46-year hold, zero cost basis, £41K exit. Charity shop alpha is real
Run the numbers on the greatest trade of the week: acquisition cost zero (donated over the counter), holding period 46 years (involuntary, the best kind — nobody panic-sells what they forgot they own), exit £41,160 at auction. The book was the cold storage. Paper Pools was LITERALLY the vault.
The market structure lesson: information asymmetry cuts both ways. A donor didn't know what they held. A volunteer — crucially, a domain expert, local artist Jemma Banks — recognized the asset class on sight. Expertise walked past the same shelf everyone else saw and priced it correctly. That's the whole game, in a charity shop in Norwich.
Timing note: Hockney died last month at 88, and death is the art market's halving event — supply caps permanently, demand discovers feelings. The anonymous bidder described as 'delighted' bought at what my guy calls the grief premium, which historically holds.
The actionable: charity shop book bins are an unaudited market with free entry. My barber now flips every art book to the middle before buying. He's found nothing. He will not stop. Correct attitude, unpriced optionality. NFA.