Gary Vaynerchuk Says Collectibles Are Becoming the Next Lifestyle Genre

In an interview on TBPN, entrepreneur and author Gary Vaynerchuk, who is the creator of VeeFriends, believes collectibles are moving beyond the traditional hobby market and becoming a major part of consumer culture.

Speaking about the growth of collecting, Vaynerchuk said he has spent the past several weeks focused on the idea that collectibles are developing into the next lifestyle genre.

“I think it’s about to completely blow the roof off,” Vaynerchuk said.

He predicted that collectibles will become an important marketing tool for major consumer brands. According to Vaynerchuk, every Fortune 500 company selling products such as apparel or consumer packaged goods could eventually develop a collectibles strategy.

“I believe in 10 years, every Fortune 500 consumable product, apparel, CPG, will have a collectibles marketing strategy,” he said.

Vaynerchuk pointed to recent promotions involving One Piece collectibles as examples of how collectible items can drive customers to businesses and live events.

“You saw lines around the door at Popeyes for the One Piece collectible,” he said. “People flooding to a Dodgers game to get the One Piece collectible.”

He also argued that collectibles could help brands stand out as automated shopping and artificial intelligence make routine purchasing easier. A consumer who would normally reorder the same product may instead choose a competing item because it includes a collectible connected to a favorite entertainment property.

Vaynerchuk believes the category is also taking over some of the cultural space once occupied by stocks and contemporary art, particularly among younger consumers.

“I believe collectibles have eaten up the pop culture energy of what young 20-year-olds would do with public stocks,” he said.

Instead of buying shares in a company such as Nike, he said younger buyers may put that money into a collectible. He also said collecting has absorbed much of the attention previously directed toward contemporary art.

That shift has been helped by a wider change in how collecting is viewed. Vaynerchuk recalled that teenagers who collected trading cards during the 1980s and 1990s were often considered nerdy. Today, collecting cards has become fashionable and socially accepted.

“Collecting cards are now cool,” he said. “Once that switch happens, it gets really different really fast.”