A Cool Cats Master Theory 🔮
The First Mint
Featuring Challenge Speculation, More Stress Tests, Rookie Market Movers & More
Good Morning, NBA Top Shot ballers! Hope your week is off to a great start! Wake up, grab your cold brew and let’s get into everything you might have missed over the last few days!
New to Top Shot? Check out our Top Shot 101 section!
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Quick Hits 👊
🔹 We had another surprise stress test yesterday! Hope you had your cold brew ready (I didn’t). 50,000 base packs were available to collectors, adding to the surplus of common moments hitting the platform recently.
Dapper has frequently stated that Base Packs will be readily available in the future – a challenging feat when the value of each was about 10x the cost. However, as we see the lower-end common moments continue to plummet, the demand for them may continue to fall. In the future, maybe Base Packs can function more as an on-ramp for new/novice collectors, rather than instant money for flippers? Only time will tell.
🔹 Did you catch this weekend’s Dev Diary? The latest blog post from NBA Top Shot outlined several platform updates, including:
Gifting — A tracker has been implemented for users to easily see whether or not they have gifting capabilities on a particular moment:
Pack Eligibility — The requirements will continue to be tinkered with to remain unpredictable and prevent “rent seekers from spoiling the NBA Top Shot experience for our most passionate collectors.”
Rebound Packs — The queue can now support multiple pack releases, and rebound packs are here to stay to help collectors avoid leaving empty-handed for higher-tier drops.
Interface Updates — Pack drop alerts and challenge timers will be more prominently displayed to help better inform users. Additionally, finding moments for the ‘Certified Ballers’ is now easily accessible under the ‘marketplace’ dropdown.
A Cool Cats Master Theory 🙀
In case you haven’t been paying attention, the Cool Cats Master Challenge is almost here — with rookie sensation LaMelo Ball as the reward.
Between collectors feeling burned on previous challenges, several more LaMelo moments hitting the market (including a rare Rising Stars moment that will likely be lower minted than the Master), and a legendary Rookie Debut set on the way (499 or less mint), things are certainly looking tough on the Cool Cats front.
My current feelings about the Master Challenge:
However, our knight in shining armor has arrived! During our Twitter Spaces chat during Monday’s Stress Test, Twitter user @cre8image offered up an exciting theory/idea to reward collectors who complete the Master Challenge. *NOTE — PURE SPECULATION, NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE, NOT LIKELY TO HAPPEN*
What if the users who complete the Master Challenge receive a ‘reward pack’ that contains the LaMelo Ball Master moment, as well as moments from Series 1?
Wait, why would there be Series 1 moments? Brush up on the history of the @NBATopShot account with this primer. Long story short:
From what we’ve learned, it exists to house unreleased moments from Series 1 that were left in unsold packs (but not ECF of WCF set) or simply never packaged up for release.
The plan for the release of these Series 1 moments is reportedly coming soon — and Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou said in an impromptu Discord chat that the solution would be ‘excellent for engagement and the market’.
This theory would help bring excitement back to the challenge realm, and provides a reward that could entice users to actually feel rewarded, rather than burned. If, after this odyssey of a Master Challenge, the common reward comes out and settles at similar prices to Ball’s other similarly-minted moments (1-2K range), the landscape of how people view challenges will forever be altered. And not in a good way.
Market Movers 📊
Speaking of rookies… Let’s take a look at the movement on one of the most sought after markets on the Top Shot Marketplace, via @SteefCrypto:
Your daily #NBATopshot rookie price guide
Big movers:
⬆️ @TyHaliburton22 +23%
⬆️ Kendrick Nunn +22%
⬇️ Terence Davis -18.2%
⬇️ Aleksej Pokusevski -23.7% https://t.co/QOsCCajpdb
Around The First Mint 🗣
🎧 NEW Podcast — Is NBA Top Shot Marketing Right Now?
📝 LaMelo Ball Master Challenge 101
🎧 The Biggest Buyer on Top Shot (FEAT. DINGALING)
Thanks for reading! — Zach @ The First Mint
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