10 ms·

> What else is there? Storage of value. If you want to diversify, you may want something easy to move/hide for some scenarios. I'm not saying this painting wor

by comboy 9y ago

> What else is there? Storage of value. If you want to diversify, you may want something easy to move/hide for some scenarios. I'm not saying this painting works great for that purpose, just that that's one of the things that may make people want to buy it.

blunte 9y ago
If you have $4bn, unless you're investing in Beanie Babies, you really don't have to struggle to find stable stores of value. At that stratosphere of wealth, an art piece is not about diversification. It's a bit like buying a 200m yacht to surpass all other private yachts. What I find amusing is that even the ultra rich people are statistically NEVER the richest people. There are perhaps 5 people in the world who could be debated as one of the richest people in the world. And their individual wealth exceeds the "poor rich" such as this person by a factor of 20+. To people outside their bubble it just looks "sad" (pardon the Trumpism).
- drcode 9y ago
  I agree- I would estimate 95% or more of really rich people are mostly indistinguishable from an upper middle class person from the outside: Sure, they have maids and maybe fly their own plane or have an expensive classic car but there are these 5% of rich people who somehow have a strange compulsion to advertise their wealth as widely as possible and they're the ones who have the 100 mil yachts and go to these sorts of auctions (the exception maybe being Bill Gates' Da Vinci notebook purchase... likely Bill just thought those were super cool)
  - blunte 9y ago
    Clearly Bill Gates doesn't need to flaunt his wealth. I'm sure he was just really excited by Da Vinci, and the opportunity to own a real piece of history was totally worth it. Despite Gates's (very) questionable method of rising to greatness, what he has attempted to do with his wealth is well above what most "rich" people do.
    - vixen99 9y ago
      And he's done a brilliant PR job. https://www.liberationnews.org/real-agenda-gates-foundation/ https://www.liberationnews.org/real-agenda-gates-foundation/
      - zxcmx 9y ago
        Oddly enough I find it easier to believe that Bill Gates wants to change the world for the better than to believe that he is secretly pushing some neocapitalist agenda. Mainly because he personally has everything to gain from the former and practically nothing from the latter at the wealth level he operates at. Dude could get a better return on index funds than from his philanthropy. Cynically, plain investing is low status where he is at, less cynically he has a lot of time to think about things and a lot of resources and I believe many (most? hmm) humans would act the same way under those conditions. Maybe I'm just an optimist.
- comboy 9y ago
  What are examples of those 4bn+ stores of value then? I was thinking of something that can be easily moved around - e.g. 400M in gold is 10 tonnes. Not super handy. Stocks, currencies, real estate - those are cases when you trust somebody else to take care of storing your value, most often the gov. Not trying to make an argument for my example here, just sincerely curious what those stable store of value can be.
  - blunte 9y ago
    If you have 4bn, you own interests in many companies, many funds, direct physical properties, property funds, etc. If you have 4bn, you don't "move" money around at that scale. You move small fractions around. And in terms of what you can spend... aside from the occasional private island purchase, there's really not a lot you can spend significant fractions of that worth on. Enjoy a little exercise. Imagine you have 1bn to blow. Google for things you would desire. Unless you want to try to buy a block of SF, you'll find it hard to spend more than a few hundred million at once. How many 100+ meter yachts can you use? The nicest Gulfstream global jet is about 100 million nicely equipped. A used Boeing jumbo jet is even less... It's actually hard to spend that kind of money unless you basically give it away.

by comboy 9y ago

blunte 9y ago

If you have $4bn, unless you're investing in Beanie Babies, you really don't have to struggle to find stable stores of value. At that stratosphere of wealth, an art piece is not about diversification. It's a bit like buying a 200m yacht to surpass all other private yachts. What I find amusing is that even the ultra rich people are statistically NEVER the richest people. There are perhaps 5 people in the world who could be debated as one of the richest people in the world. And their individual wealth exceeds the "poor rich" such as this person by a factor of 20+. To people outside their bubble it just looks "sad" (pardon the Trumpism).

drcode 9y ago
I agree- I would estimate 95% or more of really rich people are mostly indistinguishable from an upper middle class person from the outside: Sure, they have maids and maybe fly their own plane or have an expensive classic car but there are these 5% of rich people who somehow have a strange compulsion to advertise their wealth as widely as possible and they're the ones who have the 100 mil yachts and go to these sorts of auctions (the exception maybe being Bill Gates' Da Vinci notebook purchase... likely Bill just thought those were super cool)
- blunte 9y ago
  Clearly Bill Gates doesn't need to flaunt his wealth. I'm sure he was just really excited by Da Vinci, and the opportunity to own a real piece of history was totally worth it. Despite Gates's (very) questionable method of rising to greatness, what he has attempted to do with his wealth is well above what most "rich" people do.
  - vixen99 9y ago
    And he's done a brilliant PR job. https://www.liberationnews.org/real-agenda-gates-foundation/ https://www.liberationnews.org/real-agenda-gates-foundation/
    - zxcmx 9y ago
      Oddly enough I find it easier to believe that Bill Gates wants to change the world for the better than to believe that he is secretly pushing some neocapitalist agenda. Mainly because he personally has everything to gain from the former and practically nothing from the latter at the wealth level he operates at. Dude could get a better return on index funds than from his philanthropy. Cynically, plain investing is low status where he is at, less cynically he has a lot of time to think about things and a lot of resources and I believe many (most? hmm) humans would act the same way under those conditions. Maybe I'm just an optimist.
comboy 9y ago
What are examples of those 4bn+ stores of value then? I was thinking of something that can be easily moved around - e.g. 400M in gold is 10 tonnes. Not super handy. Stocks, currencies, real estate - those are cases when you trust somebody else to take care of storing your value, most often the gov. Not trying to make an argument for my example here, just sincerely curious what those stable store of value can be.
- blunte 9y ago
  If you have 4bn, you own interests in many companies, many funds, direct physical properties, property funds, etc. If you have 4bn, you don't "move" money around at that scale. You move small fractions around. And in terms of what you can spend... aside from the occasional private island purchase, there's really not a lot you can spend significant fractions of that worth on. Enjoy a little exercise. Imagine you have 1bn to blow. Google for things you would desire. Unless you want to try to buy a block of SF, you'll find it hard to spend more than a few hundred million at once. How many 100+ meter yachts can you use? The nicest Gulfstream global jet is about 100 million nicely equipped. A used Boeing jumbo jet is even less... It's actually hard to spend that kind of money unless you basically give it away.