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James Lamdin - Analog Shift Founder On How Collecting Has Changed Since Selling His Company
1.1k Plays1 year ago
Today we’re chatting with a friend of mine who's been a collector for as long as he can remember. James Lamdin, founder of Analog/Shift, is no stranger to the watch and car community. Fresh off a sale to Watches of Switzerland, we talk about how he got into collecting from an early age and how things have changed since running a successful business. Not only a collector of the aforementioned, but James is after rare movie posters, vinyls, coffee table books, and just about anything else he can get his hands on. But if there’s one thing James has, that’s patience, which makes him always collect with a purpose. I mean the guys just getting ready to pick up a multi-year project on a vintage 911 and drive it through the west coast. As James puts it, he’s never met a dollar he couldn’t spend. So without further adieu, James Lamdin, for Collectors Gene Radio.
Analog Shift - https://www.analogshift.com/
Watches of Switzerland - https://www.watchesofswitzerland.com/
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Transcript
The Power of Stories
00:00:00
Speaker
I think the most important thing that any of us collect are stories. And I fully believe that we are each individually a product of our experiences. And those experiences either come to us firsthand or they come to us by means of a story. Stories are at the very core of why I'm a collector.
Podcast Introduction & The Collector's Gene
00:00:22
Speaker
What's going on everybody and welcome to collector's gene radio. This is all about diving into the nuances of collecting and ultimately finding out whether or not our guests have what we like to call the collector's gene. If you have the time, please subscribe and leave a review. It truly helps. Thanks a bunch for listening and please enjoy today's guest on collector's gene radio.
Meet James Lambden: A Passionate Collector
00:00:47
Speaker
And today we're chatting with a friend of mine who's been a collector for as long as he can remember. James Lambden, founder of Analog Shift, is no stranger to the watch and car community. Fresh off a sail to watches of Switzerland, we talk about how he got into collecting from an early age and how things have changed since running a successful business. Not only a collector of the aforementioned, but James is a rare movie posters, vinyls, coffee table books, and just about anything else he can get his hands on, collector.
00:01:17
Speaker
But if there's one thing that James has, that's patience, which makes him always collect with a purpose. I mean, the guy's just getting ready to pick up a multi-year project on a vintage 911 and drive it through the West Coast. As James puts it, he's never met a dollar he couldn't spend. So without further ado, James Lambden for Collector's Dream Radio. James, so good to chat with you and welcome to Collector's Dream Radio.
00:01:43
Speaker
Thanks for having me, glad to
Challenges of Storing Collectibles
00:01:44
Speaker
be here. So we've been buddies for a few years now and I think you and I met via watches and your company analog shift, but we actually had a connection long before that, which we didn't know and that was cars and maybe a specific dealership, but we don't have to get into that. It's true.
00:02:01
Speaker
You're a collector of a lot of things, cars, watches, movie posters, vinyls, coffee table books, action figures. I mean, you're definitely the epitome of the collector. But I'm curious to know, for something like coffee table books, for example, vinyls are easy to store, coffee table books, maybe not so much. I also collect coffee table books, and at some point, storage gets a little tight. So how do you deal with that? Because I need some advice.
00:02:29
Speaker
You gotta have a lot of different coffee tables, I think is the way to deal with that. And a lot of coffee. Yeah, well, there's not enough going around. Yeah, I think I just sort of try and store them in a visually appealing way on the shelf and then sort of rotate what's being displayed at any one time.
00:02:53
Speaker
Are there specific coffee table books that you're after? I have my niche of what I like, but I'm curious if you just buy something that looks good that interests you. There are books that do just look really good on your shelf.
James Bond Art & Space Constraints
00:03:10
Speaker
John James Audubon print masterpieces. You got to have that, right? But most of what I buy is covering a subject matter that I am interested in. I actually, I think I just got maybe one of the ultimates. It was a gift to me for a recent birthday. I just got the new Tashin Ken Adams portfolio of all of his James Bond concept art.
00:03:38
Speaker
This thing is a monster. It comes with its own acrylic display stand. And I honestly don't know what the hell I'm going to do with this thing, because I do live in a small New York City apartment. So it's pretty big. And yeah, a couple of my friends pitched in and got that for me for my birthday, which was super generous. But that's awesome. That's a sick book. Yeah. Yeah, I'm really excited. It was a pre-order, so I think it ships later this year. Love it.
00:04:05
Speaker
Let's talk about your background a bit.
Cars vs. Watches: James's True Passion
00:04:08
Speaker
Everyone knows you for watches and cars, maybe one more than the other based on your business, but I'm curious to know what came first for you, your love for watches or cars. Yeah, I mean, cars and watches are definitely the two big ones, but as you said at the beginning, it is everything. I never met a dollar I couldn't spend on something interesting.
00:04:28
Speaker
But yeah, for me, it was cars first, for sure. I think my association with watches does go back to my childhood. My father had a Rolex GMT that my mother bought for him as a wedding gift. And it was by far the most valuable thing in the house. And I was often admonished not to mess around with it. But cars were in the driveway. We went places in the cars. We did things in the cars. A lot of my childhood memories come from the
00:04:57
Speaker
passenger seat of my dad's old Land Cruiser or from the 1976 BMW 2002 that we had for a while. And I think for a lot of people, cars are our first taste of freedom. And so by the time I was a teenager, it was all cars all the time. Every dollar I made working odd jobs or when I eventually had a full-time job,
00:05:23
Speaker
They all went towards gas and repairs and modifying cars. So I'm gonna put cars first and I'm actually gonna put cars first as of right now as my number one love. Watches I do for a living and I love them, don't get me wrong. But now that I don't work in the car business anymore, cars are truly my escape and I love them fiercely.
00:05:48
Speaker
Love it. We'll definitely get back to cars a little bit and kind of bounce back and forth as we chat about watches and cars because they relate so much.
Storytelling in Business: Enriching Customer Experience
00:05:56
Speaker
But you've said in the past and mentioned to me in previous conversations that your grandfather got you into watches and taught you really how to be more of like a storyteller, if you will. I'm curious how has this helped you in your career and then subsequently collecting to be that storyteller?
00:06:15
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, listen, I think the most important thing that any of us collect are stories. And I fully believe that we are each individually a product of our experiences. And those experiences either come to us firsthand or they come to us by means of a story. And whether those are firsthand accounts from somebody in our life or the media that we consume through print or visual art or what have you, stories are at the very core
00:06:45
Speaker
of why I'm a collector. And they're at the very core of my business with Analog Shift. When I launched the company, we were on the cutting edge of e-commerce, which is kind of crazy to think given how analog minded I truly am and how much difficulty I had logging into this very podcast recording. That was our medium, but our raison d'etre was actually
00:07:12
Speaker
So each of our product listings had great photography, yes, had the core information and a price and a click to buy it now button, yes. But they also had between 500 and 1500 words on each and every product and we still do that. And whether we know the history of a particular watch or we just know a little bit about
00:07:35
Speaker
the era in which it was produced, what was going on socio-politically, you know, what might have been the reason for the original design or order of a particular watch model. Storytelling is at the very, very heart of it. And so, you know, whether you're interested in watches for their aesthetics or their mechanics or perhaps for an investment value or just a little bling-bling, the romantic X factor to me for all of those things is the story behind it.
Admiration for Clive Cussler
00:08:05
Speaker
And so that's really at the core of my business for sure. Someone else that you look up to who's known for being an amazing collector is Clive Cussler. Did you look up to him as a novelist first or as a car watch collector? Definitely as a novelist first. I discovered Clive Cussler at a very young age. Originally, I remember spotting Iceberg
00:08:31
Speaker
in my grandfather's bedroom at very cover art. It was from a 70s or maybe early 80s paperback edition. It was, you know, an iceberg covered in blood. You know, very grabby things for a young boy. And then I raised the Titanic on my dad's shelf and I had a childhood fascination with shipwrecks and specifically with the Titanic. And so I think I was in probably fourth grade when I grabbed that book off the shelf.
00:09:01
Speaker
and started reading it. And yes, I had my first encounter with the watch brand Doxa on the pages of Clive's books. And I started consuming them ravenously. Tom Clancy famously wrote that a new Clive Kustler novel was like a visit from your best friend. And yeah, definitely Clive Kustler, the storyteller, was my first association. And then, of course, as I got a little bit older,
00:09:31
Speaker
started getting a little bit more into the cars that he'd read about or look forward to that note on the orange face Doxa diving watch that his protagonist wore so famously in the books. Have you seen his car collection in person? I haven't. Very sadly, I threw up a mutual friend was arranging a visit in
00:09:57
Speaker
that was supposed to be in summer 2020, in which case I was actually hoping to go out and meet Clive, who's been a longtime hero of mine, and visit his car collection as well. And sadly and very tragically, he passed away in January or February of 2020, right before the pandemic began. That was a really hard thing for me. I remember shutting the
00:10:27
Speaker
door to our lounge and just having a good cry and calling my dad to let him know. I have met his son, Dirk, who's just an absolute gem of a human being, super, super nice, generous guy, who I think he and his father had a lot in common. Unfortunately, I won't be able to judge that for myself now, but I'm glad that the tradition is carrying on.
00:10:54
Speaker
Well, I don't know if you know, but a lot of his collection is actually here in Scottsdale with his most recent wife, who I know decently will. So next time you're in town, I'll have to schedule a visit with her and you could go do a little private tour of a lot of his collection. That would be incredible. I will definitely take you up on that.
00:11:13
Speaker
He obviously had some great watches, too, but she always, every time I see her, she's always wearing one of his watches, and it's a watch that I own that I know you also have a passion for, and it's the Ralph Lauren Slim Classique, which I thought was kind of cool that that was a watch he had, too. Those are great. I think that, boy.
00:11:35
Speaker
They've done such a good job over the years, and it's coming and going. It seems to be mostly polo bear watches right now, but in the past decade, they've had some real bangers for sure. No doubt. Definitely undervalued, but that's a story for another episode. I'm curious to know if you remember the watches that you had when you started analog shift. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you have to understand.
00:12:02
Speaker
basically started analog shift to justify buying all the watches that I wanted. There was one in particular, it's an Omega 600 meter Ploproff, you know, the big asymmetric, ungainly giant slab of steel, which was Omega's response to the Sea-Dweller. You know, of course, they said, Rolex can put a helium escape valve in, we're just gonna make a big honking chunk of steel and a locking
00:12:27
Speaker
bezel with this weird, you know, red button that unlocks the, you know, it's a ridiculous watch. It was ridiculous then, it's ridiculous now. I couldn't justify buying one for myself, but if it was inventory, you know, you can buy it. So I bought one of those, you know, right away, couple day just couple subs had a really neat 1920s. Hamilton piping rock had a sin 142 that was actually owned by helmets in at one point.
00:12:58
Speaker
I kind of regret selling that one. How did DOCSIS sub 300 on there? Breitling Cosmonaut, some really cool stuff. I think sort of the very fundamental core of what analog shift is all about, and it's not just the Rolex and Patek models that everyone expects. We've always sort of waded into the more nuanced corners and niches of the collecting community.
00:13:27
Speaker
So I think if anything, our launch collection was about as pure an expression of what analog shift is and was as it could be. Yeah, no doubt.
A New Era: Acquisition by Watches of Switzerland
00:13:38
Speaker
And then you recently sold to watches of Switzerland in which you're now VP of vintage and pre-owned, which is extremely impressive. So first off, congrats to you. Thank you. Secondly, has collecting changed for you at all since you sold the company?
00:13:54
Speaker
That's a great question. I think I've actually started buying less for myself, keeping less for myself. I'm not sure why. I certainly have. And to be clear here, if a day goes by in which I don't buy a watch either for myself or for inventory purposes, I get pretty itchy.
00:14:15
Speaker
But realistically, yeah, it's been fewer. I won't say that my tastes have changed dramatically. It's not that I've started buying a totally different category of watch, a different price point of watch. I think I've just been a little bit more thoughtful about what I'm actually going to keep and where, and that's important to me. My watch collection at times has surged with just lots of really neat stuff that I felt the need
00:14:42
Speaker
to sort of preserve and protect and almost function as a museum of sorts. But now that we have the added resources that Watches of Switzerland has brought to us, I don't really need to think about keeping stuff for the purposes of showing it to others, because we can just get some more. Yeah, no doubt. And that's probably the most fun part about your job now, is not worrying if you need it for stock or if you need it for your own collection.
00:15:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the sale of the company was not something that I had originally planned. I didn't build analog shift to sell. And frankly, I had been approached a number of times prior. But we had an ongoing partnership with Watchers of Switzerland that was very successful for both sides and during the pandemic.
00:15:34
Speaker
They reached out to me and said, you know, do you want to come in where it's warm and we'd love to keep going. And it felt like the right time and it felt like the right partnership more than anything. And they've, you know, they've really empowered myself and my team to build up analog shift to its full potential inside the structure of watches of Switzerland, U.S. So it's been an incredibly rewarding few years. And actually it's almost, it's going to be three years this summer, which is hard to believe.
00:16:02
Speaker
You've also done some collaborations. One that was, I guess, a personal favorite of mine was with J. Crew. So how did that partnership come about? And was the overall idea not only about the synergy between the two brands because it's evident, but the overarching idea of buying something from a seller you trust because that's what all vintage pre-owned and modern dealers say is buy the dealer.
00:16:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think, I listen, with respect to the J Crew partnership, it was wonderful in the sense that they're an American heritage brand and I wear a lot of J Crew. They make a great affordable product for a guy who is sartorially challenged. It's sort of a one-stop shop. But I think that you inherently have challenges when
00:16:55
Speaker
you're trying to curate a collection for someone else and you have to make sure that there's the appropriate amount of information and presentation for a different type of buyer. With that said, we had a fair amount of success with J.Crew from the watch standpoint, but my favorite part was certainly being able to work with them and get our logo on some of their American made headwear, some of their made New York caps, which I really loved. And also they did a very generous
00:17:25
Speaker
lifestyle piece on me, but let's face it, the real star was my dog. They always steal the show. They really do. He's the best. Yep. Another collab you did was with John Reardon from Collectability, and this was an event based on a collection of atomic age master clocks from Patek Philippe, if I'm not mistaken. Is that right?
00:17:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's right.
Unique Collection: Patek Philippe Timing Machines
00:17:50
Speaker
We called it meeting point and we had a big exhibition last summer here in New York. What's the story behind those? There's so many stories about John gave me a call probably around this time last year and said, Hey, I have a crazy idea and I'd like to run it past you and see if you'd be interested in partnering. And he proceeded to explain the history of this collection.
00:18:17
Speaker
which is the world's largest collection of Patek Philippe electronic timing machines that first off there was a bulk of them that we were able to acquire from a single seller and then we added a number of additional units including what could be argued at the center piece of the collection which was a master timing system built by Patek for Rolex and we acquired those separately and added to the collection. That's insane.
00:18:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean you have to see these things and you can go to our YouTube page. We have a cool video about them, a couple of cool videos about them. But these things are up to five, six feet tall and there are these giant racks of electronic
00:19:03
Speaker
timing systems that would have been used for anything from master timing control at a power plant or an airport. We had Swiss Parliament hydroelectric facilities. We had a scrambling device for some foreign intelligence service. We don't know which one. We had equipment from NASA, from the French Marine, Nacional.
00:19:26
Speaker
It felt like being in Blofeld's lair here in our office. There were just all these flashing lights and moving dials. What's interesting about them, and this is something that these were John's words, not mine, but he actually said they are the analog shift. These actually represent the moment in time in a pre-digital age in which technology began to move towards electronics from
00:19:54
Speaker
traditional mechanical, but they still had mechanical underpinnings. And they're a masterpiece. So we partnered with John, put him on exhibition. We moved the bulk of the collection out to his offices when he opened his new place out in New Jersey, but we still have a few here and we still own them, which is really exciting to have. So a lot of scholars have come through, a lot of press and media and a lot of collectors as well.
00:20:18
Speaker
Technically, the collection is for sale, but it's a hard thing to put in your living room. Yeah. You need it in your airport hangar. That's right. That's right. When I first heard about the exhibition and started to learn about the clocks and stuff, it gave me the same feeling as I had when I was a kid, and I learned that Rolls-Royce made engines for airplanes.
00:20:43
Speaker
Right? That blew my mind. And it gave me the same feeling knowing what these, you know, clocks from Patek were used for. I just thought it was super neat. For sure. Definitely one of the sort of dusty, unexplored corners of horology that I think, you know, really are representative of an important era and also changed the entire story as far as Patek Philippe is concerned. You know, any watch collector has heard of
00:21:11
Speaker
the courts crisis and we know that the introduction of a $10 Casio or what have you from Japan was the death knell for numerous brands around the world and caused the rest of them, traditional watchmaking brands to change their business to adapt and survive in the new digital world. But these devices are sort of proof positive that protect
00:21:39
Speaker
didn't just weather the storm, they may have been on the very leading edge of it. Yeah, no doubt. Why do you think it was important for collectors to come in and see an exhibition and product like this that they may never get to see again? Well, the bulk of this collection had been in private hands for many, many years. And then again, when we added additional units to the collection, additional pieces,
00:22:05
Speaker
we realized that this was by far the largest gathering of these machines since they were made. And possibly not even then that were they all at the same place at the same time. So I think that certainly the fact that they said protect the leap on them was a huge draw. But it's important because it's very easy for collectors to get sort of caught up in the moment's hype cycle.
00:22:30
Speaker
And it's important to let people know that Patek Philippe did more than make aquanauts, nautiluses, and then, you know, some time ago, some small yellow gold calatravas. There's a lot more to their story. Just as there's a lot more to their story for most of these brands that we know and love. And I think you don't have to be a scholar to appreciate it. I think you just have to be interested. And getting them all in one place where you can see it and touch it and actually hear it is a special thing. I still miss
00:23:01
Speaker
The reverberation of those machines in the office, it seems definitely quiet in here for the last six or eight months. That's great. All right, let's get back to cars for a minute. Obviously, cars have a higher barrier to entry than watches, but just like any other collection, once you get started, you can't stop.
The Thrill of Car Collecting
00:23:21
Speaker
X amount of years ago, business starts taking off for you. What's the first car you go to to start the stable, for lack of a better term?
00:23:30
Speaker
In the post or during analog shift era, the car that I went to go by was a BMW M Coupe and I had convinced myself that that was the perfect car to use as an escape pod from the city and go out and visit friends and so on in New Jersey or up in New England and started shopping around for one with intent
00:23:59
Speaker
And during that search, I discovered that the values on the car I really wanted, and had wanted since I was 17, had bottomed out and were starting to go up. And that was for the E39 M5. And so my search changed very quickly from an M Coupe to an M5. And yeah, I snagged one in pretty short order. And where'd you go from there?
00:24:29
Speaker
Well, a couple. Sounds like you have a problem. Listen, it's more of just a parking problem. Yeah, it's pretty hard to have more than one car at a time. I mean, for a long time, just having one car in New York was a pretty challenging thing.
00:24:51
Speaker
The truth of the matter is that when I launched Analog Shift originally, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it. I had interest in watches, interest in cars, interested in content creation and interest in commerce. And even our very first logo, we used a slash between Analog and Shift. And our first logo, we had two variations of the logo, a blue slash.
00:25:17
Speaker
which was meant to pay homage to a vintage Hoyer chronograph, and a red slash, which started to make it look a little bit more like a tachometer.
00:25:28
Speaker
I wasn't sure whether we could maybe blend cars and watches and so on and so forth. But the other thing I did after getting the M5 was I pulled a Porsche 912 that I had deteriorating in a barn up in Maine that I had bought years prior for pennies. I pulled it out and sent it to a shop for an estimate on getting it up and running.
00:25:57
Speaker
In the words of Carol Shelby, anything worth doing is worth overdoing. So a tune up and a little bit of body work turned into a five year restoration, which also just finished. That's right. Yeah, and I'll be actually flying out to the west coast to pick that car up in just a few weeks and bring it home.
00:26:24
Speaker
And are you still going to do that drive coming through Arizona here? That's the plan. That's the plan. I'll let you know once the dates are settled. It should be in just a few days. Perfect. It's arguably difficult to drive multiple cars a day, let alone any if you live in New York City. So where and when do you find time to drive any car? Well, here's the thing about car ownership in New York City is that you don't need a car.
00:26:54
Speaker
You don't need a car to commute. You don't need a car to get groceries. You don't need a car to run to the hardware store. You just want a car to leave. That's it. And it's not really that unfriendly a place to have a car, particularly one that's entirely
00:27:13
Speaker
Ridiculous. As New York, because you don't need to rely on it at all, you don't need to have anything even remotely practical. As long as you know when to drive and when not to drive to avoid traffic, you're good to go and just avoid the potholes and you'll be fine. Yeah, and good luck avoiding them. Yeah, it takes a little bit of situational awareness behind the wheel, but a couple times a month is probably best case scenario.
00:27:42
Speaker
Maybe I'll take it out on a Sunday and drive it downtown, but more often than not, I'll just use it to leave for the weekend. Storage is a challenge, but fortunately, there's some good options here nowadays. What would you say is one major difference between the enjoyment that you get out of collecting cars versus watches? Well, look, a watch is with you all the time.
00:28:09
Speaker
its accuracy depends on you. You have to set it, you have to wear it, you have to use it and with that comes I think an important tie to the mechanical object. With a car, it'll just sit there waiting for you, I guess. And then you get to go and yeah, you have to take care of it.
00:28:31
Speaker
But then you get to put it on and go take it for a spin. And I've always liked that, you know, a good car that you're familiar with is more like putting it on than getting into it. I think especially living in New York, the tie to a car becomes all the more important. And yeah, I mean, I look forward to it all the time.
00:28:55
Speaker
looking at the keys to one of my cars that I keep here at the office on my desk and just wishing I was going out for a blast right now on a Monday afternoon in 60-degree sunny weather, but also realizing that our former president is coming in from LaGuardia in his motorcade and I want to stay off of the FTR.
00:29:19
Speaker
Time is always the biggest issue with a lot of things in life and when it comes to collecting and running a company time is even more limited Luckily with watches, that's your career. So you get to see a lot of stuff but cars a little more difficult So, how do you make time to collect?
00:29:37
Speaker
Well, again, with the watches, it's all the time. The line, I'd be lying if I said that the line between my collecting and what I do for searching for inventory doesn't get blurred. It has for years and probably will always as long as I'm in this business. If I get to see it first and I want it, then well, sorry guys, it's fine.
00:30:03
Speaker
With car collecting, listen, I've always been a driver first. I don't really care about showing my car. In fact, I've asked a few friends if I ever do turn into the collector who sits in a lawn chair with a cardboard pie chart of all of my expenses and restoration pictures and awards that I've won, I just want to be put down.
00:30:34
Speaker
The first thing I'm going to do with this over restored Porsche project is drive it 3600 miles across the country and hopefully pick up a few rock chips so I can stop being precious about the paint job. So I try to find reasons to use it and whether that's just shooting out to see some friends or deciding to go get sandwiches two hours away on a Saturday.
00:31:01
Speaker
That's fine, too. Cars and coffee is a great cultural phenomenon just to get out. Give yourself an excuse to get up early, go for a blast, have some caffeine, come back and, you know, still have the rest of your day ahead of you. Do modern cars excite you anywhere near the same amount that vintage does? In short, no. With that said, of course there are exceptions, but they're usually
00:31:27
Speaker
Model specific. I don't think there's a single manufacturer today that I can look at and say I like everything you're doing I do feel that way about a couple watch companies but with cars particularly, you know, I am Well, I'll still this soapbox, but I'm anti EV For so many reasons I think styling today is
00:31:54
Speaker
Well, most notably, primarily absent. And most of the designs I see today are just not my taste. You know, I just saw the new BMW M2 design that just got sort of unveiled and, okay, I love the box fenders. That's cool. But- That's it. You know, woof.
00:32:24
Speaker
For a while, my 2002 20-year-old BMW M5 was my newest modern reliable car. I did add the baby Aston, the 2009 Vantage. I love that car. I do too. I wasn't looking for one. I was actually going to buy a pickup truck and whoops, bought an Aston Martin Vantage for less than the cost of the GMC Sierra.
00:32:55
Speaker
But anyway, so yeah, I do have a 2009 Vantage right now. It is a spectacular machine. I recently wrote in the Motoring Journal that the sound that it emits under heavy throttle is akin to a Supermarine Spitfire dispensing angry Allied justice on a Messerschmitt. It is just about the greatest noise I've ever heard. Yeah, the car's amazing.
00:33:23
Speaker
And these are someone else's words, but it might also be the only car on the road that makes a 911 look like an egg with four wheels. Right. This is very true. Spectacular. I can't believe how low the values are. I think that'll probably change, but that's not why I bought the car. I bought it because it's a fucking masterpiece. What color is yours? Mine is tungsten silver metallic. Yeah, it's just a beautiful car. And again,
00:33:51
Speaker
Well, to be honest with you, the purchase of that car required stepping up some of my fashion sense. I realized that I don't dress nicely enough to drive that car. The Hawaiian shirts didn't cut it? Yeah. I mean, listen, I keep the Aloha shirts for like a totally different sort of Magnum PI vibe. This has certainly got a little bit more of a wannabe secret agent to it. So I've spent like
00:34:19
Speaker
That's far too much money on, you know, Santoni shoes. Don Hill's suede jacket. Yeah, that was a whole lifestyle change, dude. A new duffel bag in the back of the car that's just still stuffed with the tissue paper. Right, right. It's a purple label felt, you know, leather trimmed, you know.
00:34:42
Speaker
There's one car that you despise and it's one that many others do as well. In fact, you legitimately blew one up in the middle of the desert. I was just talking with Eli from Auto about this the other day and you just have to tell everyone this story because it's incredible. Yeah. The Chrysler PT Cruiser came out when I was getting my driver's license or one over, it's already out. I don't know. I hate them. Hearing the name, you have to laugh.
00:35:10
Speaker
It's so bad. It's just awful. And every single time I saw one on the street, I just wanted to kill it with fire. And so, yeah, I had a bachelor party in Las Vegas in 2019, and a dozen of my friends bought me a running, driving Chrysler PT Cruiser for the sole purpose of bringing it to a firearms range, packing it full of Tannerite,
00:35:39
Speaker
and blowing it to smithereens, which I did with a rifle, 300 yards. And it was so rewarding, Cameron. Apparently, allegedly, the owner of the range said, we got lots of cars here. You want to blow up a limo? We got that. You want to blow up a fire truck? We've got that. But my friends knew me, and they said, no, it's got to be a Chrysler PT Cruiser. What color was it, yellow? It was red. It was that maroon red.
00:36:09
Speaker
The best part is that there was this couple sort of there.
Bachelor Party Anecdote
00:36:14
Speaker
We were the only people at the range except for this couple. After a while, I'm like, you guys work here at the range. They just sort of were watching, didn't quite understand. They said, no, that was our car. You just blew up. Apparently, the range owner had actually gone to his neighbor's house and said, I see you have this car. These assholes from New York, what a bloke.
00:36:37
Speaker
So the owners of the car came to watch it get blown to smithereens. That's right. That may be the best part of the story. Honestly, I've got pretty great friends and that ranks very highly on the list of awesome shit that I've gotten to do in my life. Yeah, that's about as cool as a gift from friends as you can get. Truly, truly. Keeps giving. Keeps on giving.
00:37:03
Speaker
Before we wrap up here with the collector's zoom rundown, I want to ask you one last question on collecting. Sure. So I'm curious what collecting has done for you both personally and professionally.
Collecting Stories, Not Just Items
00:37:16
Speaker
Well, it's cost me a lot of money. Um, you know, I think that, you know, collecting, it's an interesting idea, right? The, the accumulation of stuff.
00:37:31
Speaker
And on some level, I don't really think of myself as overtly materialistic. But then I just look around my office or I look around my apartment or I think about my garage bills and I realize I have lots and lots of stuff. And I think I'm just going to, you know, sort of blame it on my grandfather's storytelling in that
00:37:55
Speaker
Everything he had, whether it was art or apparel or vinyl collection or books, everything had a story. And, you know, you couldn't point at something in his house without telling you, without him being able to tell you, you know, where he was when he got it, what he had for lunch that day, some sort of funny anecdote about it. And I realized that they became these sort of talismans of a life well-lived. And it was very rarely about the object, in fact,
00:38:24
Speaker
If anything, in my own journey, it's been less about the object and more about the story behind it. And that's been a truly wonderful thing to realize about myself is that, sure, I love these things. I love the tactile and visual to so many of these different things, whether it's cars or watches or collectible movie posters, comic art, massive Lego collection.
00:38:54
Speaker
action figures, die casts, the coffee table books, pocket knives, vintage objects, lighters, starting to get into fine art photography, vinyl, but it's all about the story. And I'm sure this is something you keep hearing on this podcast for those of us who are collectors is that the story is really the whole point. And I'd like to think that
00:39:20
Speaker
I could give it all away as long as I packaged it with the story to the next custodian. You got to give it to the people with the, that had the PT Cruiser. No, no, they got, they got what they deserved. All right. Let's wrap it up here with the collector's dream rundown. You can answer these questions based on any of your collections, whether it's movie posters or vinyls or cars, watches, whatever. Okay. What's the one that got away?
00:39:50
Speaker
Can I give you a couple from a different, different categories? Is that OK? That would be great. All right. So in a watch front, there was this Submariner 5512 that was engraved on the sides of the case by a gun engraver named Robert Swartley. Sold at auction years ago. Just beautiful Florentine, sort of floral scripted case edges. Beautiful watch.
00:40:19
Speaker
I was not ready for that watch when it was at auction. I didn't understand it. And now it's a sort of a fine art masterpiece in my book. And I don't know if it'll ever turn up again. There was also a time where I could have afforded an 18 karat solid yellow gold Royal Oak Jumbo 5402. I mean, I remember having a client who brought me one after he bought it and the seller sent it to him wrapped in the sock. I mean, they just didn't have the value that they had today.
00:40:49
Speaker
I ended up selling that watch, but again, I should have held onto it. For cars, I mean, there's probably too many to list, but I think the first one that stands out to me is my dad offered to buy me a two-door Range Rover, a right-hand drive stick shift from, I think, 72 when I was 16 or 17 years old. And of course, at that time, all I wanted was a sports car. Of course. And I think it was $2,500 for the truck.
00:41:18
Speaker
really regret not having the foresight at that time to realize how cool a vehicle that was. And of course, values today are much higher. Also got offered an E30 M3 for well under $20,000 for a great car. That was definitely a stupid choice. Maybe 11 or 12 years ago, I had an opportunity to buy a street legal DB4 race car.
00:41:47
Speaker
It was a number, well, let's just say that I have more in my portion now than that Aston was being listed for. That hurts. That was, yeah. Just a couple others. Posters. I'm perpetually trying to track down an insert size. These are the sort of tall, narrow movie posters with art by Barry Jackson. It's the Escape from New York, the John Carpenter film with Kurt Russell.
00:42:17
Speaker
I'm desperate to find one of these. And they do pop up at auction every once in a while. But in this size, it's a super rare piece. And I've missed a couple. And then in the other art world, I also like comic art. I don't collect comic books, but I do collect comic art. And there was this birthday card that Jim Steranko, a legendary comic artist who created, amongst other things, Nick Fury,
00:42:46
Speaker
Jim Stranko made a birthday card for Stan Lee. And the artwork is incredible. And I negotiated with a seller for some time, and we just couldn't agree. And then it sold. And of course, the moment you can't have it anymore, it became absolutely essential. So I keep hoping that this birthday card that just says something like, to Stan,
00:43:15
Speaker
you know, from Jim or his alter ego, Nick Fury. And it's a marker drawing birthday card. Um, but it's, it's incredible. I have a picture of it on like a homepage screensaver on my iPad. Like I love it. And, uh, you know, too pig headed, I guess, but not a way for now. Those hurt. Those ones hurt. Yeah. How about the on deck circle? So what's next for you and you're collecting?
00:43:45
Speaker
Well, with watches, you know, I have a couple things that, you know, I have coming in. I'm really looking forward to getting this 18-carat Movado Datron. Movado Datron was the watch that my father inherited from his father, my grandfather. In steel, sort of steel with a blue panda dial and a Beats of Rice style bracelet. It's got a Cenith El Primero moving a super cool little 38-millimeter cushion case chronograph from the early 70s.
00:44:15
Speaker
And I've collected a few of the steel ones over the years, but I discovered that they made them not only an 18 karat solid gold, but they actually made a very small number with a mesh bracelet from the factory. Interesting. A friend of mine here in New York found one. I got a chance to see it. I tried to buy it from him. He wasn't having it. I tracked down another one in Europe and bought it
00:44:43
Speaker
Oh, God, probably six weeks ago, but getting it out of Europe has proven difficult. So I've got that coming at some point when someone can make a trip across the pond. But beyond that... Where is it in Europe? It was in the Netherlands and now it's in Italy. It's getting bounced around until somebody can bring it over. I'm going to Italy this week, so you let me know. All right, that's good.
00:45:10
Speaker
I think I'm also exploring other areas of sort of the neo-vintage watch world. Particularly, I've developed a taste for Frank Muller. I think that their design language is due for some love. And they defined watch collecting in New York in the 90s. They're fun, they're whimsical. Tano's are cool. There might be another company on the
00:45:40
Speaker
on the hype cycle today that uses an awful lot of that design language and gets all the credit. That might have come from Frog Mooler. Yeah, I think that's a true heritage, and I think they're supremely cool and a great value. In terms of cars, I'm always looking every single day at what else is out there. At some point, I'd like to buy an Austin Healy race car, a 100. Always looking at other Aston Martins, I've become pretty
00:46:09
Speaker
big fan of the brand since getting this little advantage and I'm sure it won't be the last one in the collection. And then very excited to receive an actual modern practical car. You asked me earlier about new cars I like. Well, there's one I like and I actually ordered a Defender 90, which will be here later this year. I'm excited about that. Heck yeah, those are awesome.
00:46:32
Speaker
And then posters. Listen, I'm looking for a Jaws insert, an Alien insert. I'm looking for a nice condition, one sheet of Honor Majesty Secret Service with art by Robert McGinnis and Frank McCarthy. I'm always looking out for this stuff. Good. Your eBay searches are going crazy. It's nonstop. Ding, ding, ding. Goodbye. Goodbye.
00:46:56
Speaker
How about the unobtainable, so one you can't have, it's either too expensive or in a museum, maybe a private collection? I mean, I think for me, going back to that DB4 that I missed, someday I might be able to get up to getting a DB4, but I think the DB4 GT is gone. I think that that's short of winning a $2 billion
00:47:22
Speaker
You know powerball. Um, I don't think i'm going to own one of those cars and uh, that's sad But that's probably the one for me that is unobtainable How about the page one rewrite? So if you could collect anything besides your current collections money no object, what would it be and why? Well, I don't know that it's so much a a uh money no object thing but
00:47:50
Speaker
I really wish that I'd gotten into collecting some clothes, specifically some vintage Ralph, maybe the double RL stuff, the polo country stuff before it really caught on with the vintage clothing guys. I've never really looked at anything outside of an army navy store as realistic used clothing, but some of their Jacquard shirt jackets and
00:48:20
Speaker
and outerwear from the 90s and the early 2000s is just killer. And the quality is, I think, in many cases, way better than some of what they're making today. And I think I kind of just missed that boat. So if I was going to start all over with collecting, I'd be sure to add something in this arterial sense. I mean, inevitably,
00:48:46
Speaker
I think part of my personal collecting fallacy is that I really do truly not need anything until I can't have it. Once something, I'll look at a jacket for weeks or months or a whole season or what have you and then they'll discontinue all that shit and then I got to start tracking it down and now because vintage and discontinued clothing is so hot, you end up paying a premium then if you just bought it at retail.
00:49:16
Speaker
And I know nothing about clothes, not really. Technical outerwear, yes, I have a former career in ski apparel and things like that, but really looking at a well-made denim shirt or what have you, that kind of more everyday stuff. But listen, a lot of my fellow dealers, watch dealers have figured this all out and I've got just awesome threads. I don't know. Yeah, for sure. The vintage double RL stuff's amazing.
00:49:46
Speaker
So good. Yeah, it doesn't get any better, to be honest. How about the goat for you? Who do you look up to in the collecting world? Well, a lot of people, many of whom you've had on this show. But the person I keep thinking about is my friend Larry Pipitone. Larry is a founding partner of a design firm called Grand Army. And he just has impeccable taste in all things, in cars, in watches,
00:50:15
Speaker
in graphic illustration and in objects. And I love speaking with him and looking at his stuff because everything is incredibly thought out in a way that I think I'm a more of a shotgun approach and he's definitely a sniper. Love it. Yeah. Yeah. And he's he's brilliant. He's pretty low key. But if you get if you get a chance to speak to him, his nuance is and thoughtfulness, mindfulness about his collecting is is pervasive and everything he does and brilliant.
00:50:45
Speaker
The hunt or the ownership, which do you like more? The hunt because the hunt, the hunt for me is that's when you get to feel the romanticism of the story. Owning something is great. Sharing something is great. Talking about it with you on a podcast is great, but I do feel that it's the excitement of tracking something down the, um, when you find that great condition thing.
00:51:10
Speaker
that you've been looking for, whether it's a specific make, model, trim, color, mileage, price balance on a car, or whether it's a lost, forgotten gem in the horology world, or even just finding a mint and sealed box, Kenner, real Ghostbusters, Ecto, one at a vintage toy shop. There's an excitement in that hunt.
00:51:37
Speaker
it'll inevitably go in your garage or a watch roll or on a dusty shelf. Yeah, it's true. Most importantly, do you feel that you were born with the collector's gene? Well, I mean, if we were talking scientifically here, I don't know if there's such a thing from a biological standpoint. Do I think that I have collective collector conditioning?
00:52:04
Speaker
I absolutely do. I think I inherited that from my grandparents mostly. My parents, I wouldn't say, are terribly enthusiastic about materialist things. However, they did teach me the value of having a nice thing and buying something that lasts.
00:52:26
Speaker
So even when I was growing up in sort of a small house in a small town, living fairly conservatively, they always had a nice car. And they always had really nice cookware. And they had really nice luggage. And they still have it. So whether it was my grandparents who had more accumulation but came with the stories
00:52:56
Speaker
and then you balance that with my folks teaching me the value of buying something of high quality once and keeping it for as long as possible. The conditioning is there. Eugene, hey, it's a romantic story. Let's pull on that thread a little bit some other time. Yeah, you got it. James, always so good to catch up with you, man. We don't get to do it as often as I would like, but I appreciate you coming on today and you're the epitome of a collector, no doubt.
00:53:24
Speaker
Thank you very much, Cameron. It's always a pleasure to chat with you. Sounds like I'll see you in a few weeks. Looking forward to it. All right, that does it for this episode. Thank you all for listening to Collector's Gene Radio.