A Digital Dive
For many collectors, the transition to digital cards or NFT’s is too far a reach, but there are several platforms that might be worth another look.
Like most people in the hobby, collecting physical sports cards is what I am most passionate about. I was a junk wax era kid (whose peak collecting years were 1984-89), who returned to collecting in 2010 and have grown my collection exponentially ever since.
So what was it in January of 2021 that drew me into the world of NBA Top Shot, which is about as far as you can go from opening a pack of 1985 Fleer?
Courtesy: NBA Top Shot
It may have been the combination of a “collectible” item with a video highlight. My career is in video production and I still edit more sports-related videos than any other content to this day. Maybe it was the fact that at that moment I was in the hospital with my oldest daughter, trying to find a way to occupy time between nurse check-in’s.
Regardless of the reason, I purchased my first pack of Top Shot Moments and entered the world of NFT/digital collectibles for the first time in my life.
Side note: my sports card collection, and overall sport consumption, is about 80% baseball.
I definitely didn’t know every NBA name that came out of each pack, but I liked that each moment (a highlight of a specific player) was numbered, making it easy to tell how common or rare that moment was (which I would also argue is one of the biggest flaws of collecting physical cards). I also started right before Top Shot (and everything in the NFT world) exploded. The value of my collection of 326 moments peaked around $26,000 later in 2021, but has bottomed out around $2200 most of the last year. I have yet to sell a Top Shot moment in the same way I have never sold a physical sports card.
Since that time I’ve delved more into the world of NFT/digital trading cards and there is undoubtedly a huge learning curve for those of us who prefer a hobby based on holding a physical card in your hand. When I decided to do an entire episode of The Card Life on innovation across the hobby, I knew that this realm would have to be featured in a segment. I also knew that explaining it in 2-3 minutes segments was going to be near impossible.
So here is my card collectors guide to the world of NFT’s, digital cards and beyond!
What is a NFT?
An NFT is a Non-Fungible Token, a fancy way of saying something that is unique and can’t be replaced with something else. Each NFT has a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain, which is essentially a ledger tracking ownership of that specific NFT.
The most common type of NFT is digital artwork. One of the biggest success stories in this realm is Bored Ape Yacht Club, which were sold for around $190 each when they launched in April of 2021 and have since been resold for as much as $3.4 million.
Courtesy: Board Ape Yacht Club
The common response to art NFT’s is that “I could just screen grab that and I own it too without paying anything”. But this is also like saying that having a photo of a 1952 Mantle card on your phone is the same as owning it, it just isn’t.
In the sports card world, both Panini and Topps offer cards as NFT’s, with no tie to a digital asset. Both have earned a modest following and have success stories of big $ sales of rare cards and active marketplaces.
On the Hobby Innovations episode of The Card Life, I featured another digital collecting platform which I feel falls somewhere in between the world of NFT’s and physical cards.
Upper Deck launched their e-Pack site in January of 2016 with a single product, Series One Hockey. They’ve evolved since then to include hundreds of products, in multiple sports, as well as entertainment.
Courtesy: Upper Deck
Packs, boxes and even cases are bought and opened just as you would at a local card shop. Some cards are also actually physical cards that can be shipped to you at any time.
Of the 360 cards currently in my e-pack collection, 127 are physical items I could redeem, with four of those items being autographed and eight being serial numbered.
e-Pack also offers the ability to combine certain eligible digital assets to claim a physical card. There are also very active traders on e-pack who exchange both the digital and physical cards.
Overall, I feel like e-Pack provides the safest bridge for a person who prefers physical cards, but wants to explore what is available on the digital side of collecting. Plus, you can open a pack from the comfort of your home 24-7!
Courtesy: Break Club NFT
On The Card Life, I featured another form of NFT related to the sports card market. Ben Smith of Midwest Box Breaks in Fort Wayne, Indiana, created his Break Club NFT not as art, cards or player highlights, but as a membership token into a community of card collectors. In the NFT world, the real life perks and benefits of owning an NFT are referred to as “utility”. With ownership of a Break Club NFT, the owner gets lifetime access to exclusive breaks and giveaways. A Break Club NFT currently sells for $150 and Ben has sold around 620 of the 5000 he minted (or created).
I don’t know what the future holds for digital cards and NFT’s relative to physical cards. Some of the biggest drawbacks to having a huge card collection such as organizing, storage and maintaining condition are eliminated when everything lives in a digital space. But I would also speculate that the nostalgia of holding a pack or card in your hands will continue to win the day, at least until us junk wax kids are more concerned with what the nursing cafeteria is serving for lunch, instead of whether we top-loaded a Zion rookie base card in 2019.
