Bet Your Moneypenny on Bond

Friday at 12 PM EST, a 1st Edition of Casino Royale by Ian Fleming is set to IPO on Rally. The financials:

• • Market Cap: $39,000
• • Number Of Shares: 1,000
• • Price Per Share: $39.00

The Background

• Bond. James Bond… With a franchise valued at $20 billion and the fictional star of 26 movies since 1962, you already know his name. The most famous fictional spy of all time, '007' has driven half of the cars offered on Rally, thwarted the plots of classic villains, ordered at least 26 martinis "shaken, not stirred," and is such a ladies man that there's an extensive "Bond girl" Wikipedia page dedicated to his... "love interests." Enough about what you know. What you may not have known prior to this offering is that James Bond was introduced to the world through a literary franchise consisting of 12 books and 2 short stories written by Ian Fleming. The first of which was...

• Casino Royale… which introduced Bond to the world in 1953. Embedded in the book's plot is Bond's origin story, the background on how the MI6 officer earned his '00' license to kill status (hint: he killed a guy). After being assigned his '00' status, Bond is sent on a mission to track down a bomb-maker in Madagascar, and in doing so uncovers a terrorist cell run by the story's antagonist, Le Chiffre. Bond is sent on a mission to defeat Le Chiffre in a high-stakes poker game at the Casino Royale.

• Blockbuster Bond... Daniel Craig made his Bond debut in 'Casino Royale's 2006 film adaptation, which holds a 95% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and made over $600M on a $150M budget. Daniel Craig's 5th and final outing as Bond will come later this year in...

• No Time To Die… which is also the first Bond film in 5 years. The longest gap between Bond films is 6 years. Initially scheduled for release in April, 2020, the gap is getting longer, as the film is postponed until November 25th due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Silver lining: plenty of time to watch Casino Royale and other Bond films while quarantined!

We asked Bond what watch to invest in next...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB5hzlDe10c

The Takeaway

• Bid/Ask Check... The version of 'Casino Royale' that Rally acquired is 1 of ~3,000 copies. It's a hardcover first edition in "Near Fine or Better" condition with a first state dust jacket. Comparable copies of 'Casino Royale' with these same specs start around $38,000, and asking prices range as high as $77,742. The one comparable copy on ebay is listed for $45,205, which is 15% higher than this IPO's Market Cap.

• Rare Book Sector… Of the 11 books listed on Rally, 3 IPO on Friday, 4 are currently trading, and 4 are in lockup pre-trading. The 4 currently trading on the secondary market are all up, by an average of 26% and as high as 58%. For context, that sector average is higher than cars (11%), watches (4%), and was higher than sports memorabilia (42%) up until recently when Michael Jordan led his sector to the top.

• Multi-P.O.'s… For the second straight week, Rally is set to IPO more than 1 asset at the same time. This week, Fleming's 'Casino Royale' is joined by 1st editions of J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy ($29,000 Market Cap, 1000 shares at $29/share), and J.D. Salinger's 'The Catcher in the Rye' ($12,500 Market Cap, 500 shares at $25/share). Last week it was 2 baseball cards, both of which sold out in 4 minutes. While we anticipate LOTR to win the popularity contest and be funded first, there's little doubt that if you want to own shares of any of these 3 IPO's you'll need to be logged into Rally at 12 PM EST on Friday.

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