Bitcoin and Sports Cards Are Useless and Deep Down You Know It

Is Bitcoin a good investment, and what about sports cards or watches? On this standalone episode of The Price Regulator, Jason gives a blunt answer: Bitcoin and sports cards are useless, and deep down you know it. His reasoning is simple. An asset with no cash flow and no use in daily life only has value if the next buyer will pay for it. He covers Bitcoin, crypto, sports cards, watches and jewelry, and sets them against alternative investments that pay you every month. This is opinion only, not financial advice.

No cash flow, no purpose: the only value is the next buyer

Jason is very conscious of any investment where the only value is whether someone else will give you money for it. No revenue, no cash flow, and no other purpose. You hold the thing and ask: how much will you give me for this? If nobody gives you anything for it, it is not worth anything. That is the test he applies to every asset in the episode. Something that produces nothing depends entirely on the next buyer. Everything else comes back to one question: besides what someone will pay you for it, what does this asset actually do?

Bitcoin as a hedge, but no utility yet

There are a lot of theories on Bitcoin, and Jason sees a case for it as a hedge. His issue is utility. Nobody uses Bitcoin to buy anything yet. Nothing he needs requires it. Cards, wire transfers and ACH already handle everything he, or anyone he knows, needs to buy. He is curious about what crypto might do in the future, and he is clear that he does not know where it will go. But right now, its value only comes from someone else paying for it. It does nothing for him day to day and makes no money. The accounts that offer to pay you for storing your crypto with them strike him as sketchy. He does not know where that payout comes from.

Are sports cards and watches a good investment?

Sports cards, watches and jewelry get the same test. Jason actually enjoys watching videos of people hunting down cards, buying out collections and going through them. He enjoys watches, chains, gold, silver and jewelry the same way. Watching is his fix, and it stops him from wanting to buy. Beyond someone being willing to pay, those things have no other value to him. He also points out how much you have to know to make money trading sports cards. The people who know that market inside out can do very well. For everyone else, the only thing holding the price up is the next buyer.

Assets that pay you every month

The alternative is assets with revenue that keeps coming in every month, like real estate, bonds and insurance policies. Jason likes those much better because he understands them. His bigger point is predictability. You can far more easily predict a company that makes money over time than a market where the only store of value is another person willing to pay you for something. Think about what consumers must have day to day, and you are looking at something you can understand. That is the core of cash flow investing.

What people keep paying for when money gets tight

Then Jason runs the test that settles it for him. People do not need a sports card or a watch. They have the time on their phone. So when people stop caring or are not in a position to buy, what do they keep paying for? Their phone bill, yes. Food, yes. They still drive. They still pay the rent and their insurance. Sports cards, watches, or crypto with no utility to them? No, they will not. That is the difference between something people must have and something they buy only when everything is going well, and it is what Jason thinks about first when investing.

Income or appreciation, never neither

Jason's rule for his own investments is simple. If the appreciation is not much, he wants the income there. If the income is not huge, then the appreciation should be. Ideally both. In the cash flow vs appreciation question, appreciation with no income at all is what he is very cautious about. He is clear that plenty of people know far more than he does about sports cards, jewelry and crypto, and some of them will become very wealthy because they truly understand those markets. That is his last point: invest in what you know, and keep learning more about it. For more on how Jason thinks about building something that lasts, see Rich vs Wealthy.