How To Invest In Wine, Whiskey, Art And Collectibles Online

The Juice is in the early innings of an ongoing series where we detail the ins and outs of private equity investing. You can find links to some of these recent stories in today’s Freshly Squeezed section at the bottom of this page.

These Juices focus on how you can be a venture capitalist by investing in private companies. However, alternative investing is much more expansive than being a small venture capitalist and allocating some of your dough into startups. 

VC or not, the big money has diversified beyond venture capital for quite some time. And now, given the emergence of online platforms, you can do likewise, albeit on a smaller scale. 

We’re living through a time where investors have more choice than ever. The Juice expects this trend to intensify. Within public equity markets, as ETFs and other vehicles expand their creative horizons, and via private market opportunities. Of course, now and going forward we’ll cover both public and private market alternatives as we spend the beginning of the new year helping you merge your traditional and alt investments into a well-allocated and diversified portfolio. 

While the playing field remains far from level, we have taken great strides to making investments once only available to the one percent open to larger numbers of investors. And these investments are often in categories you might not expect.

For example—

Fine art

Walk into any VC’s house and you’re likely to see expensive art on the wall. You might not be able to hang these expensive status symbols on your wall, you can now get a piece of the pie. 

Yieldstreet is one platform that offers fine art investing. We’re going to do a deeper dive into YieldStreet (like we did with StartEngine) soon. For now, let’s focus on fine art. 

• Since 2000, Yieldstreet says art has outperformed the S&P 500 with a more than 360% return. 
• There’s a $10,000 minimum initial investment. 
• Across six art offerings over six years, Yieldstreet Art has produced a net annualized return of 12.2%. 
• The platform has funded more than $400 million worth of fine art investments. 

Wine and Whiskey

To be clear, The Juice isn’t receiving compensation to mention companies here. We’re simply using examples of firms we like to highlight opportunities and platforms in alternative investment spaces you might not think of. 

To that end, Vinovest gives investors the chance to invest in wine and whiskey.

• Vinovest says it has more than $100 million in assets under management. 
• With whiskey, the platform gives investors the chance to get in during the stage where whiskey is being aged and bottled at distilleries. Your capital helps fund this process. 
• This process takes about 4-to-8 years, after which you can earn a return. 
• Vinovest says its most recent whiskey exit generated a nearly 31% return. 
• The platform says that its “mission is to deliver 5% to 12% annualized returns by sourcing high-appreciating wines and whiskeys and selling after the 8-year mark.”
• To open an account, Vinovest has a $1,000 minimum. 

Collectibles

The Juice spent way too much time this week on a platform called Rally. So, beware, if you peruse Rally, you’re going to go down the rabbit hole of sick collectibles. It’s pretty cool. 

The long and short of it – Rally says that they “source, verify, and acquire the most noteworthy items from collections and individuals all over the world” before they “turn that item into ‘a company’ via regulatory qualification, then split it into equity shares.” 

Rally markets its investment opportunity as “21st Century portfolio, for everyone.” This resonates with The Juice big time. 

Rally has a searchable database where you can invest in collectibles, such as:

• Sports memorabilia (e.g., A pair of 1996 game worn Michael Jordan sneakers for $14 per share)
• Classic cars (e.g., 88 Lamborghini LM002 for $150 per share)

Rally uses an app for access and says it charges no hidden fees or commissions. And you can get in for as little as $5 a share. 

Name the area, including wine, whiskey and baseball cards and Rally has it. When you search the platform, you’ll see successful exits. The potential to make money by investing in some very cool collectibles exists on Rally. 

The Bottom Line: While this is all super exciting, it makes sense to always proceed with caution, just as you would any investment. That said, think out of the box. 

Alternative investing is new and can seem weird and feel risky. However, if you do your homework and start small, you’ll find that allocating a portfolio of your long-term portfolio to a variety of alternative investments can help diversify your portfolio and possibly lead to long-term returns. 

We’re in the golden age of investing with a roaring stock market (pretty much), an endless selection of ETFs and access to alts that your parents and grandparents could have only dreamed about.

• 3 Ways, Including An Alternative, To Invest In Real Estate
• Navigating Market Volatility: The Alt Advantage
• How To Invest In Private Companies on StartEngine
• Check Out The Juice’s Favorite ETF Screen