> A collector I know has begun to simply buy Top Loaders from Chinese wholesale websites and sell those on eBay rather than deal with Pokémon cards at all.
Just like in every gold rush, the ones who will end up with the most profit are the ones selling the shovels.
Joseph Francis Ladue founded Dawson City and became a very rich man by expoiting the gold rush that way instead of mining (he ended up making some money directly from mining stakes as well in the end though). I believe his reputation and life story are certainly one of the foundations of that popular idea.
I don't know of any empirical studies of commerce in the Yukon gold rush that demonstrated that the merchants were the fattest of the fat cats in the the whole scenario though. Lots of stories of scammer and schemers making big bucks too, but again, who really knows?
Very few legitimately struck it rich on gold, that's for sure.
Typical gold mining equipment isn't mentioned in that article at all, he seems to have had a regular dry goods store? I checked out one of the sources but I found nothing there either. A typical dry goods store was probably still good business during a gold rush though.
But the market cap of gold is vastly more. What you're saying is that the market cap for shovels would be the upper bound of the real number we are looking for, as there are other uses. So we can simply be more sure that gold has returned more economic value to those who obtained it than those who created shovels.
The truth is, what I said doesnt make any sense at all. I never thought it did. But thinking about it for a few seconds makes it obvious that it's unlikely selling shovels is actually a better business than digging gold. The major gas companies make more money than the companies who build rigs. Selling shovels is a lower variance method of capitalizing off a gold rush. I prefer to do both.
Most every successful startup is essentially someone digging for gold in a new gold rush. Rarely are they selling shovels.
Digging for gold or oil is kind of a misnomer as the important thing in both cases would be owning land with the appropriate land rights.
The common saying is misleading. It should be, "you're unlikely to lose your shirt, will have a higher likelihood of success and stability, and an overall easier time selling shovels in a gold rush, but with lower overall gain than the outlier winner gold miners" but that doesnt quite roll off the tongue.
Just like in every gold rush, the ones who will end up with the most profit are the ones selling the shovels.