General Forum

So what the heck is dibbs and why has Amazon invested in it? Buying partial shares of cards? Doesnt sound right to me.

From what I can gather, it looks like we an invest in a card by buying portions of it, similar to buying shares in a company? Then as the card value changes, so does the value of our "shares"?

Sounds stupid to me.

So I can keep it my binder while others just concern themselves with its value?

Hmm. It's basically like a stock, but a portion of a card.

Say I invest in a Honus Wagner Tobacco Card, and I buy half. I can't even have the card in my binder? That's kind of stupid. If you want to invest in cards or in something, just buy the whole card or maybe an actual stock. You'll be able to own and hold it that way.

It definitely kills the whole bragging rights angle. "Hey, I own 1/8 of a Mickey Mantle rookie!". Nope, not the same.

I'd rather say I own 1/8 of a '52 Mantle than say "I own 1/250th of an Alex Bregman jersey"

For the last two years, everyone has been complaining about the flippers and investors that have flooded into the hobby, driving prices up and causing shortages and lack of stock at retailers. Well, here's the perfect type of thing to get them away from the physical hobby. Yet when this alternative is presented, making things better for those of us not interested in "investing", many immediately dismiss it as "stupid" because we either don't understand it, don't like it, or it isn't for us.

This is another NFT platform. To me, the concern here would be that those getting involved with it don't know what they're getting into or what they're doing [^]. This is not something that is meant for trading card collectors, who want to keep holding physical cardboard in their hand and keep their binders full. This is meant for investors, who are simply concerned with turning a profit and have no attachment to their cards whatsoever. Ideally, those interested in investing and flipping in the trading card world go the NFT/blockchain route where they buy their "portions", then sell it when the price moves. It's about speculation, and this is tailor made for the individuals who are only worried about that.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing what happens with this.

[^] - as with any investment of any amount in any vehicle, please do your research and consult with a professional

Very good points, jasongerman9. Not for everybody, but for those who are in it only for investing and don't truuuuly care about the card/jersey/etc, it makes some sense. 

Exceptit doesn't really make sense. Owning 1/8th of a busniess entitles you to 1/8th of the earnings. Co-owning a house with your spouse means you are both entitled to compensation if you divorce. Owning 1/8th of a baseball card is beyond abstract. You don't own anything except for a sheet of paper saying you own 1/8th of a card that you have never seen. This is the equivilant of buy "stock" in the Green Bay packers. You own nothing, are entitled to nothing, and just have to hope that you can convince someone to buy it off of you for more than you did. I understand the irony of posting that on a baseball card forum, but my current collection has physical cards that I can hold and sell with prices linked to a player's onfield performance, the card's scarciety, condition, etc. 

This is before getting into the insane waste that goes into processing NFTs, or how NFT don't even entitle you to ownership of said item/artwork. This is the equivilent of buying the rights to the adopt a street so you can claim you own a highway, or buying the "rights" to name a star. 

But that's the whole point for this. It isn't about owning the physical part of it. It's about the ability to speculate and take a chance, to be able to buy this "piece" for a certain amount and sell it for a different amount (ideally more) later. You can do that with anything, whether it's physical cards, digital cards, art, stocks, football tickets, you name it. It's what retailers do every day - buy it from the manufacturer for a cost, sell it for more. It's the entire basis of business. The fact that this is taking place in a digital environment doesn't change what the objective is - find someone who wants what you have and get the best price possible for it. And there will be people who want your "piece" of a Luka Doncic card.

Couldn't your digital portfolio could also have "things" that you can hold and sell with prices linked to a player's on-field performance and/or relative scarcity? Obviously condition would no longer be a concern, but there are other "market factors" that affect the demand of digital products, because so much of this concept is based on the speculation - like what will happen this year, when the player's contract is up, or if the team just drafted a rookie that is going to replace them in two years.

Granted, if you are buying portions of digital trading cards via an NFT platform to claim that you "own" them, then yes, you are doing this incorrectly - that's the idea behind NFTs, right? The original doesn't change hands when the NFT is bought/sold. The original can be sold from one individual/entity to another, but the physical card and the individual NFT pieces exist independent of each other (at least in this platform). Sure, there will be some who approach this as "owning" 1/8th of a Mantle, to continue to use that example. Or 1/176th of a Mike Trout card. They will be incorrect. That said, you can buy all of the fractional shares of a card on that platform, actually own the card and have it shipped to you if you want.

To be clear, my comment about "I'd rather own 1/8 of a Mantle..." was more of a literal reference to the fact that I'd rather have 1/8th of a Mickey Mantle rookie card than 1/250th of a piece of game-used Alex Bregman jersey.