Over the past year, NBA Top Shot has boomed its way into the national spotlight and is here to stay. Yet, many NBA fans still don't exactly know what is even going on with these trade-able highlights.
Here at RotoWire, we have you covered with how to dive into this emerging market.
What is Top Shot?
- NBA Top Shot was created in 2020 when the NBA made a joint venture with Dapper Labs, a company that specializes in making NFTs via blockchain technology. Together, they released NBA Top Shot, a blockchain-based, virtual trading card platform that utilizes specific NBA highlights (both past and present) as its NFTs. The NBA licenses its highlights to Dapper Labs which then transforms the play into a tradable Moment. The different moments come in all forms of rarity and editions which we will dive into later.
Am I too late to join?
- Absolutely not! In fact, Top Shot is still in its beta phase and already has a market cap of over $1 billion. The emerging market continues to grow more popular and is seemingly here to stay. If you don't take my word for it, just listen to the likes of Paul George, Tyrese Haliburton, Terry Rozier and many more NBA players who are active members and supporters of the Top Shot community.
Explain to me those "Moments"?
- Moments, the virtual highlight NFT, come in four different styles. There is only a certain number of Moments available for each highlight which helps to make some Moments harder to come by and, thus, more valuable. Each Moment comes with its own specific serial number and may also have badges too. Here are the four types of styles:
Common
- These Moments make up the vast majority of the marketplace and are by far the easiest cards to come by. They make up 95.8 percent of the NFTs available and usually each Common Moment has an edition size of around 30,000 to 60,000. However, it is still very for these Moments to gain significant value. There are certain Common cards that come in much smaller limited edition sizes and have their own badges. Some Common cards have edition sizes over less than 5,000 and can sell for thousands of dollars.
Fandom
- These Moments are the newest edition to Top Shot. They provide a completely unique way to get involved and include Moments that you can only get in real life, such as going to the actual game. Another way to earn Fandom Moments is to complete specific challenges with Moments that you already own. Fandom Moments make up 2.5 percent of the Top Shot NFTs available and are still getting into the swing of things.
Rare
- Rare Moments are the next step up, making up just 1.6 percent of the Moments on the marketplace. They come in edition sizes that range from 500 to 5,000 Moments and are more valuable than both Common and Fandom moments. This is not to say that these Moments are overly expensive and they are not impossible to get. In fact, at the time of writing this piece, you could purchase a Rudy Gobert rare dunk for $35.
Legendary
- Finally, we get to the cream of the crop: Legendary Moments. These make up only 0.09 percent of the marketplace and are by far the hardest to come by. Legendary Moments usually come in edition sizes from around 50-200, but this can vary depending on the Moment. These are the Moments that you see selling for tens of thousands of dollars. The cheapest legendary Moment on the marketplace at the time of this article is a Terrence Ross three-pointer going for $460.
You mentioned Badges?
Badges come attached to certain Moments and help to make it more valuable. There are four different types of badges and they are fairly easy to understand. Here are the four different badges:
- Top Shot Debut Badge
- All players receive this badge on the first Moment made available by Top Shot (11.6 percent of all Moments have a Top Shot Debut badge).
- Championship Badge
- These badges are given to different Moments if they occurred during a year in which a player won the Finals. You can find this badge on 2.7 percent of the Moments in Top Shot.
- Three Star Rookie Badges
- If a player has a Moment posted during his rookie season of a highlight that came from his first career NBA appearance, then he gets a Three Star Rookie badge. Only 0.82 percent of Moments on the marketplace have this badge.
- MVP Badge
- If a Moment comes from a player's MVP season then it gets this badge. You can only find this badge on 0.45 percent of Moments on the marketplace.
What exactly can you do with these Moments?
- Other than showing them off and boasting your fandom, the inclusion of Challenges has turned Top Shot into a whole different ball game. You can now use the specific Moments that you own in certain Challenges that offer awards such as Moments or Packs. An example of a current Challenge is the 2022 All-NBA Team Challenge. In this Challenge, you need a Rare or Legendary Moment of all of the All-NBA players in order to earn a reward bundle.
- Building off of these, we have the exciting Flash Challenges. These Challenges usually last just a day or weekend and require collectors to fill usually 10 Moment sets in order to win a reward.
- During the regular season, Flash Challenges usually are based on the NBA slate that happened the night before. For example, a Flash Challenge could be to have a Moment of each of the 10 players with the most rebounds on a given slate. Another example is a Challenge requiring the 10 players with the most made three-pointers on a given night. We see the Fandom Moments mentioned earlier pop up a lot over here as the rewards, making these Moment hard to come by. Flash Challenges provide a fun and unique way to interact with the league while using your Moments to gain even better rewards.
Now, how exactly do I obtain a Moment?
- Once you create your Top Shot account, there are two ways to purchase your Moments. The best way, yet the much harder method, is to obtain Moments by buying packs. When you first make your account you will be given the option to buy a Starter Pack which is a great way to get you on your way. But most packs are very limited and you need to essentially win a raffle to have a chance to purchase additional, rarer packs. Depending on the contents of the pack, they can range from free to hundreds of dollars.
- The other way to get Moments is by using the marketplace and buying listings from other collectors. This is the easiest way to obtain Moments and is essential for completing different Challenges.
I think I am ready to roll! Any strategies before we go?
You are now ready to get started on your NBA Top Shot career. Head on over to https://nbatopshot.com/ and explore the website to get familiar with it. When you are ready to move on, create an account and start collecting! Before we depart, here are some of my general tips and strategies for getting started with Top Shot.
- Buy players you think will be the next big thing
- This is my go-to general strategy when it comes to looking for Moments to own just for fun. One of my personal favorite Moments I have purchased is a Paul Reed common card, but it is also his Top Shot debut card. I am a big believer in Reed's long-term potential and am hoping to see the card's value rise as time goes on.
- Diversify your collection
- With Top Shot constantly thinking of new and creative Flash Challenges, it is important to have different types of players to cover all aspects of the game. While it is extremely fun to go out and own your favorite players, if you are looking to use Top Shot for the Challenges, it is key to have all your bases covered.
- Work on increasing your Top Shot Score
- You gain a certain amount of Top Shot Score points for each purchase you make, pack you open, challenge you complete and so on. These points allow you to have better chances to obtain future packs.
- Pay attention!
- NBA Top Shot is constantly evolving and changing. With this comes plenty of opportunities to have a chance at winning some great rewards. The company recently announced it has partnered with Magic Johnson and will be dropping its first-ever Anthology Pack on June 7th. (This pack will contain Rare and Legendary Moments of just Magic Johnson). Staying in the loop of things is essential when starting out your Top Shot collection.
