What are you a collector of?

Nothing

You can’t be serious. Not even art, which is a common pastime for many people?

I’ve just told you I’m not a collector of anything.

So you don’t know?

So I don’t know what?

That the exercise is an investment gateway. Many collectors do not just do it for the fun of it.

Are you telling me that those who collect automobiles, those diminishing assets, are investors?

Those who collect vintage automobiles, not those who pack their garages with expensive autos.

What’s the difference?

A lot

What’s your point?

Chill, my friend, some people do not stay ahead of the pack by happenstance.

Meaning?

I’ve been investigating the unique collector’s streak of Richard Gooding, the grandson of James Gooding, who founded Pepsi Cola Bottling Company of Denver, United States in 1936.

Who is Richard Gooding and why should I be interested in him?

He died in 2014

So?

If you were his neighbour, you would have thought him weird upon discovering what he collected.

What did he collect?

Whiskies?

What about whiskies?

I told you to chill earlier. Do you know the current value of his whiskey collection? More than $1.79billion. Convert that to Naira! It is the world’s most expensive whiskey collection containing several 100year old bottles.

Whiskey?

Yes, my friend. I understand there are 3,900 bottles in all. The first 1,949 bottles have been auctioned already. Among them was a rare Macallan 1926 Valerio Adam and a Springbank 1919.

Did you say 100years old whiskies? You mean people are not afraid to drink something that is so old?

Who’s talking of drinking anything

Why do people buy whiskey if it’s not to drink the contents?

If Richard Gooding drank all those whiskeys would his wife and family know the feeling of being rich by $1.79billion? Don’t always think of consumption, my friend.

What should I think about?

Think about the next batch of auction coming up between 10-20 April. I hear some Nigerians have already registered to participate in the exercise.

And you say I should not think about consumption? What do you think those Nigerians who plan to take part in the auction intend to do with the bottles? Romanticize about whiskey. Of course, they will drink the ancient brew.

You can never be too sure. Something tells me some may want to extend the Richard Gooding obsession by another fifty or hundred years, who knows?