Finding Derivative Opportunities out of Collectible Market Insights
I have occasionally found interesting market insights from the PSA Magazine. This is one of those insights that I think has value in the NFT space.
Yesterday I shared some lessons learned from my experience having basketball cards graded through PSA. You an read that full article here if you missed it. Long story short, I haven't enjoyed the grading process but I have occasionally found interesting market insights as a PSA member through the PSA Magazine.
When I was perusing through a recent issue, I couldn't help but find myself reading an article about MetaZoo cards. What are MetaZoo cards? MetaZoo is another collectible card game like Pokemon or Magic the Gathering. The point of the article focused on how the graded MetaZoo cards were officially recognized by the PSA Set Registry. Not only that, but PSA was seeing an inflow of MetaZoo cards into its grading service. While I certainly don't have any interest in collecting MetaZoo cards, I did find the character names in the set interesting. The most popular card seems to be the "Mothman" 1st edition. We don't have a tremendous amount of pricing data, but the Hologram version of the card has generally commanded somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500 for PSA 10 grades over the last 4 months.
PSA realized price trend shows 72 sales of the Mothman Hologram 1st Edition graded 10. So there is some level of interest in the set based on activity and pricing. What's really interesting is the breakout of the graded Mothman Hologram cards. Of the 431 cards graded, a staggering 310 have been graded a 10. At 71.9% of the graded sample, getting a graded 10 Mothman Hologram 1st edition is actually more common than getting any other grade. For context, Kobe's 1996 Collector's Choice Rookie that I highlighted yesterday has a far more reasonable grading breakout with more 8s and 9s than 10s.
I promise I'm getting to a point with all of this. I have zero interest in MetaZoo cards. But if MetaZoo cards actually do become moderately successful long term, is there a derivative play on the cards that we can try to take advantage of? Maybe.
I spent a great deal of January talking about NFTs and I've made no secret that I'm a proponent of domain name NFTs. You could call me a domain squatter if you like, I'm not offended. It's accurate. I have several domains that I've minted through Unstoppable Domains that I'm sitting on. Some are probably worthless. Others I think could return a significant premium over the $40 I spent on them. One example that I've shared with members previously is Stoolie.crypto. I've also minted JamesHowlett.crypto, MilesMorales.crypto, and HarveyDent.crypto. All three of which are the true identities of popular comic book characters.
To me, popular character names are the obvious play for domain squatting. I think the most basic use case for these domains is as a payment router for digital identity. That means popular character names could be highly sought after if domains really do hit a critical mass. And I'm not alone in thinking this, Unstoppable Domains goes to great lengths to protect the high value names. You can't buy Superman, Batman, or Spiderman because they are protected.
But sometimes, you can get an edge by going with the true identities of the heroes. Somebody bought all of the ClarkKent and Bruce Wayne extensions, for instance. Somebody also got their hands on PeterParker.crypto and PeterParker.zil before Unstoppable Domains put a protected flag on the rest of the extensions.
That's where MilesMorales comes in for me. Miles is a recently created Spiderman in the Marvel universe. Miles was the focus of the 2018 animated Spiderman film, Into the Spider-Verse. Call it a hunch, but my gut tells me Marvel is going to push Miles to the forefront in the MCU films in the next 5 to 10 years. I scooped up MilesMorales.crypto shortly after signing up for Unstoppable Domains. Somebody else liked the idea too because all of the other extensions have subsequently been claimed as well (not by me).
The point is, characters are important. And if we overlay the domain NFT idea with characters from popular trading card games, we can start to think about investable domain ideas in the context of MetaZoo. Pikachu, the popular yellow Pokemon character, is completely protected by Unstoppable Domains. So this idea has merit. What kind of characters do we find in MetaZoo? Well we know Mothman is one of the most popular ones. The set also has a bunch of other mythical monsters like the Chupacabra and Bigfoot. Every Chupacabra extension has been claimed. Bigfoot is available, but those extensions have been marked as premium and are very pricey:
Mothman? Though they're mostly gone, there are actually a few domains still available. And they don't have premium tags.
I don't own any of these and I don't plan to buy any of the three that remain. But they are available if you agree with me and think there's something to this process and these domain NFTs. Are Mothman domains investable as NFTs? I'm going to say yes. But rather than scoop up this idea for myself, I'm sharing it with you all first. I have enough domain NFTs at this point. If you don't have any but have wanted to experience what it's like minting something, here's your opportunity. Sign up with my referral link and you'll get $10 off your first $40 NFT. Mothman.888 for $30? Not a bad bet, IMO.
Disclaimer: None of this is investment advice. I’m not an investment advisor. I have no job. I live in my mother’s basement. That last part is a lie. I live in my wife’s basement. Everyone talking about NFTs could be a magic internet money charlatan, myself included. Do your own due diligence and allocate your investment capital according to your own personal risk tolerance. Digital trinkets and shitcoins are probably all going to zero. Remember: nobody cares about your personal wealth more than you do. Always consider the motivations of those who give you advice and only make decisions if they're good for you.