Searching For Value on Sorare 🔎
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Searching For Value on Sorare 🔎
Featuring NBA Surprise Teams, Top Shot New User Nuisances, Big-Time Burning Challenges, Sorare Salary Cap Value Players & More
Good Morning, B&B squad! Hope your week is off to an excellent start!
It’s been an exciting first week of NBA basketball, with some serious surprises so far in the standings
Two of the most likely tanking suspects (Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs) are crushing it to start the year, and the Portland Trailblazers find themselves atop the league at 4-0. Just as we all expected!
Meanwhile, my Chicago Bulls look like they’ll be a rollercoaster all year — and somehow handed the Boston Celtics their first loss on Monday after two brutal losses.
Speaking of the Bulls… check out LG’s Monday pod, a great deep dive into the team’s Web3 journey:
Let’s get into all the action from the last few days:
New User Nuisances ⚠️
We’re now one week into the new season, and have seen a ton of new information and content regarding Series 4 of NBA Top Shot. And while I think a lot of it has been very positive for the current users on the platform (I wrote about it extensively last week), so far it hasn’t translated into an overwhelming amount of NEW collectors:
While there was an increase for opening week, I’m not sure 395 new people is what a lot of hopefuls had in mind for user growth. However, isn’t getting the house in order before turning on the marketing jets a good thing?
It’s a tough task as it stands to win back a large portion of the community that has either left or written the platform off — and I’d venture to guess that referrals from active users are a big part of growth. So focusing on gaining confidence back from current users is MORE important than new user growth right now, in my humble opinion.
A large part of that sentiment has to do with oversupply, which Top Shot has done a good job of addressing via burning challenges so far this year. A good thread from LG that details just how much of an impact these burns can have on the ecosystem:
Speaking of said challenges, a look at the results of the last two, which removed a nice chunk of moments from the platform:
While the packs haven’t started flowing yet (which is always when things go south), I’m cautiously optimistic on the new implementations so far. While the new user growth isn’t currently significant, the best medicine is turning the user base into fans again — and the steps so far have been in the right direction on that front.
Sorare Streets 🚥
The first game week on Sorare NBA concluded on Sunday, with rewards distributed midday Monday. My first game week went pretty damn well, with my lineup finishing 685th overall and earning me a Limited Tier 4 reward (Kenrich Williams):
Monday marked the start of the new game week, and featured the first Rare Tier tournaments, with Super Rare on the way for Friday.
P.S. — If you’re unfamiliar with the platform and want to learn more, check out our Comprehensive Guide to Fantasy Basketball NFTs.
The auction market has also continued to roll, with major sales across the tiers:
If you’re wondering why players like Terrence Mann and Santi Aldama are on the list above, it has to do with the salary cap present on many of the tournaments on the platform.
Each card has a corresponding salary cap number, which is based on that player’s previous 10-game averages (and updates from game week to game week). And with a salary cap of 110-120, a superstar like a Ja Morant (54) can eat up a ridiculous amount of your allotment in a 5-player lineup.
As many Sorare newbies (including myself) found out on Monday, the cap makes things extremely more challenging and strategic than initially anticipated. And players with a low L10 that have a chance to put up solid numbers are some of the most important pieces to the puzzle — hence the prices above.
It’s a great way to level the playing field and introduce more variance, capping the ability for anyone to stack their lineup with all superstars.
And much like a DFS tournament, finding low cost (last-10 values, in this instance) players are a vital part of crafting lineups.
Me, bidding on some seriously obscure players that I barely know anything about:
Around The First Mint 🗣
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Thanks for reading! — Zach @ The First Mint
Follow Zach on Twitter at @GhostOfGregOden.
**This is not financial advice. Nothing in this newsletter, podcast, or publication should be considered financial or trading advice of any kind. Please do your own thorough research and make your own trading decisions. This is not advice.”
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