The Rise of NBA Top Shot

NBACameron Mendler

NBA Top Shot has been taking over the collecting world and even the cryptocurrency crowd. Growing up, kids everywhere would love to rip open a pack of sports cards and see their favorite players on these cards. They soon became massive collectors’ items and are being sold for thousands of dollars, and even some incredibly old cards are selling for millions. But why would someone pay thousands of dollars for a picture of an athlete they can find in one google search. That is the current question with NBA top shot.

NBA Top Shot is essentially a virtual trading card platform where you own a highlight of an NBA player. It is officially licensed by the NBA so there is no question of it being a real thing rather than a company trying to scam the public. They have partnered with Dapper Labs, which is a company that works with blockchains, emphasizing that NBA Top Shot is dabbling into cryptocurrency and NFTs (non-fungible tokens). The question of why someone wouldn’t just look up a highlight on YouTube instead of paying hundreds of dollars for it is a valid one and this is what Mark Cuban had to say about that, “I get to enjoy knowing I own my Maxi Kleber dunk Moment, along with knowing the serial number and much more. Some people might complain that I can get the same video on the internet anywhere any time and watch it. Well guess what, I can get the same picture on any traditional, physical card on the internet and print it out, and that doesn’t change the value of the card.”

The value in these virtual trading cards, and to maintain a stable marketplace is all reliant on the consumers. If people are truly willing to invest in these cards and collect them it could thrive but recently a large amount of users have attempted to buy packs to flip the cards for instant profit. Which has been working but would be detrimental to the company in the long run. Also, with the upscale of new users the ability to get card packs has became a game of chance. In their recent pack drop they only had about 30,000 packs but 300,000 users waiting in line to get one. The website would randomly put these 300,000 of these users into a virtual line and only the first 30,000 would be able to get a pack. This has turned away a lot of customers because of how luck based it currently is. But if the company were to hand out a pack to everyone the cards in the marketplace would be worthless leaving them in a conundrum.

Common cards are typically going for around $20 right now but rare cards and cards of star players are going for over $200. A rare LeBron James card sold for over $200,000.

This is where the people that are just in it to invest or make a quick dollar come into play because packs are typically around $15 so getting a pack would guarantee profit. But with people buying packs and then putting their card up for the lowest offer, the marketplace has been susceptible to tanking often. Some people are in it to buy a couple rookies for cheap who could perform well in the future which essentially replicates a stock market of NBA players.

NBA players such as Tyrese Haliburton, Josh Hart, and Seth Curry have been promoting it while streaming themselves opening packs and giving away cards to fans.

They are doing a solid job promoting this and getting it out to the world, but this has also enraged fans as they feel as if NBA players should not be given free packs if the average consumer cannot even get one. Although, this may be true, every company would do something such as that to promote it to the hundreds of millions of fans across the world. Another big name that has been promoting it is Mark Cuban, who is always at the forefront of all things in the NBA. And has allowed fans to buy tickets using the cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. Cuban said, “[Top Shot] could turn into a top 3 revenue source for the NBA over the next 10 years.”

Whether it is the fans of the NBA or people in it just for the money and investing side of it, NBA Top Shot has all the ingredients to stay relevant and excel over the next decade and who knows maybe in 10 years you could use one of your virtual trading cards to purchase tickets to a future NBA game.

Posted in NBA