images/text of the First Folio taken from] The Bodleian First Folio: digital facsimile of the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays, Bodleian Arch. G c.7. URL: http://firstfolio.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/.

Rally Assets:

Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies (Fourth Folio)

Honus Wagner “T206” Card

Rally-published articles:

• Rally. “Grateful Dead Skeleton Roses Poster.” Rally, n.d., https://rallyrd.com/grateful-dead-skeleton-roses-poster/.
• Rally. “The Holy Grail of Baseball Cards.” Rally, n.d., https://rallyrd.com/holy-grail-baseball-card/.

Sources:

Polonsky, Irene. “Shakespeare’s First Folio at 400: Discover the Library’s Six Copies.” NYPL Blogs, 19 Apr. 2023, https://www.nypl.org/blog/2023/04/19/shakespeares-first-folio-400-discover-librarys-six-copies-polonsky-exhibition.

Nash, Elizabeth. “Without the First Folio, William Shakespeare’s Plays Would Be Lost to History.” Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Mar. 2022, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/without-first-folio-william-shakespeare-plays-lost-history-180982021/.

Lander, Jesse M. “The First Folio of Shakespeare.” Shakespeare Online, n.d., http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/firstfolio.html.

“First Folio.” Wikipedia, 26 Apr. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Folio.

“Folio vs. Quarto: What’s the Difference?” Folger Shakespeare Library, n.d., https://www.folger.edu/explore/folio-vs-quarto-whats-the-difference.

“Third Folio.” Times Pencil, n.d., https://timespencil.org/exhibits/show/shakespeares-folios/third-folio.

“Fourth Folio.” Times Pencil, n.d., https://timespencil.org/exhibits/show/shakespeares-folios/fourth-folio.

“Early texts of Shakespeare’s works.” Wikipedia, 17 Apr. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_texts_of_Shakespeare%27s_works.

Sotheby’s. “English Literature, History, Science, Children’s Books and Illustrations Online.” Sotheby’s, 11-18 Jul. 2018, https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2018/english-literature-history-science-childrens-books-and-illustrations-online/dae34edd-2412-41b1-8024-600de38c2043.

Additional Reading:

Smith, Zachary Lesser. Shakespeare’s First Folios: A Descriptive Catalogue. University of Oxford Press, 2016,

Smith, Emma. Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book. Oxford University Press, 2016.

Mays, Andrea. The Millionaire and the Bard: Henry Folger’s Obsessive Hunt for Shakespeare’s First Folio. Simon & Schuster, 2016.

The post Don’t You Forget About Me: Shakespeare’s Folio and His Friends appeared first on Rally | Alternative Asset Investment.

Today, Michael Jordan is as well known for his performance on the basketball court as he is for the sneakers he wore during the game. His Air Jordan collaboration with Nike wasn’t the first sneaker deal, but it broke the mold and set the stage for a new type of player-centric brand. Though it’s hard to imagine considering how synonymous MJ is with Nike, there was a time when he wanted nothing to do with them. It wasn’t until the brand dazzled him with their vision for a sneaker line completely tailored to MJ as an athlete, an icon, and a marketing machine that he began to change tune.

“You’re going to go listen. You may not like it, but you’re gonna go listen.”

Those words, spoken from Deloris Jordan to her 21-year-old son Michael, would change the course of history. Not just for sneakers or basketball, but for culture writ large.

When Nike came knocking before Jordan’s rookie season in 1984, MJ was not impressed. But the budding superstar had also been left disappointed by his first choice, Adidas, who failed to offer him a contract, and Converse, who offered MJ a $100K deal, but came off unremarkable. “Don’t you guys have any new, innovative ideas?” asked Michael’s father, James, to a group of Converse executives.

His blunt question was met with complete silence.

In fairness to Jordan, at the time the Swoosh wasn’t the sexy brand we know today. They had made great strides in previous years, releasing the wildly successful Air Force 1s in 1982 and establishing themselves as a serious contender in the sportswear industry. But, despite the growing success, Nike had hit a speed bump in 1984. Earlier that year, the company reported their first quarterly loss in its history and they were in dire need of a boost.

Despite that, Jordan’s agent, David Falk, was hell-bent on getting MJ to Nike. He had steered other clients like Moses Malone and Bernard King toward the brand and had established a strong relationship with the company.

MJ was far from keen on the idea. But, to make his mom happy, he took the meeting that would spawn a $10B+ brand.

“Jordan was shown a highlight tape of himself to the Pointer Sisters “Jump,” a song that had recently debuted. Moore showed him a red-and-black shoe design. Jordan said that one of the reasons he liked Adidas was because they were lower to the ground than the higher shoes that Nike was making.

Moore said he could tailor them to Jordan’s liking.”

ESPN

Jordan was intrigued. Then, Nike founder Phil Knight entered the room. Knowing MJ’s affinity for cars, Knight gestured toward two die-cast Mercedes cars — floating the promise of an added vehicular bonus upon signing.

Nike offered Jordan a five-year, $2.5M record-shattering contract. Jordan’s father had no doubts: “You have to be a fool not to take this deal. It’s a great deal.”

Jordan was sold, saying:“I don’t want to go to another meeting.”

The Shoes for the Player, Not the Other Way Around

Once he came to an agreement with Nike, work began on his new brand of signature shoes. Falk suggested the name “Air Jordan” — a reference to MJ’s leaping ability as well as the air technology employed in Nike sneakers.

The sneakers hit retail shelves in April 1985 for $65, months before Jordan’s debut.

“The Air Jordan I, the sneaker that changed the world. Premium leather stitched to a cup sole that sat on top of a Nike Air bag.

The shoe was made for basketball. But it’s an art piece now, a symbol that represents so much. Youth. History. Style. Innovation. Community. Winning.”

SLAM

Nike designer Peter Moore led the efforts to sculpt the AJ1s. One of the most substantial innovations dreamed up by Moore was to have home and away sneakers.

“I was designing the shoe with the idea that I needed a real basketball shoe that the best basketball player in the world could play in. But I also needed something that would be unique, never seen before.”

The entire launch and marketing campaign centered around Jordan as an individual and pushed his persona to the forefront — a massive leap from traditional sponsorships which mold the player into a representative of the brand.

“Nobody had taken a player, created shoes and apparel that tied to his style, then launched it all [at] once,” Moore said.

To further cater the sneaker to Jordan’s tastes, particularly his love of Adidas, Moore added a premium leather upper to mimic the ‘worn-in’ feeling that MJ favored in Adidas sneakers.

When Going All-In Worked

The Air Jordan brand set out to build a full stack marketing package, a sum of its component parts like sneakers, color ways, brand, and first and foremost: Athlete.

A year after Apple ran its legendary “1984” ad during the Super Bowl, Nike mounted a historic marketing campaign of its own. Kicking off the most successful endorsem*nt deal in the history of sports, Nike’s Air Jordan 1 commercials harped on a narrative from his rookie year.

The first commercial dramatically pans down from Jordan’s face to his sneakers. While the sound of a bouncing basketball echoes in the background, a voiceover relays:

“On September 15, Nike created a revolutionary new basketball shoe. October 18, the NBA threw them out of the league.”

In effect, Nike was building a brand around their superstar that separated him from the NBA as an individual, and subtly asking fans to pick a side. The issue with Nike’s “rebellion” advertising is that it was revisionist history.

Early Air Jordan 1 commercials painted a picture of the NBA cracking down on MJ for wearing black and red Air Jordan 1s. A fine was said to be issued, with Nike picking up the tab on Jordan’s behalf — portraying the sneakers as an act of defiance against the establishment.

Moore says, “Prior to that, 99 percent of shoes were white or black, so I decided to design a shoe that would really take color well. And the colors were red, black and white. I didn’t pick those colors. That’s the colors of the Chicago franchise. We did a bunch of color-ups, like a coloring book. I showed him a whole bunch of those pages. At first he was very leery of red, black and white. He did not like those, as has been quoted. He called them ‘the Devil’s colors.’ He wanted to wear Carolina blue. I told him, you’re gonna have to talk to the guy that owns the Bulls.”

A Little Omission of Facts

But there was a problem with that story about the October 18 game. While the game did take place (it was a preseason matchup against the Knicks) and Jordan did play, he was definitely not wearing the Air Jordan 1s.

MJ was wearing something called the Nike Air Ships.

It wouldn’t be crazy to mistake the Air Ships with an earlier Nike release, the Air Force 1’s. Both were designed by Bruce Kilgore and are dotted with commonalities ranging from a high-top design all the way down to the raised lettering on its sole.

Kilgore’s AF-1s were released in 1982, blazing a technological path that would shape sneaker design to this very day. It was Kilgore’s first attempt at a basketball sneaker, and it took the full might of Nike’s DCEC committee — which consisted of a wide array of scientists including an aerospace engineer named Frank Rudy.

Rudy had previously been responsible for pitching Nike on the idea of a pocket of air to cushion their sneaker designs. First introduced with the Nike Air Tailwind in 1979, that same system would be implemented in Kilgore’s AF-1s, making them the first basketball shoe with Nike’s “Air Technology.”

The same innovations were carried over into Kilgore’s next design, the Nike Air Ships. What was in retrospect a stop-gap between the AF-1’s and Air Jordan 1’s, the Air Ships could have been reduced to a mere piece of trivia for sneaker heads. But as it so happened, the Air Ships would go down in history as the sneakers worn by Michael Jordan in his first-ever NBA games.

Pesky Timing Truths

Though for years, Nike kept them a secret.

Because details like that ruin great storytelling, Nike tried to erase the Air Ships from memory. Despite Jordan only wearing the Air Jordan 1s in an NBA game for the first time in late November of his rookie year, they became known as his first NBA shoe.

The myth carried Nike to the March retail launch of the Air Jordan 1s, marking the first in a line of sneakers that rivaled Jordan’s on-court greatness in popularity and has dominated in terms of longevity.

Nike stuck to their story for decades — never releasing a retro or mentioning the Air Ships at all.

They rewrote history.

Finally, the Jordan Brand Twitter account posted a photo of MJ wearing Air Ships on the 30th anniversary of his NBA debut.

Then, in 2020, Nike brought the Air Ships out of the box for a long-awaited return ahead of “The Last Dance” docuseries.

Not long after, the earliest known regular season pair of Jordan’s game-worn sneakers came up for auction at Sotheby’s. The red and white Air Ships were signed by Jordan and matched to his fifth NBA game in 1984. After decades in the dark, the Air Ships became the first pair of sneakers to ever sell at auction for over $1M. They shattered the record, with bidding ending at nearly $1.5M.

Meanwhile, the Air Jordan 1s launched a multibillion-dollar industry through the Jordan X Nike collaboration — one that remains thriving today decades after that first meeting.

Highlighted Rally Assets

Rally’s 1985 Michael Jordan Rookie Game-Worn Air Jordan 1’s

Rally’s 1985 Nike Michael Jordan Rookie Promo Card

Rally’s 1990’s Bulls Championship Rings Complete Set (6)

Rally’s 1992 Signed Michael Jordan Game-Worn Air Jordan 7’s

Rally’s 1984 Jordan Signing Day Jersey

Rally’s 1996 Michael Jordan Playoff-Worn Air Jordan 11’s “Bred”

Rally’s 1985 Jordan “Shattered Backboard” Jersey (Signed)

Sources

Armstrong, Megan. n.d. “Michael Jordan Preferred Adidas over Nike, Converse out of College.” Bleacher Report. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2890004-michael-jordan-preferred-adidas-over-nike-converse-out-of-college.

“How Nike Landed Michael Jordan.” 2013. ESPN.com. February 15, 2013. https://www.espn.com.au/blog/playbook/dollars/post/_/id/2918/how-nike-landed-michael-jordan.

Benson, Pat. 2022. “Michael Jordan Signed with Nike 38 Years Ago Today.” Sports Illustrated FanNation Kicks News, Analysis and More. October 26, 2022. https://www.si.com/fannation/sneakers/news/michael-jordan-nike-celebrate-38-years-together.

Armstrong, Megan. n.d. “Michael Jordan Preferred Adidas over Nike, Converse out of College.” Bleacher Report. Accessed March 30, 2023. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2890004-michael-jordan-preferred-adidas-over-nike-converse-out-of-college.

Bieler, Des. n.d. “A Young Michael Jordan Wanted Adidas for His Shoe Deal. Adidas Passed.”Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2015/03/24/a-young-michael-jordan-wanted-adidas-for-his-shoe-deal-adidas-passed/.

“Introducing the Icon: How the Air Jordan I Came to Life.” 2018. SLAM. November 14, 2018. https://www.slamonline.com/kicks/introducing-icon-air-jordan-came-life/.

Sandomir, Richard. 2022. “Peter Moore, a Force in the 1980s Sneaker Revolution, Dies at 78.”The New York Times, May 6, 2022, sec. Business. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/06/business/peter-moore-dead.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CPrior%20to%20that%2C%2099%20percent.

“Setting Straight the Story of the Nike Air Ship.” n.d. Sneaker Freaker. https://www.sneakerfreaker.com/features/setting-straight-the-story-of-the-nike-air-ship.

Steve Beaven, The Oregonian. 2009. “Frank Rudy, the Inventor of the Nike Air Sole Technology, Has Died.” Oregonlive. December 25, 2009. https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2009/12/frank_rudy_the_inventor_of_the.html.

“Michael Jordan’s Game-Worn Nike Air Ship Sold for $1.47 Million USD at Sotheby’s Auction.” 2021. Hypebeast. October 25, 2021. https://hypebeast.com/2021/10/michael-jordan-game-worn-nike-air-ship-record-1-47-million-usd-sothebys-sale.

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The post If the Shoe Fits: When Michael Jordan and Nike Joined Forces to Launch an Empire appeared first on Rally | Alternative Asset Investment.

It’s 2005, and somewhere in an imaginary bourgeois suburb of Hartford, Connecticut, Emily Gilmore is positively mooning over the fact that her Rory has been gifted a Birkin bag by her boyfriend, Logan Huntzberger. It’s a reaction lost upon her granddaughter, who earlier mused, “I went to school with a guy named Birkin.” If there was any question in Rory’s mind of the significance of the Birkin, Emily’s dumbfounded glee hammers home the significance of the gesture, as with a raised eyebrow, she spills, “A Birkin bag… I’m going to remember this day.”

To breathe the word Birkin is to whisper a holy incantation among the upper crust. To fashion elite and likeminded social climbers, the bag seems to indicate not just luxury, or wealth, or celebrity, but a kind of social prowess. One must be well-connected, as they aren’t often displayed in-store, and up until recently, required the endurance of a years-long (and now abandoned) waiting list. And so the bag has become a pop culture icon, conjured in TV and film to symbolize, so succinctly, any number of profound emotions; from a symbol of ardor by the social elite in Gilmore Girls, to the blinding consumerism that led to Samantha shamelessly name dropping Lucy Liu in Sex and the City, to a most subtle indication of Lydia’s abused power dynamic in the Oscar nominated film Tár.

First-Class Magic

The origin of the Birkin bag is charming, to say the least. In 1981, Jane Birkin spilled her handbag on an airplane, and lamented its shortcomings to her neighbor, who, serendipitously, happened to be Jean-Louis Dumas, CEO of Hermès.

Birkin, a London-born actress and singer, rose to fame in France in the 1960s and was most well known as the lover and muse of French actor and musician Serge Gainsbourg, collaborating with him in music and film. The two were partners for 12 years, and share one of Birkin’s three daughters, Charlotte Gainsbourg. It was during this time Birkin established herself as a fashion icon, spending her time in the limelight painting the town with Gainsbourg, enjoying the benefits of French celebrity, and rubbing elbows with artists and musicians.

As a long-time customer of the fashion house, Birkin remarked upon spilling her bag, “The day Hermès makes one with pockets, I will have that!” and to her surprise, Dumas responded, “Well I am Hermès, and I will put pockets in for you.” Dumas surely would have been acutely aware that Jane Birkin was a style icon spanning the ‘60s and ‘70s, and may or may not have considered the irony that she was infamous for not carrying a purse at all, but a large, drum-shaped wicker basket, which accompanied her to Parisian street markets, discos, and red carpets alike.

Women Deserve Pockets, By Any Means

The notion of toting a large basket was a departure from women’s handbag trends in the ‘70s. While the 1950s were all about impeccably coordinated purses that matched one’s hat and shoes, and the ‘60s were about introducing more daring and exciting materials( à la Coco Chanel’s gold chain strap), the late ‘60s and early ‘70s were about a new level of practicality. Pockets were suddenly all the rage in women’s clothing, and handbags had to step up their ease of use. No longer fussy, and increasingly less cumbersome, handbags were still very much a staple of female fashion, and women often opted for a bag that was sleek, small, and flashy.

“The day Hermès makes one with pockets, I will have that!”

Jane Birkin

In contrast, Birkin’s wicker tote conjured images of the pastoral. And yet, her inherent charm and effortlessly quirky style endeared the masses. Carrying a “Birkin Basket” was a significant style trend throughout the 1970s, one that is called upon even today within contemporary publications as natural textures and colors – macrame, wicker, jute, and rattan– experience a renaissance in fashion and interior design.

A Nonplussed Icon

Birkin’s particular brand of laid back and unpretentious fashion was somewhat an antithesis of Hermès’s precisional sensibilities. While Hermès has built a reputation on sturdy, yet refined construction and exceptional attention to detail, Birkin often donned jeans and fitted t-shirts. Even in her more high-fashion moments, she was nonplussed, and forewent fussiness for a playful approach, unafraid to turn a dress backward, add a bangle or a broach, and shrugging off otherwise scandalous moments—such as when a photographer’s flash exposed the sheerness of her dress, as well as all that sat underneath it. When the photos surfaced, a bemused Birkin stated, “If I’d had known it was see-through, I wouldn’t have worn knickers.”

Birkin was dearly attached to her signature basket despite its less-than-practical form and tendency to topple over, spilling out her belongings. She carried it loyally into the 1980s, until her third husband, Jacques Doillon, known for his tumultuous relationship with Birkin, purposely backed over the basket with his car in the aftermath of an argument Birkin can no longer even recall. The event happened just days before Birkin happened upon Dumas on her flight.

An Airsick Bag Leads to Glamour

And so, in the early ‘80s, with the iconic wicker basket strewn in pieces across her driveway, and the contents of her current bag strewn across the floor of the airplane, Dumas had stumbled into an opportunity not seen by the fashion house since the 1950s, when Grace Kelly demurely featured her own Hermès bag in order to conceal her pregnancy after an onslaught of photographers had caught her off guard. The “Kelly Bag” is Hermès’s second most sought-after piece.

As a flustered Birkin collected her spilled belongings, she remarked that a purse ought to have pockets for everything. Dumas scribbled, and by the time their flight landed, the preliminary sketch of the Birkin Bag sat, unassuming, on the back of an airplane sick bag. A few months later, Birkin was invited to Hermès to approve the prototype, and claimed that even the cardboard version was beautiful. She was humbled when Dumas asked if Hermès could name the bag “The Birkin”, recalling in an interview, “He said, well we’ve got the Kelly, and we’ve got Mr. Dumas’ traveling bag, or something, can we call this your name? And I said, “Ah! With pleasure! You know I was so flattered after the Kelly and everything.’”

Like Its Namesake, a Sensation

What followed was an exponential rise in popularity, with the bag bearing the name of Jane Birkin superseding the popularity, at least in the U.S., of the iconic actress herself. Not only referenced in dozens of instances across music, movies and television, the bag is also photographed hanging from the arms of every major American celebrity. The singer remarked of visiting the U.S., “Now when I go to America, they say, ‘Birkin… like the bag?’”

Each Birkin bag is handmade with premium leathers and hardware, and depending on the color and intricacy of the design, as well as its scarcity – some issues are limited edition – cost can vary greatly.

Take the limited edition Faubourg: intricate detailing depicting the façade of Hermès flagship store is made up of four premium leathers – Matte Alligator, Madame Calfskin Leather, Swift Leather, and Sombrero Leather, as well as Palladium hardware, all hand-constructed with breathtaking detail. Only fifty Faubourg-designed bags in each color scheme and unique 20 cm size exist.

Likewise, the rare waterproof ostrich leather of the Tangerine Ostrich Birkin lends a durability to its charming polka-dotted design. The sought-after bag’s bright orange color that harkens to the signature color of the brand itself is one of only five shades of orange ever used in the construction of a Birkin bag.

But this scarcity, while perpetuating the prestige of the bag, also favors the owner financially. Birkin bags are well known for nearly always appreciating in value. And with Hermès ditching their infamous waitlist, obtaining a Birkin is all the more difficult to accomplish, making resale markets a lucrative avenue.

With the bags’ rare leathers, skyrocketing values, and aggrandized reputation, Birkin herself, although notoriously nonchalant about the entire endeavor, has held the fashion house to a certain ethical standard, even threatening to remove her name from the product in 2015 if Hermès failed to adhere to humane practices in the sourcing of their materials. An activist on several fronts, she worked with the brand to assure to her satisfaction that their leather was procured as ethically as possible before reinstating her blessing that the bag retain her name.

Jane Birkin Forever

As for her own Birkin bag, who would Jane Birkin be if she didn’t approach the concept of her namesake bag with her signature detachment? Ironically, she seems to treat the world famous bag just as she did her farmer’s market basket decades ago. It’s a catchall of sorts, often overflowing with knicknacks, chains, and stickers. She claims it’s just more fun if her bag jangles when she moves. With a shrug she muses, “There’s no fun in a bag if it’s not kicked around.” She uses only one Birkin at a time, and wears it into tatters before requesting another. (The expired bags are then auctioned, with the proceeds going to a charity of Birkin’s choice.) Jane Birkin has managed to make a handbag that is world famous for carrying her name both authentically and antithetically Birkin. And so it seems, rather poetically, that there’s only one true Birkin bag in the world.

Rally Assets

RALLY’S HERMÈS 20CM SELLIER FAUBOURG BIRKIN (BLUE)

RALLY’S HERMÈS 20CM SELLIER FAUBOURG BIRKIN (BROWN)

RALLY’S HERMÈS 30CM HIMALAYA BIRKIN

RALLY’S HERMÈS 30CM TANGERINE OSTRICH BIRKIN

RALLY’S HERMÈS 30CM “SO BLACK” BIRKIN

RALLY’S HERMÈS 35CM BORDEAUX CROCODILE BIRKIN

RALLY’S HERMÈS 25CM BLEU LÉZARD BIRKIN

RALLY’S HERMÈS 35CM PICNIC KELLY

Sources:

Cary, Alice, and Roberta Lister. “Handbag History: Bags That Defined the Decades.” British Vogue. British Vogue, October 24, 2021. https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/bag-trends-by-the-decade.

Chernikoff, Leah. “The Mighty, MIGHTY Birkin: How the HERMES Carryall Withstood Trends and WEATHERED SEASONS to Become an INDELIBLE PART of the CULTURE.” Harper’s Bazaar 3690, no. 3690, n.d.

Chloehadz. “8 Things You Didn’t Know About the Birkin.” PurseBop, September 19, 2021. https://www.pursebop.com/things-you-didnt-know-about-the-birkin/.

Cole, Lisa. “The Other Birkin Bag: Jane Birkin and the Wicker Basket.” The Other Birkin Bag: Jane Birkin and The Wicker Basket. Blogger, June 1, 2017. https://www.westfultonstreet.com/2017/06/the-other-birkin-bag-jane-birkin-and.html.

Leitch, Luke. “How Jane Birkin’s Bag Idea Took Off.” The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, March 6, 2012. http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG9126955/How-Janes-Birkin-bag-idea-took-off.html.

Moore, Booth. “Birkin Bag: From Status Symbol to Badge of Shame.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, July 29, 2015. https://www.latimes.com/fashion/alltherage/la-ar-birkin-bag-20150729-story.html.

Pennington, Olivia. “Everything You Need to Know about the Hermès Birkin.” Sotheby’s, August 23, 2021. https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-hermes-birkin.

Reed, Betsy. “Jane Birkin Drops Request to Have Her Name Removed from Hermès Handbag.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, September 11, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/sep/11/jane-birkin-hermes-handbag-crocodile-farm.

Sherman Palladino, Amy, and Keith Eisner. “Welcome to The Dollhouse.” Episode. Gilmore Girls 6, no. 6, October 18, 2005.

Star, Darren, Jenny Bicks, and Candace Bushnell. “Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda.” Episode. Sex and the City 4, no. 11, August 5, 2001.

“What’s Inside Jane Birkin’s Birkin Bag.” Segment. CBS Sunday Morning, January 21, 2018.

The post Birkin: How a Basket Walked So a Bag Could Run the World appeared first on Rally | Alternative Asset Investment.

If you grew up in the Nintendo Entertainment System era of the 1980s, you almost certainly played Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!. The boxing title was unlike anything else out at the time. The characters were huge and expressive. Opponents were more of a puzzle to solve instead of button-mashing fest. And Mike Tyson remains one of the most legendary final bosses of all time.

Punch-Out!!’s history is full of fascinating facts. Did you ever wonder how much Nintendo paid Mike Tyson for his likeness? Or that some of the music is from an old razor ad? We cover all that and more in Punch-Out!!’s weird and wonderful roundup.

The Title Theme From Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! Is an Old Ad Jingle

The moment you turn on Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, the first screen proclaims “Mike is waiting for your challenge!!” as a whimsical march plays. Did you know that this music is actually a 1950s ad jingle?

The song is officially titled “To Look Sharp,” and the tune was the theme music for “The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports.” The razor company was the sole sponsor of this show in the early days of television. While the program covered football, baseball, and everything in between, Friday night boxing at Madison Square Garden was the primary focus.

Just like current NFL intros get you in the mood for football, the Look Sharp march was synonymous with boxing back in the 1950s.

Decades later, it became a nostalgic touchstone. In 1980’s Raging Bull, the house band plays the tune at protagonist Jake LaMotta’s Miami nightclub. And Coleco’s Head-to-Head Electronic Boxing used the tune in 1981, three years ahead of Punch-Out!!’s arcade debut.

How Much Did Mike Tyson Make From Punch-Out!!?

Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! is one of the most famous licensed sports titles in the history of gaming. But how much did the ‘80s boxing megastar make for lending his name and likeness? Not as much as you think.

In January 1986, Genyo Takeda was in the midst of porting his arcade hit Punch-Out!! to the Nintendo Entertainment System. Meanwhile, Nintendo of America President Minoru Arakawa attended CES in Las Vegas and happened to watch a 19-year-old Mike Tyson TKO David Jaco in the first round. Arakawa was stunned and called Takeda to recommend they sign this guy for the NES boxing game.

The deal was made, but since Tyson had yet to win a title at that time, he was reportedly paid only $50,000 for a three-year contract. Over the next year, Tyson would go on to win the WBC, WBA, and IBF heavyweight championships. Just six weeks before the release of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! on October 18, 1987, he unified all three. The timing for Nintendo couldn’t have been better.

Compare this to Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise. Hawk himself confirmed that after the first three games were megahits, he was handed a check for a staggering $4 million dollars.

Some People Can Beat Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! Blindfolded

Simply beating the final namesake boss in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! Is a legendary achievement in its own right. But some extremely dedicated players can play through the entire game blindfolded.

A Punch-Out!! pro named Sinister1 first attempted the challenge at annual charity speedrunning event Awesome Games Done Quick in 2012. It was a relatively brief run, but he returned in subsequent years, making it all the way to Mike Tyson at AGDQ 2014.

A player named Jack Wedge would be the first to beat the game blindfolded in one sitting in 2015. By AGDQ 2016, Sinister1 and Zallard1 raced blindfolded head-to-head to beat the entire game with Zallard1 taking home the victory at 25:27.

Four years later, these maniacs teamed up at AGDQ 2020 for a blindfolded “2 players 1 controller” run. Zallard1 handled Little Mac’s movements on the d-pad while Sinister1 unleashed all the punches. Incredibly, they beat the game at a time of 23:39.

The current record for a blindfolded Punch-Out!! run is a ridiculous 18:03, held by the legendary Summoningsalt. This player holds the world record in nearly every Punch-Out!! category. Incredibly, this time would place him in the top 30 against players fighting with full use of all senses.

Punch-Out!! Brought a Cinematic Flair to Video Game Boxing

It’s easy to take Punch-Out!!’s timeless gameplay and appealing presentation for granted. However, if you look back at what came before, it was a huge leap forward.

Sega’s Heavyweight Champ in 1976 was possibly the first fighting game and featured goofy boxing glove controllers. Activision’s Boxing in 1980 showcased ant-like pugilists from a top-down perspective.

Punch-Out!! arcade in 1984 utilized new sprite-zooming tech to make the colorful characters feel larger than life. Nintendo creative mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto designed the boxers and took them to animation house Studio Junio to make them shine like real movie characters. The dual-screen setup pushed nearly all of the HUD elements to the top screen so that players could look their rivals in the eye (through their fighter’s weird green wireframe body, of course) and be fully immersed.

When Punch-Out!! came home to the NES in ‘87, Nintendo added even more: pulse-pounding music played during the fights, inter-round dialog with trainer Doc Louis and rival fighters told a story of how the fights were going, montages featuring protagonist Little Mac jogging in a pink sweatsuit added heart, and Tyson’s intimidating one-hit-kill uppercuts frightened off all but the bravest challengers. These tenants added an element of the hit Rocky movies, which live on nearly 50 years later with the release of Creed III.

Assets and Sourcing

Rally’s 1987 NES Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!

Sources

“Our History.” NBC Sports. https://www.nbcsports.com/our-history#decade_2.

Jonathan Dunn-Rankin, “Sega Center Offers State of the Art Video Games in 1977,” CBS 8 San Diego. YouTube video, 2:07, Apr 7, 2022, https://youtu.be/LwfeOu0QsGk.

Gaijillionaire, “The Story Of Punch Out!! Theme Song ‘Look Sharp!,’” GTV Japan. YouTube video, 8:14, Dec 1, 2018, https://youtu.be/4iBeleAy5RE

Norman Caruso, “The Story of Punch-Out!! | Gaming Historian,” Gaming Historian. YouTube video, 48:21, Dec 4, 2018, https://youtu.be/XAwM-lCI4YU

“Gillette Cavalcade of Sports – Boxing,” Mitch Alan. YouTube video, 3:21, July 3, 2009, https://youtu.be/C6cyy_rziuk

Kussoy, Howie. “Inside the Mania and Appeal of the Best Boxing Video Game Ever.” New York Post. July 11, 2017. https://nypost.com/2017/07/10/inside-the-mania-and-appeal-of-the-best-boxing-video-game-ever/.

“Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! Speedrun Records.” Speedrun.com. Elo Entertainment Inc. https://www.speedrun.com/mtpo?h=Single_Segment&x=5dw9qn2g.

“The History of Blindfolded Punch-Out,” Summoning Salt. YouTube video, 40:43, Feb 17, 2019, https://youtu.be/iZT6JEOC3D8

“Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! by sinister1 and zallard1 in 23:39 – AGDQ2020,” Games Done Quick. YouTube video, 36:03, Jan 14, 2020, https://youtu.be/lLGY_BNYLx8

“Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! – Blindfolded Race w/ sinister1 performed at AGDQ 2016,” Zallard1. YouTube video, 29:34, Jan 7, 2020, https://youtu.be/qN_Gk5jGdrQ

Martin Scorsese, director. Raging Bull. United Artists, 1980. 2 hrs., 9 min. https://play.hbomax.com/player/urn:hbo:feature:GWGwjvQHvEpfDXwEAAAAL?exitPageUrn=urn:hbo:page:GWGwjvQHvEpfDXwEAAAAL:type:feature.

“How Much Money Did Tony Hawk Make From Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater??,” Nine Club Clips. YouTube video, 9:47, June 16, 2018, https://youtu.be/d0l22xBcJZw

“Blindfolded Punch-Out in 18:03.54 (World Record),” Summoning Alt. YouTube video, 20:08, Mar 10, 2022, https://youtu.be/jc9XE6zns7A

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When the Soviet Union fell at basically the same time as Nintendo’s Game Boy was being released globally (1989), there was an unexpected overlap of two concepts powering towards international pop-culture supremacy – a newly open invitation to “exotic” Russian artistic history, and the realized dream of on-the-go gaming.

Both were summoned onto Tetris – the Game Boy’s killer app and one of the best-selling games of all time, and maybe the most-played title of all time. Original taglines before the portable release of the game labeled it, cheekily, as “From Russia With Fun.”

Drama From the Start

Tetris had been developed as a student project in the U.S.S.R., hitchhiked its way to (now) Eastern Europe, and was the focus of the wildest series of events that have ever graced the concept of “brand licensing.” (This story is the focus of an Apple+ movie with a trailer that’s like The Wizard meets Argo. We’re very excited for it). Making a great story shorter, Nintendo eventually got the handheld rights and planned to pack Tetris in with the launch consoles globally. The game was already successful as an arcade stand-up and home console release, along with a submarket of hundreds, maybe thousands, of computer knockoffs.

Puzzle video games were very (very!) common at the time, and many children’s first toys are freaking blocks, so how did this game become such a cultural touchstone? Why do we have the “Tetris Effect” and, with less than a few years since the end of the Cold War, was a game featuring a Kremlin-eque building on the loading screen embraced by kids, adults, and then First Lady, Hillary Clinton?

Iron Curtains Tie the Room Together

But more than those other entries, Tetris also has personality. Eventually, the pieces themselves would be characters, like in Puyo Puyo Tetris by Sega. But at the Game Boy launch, the extra je ne se quoi comes from very Russian cultural references. William Gibbons’ essay “Blip, Bloop, Bach? Some Uses of Classical Music on the Nintendo Entertainment System” muses out loud about the soundtrack and landscaped menu screens. “What cultural factors encouraged the game developers to exploit the game’s international origins? …After the tense atmosphere of the early 1980s, the changing social and economic policies of the USSR and the revolutions of 1989 were slowing [sic] altering American perceptions of Russia and its culture.” In summary, “Tetris plays into this alteration; rather than presenting Russian culture as universally negative, the game’s music, in-game visuals, and marketing all play into presenting Soviet culture as exotic yet positive.”

Tetris plays into this alteration…presenting Soviet culture as exotic yet positive.

William Gibbons

Nintendo and the other companies marketing Tetris weren’t going out on a limb here. The 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle were accompanied by an art exhibit called “Between Spring and Summer” and centered on modern Russian artists whose work had been developed behind the Iron Curtain. The fall of the Soviet Union and the instability of many countries led by communist governments kind of merged together, pop culturally, and made thematic ties between the Chernobyl disaster and glasnost, among other references, summarized under a general “pro-democracy” banner. The Winds of Change were blowing around the Western world.

Russians, generally, and communists, regardless of nation, were everywhere in pop culture and American tastemakers couldn’t seem to settle on a narrative. In 1985’s Rocky IV, the main characters are consumed by an unsportsmanlike, unrepentant Russian fighter and we are all treated to Siberian training montages and a Christmas Day rematch in Moscow. Just one year later, in 1986’s Top Gun, the bad guys are implied to be Russian, but not really named as the clear opponent. The menace and reason for the Navy’s elite flight school is left as a secondary threat after Mavrick’s ego. TV shows had subplots where Russian ballet stars escape their handlers and defect to the west (based on true stories) and advanced placement students went on cultural exchange trips to the former Soviet Union (Head of the Class season three Mission to Moscow Parts One and Two, here’s to you). Communism was used in the news as an extreme foil to free democracies – the fall of the Berlin Wall on one hand and the Tiananmen Square massacre on the other.

Fun with Terror

Now back to “From Russia With Fun.” Americans were happily ambling down this wide boulevard of obsession, with nuclear terror on one side and charming novelty on the other, when the Game Boy Tetris bundle was released. And families everywhere chose the traditional folk music soundtrack and onion topped buildings to be a token of exciting cultural exchange, instead of the invasion of a hostile ideology. This isn’t anything new. As a society, we do this all the time and with similarly dubious litmus tests.

SOURCES AND ASSETS

1989 NINTENDO GAME BOY (SEALED WITH TETRIS PACK-IN)

Sources:

BONUS CONTENT

Winds of Change podcast: https://crooked.com/podcast-series/wind-of-change/

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