Here’s my take, it took me a couple days to get here:
- They’re basically like baseball cards. Except digital. They’re stored in a blokchain so they’re ultra secure.
- instead of a picture it’s a “highlight” or “moment.” So a little video clip of some highlight.
- for common moments, they make 15,000 of them. It’s like common baseball cards. Not super rare. Each has an individual serial number. So 1 of 15,000 is worth a lot more than 14,000 of 15,000. And the serial number that matches the player’s jersey is worth insane bucks.
- You can buy packs when they drop. It’s random and you have to be really fast to get one. The common packs are 9 bucks. You’re almost assured to get something worth more than that, and some a lot lot lot lot more.
Packs are here:
https://www.nbatopshot.com/packs
Some special edition packs are more than 9 bucks, but the cards are thus rare and worth more.
- Right now there are no packs available. But lots and lots of people are waiting on the next one. People are flooding into this in droves.
- You can buy individual cards from others in the marketplace. Here are the ones I bought today — some expensive, some cheap (my most expensive is a Lebron highlight I got for $999 — just seemed like good value because the ones at nearby serial numbers were selling for $1500 or $2000 or more).
https://www.nbatopshot.com/user/@0tis/moments
- Here is the marketplace:
https://www.nbatopshot.com/search
- The NBA is all in on this supposedly. And people are going bananas rushing to this. There had been a huge boom in sports collector cards and the like recently, and this feels like sort of a cross between that and crypto.
- It also feels like very early days in this. If it sticks, it could be a huge thing. And I’m just imagining this years moments showing pandemic era highlights with empty stands are going to be “special” one day, assuming this sticks around. It is getting tons of press suddenly, apparently the website has been struggling to keep up with demand.
- I bought a few big cards but a good strategy seems to be buying lower value rookie and young players who will have an impact later. Also buying moments that are in smaller lots/less common. But Christ, these get really expensive really fast....
- I am able to deposit and purchase using crypto direct from my Coinbase account. Love that. Also the fastest way to move money out supposedly (just further legitimizes both Coinbase and this in my mind...).
Nobody else doing this here? With all these NBA nerds I’m surprised. Truthfully I haven’t watched much NBA in 20 years and so I don’t know who half the players are, but this gives me an excuse to start watching again...
