I discovered that Topps has its own NFT baseball cards based on the “WAX” blockchain.
Called “TOPPS MLB SERIES 1 NFT COLLECTION”, they were released April 16, 2021. Topps released 50,000 standard packs with six digital collectibles for $4.99 each, along with 25,000 premium packs with 45 collectibles each for $99.99 apiece. The super-high-end cards are fewer than 100 of each “epic exclusive.”
All the packs are now sold out. But I think they release new packs, maybe? I’m not sure. But you can continue to buy cards on the open market.
Common cards are selling for around $0.56, so that’s somewhat reasonable.
I thought about buying some cheap ones just for fun. I didn’t set up an account yet.
Topps is not the official NFT card producer for the MLB
Today MLB just entered into a deal for the OFFICIAL NFT card producer—which is NOT Topps.
Candy Digital is building MLB’s official NFT ecosystem where fans and collectors will be able to purchase, trade and share officially licensed NFTs, according to a press release. Candy will use a new NFT ecosystem developed on Ethereum (NYSE:ETH) as its core blockchain technology.
Now that Topps has a new NFT provider, what happens to those cards on the WAX blockchain? Well, they aren’t the official NFT cards, I guess. On the first day of this new NFT provider, the stock for the company behind WAX is dropping now. SPAC Mudrick Capital II (NASDAQ:MUDS) dropped 12%
This goes to show how these digital cards are suspect to the whims of anything. MLB changes their mind on who the official NFT provider is, and the previous digital cards immediately lose value.
It’s a lot like when my brother and I collected cards on a Facebook app years ago. That was fun, but then app shut down. All cards disappeared into the vapor.
Topps continues to produce and support their free iOS and Android app “Topps Bunt”. Collecting cards on Bunt is fun, but that too, shall someday disappear. That’s why I like taking screenshots and tweeting about my cards. That’s the one thing that will remain—because I archive my tweets and images.