Jose Delbo's cryptoart close to $7k and rising at auction 0

[delekkerste]

Here's the current crop of PWCC Auctions' offerings on eBay.  It isn't an extraordinary grouping by any measure and yet LOOK AT THE PRICES.  Also look at how many of the 4, 5 and 6-figure bids are for refractors, relics/patches and other graded "hit"/"chase"/variant cards - all recent manufactured collectibles by any other name.  

The current modern sports card mania is so huge that it blows everything else away.  Nothing surprises me at all in comic art anymore.  Even digital art on a blockchain for $7K makes a ton more sense to me than what we're seeing in trading cards these days. 

Edited July 26, 2020 by delekkerste

[Will_K]

And this is after the 2019-2020 NBA season was truncated and the 2020-2021 season looks iffy. 

Would it be worth it to get (win) one of the those game-worn Babe Ruth (for example) jerseys on HA.com and then cut it up to make cards ?

Or has that been the practice already ?

[Squeezy McSphincter]

1 hour ago, Will_K said:

And this is after the 2019-2020 NBA season was truncated and the 2020-2021 season looks iffy. 

Would it be worth it to get (win) one of the those game-worn Babe Ruth (for example) jerseys on HA.com and then cut it up to make cards ?

Or has that been the practice already ?

That's already happening, and it's happening with more than just jerseys.  I saw a cheque or a contract signed by (I think) Ty Cobb/Cy Young/etc.  Anything related to a big name that can be cut up is being put on cards.

[exitmusicblue]

Was reminded of another cool functionality for artists... secondary market royalties: 

 

[ShallowDan]

6 hours ago, delekkerste said:

Here's the current crop of PWCC Auctions' offerings on eBay.  It isn't an extraordinary grouping by any measure and yet LOOK AT THE PRICES.  Also look at how many of the 4, 5 and 6-figure bids are for refractors, relics/patches and other graded "hit"/"chase"/variant cards - all recent manufactured collectibles by any other name.  

The current modern sports card mania is so huge that it blows everything else away.  Nothing surprises me at all in comic art anymore.  Even digital art on a blockchain for $7K makes a ton more sense to me than what we're seeing in trading cards these days. 

Do you know any buyers of this stuff first-hand, or is it just something you watch from afar?  I'm genuinely curious if anyone is buying this with any sense of passion like you generally expect to see with collectibles, or if it's all an exercise in greater fool theory.

What I can never wrap my head around with manufactured collectibles, as you call them, is the fact that the barrier to entry for new players (by which I mean producers, not buyers) is relatively low.  Oddly enough, to sort of steer things back to the original topic, it's the same hurdle I could never get over with cryptocurrencies.  I'd listened to a few cryptocurrency podcasts back when Bitcoin was at record levels, in an attempt to wrap my mind around things, and the hosts would be touting new "coins" coming out each week.

[vodou]

8 hours ago, ShallowDan said:

or if it's all an exercise in greater fool theory.

Yeah.

8 hours ago, ShallowDan said:

it's the same hurdle I could never get over with cryptocurrencies.  I'd listened to a few cryptocurrency podcasts back when Bitcoin was at record levels, in an attempt to wrap my mind around things, and the hosts would be touting new "coins" coming out each week.

I first became aware of bitcoin in the waning days of the last gold/silver rush (2010-11). This was before Mt. Gox collapsed taking a lot of coins with them into the Great Unknown (aka theft) and traders were woebegone over whether $1 would hold or collapse over time. I found the entire subject to be curious, highly speculative and manipulated. My opinion hasn't changed since and generally the major rise and fall events seem most tied to whether the CCP is cracking down on wealth escaping the mainland via bitcoin at a rate faster than the official allowed $50k annual.

A lot of paper wealth has been generated among the cryptos generally and I think much of it has not been cashed out yet, probably due to capital gains "risk"/fear, which has created an interesting 'trade' situation and I think we can all understand the difference between going out and working, and saving up $7k or whatever and then spending it on something (anything, but also this Delbo for example) versus trading one something you bought cheap for another something that could be cheap but isn't. The money just doesn't spend out the same way, just like cash versus credit payment forms. Is this really any different that my trading two Cockrum X-Men pages I bought 25 years ago for $200 'all in' for a 'ink sitll wet' Tradd Moore SSB cover? I say no, except the timeline is more compressed for cryptos.

[vodou]

And here we go again...

[ShallowDan]

5 hours ago, vodou said:

 

A lot of paper wealth has been generated among the cryptos generally and I think much of it has not been cashed out yet, probably due to capital gains "risk"/fear, which has created an interesting 'trade' situation and I think we can all understand the difference between going out and working, and saving up $7k or whatever and then spending it on something (anything, but also this Delbo for example) versus trading one something you bought cheap for another something that could be cheap but isn't. The money just doesn't spend out the same way, just like cash versus credit payment forms. Is this really any different that my trading two Cockrum X-Men pages I bought 25 years ago for $200 'all in' for a 'ink sitll wet' Tradd Moore SSB cover? I say no, except the timeline is more compressed for cryptos.

The bolded touches on the second thing I walked away with after listening to the podcasts I mentioned.  When I had first been exposed to the idea of Bitcoin/cryptocurrency (by the sounds of it, later than you, but still well before the bubble), it was always presented as this libertarian, post-fiat currency.  Most of the true believers at that time seemed to legitimately see it as a currency and looked forward to a future where it was as widely used as the US$.  

But somewhere along the way, everyone seems to have quietly begun thinking of it as an investment (denominated in US$, of course) which would/could obviously be cashed out for that dirty fiat currency at some point in the future.

Edited July 27, 2020 by ShallowDan

[delekkerste]

11 hours ago, ShallowDan said:

Do you know any buyers of this stuff first-hand, or is it just something you watch from afar?  I'm genuinely curious if anyone is buying this with any sense of passion like you generally expect to see with collectibles, or if it's all an exercise in greater fool theory.

I don't know any buyers of this stuff personally, but, I follow some collectors on social media and YouTube and read about them in the post-auction press coverage as well.  A lot of them love the action, a lot of them are ego-driven (as with any collectibles hobby), but, there are guys who are super passionate about this stuff as well. 

This guy seems to be the biggest whale in the hobby, and some of his collection can be seen on Instagram.

[SquareChaos]

I know a few people that follow third party graded video games and they're seeing a spike upward as well - some are confused by it, but it's also a relatively newer thing that reminds me of the initial community reaction to graded comics.

[ShallowDan]

3 hours ago, delekkerste said:

 

This guy seems to be the biggest whale in the hobby, and some of his collection can be seen on Instagram.

Thanks for the link.  It actually helps add a human face to the sort of folks who are buying/collecting this sort of stuff, and it lends a sense of perspective to the whole thing.  Him buying a $150K card is little more than a scaled up version of your average guy buying a $150 page on ebay, as far as a percentage of net worth goes (although the $150K card obviously has a lot farther to fall when the bubble bursts)

Edited July 27, 2020 by ShallowDan
clarification