Technology- Digital Collectibles- NBA Top Shot
At this point in my mass media journey nothing sounds strange to me anymore. From the story of Britney Spears essentially being held hostage to Armie Hammer potentially being a cannibal things get stranger and stranger all the time. While the topic of discussion today isn't quite that strange, odd may be a more suitable word. Odd in the sense that I'm not sure how or why this "breakthrough" has come about. NBA Top Shot is a name I've heard tossed around a ton on social media as of recent. I even have friends up north who call me about who the locks are for their parlays and moneylines for the week mention it to me. Upon first glance I thought it was a new trading card. It turns out it's something else entirely. It's being called a "crypto collectible".
There has been a resurgence of collectible sales since the pandemic began. It hasn't been uncommon to see YouTubers and other celebrities dip their toes in the pool so to speak. From Mark Wahlberg's kids starting their own sports card business called TheCardBoyz to internet sensation (or menace depending on who you ask) Logan Paul buying obscene amounts of Pokemon Cards to open on his channel. It's no secret rare collectibles can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars easy and with popularity on the rise again it seems like the perfect time to strike while the iron is hot. But which avenue is the most fruitful? In terms of value sports cards take the cake due to them often having autographs and other pieces of memorabilia attached. For example there is a rare Mike Trout card that sold for 3.9 million dollars. With basketball being one of the fast rising sports popularity wise some companies anticipated this and made moves to secure a foothold in it's world.
The picture above is of one of the formerly most successful blockchain based collectible games CryptoKitties. A game in which users collect and breed virtual cats with prices of cats soaring to over 300,00 dollars, yes real U.S. dollars, for certain breeds. This business model as odd as it seems proved to be a cash cow with something like 48 million dollars worth of transactions made on this venture. This company was able to secure a partnership with the NBA to bring forth what they consider to be the future of collectible sports memorabilia. To explain the product simply NBA TopShots are digital "moments' from NBA games. These moments consist of videos that have attached stats on the players they feature and even the particular games they came from. Here is a video featuring one of the Miami Heat's young breakout players Tyler Hero giving a brief rundown of the product on it's YouTube channel.
I was curious to see what these packs were like so I set out to get my hands on some only to find out that the first drop of the standard pack ($6 price tag) was "sold out" and the only packs available were the premium for a whopping 99 dollars. It appears they have these drops on set dates and they only have certain numbers of each which is interesting considering one of the upsides to blockchain based crypto items is that an unlimited number of them can be produced. We saw this with the blockchain crypto currency Dogecoin recently which was a hot topic and sold absolutely massive amounts of the unit as of late. This has probably contributed to the recent popularity of NBA Top Shot. This is new and exciting for many buyers, the prospect of digital currency and now digital collectibles that they can auction. But for some this isn't anything out of the ordinary. Granted before the sale of digital collectibles was almost exclusive to the gaming community like people who would buy skins for the online game Counterstrike: Global Objective or specific Pokemon for many of the popular games in the series. While it does appear Top Shot will have some sort of gaming aspect to it in the near future it feels more like traditional sports collectibles. The closest thing I can equate it to is a less fun version of NBA 2K's MyTeam mode in which players buy and sell "cards" (using in game currency, not real money) of players to use in games against each other that have various stats and abilities. I enjoy that game mode but something about Top Shot seems odd to me.
There has been a resurgence of collectible sales since the pandemic began. It hasn't been uncommon to see YouTubers and other celebrities dip their toes in the pool so to speak. From Mark Wahlberg's kids starting their own sports card business called TheCardBoyz to internet sensation (or menace depending on who you ask) Logan Paul buying obscene amounts of Pokemon Cards to open on his channel. It's no secret rare collectibles can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars easy and with popularity on the rise again it seems like the perfect time to strike while the iron is hot. But which avenue is the most fruitful? In terms of value sports cards take the cake due to them often having autographs and other pieces of memorabilia attached. For example there is a rare Mike Trout card that sold for 3.9 million dollars. With basketball being one of the fast rising sports popularity wise some companies anticipated this and made moves to secure a foothold in it's world.
The picture above is of one of the formerly most successful blockchain based collectible games CryptoKitties. A game in which users collect and breed virtual cats with prices of cats soaring to over 300,00 dollars, yes real U.S. dollars, for certain breeds. This business model as odd as it seems proved to be a cash cow with something like 48 million dollars worth of transactions made on this venture. This company was able to secure a partnership with the NBA to bring forth what they consider to be the future of collectible sports memorabilia. To explain the product simply NBA TopShots are digital "moments' from NBA games. These moments consist of videos that have attached stats on the players they feature and even the particular games they came from. Here is a video featuring one of the Miami Heat's young breakout players Tyler Hero giving a brief rundown of the product on it's YouTube channel.
I was curious to see what these packs were like so I set out to get my hands on some only to find out that the first drop of the standard pack ($6 price tag) was "sold out" and the only packs available were the premium for a whopping 99 dollars. It appears they have these drops on set dates and they only have certain numbers of each which is interesting considering one of the upsides to blockchain based crypto items is that an unlimited number of them can be produced. We saw this with the blockchain crypto currency Dogecoin recently which was a hot topic and sold absolutely massive amounts of the unit as of late. This has probably contributed to the recent popularity of NBA Top Shot. This is new and exciting for many buyers, the prospect of digital currency and now digital collectibles that they can auction. But for some this isn't anything out of the ordinary. Granted before the sale of digital collectibles was almost exclusive to the gaming community like people who would buy skins for the online game Counterstrike: Global Objective or specific Pokemon for many of the popular games in the series. While it does appear Top Shot will have some sort of gaming aspect to it in the near future it feels more like traditional sports collectibles. The closest thing I can equate it to is a less fun version of NBA 2K's MyTeam mode in which players buy and sell "cards" (using in game currency, not real money) of players to use in games against each other that have various stats and abilities. I enjoy that game mode but something about Top Shot seems odd to me.
I've been asked by numerous people I associate with in the sports media community via Instagram if I'll be investing in Top Shot. As of now, no I won't. Even with one "Lebron James "Cosmic" Dunk" moment selling for $208,000. My main reasons have to do with uncertainties and personal preference. These collectibles are minted in Blockchain so they are all unique but despite the "own the highlights" catchphrase the NBA still owns all the rights to the footage in these Top Shots. While I do participate in digital collection in games like Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links! it is completely free so I have nothing to lose. I think it's a fantastic example of modernization of trading cards. In addition Duel Links! has a clear game mode that I am already familiar due to playing it for a long time much like NBA 2K. I would have to see the quality of the game Top Shot produces. I have little interest in collecting things I cannot get some use out of, the cards I collect in Duel Links! can be used to have fun battles against my friends. It seems to me it could resemble 2K but with real money being used to acquire players which does not speak to a college student on a budget. There's also a possibility of the business losing traction and card values dropping at any time. I would rather invest in stocks that I have confidence in than the virtual equivalency of trading cards but to each their own.
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