You may have heard about the newest trend that has been consuming the sports scene recently, NBA Top Shot. The newest way to collect is certainly sweeping the nation, but most people still have no idea what it is or what it is actually about. While simplistic once you figure it out, it can be confusing for newcomers with its mix of card collecting, gambling, DFS, and even stocks. All of these have their own specific ways of making a profit, and all have unique strategies that must be laid out in order to make money.
NBA Top Shot’s main attraction is “moments.” These are basically virtual cards that contain short NBA highlights in them, along with stats and 3D animations. Top Shot has a licensing deal with the NBA and the NBPA, which allows them to use these clips and put them on their platform as moments.
Top Shot was developed by Dapper Labs, who is best known for Cryptokitties, a game that was popular some time ago. Dapper uses blockchain technology, which makes sure that there is transparency in the production of these moments. Blockchain also verifies the authenticity of the digital moments, which are known as non-fungible tokens (NFT).
Can’t I Just Watch These On My Phone?
This has got to be the number one question asked when it comes to Top Shot. The answer is yes, but to create scarcity within the moments, Top Shot assigns each moment a serial number that tells you how many are produced. Just like with any other collectible card, the lower the serial number, the higher the value. If your serial number matches the player’s jersey number, such as a Zach Lavine moment with serial number 8, the value is increased further.
Different Types Of Moments
If you ever played Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokemon when you were young, or even just collected sports cards as a kid, you probably know that certain cards are rarer than others. When you opened up that pack of cards and saw that shiny Charizard or Blue-Eyes White Dragon, or perhaps a Dan Marino rookie card, you got super excited for a reason. Those cards were just rarer. When you open a pack, you could get some great cards like those or just a bunch of common cards that were useless. NBA Top Shot is no different. There are different levels of collectibles, such as “Holo” and “Cosmic”, that signify how rare a certain moment is. Each moment has a tier it is assigned ranging from “common”, “rare”, “legendary”, and “ultimate”.
There is an entire marketplace up on their website for members to buy and sell moments. You can purchase packs of moments on the marketplace as well, sort of like Madden Ultimate Team in the popular Madden NFL series. Opening a pack is exciting because you never know what you are going to get. Special packs are available every once and a while that are guaranteed to contain a rare moment.
Here is a short clip from NBA Top Shot’s Community Lead, Jacob Eisenberg, where he explains what you need to know before you start.
"It's part-investing, part-collecting and part-daily fantasy sports even."
What is @nba_topshot and why should we care about trading highlights? @dapperlabs Community Lead @Eisenberg43 breaks down the #NBA's newest collectible craze on #EisOnThePrize. 🏀🎞️⛓️ @jacksettleman pic.twitter.com/4ao3raqL1E
— Jeff Eisenband (@JeffEisenband) February 2, 2021
Give It A Shot
Plenty of people in the media are starting to get in on this new platform, including me. There are legitimate concerns about the platform sure, like what is its long-term sustainability, but it is just pure fun for any NBA fan. You get to collect players and moments, and hopefully, make a profit along the way. Whether you want to get in on this is up to you, but there is no denying that the demand for the platform could not be any higher at the moment. There were over 200,000 people waiting in a queue the other day when a rare pack was about to drop.
This is going to be at its most profitable the earlier on you can get into it. If you are into card games and collecting, why not give it a try. You can sign up on their website and go to their marketplace usually, but right now, they have suspended new user sign-up due to high demand. I know, it stinks, but at least now you know the basics for when it’s back up. In the meantime, you can find tons of helpful videos on their website to learn more about the process. That LaMelo Ball dunk you pack may be worth hundreds of thousands one day, so it’s worth the shot in the dark.
