eBay-Certified Trading Cards ✅
eBay expands its trading card authentication service, Metaverse fashion dilemmas
Cultured is a newsletter by Otis that gets readers up to speed on the most interesting things going on at the intersection of finance, art, collectibles, NFTs, and more.
Love Cultured? Spread the word and share this newsletter with a friend!
🗞 STORIES OF THE DAY
Citing the rapid growth of its trading card market, eBay expands authentication service
eBay has expanded its authentication service to include sports cards, game cards, and other trading cards worth at least $750. The company said it plans to roll out the service to graded, autograph, and patch cards, worth $250+ later this year.
eBay’s Authenticate program has been around since 2017 and also covers sneakers, watches, and other luxury products. The process is simple: after a sale, the seller ships it to Certified Collectibles Group, which verifies the product and sends it to the buyer.
Trading cards have taken off on eBay. The marketplace processed $2 billion in transactions in the first 6 months of 2021 alone (H2 results aren’t out yet), more than it sold in all of 2020.
Our Take: eBay’s marketplace dominance could pose a significant challenge to other major authenticators.
As the trading card market has grown, so have authenticators and graders. The largest is PSA, which is owned by Collectors Universe. While PSA offers grading services (something eBay doesn’t offer), they don’t have a marketplace to sell the cards. eBay has sold more than 4 million cards on its site to date. By integrating authentication into its marketplace, eBay can capitalize on its existing consumer base.
» Share this story on Twitter.
What will we wear in the metaverse?
The growth of the metaverse means that what our digital avatars wear will matter more than ever. Constrained only by your imagination, you could become a robot or wear an outrageous costume. Or you could be Mark Zuckerberg.
Brands see the potential here and are capitalizing on a potential explosion of metaverse fashion. NFTs are the most common approach — Nike, Givenchy, and JW Anderson have all launched NFT projects.
But more companies are now looking to dress your digital self. DressX lets you buy 100s of digital-only brands and then try them on using AR. And Balenciaga created custom skins for Fortnite characters.
Our Take: Fashion is more than just style—for many, it’s also about collecting beautiful pieces of clothing. In the metaverse, collecting will go even farther.
In the metaverse, fashion isn’t constrained by physical limitations. It can get weird — really weird. But it still serves the same purpose: your clothes are a way of expressing identity. They connote status, social connections, and other parts of your personality. And if you’re a collector, those real-life Air Jordans will start to look pretty lonely without a virtual counterpart.
» Share this story on Twitter.
✨ AROUND THE INTERNET
Interscope is bringing artists like KAWS and Murakami together to create vinyl album art for some of the record label’s biggest hits.
Sotheby’s looting experts are heading to the Louvre’s collection to see if they can find stolen art. It all feels very Monuments Men.
Three Banksy works owned by Christmas album king Robbie Williams are up for auction at Sotheby’s. Pay the $14 million and put your ear to the paintings — you can hear him caroling.
A first edition Harry Potter book is expected to go for more than $40,000 at auction. Another first edition copy recently smashed records when it sold for $471,000. That copy was near pristine, while this one appears to have more wear.
China may be dealing with a prolonged regulatory crackdown, but it’s not hurting the country’s NFT market.
You’ve probably heard that we’re getting a Super Mario Bros. movie. Here’s a roundup of what we know about it so far. It remains to be seen whether this one will break the bad video game movie curse.
