What in the World is this? A cryptocard?

[robw1959]

The seller calls this a "digital trading card." So you don't get it in the mail. Has anyone seen anything else like this on eBay? What makes it more valuable than a picture of it on your computer? Isn't that what digital means? I sure don't get it. Check it out . . .

https://www.ebay.com/itm/38421514241...mkcid#viTabs_0

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by robw1959

The seller calls this a "digital trading card." So you don't get it in the mail. Has anyone seen anything else like this on eBay? What makes it more valuable than a picture of it on your computer? Isn't that what digital means? I sure don't get it. Check it out . . .

https://www.ebay.com/itm/38421514241...mkcid#viTabs_0

Funny, I have seen a bunch of these listings on eBay lately and was thinking about asking here as well. As someone who is highly suspicious of the whole NFT/crypto thing...what does the buyer get for their money? The right to "own" the pixels that make up that particular picture of the card? It's got to be a scam, right?

[JustinD]

I would call it a scam, but people are eating it up. Topps and Panini have digital cards and trading platforms, so really what is the difference.

[swarmee]

Yep, sounds like a crappy Non-Fungible Token. You are buying the slot on the Ethereum blockchain that the card is assigned to, I guess.

[D. Bergin]

LOL, it's not even a good scam................errrr........I mean scan, of a card.

Quote from the auction:

Card number 2 from the 1951 Bowman baseball card set. The listing is a digital item, a digital trading card. There is not a physical trading card to ship; rather, the listing is a digital trading card that requires an Ethereum digital wallet. Please have an Ethereum (ETH) digital wallet in order to accept the transfer.

Shipping costs correspond to the gas prices in order to complete the transfer. We will transfer the item at the gas price closest to the selected shipping method. There is no refund for this listing. Thank you!

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Yep, sounds like a crappy Non-Fungible Token. You are buying the slot on the Ethereum blockchain that the card is assigned to, I guess.

But that's not a thing! It's just something somebody made up!

[Tripredacus]

If you buy this you are basically buying $57.79 of Etherium, with a fee of whatever the gas price is. They do not use an example, if gas price is $2.89 if that means you will only get $54.90 worth of Etherium. I'm presuming they will take this off the top since the shipping is Free.

The Eth wallet doesn't accept anything besides Eth, you can't put a "card" or "digital card" into it. There is no reason why you would buy Eth this way, since if you went onto an exchange or through a brokerage, you can buy $57.79 worth of Eth for $58.38. Numbers used example from Robinhood which has a 1% fee on transactions.

[ASF123]

Pardon my ignorance, but how do gas prices have anything to do with this stuff?

[Harliduck]

Happy to see this thread as I was going to come here and ask the same thing. Feels 100% like a scam...so much so that it had me thinking am I missing something? Are people really this stupid to pay for this? So ridiculous that I am missing something I'm not understanding?

What a joke...

[zoomfest]

As I understand it, gas prices are effectively transactions fees determined by congestion / demand on the blockchain.

Also, in an NFT, you are getting a unique item - even it can be copied thereafter. So - some would say - people's desire to own an original Babe Ruth rookie card as opposed to a reproduction (although it's certainly not an exact parallel). But one (likely of many) of the issues with this Ebay offering is that it is just simply a copy of many similar cards that is registered on the Etherium blockchain. There's no scarcity therein and why would anybody care? I can't imagine.

On the other hand, I do personally see some value in blockchain in cards, but I'll save that for another time.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Tripredacus

If you buy this you are basically buying $57.79 of Etherium, with a fee of whatever the gas price is. They do not use an example, if gas price is $2.89 if that means you will only get $54.90 worth of Etherium. I'm presuming they will take this off the top since the shipping is Free.

The Eth wallet doesn't accept anything besides Eth, you can't put a "card" or "digital card" into it. There is no reason why you would buy Eth this way, since if you went onto an exchange or through a brokerage, you can buy $57.79 worth of Eth for $58.38. Numbers used example from Robinhood which has a 1% fee on transactions.

Thanks for the explanation.

So is this possibly some guy with a bunch of cryptocurrency, looking for a way to unload it back into real currency?

You say you can "buy $57.79 worth of Eth for $58.38" of real world money.

How much would it cost to transfer $57.38 of Eth, back into real world money?

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by ASF123

Pardon my ignorance, but how do gas prices have anything to do with this stuff?

"Gas" price is the term for the transaction fee to update the blockchain. It's not gasoline, it's a percentage of the sale in Ether based on how heavy the number of transactions are at the time.

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by Tripredacus

If you buy this you are basically buying $57.79 of Etherium, with a fee of whatever the gas price is.

Disagree. You are buying a slot on the blockchain where the image of the Yogi Berra Bowman card resides. If you sell it to someone else, they get the slot on the blockchain registry and you get the crypto value of whatever you sell it for, be it $5 or $5,000.

Here's a thread from the NBA TopShot version of this. It has links to other blowout threads which explain NFTs a little better.
https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...ght=blockchain

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by swarmee

"Gas" price is the term for the transaction fee to update the blockchain. It's not gasoline, it's a percentage of the sale in Ether based on how heavy the number of transactions are at the time.

Aha. Thanks!

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Disagree. You are buying a slot on the blockchain where the image of the Yogi Berra Bowman card resides. If you sell it to someone else, they get the slot on the blockchain registry and you get the crypto value of whatever you sell it for, be it $5 or $5,000.
https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...ght=blockchain

And people would want this "slot"...why, exactly? Because it's a "unique" made-up non-thing? It's only because they must think that someone else will for some reason want the non-thing enough to pay more for it, right?

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by ASF123

And people would want this "slot"...why, exactly? Because it's a "unique" made-up non-thing? It's only because they must think that someone else will for some reason want the non-thing enough to pay more for it, right?

Greater fool's theory is definitely one of the reasons it has value.

[maniac_73]

This is a scam to prey on ppl who have heard the hype of NFT's and want to cash in but aren't sure what they are. Buying these is no different than buying a counterfeit physical card. There is no value and never will be value in taking a picture of your card and uploading it as an "NFT". NFT's backed by brands like Topps, Panini and NBA in topshot have value as they have supply and demand with a licence baked into them.

These are just pure scams though