As a nit, I don’t say this, I say that it’s perfectly possible but doesn’t tend to happen because people regard software differently from physical objects. It wouldn’t be that hard to provide some process, trustworthy to some arbitrary level, that a given file was the first of its kind, and to potentially prize the scarcity of that documented fact. More forgeable than blockchain, let’s say, but no more, or not much more, forgeable than certain coins or what have you. But nobody ever did that because (I contend) nobody really cares about the first copy of a file.
Now along comes blockchain and it’s basically trivial to do that to a very high degree of certainty. So now people are trying it. I strongly suspect it won’t work, but we’ll see.
By mimic I also meant the the success of said arbitrary reasons. Or in other words, the allure of collecting sports cards. Technically it’s obviously possible. While I have no idea if NBA cards will work, I do believe some type of digital collectibles (maybe art) will become a sustainable niche.
I’m not saying you are necessarily wrong, just that I’ve been on this road of ‘well this wont work online’ before and have been repeatedly wrong.
This might be the only thread in the history of the internet where the one guy arguing against the crowd is actually right. A lot of old people in this thread don’t understand digital objects.
I’m one of those old people. The idea only clicked with me here because collecting sports cards is such a ridiculous capitalist hobby to begin with that moving it to a digital form is so easy to understand.
In fairness to me, I think it’s a stupid idea but understand that that in no way makes it any less likely to succeed. So I’m certainly not arguing against Yuv.
I’m not sure what’s so hard to understand about people loving to collect sports memorabilia and this takes out a ton of the pain of buying, grading, listing on ebay, shipping, etc.
It’s just that it seems to me a lot of what you’re calling pain is part of the appeal. Digital music is extremely convenient, but vinyl is bigger than ever. Are there digital albums that are collectible in the way that an A&M issue of God Save The Queen is collectible?
Anyone here invest in eTopps back in the day? Seems pretty similar as those were digital trading cards (although you did have the option to pay for physical delivery, but almost no one did). You could trade/transfer them directly through eBay as long as you had not taken physical delivery.
Launched in 2000. Cards were offered via IPO and you could put in order. There was a max run for each card, but initially demand wasn’t nearly high enough to hit it. As it picked up in popularity, cards from the initial year shot up in value due to scarcity. At one point the highest priced card (IIRC it capped out at over $1k) was Tony Banks because his card had the lowest number produced (186) and one guy decided to corner the market basically bidding every one up to $900.
They got pretty popular and the IPOs started to sell out so Topps increased max allocation to like 5k. For a while, you could buy at IPO and if you were able to be one of the first sellers on eBay, easily get 2x-5x your money, depending on the card. My best was buying a Babe Ruth (limited 1k run) for $12.50 and selling for over $100 when I was the 5th listed seller on eBay.
However, interest peaked and card prices stalled, which led to lots of the speculators getting out and prices plummeting to most of the cards being worthless. Topps shut it down in 2012.
Not saying same thing is definitely going to happen here, but people on the eTopps message board were making the same arguments about why eTopps were a great investment and the future of trading cards.
Here are some private convos I’ve had in the past year:
Me: Grift Idea: Crypto Cards
Me: NFLPA License requires 3 years of manufacturing experience and $100k secured annually for royalty payments
Me: just to apply for it
Me: there are girls unboxing these cards that know this shit
Me: both girls same time: LAMAR JAAAACKSON…
Me: girl one: that’s a pretty good hit
Me: girl two: it’s off center though
Him: Here’s your blockchain cards
Him: [link to NBA TopShot]
Me: fuck
Me: they readin’ our shit we gotta go to that encrypted chat again
I had an idea for digital baseball cards several years ago and got really deep into researching the manufacturing, suppliers, and licensing. The licensing is the major hurdle IMO because you basically need a bunch of bribe cash and a near-finished product ready to go. I lost interest because I couldn’t come up with a reliable supplier for the medium I wanted to use for the card technology.
I love the topic of digital scarcity though because we really don’t know what’s going to happen yet look how strongly people argue sides. There are a lot of good points on both sides.
One thing I didn’t see addressed is what this actually means:
The skyrocketing sports card market took a back seat this week to a company that sells NBA highlights. The buyers don’t own the highlight — the NBA does — but the fans do own the limited edition numbered version of it, which they can collect, trade and sell.
The buyer doesn’t own the highlight, but they own a limited edition numbered version of the highlight. That makes no sense. I mean it isn’t really any different than owning the Mike Trout card or a Picasso, as you would not legally retain rights to the images of those pieces. You couldn’t make prints of them and sell them, for instance. So you have ownership of something that can be traded/sold that other people do not have, but I’m not entirely sure what that is legally. Thoughts?
Another observation: NBA TopShot is a primitive product and doesn’t even scratch the surface of where this can go, so I’m actually more bullish on digital rares than some of the posters who I think are making some very solid points against it.
Vinyl is objectively inferior to digital audio, so collectible albums are merely a product of scarcity/signaling or the (common) false belief that vinyl is superior.
Removing one variable: There are some rare audio CDs (and SACDs) that are quite valuable, yet you could listen to them online or download the lossless. Similar thing with some video games. All of the surplus value is basically in the rare printing/packaging.
