Treasure Trove, the collectibles holding company building the “Cultural Store of Value,” today announced an advisory board that reads like an all-star roster of the industry: Ken Goldin, founder of Goldin; Jeremy Padawer, lifelong collector and investor; and Jim Halperin and Steve Ivy, co-founders of Heritage Auctions.

“This is the Avengers of the collectibles world,” said AJ Scaramucci, founder of Treasure Trove. “These are the people who built this industry. Having them on board — with their own capital at stake — is a validation of the thesis we’ve been building: that grail-level collectibles are a serious, investable asset class.”

The board brings deep, complementary expertise across every major collectibles category. Jim Halperin and Steve Ivy built Heritage Auctions into one of the largest auction houses in the world — spanning pop culture, movie props, comics, coins, and trading cards — and are on pace to break their own annual gross-sales record for the sixth consecutive year. Ken Goldin, founder of Goldin and known as “the King of Collectibles,” has sold billions of dollars of collectibles throughout his career. With deep expertise in sports cards and memorabilia, he worked with Treasure Trove on its record-setting Joe Montana jersey acquisition. Jeremy Padawer, a center node in the collector economy, is a true collectibles investor who runs his own underwriting model and identified Pokémon cards as a serious investment opportunity in 2018, watching select assets appreciate roughly one hundredfold in the years that followed.

Beyond credibility, the board delivers what the company describes as its single biggest operational advantage: collectively, the advisors know where grail-level assets are held and who owns them — an edge that is difficult to replicate and one that is central to Treasure Trove’s acquisition strategy.

“Collectibles have evolved from passion assets into a serious global asset class, and Treasure Trove is building for what comes next,” said Padawer. “I’m excited to join the advisory board and help identify, acquire, steward, and tell the stories of the world’s most iconic cultural assets with the discipline, ambition and long-term vision they deserve.”

Why Collectibles, and Why Now

Treasure Trove frames collectibles alongside gold and Bitcoin as a third category of scarce, store-of-value assets — first was physical, then digital, and now cultural. As currencies continue to debase and AI drives the cost of intelligence toward zero, capital will increasingly flow into these kinds of scarce assets. The company applies the same underwriting discipline to acquiring one-of-one “grail” assets that an investor would apply to securities or companies, targeting pieces with a history of compounding faster than market rates of return.

The numbers increasingly bear that out: the legendary Babe Ruth Called Shot jersey compounded at a 19% IRR over nearly 20 years since its first official sale in 2005. Treasure Trove’s own Pikachu Illustrator has returned a 73% IRR since its first recorded sale in 2015, and its PSA 9.6 A++ copy of Super Mario Bros.—which Treasure Trove landed by outbidding Reddit co-founder and collectibles enthusiast Alexis Ohanian—has compounded 51% since a similar transaction in 2019. Countless examples show that top-tier assets across cards, comics, and memorabilia have posted returns that rival traditional financial markets and alternatives.

“The collectibles market has always been driven by passion, and that will never change,” said Scaramucci. “What we’re adding is institutional financial rigor, treating these assets with the seriousness they’ve always deserved. That expertise builds on a run of headline acquisitions, including the Montana jersey, the PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator card acquired for approximately $16.5 million, and the first appearance of Iron Man (Tales of Suspense #39), a comic book from 1963 that is in perfect condition.”

About Treasure Trove

Treasure Trove is a collectibles holding company building the Cultural Store of Value, acquiring one-of-one grail assets across categories including trading cards, comics, and sports memorabilia. Recent acquisitions include the PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator card, the first appearance of Iron Man (Tales of Suspense #39), the highest-graded copy of the earliest sealed edition of Super Mario Bros, and Joe Montana’s record-setting Super Bowl XXIV jersey. The company partners with museums to exhibit its holdings and produces short- and long-form media chronicling the history of iconic collectibles and the journeys behind acquiring them. Its podcast, Treasure Hunters, has featured guests such as Palmer Luckey, Logan Paul, and Benji and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte.

Media gallery

About The Author
Business Wire