By any objective measure, prices for NBA Top Shot moments are still high. As I’ve talked about before, opening a new pack still guarantees investors a profit, something that can rarely be said about sealed product for physical collectibles.
But there’s no doubt that prices on the Top Shot marketplace have come down significantly in recent weeks. And that might be a sign that the easy money has already been made in this emerging NFT market.
Top Shot prices down, demand remains high
When NBA Top Shot drops Base Set packs, they retail for $9. Even the worst possible set of three moments – high serial numbers from forgettable players like Chris Bocher and Josh Okogie – would net you somewhere in the range of $12 to $15 in the site’s marketplace. The average expected value of a pack is still significantly higher than that.
But the days of runaway prices that never seem to come down appears to be over. Many moments have lost half to two-thirds of their value from their astronomical peaks in February and March. Collectors can now buy a rookie Tyrese Haliburton jump shot – minted to 4,000 – that once fetched over $2,000 for under $800, for instance.
Metallic Gold LE Challenge 22 expires Monday, April 12 at 10am PDT â°
Collect all 9ï¸âƒ£ required Moments ✅
Score exclusive Christian Wood Dunk Challenge Reward 💪ðŸ¼This Moment will never be released in packs 👀
More info: https://t.co/py3C2jOaTk pic.twitter.com/2Ab8tdLN8Z
— NBA Top Shot (@nbatopshot) April 6, 2021
Anyone who pulled these moments from a pack is still making a lot of money, of course. And there’s still plenty of demand for cards that remain scarce due to the limited number of NBA Top Shot drops. But demand may be plateauing. Decypt.co reported that NBA Top Shot sales volume was actually down slightly in March: still over $200 million, but below the $218 million in sales seen in February.
Meanwhile, new cards continue to slowly trickle out to the market. Last week, Top Shot completed another preorder, allowing all collectors 48 hours to line up and reserve a Base Set pack. The site reported selling over 325,000 packs in the drop.
Dapper brings in big-name investment
Dapper Laps announced $305 million in new funding last week, primarily from investment firm Coatue. High-profile investors including Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant were among those pouring money into the company that runs NBA Top Shot.
According to Dapper Laps, the new money will help the company expand and bring more sports, gaming, and entertainment experiences to the Flow blockchain.
On a tangentially related note: I gained withdrawal access on my Dapper account during the past week. For those wondering how long the backlog is, I’ll note that I first submitted my request sometime in late January.
SNL talks NFTs, then creates one
On the March 27 episode of Saturday Night Live, the sketch comedy show broadcast a musical sketch about NFTs – a parody of Eminem’s “Without Me.â€
But that wasn’t the end of the bit. SNL then placed an NFT – or non-fungible token – on the OpenSea marketplace. The unique, limited-to-one token also included two tickets to a taping of the show. It sold for just under 172 ETH, or about $364,000.
