As a child, you may have grown up collecting sports memorabilia such as baseball cards. Or you could currently have an interest in collecting designer handbags. Collecting rare collectibles is a hobby for many people out there.
You may have thought it would be a great idea to collect these items as an investment for the future. Or they could have at one point in time held some sentimental value. So, now the question is, how do you make money on these collections? That’s where Rally Rd claims to come in to help.
Rally Rd is a site designed for owners to list their collectibles and enable others to make investments in them. The company has raised over $17 million in investment on its own. There are 200,000 users who are invested in 120 “IPO” which is equal to over $15 million in assets.
Rally Rd allows investors to purchase fractional shares in collectible cars, sports memorabilia, and other assets. So, if you are looking for alternative assets from the stock market or real estate, Rally Rd might be an investment platform to consider.
Before you dive right in, though, let’s take a closer look at this collectibles investing site to see if it really measures up to all its claims. In this Rally Rd review, we’ll dive into everything you need to know about this platform to decide if it’s the right fit for your investing needs. Without anything further, let’s get started!
What is Rally Rd?
Rally RD is a fintech startup launched in 2016 by co-founders Christopher Bruno and Rob Petrozzo. The company offers an investing service that purchases collectible items and converts them into tradable securities.
This allows any investor to put money into an asset to own a piece of that item.
During its first year, Rally Rd received first and second-round funding that amounted to $10 million.
The primary focus of the Rally app was on collectible cars including Porsches, Ferraris, and other rare cars. All of the company’s assets are housed in Rally Rd’s New York City assets.
You can view some of these assets in their showroom, which rotates its classic cars and other items. This is one of the unique aspects of the Rally Rd model.
What Does Rally Rd offer?
You’ve heard of investing in stocks or mutual funds, but Rally Rd takes a different approach. Using the Rally Rd investment platform, you can buy fractional shares of alternative assets. The type of collectible investments that you can find include:
- Autographed sports memorabilia
- Classic cars
- Sports trading cards
- Books and comics
- Wine
- Watches
Let’s say you owned a Tom Brady rookie auto sports memorabilia. You’d likely want to keep that in a secure vault for safekeeping.
You probably paid a premium price on the item and must now spend even more money on storing the asset. Rally Rd allows you to begin investing with only $50.
Its platform is open to non-accredited and accredited investors alike. Their New York City showroom stores all these assets for you.
The main way that investors can make money off the platform is to sell shares when the asset price increases. Dividends can potentially be earned if the shares earn more income than expenses.
Rally Rd Features
Rally Rd’s platform is available through their website, iPhone, or Android smartphones. They offer a very user-friendly app and website to set up and manage your account.
You can view current, upcoming, and closed offerings. To open a Rally Rd account, you simply need to provide some basic information, link up your bank account, and transfer funds.
Once you have money available in your Rally Rd account, you can begin to purchase equity shares. Below are some of the key features of the platform.
Investment Listing
Rally Rd tries to make it possible to have as much detail as possible on each item. It posts photos of each offering and some may also have video footage.
You can view details of the asset like the appraisal grade and production year. You can find anything from an autographed baseball from a few years ago to an antique that is over a century old.
The chat and message board on the platform allows investors to communicate with one another. So if you’re wondering if that Buzz Aldrin control stick is such a great investment, you can find out what others think.
Beginner investors, in particular, should keep in mind that the risk factors for collectibles is very different from the stock market. Be sure to do your research and consider the risks, as you could lose money on these investments.
Purchase Equity Shares
Rally Rd uses Plaid to connect the app to most banks. Plaid is one of the most popular and widely used third-party services that many financial/investing apps use.
Investors can purchase shares while the trading window is open. This investment window closes when the funding goal for an offering has been reached.
The minimum investment is $50 per offer. You may need to buy several shares of an offering to meet this minimum investment if the pre-share price is lower.
90 days is the holding period. If you wish to sell shares of an offering, you must wait for the trading window to reopen or if Rally Rd decides to sell it.
Dividend Income
When you invest in collectibles on Rally Rd’s platform, you can potentially earn dividends. The company has operating expenses such as the cost of storing the offering in their New York City location.
When Rally Rd makes more money on the offering than these expenses, they will offer a dividend.
Not every investment may offer the potential for dividends. A target dividend payout is also not advertised, due to the unpredictable nature of a payout.
Therefore, you should think of a dividend payout on this asset class as an added bonus. The primary way that investors will make money is by purchasing investments that they believe will increase in value and selling it at a higher price.
Trading Window
You can’t invest in a collectible at any time you wish like you can when buying stocks. There are specific trading windows after the initial funding period is closed.
Rally Rd has a monthly trading window that investors can buy and sell shares. It is a one-day trading window that’s available from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.
Investors will have to wait for the next trading window if they happen to miss it. Therefore, its recommended that you sign up for notifications.
At times, Rally Rd may decide to sell an offering and liquidate the existing shares. Investors have no say in when this happens but will receive a portion of the proceeds from the sale that’s proportional to their investment.
Rally Rd Assets
If you go to a normal market to buy the types of items that Rally Rd offers, you would have to attend auctions, monitor eBay, and attend car shows. The great benefit of the platform is that you have access to a great variety of items without hunting online or at local events.
Rally Rd offers what they call “blue-chip collectibles” which are items that have a higher value than similar collectibles. The actual available collectibles in each asset class will vary and some may not have any items open.
The best way to see upcoming offerings is to sign up for notifications.
Memorabilia
Sports and pop culture collectibles like pokemon cards, classic video games, rookie cards for famous athletics, and autographed sports equipment may be offered.
Classic Cars
Rally Rd started out offering a low-risk investing option for investors who wished to buy fractional shares of collectible cars. Now you can find anything from classic cars to modern exotic sports cars on the app.
Some of their recent offerings in this asset class include:
- 1965 Ford Mustang
- 2006 Ferrari F430
- 1994 Lamborghini Diablo
For car enthusiasts, it is such a great benefit to be able to invest in a vehicle without having to worry about storing it or keeping up with its maintenance history.
Comics and Literary Classics
Rare comic books and the first editions of literature books are among the investments that you may find on Rally Rd. Some of the previous offerings have included:
- 1959 DC Comics The Flash #105
- 1941 DC Comics Batman #6
- J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings
Additionally, there are some publications that have been signed by the author that has become available on the platform.
Wine & Whiskey
Another really cool concept is investing in alcohol. Whiskey and collectible wine offer investors a chance to make money from this long-term investing asset.
Watches and Luxury
If you’re into luxury fashion, designer handbags, or collectible watches, you can also invest in these offerings with Rally Rd. Rolex, Omega, and Hermes being among the brands that have been offered.
Is Rally Rd Legit like the Stock Market?
Yes, Rally Rd is a legitimate fintech platform that allows investors to invest in collectibles. The company has relationships with registered broker-dealers which comply with regulations from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
The SEC and FINRa are governing bodies that regulate and monitor stock brokerages and alternative asset investments.
You can rest assured that the platform is highly vetted. You can even go and view the assets offered by Rally Rd by visiting their showroom in New York City.
Investment Risk and the Potential to Lose Money
Just like any investment such as real estate, it is possible to lose money. Since you purchase fractional shares, this does help create very low-risk investing versus buying a collectible outright.
It’s difficult to predict the future performance of a collectible and if it will increase in value. But two major things you can do is to research auction prices and estimate the value of similar items.
This will help you determine if the price that Rally Rd has set is realistic or not.
A great app feature is that you can view the lifetime investment performance of previous and current offerings. You also have the platform’s portfolio tracking dashboard which you can use to keep track of how your investments are performing.
Security
To sign up with Rally Rd, you will need to provide some personal information including your Social Security number to join. This is the norm with investment apps and exchanges to help prevent fraud.
The information is also used for tax purposes.
The platform uses data encryption technology to protect your data from possible identity theft issues or data breaches. Your personal information is not sold to other third parties either.
How much does Rally Rd Cost?
The Rally app itself is free to use. There are no account fees or commissions when you buy and sell these alternative assets.
It’s important to note that the company has stated that this could change in the future. A subscription model or pay-as-you-go premium plan are among the two possibilities. Rally Rd has also committed to always having a free option for investors too.
You can be a non-accredited or accredited investor and use the platform.
Since the company physically stores each asset, it generates operating costs. The impact is that investors may not earn dividends if the cost of storing these collectibles exceeds the asset’s value. After all, a classic car isn’t something you can toss in a closet.
Who should invest with Rally Rd?
Experienced and beginner investors who wish to invest in collectibles or are looking for a neat way to diversify their current portfolio may consider Rally Rd. For example, a car fan who wants to buy and sell shares of rare automobiles can get into this great investment without paying the actual price of these cars.
Rally Rd allows investors to buy fractional shares into these collectibles. Non-accredited and accredited investors alike can purchase shares.
The accredited investor does not have any investment restrictions. To qualify for this status yo must have a liquid net worth of $1 million dollars or more or your annual income must be over $200,000 ($300,000 for joint couples).
Rally Rd Pros
Makes it Easy to Invest in Collectibles
These types of assets aren’t generally easily accessible to everyone. You have to attend events (in-person and online) and hunt for the collectibles you’re interested in.
The beauty of this platform is that it brings a variety of these offerings to you. Before a trading window is open, you can check out what is being offered so you can determine if you want to invest.
No Trading or Management fees
This unique app is currently free to use. The company has stated that they expect to offer paid service models in the future, however, has also said they plan to keep a free version too.
Shares can be sold after holding for 90 days
Some investing platforms, particularly those in the real estate arena, require that you hold your investment for even a few years. With Rally Road, you just need to hold the offering for at least 90 days.
Don’t need a ton of money to start
Even the wine share can be bought for a low investment amount. The minimum investment is $50 per offering. You may have to purchase a few shares to meet that minimum depending on the item.
Alternative Assets allows a way to Diversity your Portfolio
Almost every piece of investment advice would not recommend putting money into just one basket. Lost money is hard to recoup when it’s all invested in one asset.
Investing in collectibles offers a unique way to diversify your portfolio and manage your risk.
Assets can be viewed in Showroom
There is no need to pick up the collectible from the previous owner and figure out where to store it. Rally Rd keeps all its offerings in a showroom in New York City.
If you get the itch to go check out that 2006 Ferrari F430, you can go visit their showroom.
Platform is open to Non-Accredited Investors
Some investing platforms are only for accredited investors. This makes many of these apps unavailable to many investors.
Rally Rd is open to any investor which allows anyone interested in these types of assets to get started.
Rally Rd Cons
Not many Offerings Available
There are only a few open offerings that are available on the platform. The lack of available assets means that you may have to look elsewhere to find other potential collectible investments outside Rally Rd or work with the limited options.
Trading Windows are Narrow
There is only one trading day each month which if you sneeze, you could miss out on it. To avoid having all the shares sold prior to getting a chance to invest, you should set up your notifications.
Still, the window is much smaller than other investing apps out there which might be a reason that you may want not wish to invest in collectibles with Rally Rd.
Lack of Retirement Account Options
The platform is very narrow in its current product offers for investors. If you’re a long-term investor who’s seeking retirement account options, Rally Rd does not currently have anything to offer you.
Possibility of a multi-year Investment Horizon
Cusincome is not a guarantee on the platform. It will depend on whether the company accrues a profit after its operating expenses.
So the main way that investors will make money on an offering is that the price of the item increases or Rally Rd sells it. This could mean that you’ll have your money tied up for several years before you see a return on your investment.
Assets can be sold without your Consent
Although you may own a piece of an asset, Rally Rd is ultimately the one that can make the decision to sell it. There is no meeting or vote on the issue. Therefore the company could sell an asset that you would have preferred to hold.
Difficultly of objectively valuing Assets
Collectibles are much more challenging to determine an objective value than other assets like gold for example. You can do your research, but there’s still no way to accurately price its potential value in the future.
FAQ: Rally Rd Review
Is the Rally Rd mobile app legit?
Rally RD offers a great app experience overall. You can easily navigate the app on both iPhone and Android operating systems. While it may not be accurate to say that there is not a single glitch and there are few five-star reviews on either operating system.
The reviews however mostly have to do with the investing mechanics and not how well the app works. It is a sharply designed app that delivers great graphics.
Does Rally Rd have good customer service?
The company is still fairly new and could improve on its customer service tools. There is a brief FAQ page that has some general information about investing and using Rally Rd.
If you have questions, you can email them at hello@rallyrd.com. You can also call or text them at 347-952-8058. There aren’t listed customer service hours, so it’s anyone’s guess how long a response will take.
Does Rally Rd have solid investment options?
There are few offerings that are available on the platform at any given time. The company doesn’t currently offer any retirement account options. The company will do the vetting on offerings such as cars and maintenance history before making a purchase. But you have no say on what is offered on the platform or when the item gets sold.
Is Rally Rd a good value?
You can’t beat free. There is no commission, no hidden fees, and the app is free to download. The company is making plans for paid models, which will hopefully allow for more investment options in the future. But the company plans to keep a freemium version regardless.
Bottom line: Rally Rd Review
If you’re seeking alternative assets, you may consider using Rally Rd to diversify your portfolio. However, you may want to limit your investments into the platform at this time. There are limited options, a small trading window, and you may have to wait several years to realize a return. The company is still new and hopefully in the future will show more promise.
