How Collectibles Got Co-opted by Online Gambling--And Why
It's Now Spreading to Diet Drugs
Collecting objects like
maps or coins used to be a passion. But social media and online gambling
behavior has turned everything into a competition. Welcome to the Ozempic
Olympics
EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD
TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH
INVESTORS @HOWARDTULLMAN1
JUL 9, 2024
As a lifelong collector
of stuff -- stamps, coins, lunchboxes, mechanical banks, Pez dispensers, magic
tricks, CDs, laser disks, bizarre pop bottles, and figurative paintings,
drawings and sculptures -- I get the mindset. I have been exposed to most
of the classic and crazed behaviors of the frantic folks who pursue their
precious collectibles with an inexplicable but persistent passion. I confess to
having made some ludicrous pilgrimages of my own in search of promised
treasures.
One of the more obvious
things you learn is that whatever desires and emotional needs drive collectors,
it has very little to do with the actual economics or the likely long-run value
of the investments they are making. Most of us are in it for the moment and the
memories rather than the money. Thinking otherwise is a delusion.
By and large, collectors
are knowledgeable and serious adults and their pursuits are well-structured
into trips to recognized and reputable dealers, shows and galleries, aficionado
gatherings and, of late, web-based auctions. They compete for the most prized
items, but generally in a dignified and gentile manner and in accordance with
the long-standing rules and customs that govern their particular niches. Form
and fairness are an important part of the style and substance of the search. As
in every business, there are fakes, phonies, and scammers galore, but they
rarely last for long.
However, with the advent
of new social media driven frenzies, collector competitions, sneaker drops and
other promotional and demonstrably commercial activities - be it shoes, bags,
bracelets, t-shirts, caps, dolls, action, toys or anything else designated to
be of the moment -- the environment and gathering process has been radically
changed and not for the better. A great deal of the emotional investment in the
collecting and aggregating process today has much more to do with bragging
rights, notoriety, and loving the competition than it does with loving the
things being sought.
These people are
aggressively driven not because they want to collect notable objects but
because they're captive to certain brain chemistries that exist somewhere
between FOMO (fear of missing out) and the same kinds of fantasies that sustain
lotteries and sweepstakes. They might just end up being the one who wins the
big prize or finds the golden ticket. We're seeing similar mindsets and
behaviors with millions of young men who've migrated from gaming to mindless
and non-stop online gambling. These guys will tell you with
a straight face that sports gambling is a reasonable investment vehicle for
their excess funds, at least until those funds disappear.
Sadly, in these newer,
feckless quests, it's become obvious that almost any means now justifies the
ends. Stories regularly abound about desperate, devious and grasping collectors
bribing suppliers and store employees, hacking and manipulating online stores,
lying, cheating and stealing from their peers. And, especially today,
victimizing the constant flow of incoming and inexperienced newbies who are
ripe for picking. All of this wouldn't matter terribly much as long as it
involved fast-fashion, footwear and handbags, cheap plastic products, deformed
and distorted dolls and a population of fools and suckers who might very well
deserve whatever treatment and comeuppance they ultimately receive.
But we're seeing a
frightening migration of these types of reckless, all-consuming behaviors into
a new area with far more threatening and destructive consequences and where the
actions are likely to impact the health and well-being of millions over the next
few years. I'm talking about the exploding competition for the scarce (and
costly) GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Rybelsus which are rapidly becoming the
daily compulsion of millions of consumers. Forget the rising issues with
counterfeits, or black-market channels for obtaining them, and just consider
the likely and obvious behavior of current users who are desperate to get their
shots.
Driven by many of the
same needs and desires as other contemporary "collectors," these are
normal, law-abiding folks who are beyond anxious and utterly consumed by the
effort to get their hands on their next Wegovy doses. They are discovering that
ready and dependable access has become a weekly competitive war and a brutal
battle to track down doses that appear without notice and promptly disappear
into the hands of the lucky few patients whose timing was fortunate that week.
But the searches are getting harder and the successes fewer.
There's a cruel irony to
this situation. The drugs, initially targeted at type 2 diabetes patients,
eliminate one set of mental demands and cravings relating to food but have
created a different set of needs and emotions at the same time. The
semaglutides work extremely well by suppressing the brain chemistry that
creates the reward structures for constant or excessive eating. And it's pretty
clear that scientists will also discover that the same kinds of drugs will help
address other kinds of cravings that drive problematic, troublesome, unhealthy
and even illegal behaviors. All to the good. If, and only if, there are enough
of these drugs to go around and prices can be reduced to more commercially
reasonable levels.
No one expected or
anticipated that the very scarcity of these wonder drugs and the exponentially
growing demand for them would instantly create -- not simply scarcity and
material shortages in the materials -- but also trigger other chemistry in the
brain leading to quasi-addictive and competitive behaviors by the current and
fortunate users which closely resemble the actions and behaviors of smokers,
drug addicts and other dependent individuals. Sadly, as the scarcity persists,
there's little to suggest that any of these behaviors will improve. That's not
an inviting or encouraging prospect, but it's another case of a problem we see
coming, but don't do anything to address or mitigate.
It's hard to imagine at
the moment, but pretty soon we may see your obese Uncle Albert sulking and
lurking around the shady parts of town trying to score his Mounjaro shot for
the week. You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, well, you
just might find, you get what you need.