Overview : NBA Top Shot (by Dapper Labs) is a site that sells packs of officially-licensed clips of NBA plays they call moments which are analogous to digital trading cards. Proof of ownership for each individual moment is guaranteed by a unique non-fungible token (NFT); these tokens live and circulate on a blockchain network called Flow developed by Dapper Labs, the creators of America’s favorite digital cat-breeding game, Cryptokitties. When customers buy moments, they are actually buying the NFTs associated with those moments. Only the tokens themselves exist on the blockchain, whereas the media for the moments live on content servers and can be viewed and downloaded by anyone.
Packs: The minting and total circulation / edition counts for moments are determined by Dapper Labs, with some moments being (much) rarer than others. They are released in packs that differ in price, size, and edition. The cheapest packs are $9 Base Set commons that contain 3 moments. There are also more premium runs like the $1k packs that some people here bought recently. Packs are currently hard to get because supply has been extremely limited while demand has skyrocketed. The SOP for acquiring a pack is to join the randomized queue when a drop is announced and pray to the Top Shot gods.
Marketplace: Moments can also be acquired in the Top Shot marketplace where buying, selling, and gifting are valid transactions. All sales incur a 5% fee of the sale price paid to Dapper Labs. As of right now, the marketplace is infested with bots that snipe most of the best (as in obviously mispriced) deals. We know this from losing nearly all of the most incredible deals to a handful of accounts. This observation was forensically confirmed when @goofyballer built a tool to examine the blockchain in real time and noticed that those accounts were beating all other users to purchases by times that are not plausibly explained by lag or reaction times.
Cashouts: In order to cash out, you are required to pass KYC requirements that include a clear image of a photo ID, video of your face, and some form you fill out. Your account may be suspended after a certain threshold of activity is met until you complete KYC. Voluntarily entering KYC suspends your account until the process is completed. Cashouts may incur a fee of $25. You should be able to make purchases using both credit cards and crypto.
Value/pricing: In general, market prices are highly nonlinear and increase sharply based on four main factors (not in order):
(1) Star power: Lebron is #1 by far, but Luka, Giannis, Durant, etc. fetch premiums.
(2) Serial number: Lower is better with #1 and jersey # fetching large premiums, fewer # of digits fetching more modest premiums, e.g., #9 > #99 > #999 > #9,999.
(3) Scarcity: Size of the edition, e.g., #/49 vs. #/15,000.
(4) Challenge status: Some cards are required to complete “challenges” that unlock other special cards.