66 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • OCTOBER 2017 66 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2017 66 LONGISLANDPRESS.CO M • SEPTEMBER 201-----------TUTU111
Trading places
Former stock
broker Ian
Linde finds
real happiness
in rock
memorabilia
By JOSEPH KELLARD
Fresh from the “I Made a Fortune
on Wall Street But It Left Me
Unfulfilled” file, meet Ian Linde,
late of the $40 billion Jeffries Group
and a successful trader with Lehman
Brothers-Barclays before that.
Linde gave it all up this spring to
run Collectionzz, an e-commerce
platform he founded and brands as
“by collectors, for collectors” and
his side passion for the past two
years.
“I knew this was right,” said Linde,
a Syosset resident. “I’ve made a
career of making bets where I saw
opportunities, and on many levels
this was it.”
Collectionzz.com deals in memorabilia,
including comic books, toys
and poster art, but most heavily
in music and sports, two red-hot
verticals with a combined $30
billion global market. On a recent
day, the Collectionzz.com website
offered more than 11,000 items in
750 collections, with items ranging
in price from $100 to $50,000.
Featured: The “finest” Derek Jeeter
card set ever assembled and Pearl
Jam frontman Mike McCready’s
1962 Fender Telecaster, played
on last year’s Temple of the Dog
reunion tour.
A collector since elementary
school, Linde launched the business
in part because he always
had a strong desire to show off his
prized possessions. Over the years,
he participated in collector events
and online and live auctions, and
he tried assorted forums and social
media sites to share and build his
collection.
Linde eventually came to believe he
could do a better job himself.
“I figured there’s got to be a better
way for collectors that love their
stuff to display their collection,”
Linde said. “I also think the
existing economics of the traditional
auction industry are ripe for
disruption.”
While the big competitors charge
fees ranging from 8 to 25 percent,
Collectionzz sticks to a flat 5 percent
for peer-to-peer transactions
and offers premium services for
“power” collectors and “ambassadors”
that lower fees even further,
he noted.
Linde was bitten by the collector’s
bug while growing up in Melville.
As a tween, he saved his bar
mitzvah money, shoveled snow
in neighborhood driveways and
otherwise wheeled and dealed to
trade up for sports collectibles he
coveted. At age 11, he paid $225
for a baseball bat used by Hall of
Famer Rickey Henderson.
Linde’s younger brother turned
him on to Pearl Jam’s epic debut
album Ten, and the future Collectionzz
founder was soon immersed
in the whole Seattle grunge scene,
including Nirvana, Soundgarden
and Alice in Chains.
Working on Wall Street allowed
him to acquire more unique and
higher-end collectibles, including
balls and other items from Yankees
legends Joe DiMaggio and Mickey
Mantle.
Today, Linde invests mostly in
1990s rock memorabilia. He owns
Kurt Cobain’s Fender Stratocaster
and the acoustic guitar Eddie Vedder
used to write “Off He Goes,”
a track featured on Pearl Jam’s No
Code album.
There are also used guitars from
Slash of Guns N’ Roses and the
late Chris Cornell of Soundgarden
and Audioslave, several handwritten
items, including original lyrics
and set lists, and classic 1960s rock
posters of Hendrix, Cream and
The Who.
“We think the addressable market is
bigger for certain areas of collecting,
specifically rock and roll posters and
memorabilia, vintage instruments
and game-used sports memorabilia
with impeccable provenance, which
commands a premium.”
“We expect that to be a growing
and lasting theme,” Linde said.
Linde is in the midst of a capital
raise to dramatically scale up Collectionzz.
com, including new technology
and an app. Other planned
features include a curated section
of unique, handpicked items, along
with additional “white glove” services,
in which he and his team will
photograph and sell larger collections
on consignment.
Ultimately, though, the project is
all about connecting the collecting
community.
”If you go to eBay and you see an
item you want, you communicate
one-to-one with the seller,”
Linde noted. “At Collectionzz, we
want people to project their views
through the whole site.”
BUSINESS
Ian Linde gave up a Wall Street career to focus on music and sports
memorabilia. (Press photo: Joseph Kellard)
A Fender Telecaster that Pearl
Jam guitarist Mike McCready
played on the Temple of the
Dog album is among Ian Linde’s
prized possessions.
(Press photo: Joseph Kellard)