After a difficult start to life on the Top Shot Marketplace, I was stubbornly bullish about my impending turn of luck, a feeling that manifested itself in the form of my very first successful Pack Drop.
Monday (March 22nd) – The First Drop
As the week started, the slide in the market continued for everyone, and my overall position maintained its drop in value and sat at -$150.
Luckily, it wasn’t all bad news. There was a new drop announced, titled ‘Cool Cats Drop 3’. The Cool Cats Series 2 Drop could not have come at a better time on my NBA Top Shot journey as I was beginning to lack motivation and needed a boost.
The waiting room for the drop opened around 45 minutes before the drop time so I got in line and hoped for a good number. As the drop time approached, there were over 272,000 people in the waiting list, all vying for a piece of the 67,500 $12 releases.
After swinging and missing on my first three queues, I was overjoyed when I hit a winner with this one and was assigned spot 4867 out of the 272,000.
Note: If a drop is due to start on the hour, you will not get access to your pack on the hour. There is often a long wait as the Top Shot team work their way through the queue. People pull out last-minute, others cannot complete transactions and no doubt many others run out of phone or laptop battery and lose their spot in the queue. If you’re roughly 5000-10000 above the allotted number of packs, it’s often worth biding your time in the queue just in case.
My position was 4867 so I was well within the 67,500 allotment. The queue took about 25 minutes to get through to my number, and by then I was getting excited and anxious.
What if my internet dropped? Did I have enough battery on my laptop?
Thankfully, when the time came it was a smooth transition from the queue to a ‘Buy Now’ screen. I immediately clicked the button, paid my $12, and awaited my first ever drop.
The screen shot to my release and I unveiled by five moments one-by-one to the background of one of a most aesthetically pleasing user interface.
My release were as follows:
– RJ Barrett Dunk – Common – LE #12187/15000 ($100)
– Joel Embiid – Jump Shot – CC #53/35000+ (circa $1000)
– Kristaps Porzingis – Dunk – Common #14293/35000+ ($50)
– Chris Boucher – Dunk – Common – #20457/35000+ (circa $30)
– Collin Sexton – 3-Pointer – #21852/35000+ ($20)
Tuesday (March 23rd) – Analysing My New Moments
On the whole, I had done well. Really well.
After following some of the strategies shared by my podcast friends, I decided to wait until the next day to list all of the Moments for a good chunk above Market Value (I used Moment Ranks to cross-reference with others).
My pack fell into two categories:
– High Value (Barrett Cool Cats & Embiid Low Serial #53)
– Average (Porzingis, Boucher, Sexton)
The Moments pushed me back up to $191 profit on MomentRanks. A whopping increase from the depths of -$164 just a day prior.
Joel Embiid – Jump Shot – #53
Of all the cards, the Joel Embiid Jump Shot was the one that excited me the most. With #53 serial out of 35,000+ I immediately listed it for $850.
My rationale was that #54 was on the Marketplace for an astronomical $2154, while #51 was listed for $527.
RJ Barrett – Cool Cats Series 2 – Dunk – #12187
Despite the fact that we share a name and initials, I wasn’t too emotionally attached to my ‘cousin’ RJ Barrett and decided to list him at $190.
RJ Barrett was one of the top pickups from the Pack and demand was expected to be hight. The only bad thing was that I had a fairly uninspiring serial number at #12187.
The Rest
I decide to list Porzingis, Boucher and Sexton for a few dollars above their Lowest Ask without too much thought as all three were fairly basic moments.
Additionally, the Market was continuing to drop so I was interested to see if I could squeeze a few extra dollars out of the lower tier moments.
Progress Update
As it stands, after nearly two weeks, I’ve invested the following:
Moments
– Joe Ingles S2 Common CC @ $5
– Markieff Morris S1 Rare LE @ $645
– James Harden S2 Common LE @ $265
– Karl-Anthony Towns S2 @ $74
– Josh Okogie S2 @ $13
– Bradley Beal S2 @ $16
– Joel Embiid (Pack)
– RJ Barrett (Pack)
– Collin Sexton (Pack)
– Kristaps Porzingis (Pack)
– Chris Boucher (Pack)
Packs
– Cool Cats Series 2 @ $12
– Pack included: Embiid, Barrett, Sexton, Porzingis, Boucher
Total Expenditure: $1030
My portfolio is currently valued, according to MomentRanks, at $1221. In the words of Ferris Bueller:
“Life moves pretty fast (in NBA Top Shot). If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Ferris Bueller
Status After Week 2: + $191
Richie Barrett 