MNdownunda retweeted
The biggest barrier to buying a digital collectible may not be crypto.
It may be friction before you ever get to the buy button.
I gave 18 working professionals aged 35–55, none with digital collecting experience, a simple task:
Create an account on @PaniniAmerica, @NBATopShot and @CandyDigital. Find something you might buy. Get as far as the purchase screen.
No one had to actually buy anything.
The results were pretty stark.
NBA TOP SHOT
18/18 found the Marketplace and reached the purchase screen.
Nobody took longer than 3 minutes.
The recurring comments were simple: clean, easy to understand, easy to navigate.
There really wasn’t much more to it.
PANINI BLOCKCHAIN
More mixed.
About half went directly to the Marketplace and found something to buy quickly.
The other half ended up in the NFT Store first, where sold-out packs, Dutch auctions and the path back to the Marketplace caused confusion.
Once they reached the Marketplace, though, things got much easier.
The biggest source of friction was navigation, followed by KYC at the point of purchase. People didn’t like that, especially after Top Shot let them get to the purchase screen without it.
12/18 thought Panini seemed easier after trying Candy.
CANDY DIGITAL
Then there was Candy.
Only 6/18 recognized the Candy Store search bar on the homepage as the path toward something they could buy.
Most wandered through Drops, Auctions, Pulse and eventually Products.
Others found a collectible but couldn’t figure out how to buy it. “Make Offer” looked like the purchase path. Searches disappeared when they went back. A few eventually made their way to Magic Eden or OpenSea.
0/18 made it to an actual purchase flow.
Most gave up after roughly 9–16 minutes.
Going into this, I expected the crypto wallet to be the sticking point.
It wasn’t.
The friction started well before anyone ever reached it.
This isn’t a formal usability study. It’s 18 people doing a pretty simple exercise.
But if digital collectibles want to reach mainstream collectors, the first challenge may be even more basic than wallets, ownership or blockchain.
Can someone walk in the front door and figure out how to buy something?
MNdownunda retweeted
GPK and Godzilla NFTs represent some of the most limited edition releases of mainstream IP.
Completely decentralized x Iconic Brand x Iconic IP.
These will age well.
#ToppsNFTs #Godzilla #GPK #DigitalCollectibles
MNdownunda retweeted
9/9. JUDGE DAY. 👨⚖️⚾️
Two incredible Aaron Judge Topps Inceptions from my PC..
but you can only keep ONE…
which one are you grabbing? 👀
⬅️ Digital or Physical ➡️
MNdownunda retweeted
Been a minute…Figured we should probably dust off the display case on this one.. ✨
ToppsNFTs are back 👀⚾
MNdownunda retweeted
I'm sure there will be plenty of posts crapping on this news, but I'm really happy that this remint has been officially completed, the security issue has been fixed, and the collection is now structured properly.
Topps introduced a lot of uncertainty into these collectibles, starting with how they handled Wax. They were ahead of the curve in that regard.
It will be interesting if they do anything more with NFTs or if they just wanted to check the box.
Regardless, we have access to our collections again.
MNdownunda retweeted
I think digital collectibles are going to make a massive comeback.
Humans have collected for thousands of years. AI will make physical counterfeits easier. Blockchain makes scarcity, ownership & provenance verifiable.
Here’s my thesis 👇
@ToppsDigital would rather block and ignore me rather than address *their* problems. The customer service for @ToppsNFTs customers has been rough since 2024 but shockingly bad since the migration to @opensea. (Continued)
, assets sent to hidden folders, and contracts that created scam risk. Since March, we are unable to buy/sell, or even view our @ToppsNFTs (“500 [error] Something went wrong”) @ToppsDigital. Customer service has provided little more than “no updates at this time” for 7+ months.
Credit where credit is due - thank you @Topps @ToppsNFTs for making this right and fixing the collection on @opensea!
(Following the remint, please set up an official landing page on @opensea so the collection is properly organised)
@Fanatics @nickbell @MikeMahan @michaelrubin
MNdownunda retweeted
The three shocking things to me about PSA upcharges are these:
1. They get paid on unrealized "paper" gains. And they get paid first. Even if you never sell it.
2. If the player or card tanks, they don't refund the upcharge for the decrease value of the "asset" - the graded card. They only take a cut upfront for the increased value at the time of slabbing.
3. People are okay with 1. and 2.
MNdownunda retweeted
Physical options can disappear. True ownership shouldn’t.
Imagine collecting your favorite IP, characters, players and teams, actually owning them, and being able to sell or trade them freely.
That’s the promise of digital collectibles.
And at Candy, we’re already building it.
MNdownunda retweeted
Hey @BabzOnTheMic — there’s a group of Fanatics digital collectors who spent a good bit of money (some over 7 figures) on Topps NFTs that were locked 3 months ago without any notice or explanation from them publicly.
Where do you suggest we go for more information. No other contacts have been helpful to date, but this seems like a pretty clear customer service issue that needs to be addressed.
Not here to bicker back and forth. I understand there’s going to be hate. I’ve documented the journey from February to now. I’m not hiding anything.
Part of the meeting when I had, which was pitched by many here, was building an authentic fan council. City to city. Team to team.
It’s being currently structured for Philly, Boston, Chicago, and NYC with the majority of spots being filled. All real fans who are giving real feedback.
We live in a world where we want instant gratification. This shit is going to take time to build properly and our vision in 2027 is to expand to 10 cities. Fanatics needs to do a better job directly listening, they are taking steps to get there.
I’ve said this to every person I’ve had the chance to connect with during the build up of the FAN…keep throwing the haymakers. Keep up the accountability.
I didn’t sell out. I bought in for the actual fans out there.
Give it time.
MNdownunda retweeted
This has got to be one of the BEST stories in sports card history, and it happened to me this morning.
Warning: this story involved a $35,800 transaction, a German wedding, and Lamine Yamal
This morning, I woke up and saw a Lamine Yamal /10 Base Prizms Gold NFT for sale on the #PaniniBlockchain for $35,800. I felt that the price was fair and I purchased at 5am.
Seconds later, I get a dm from the anonymous seller on Instagram. “Hey this is Brian”. A German guy, few followers. What I learned next is nothing short of f*cking legendary.
I’ll let him tell the story from here, and I’ll accompany the epic tale with photo and video proof. Sit down, and buckle up.
“Two days before my wedding, the four of us—my best man, my wife, my cousin, and I—went out and bought a few Panini packs together. Just for fun, we agreed that each of us would keep one pack sealed and save it for the wedding day.
The plan was to open them together after the ceremony and see what we got.
What made it even more special was that my best man had never opened a trading card pack in his life. It was also my wife's first real experience with the hobby.
My cousin and I had opened cards before, but none of us expected anything crazy.
Our friend from Prime Collectors was there as well. Since he creates card content, he had his camera rolling the entire time, so every reaction you see in the video is completely genuine.
After the ceremony, we all sat down and started opening our packs. My best man went first—nothing special. Then my wife opened hers—a few nice cards, but nothing huge. My cousin was next, and again, nothing out of the ordinary.
Then it was my turn.
I started going through the cards one by one until I saw a flash of gold. The moment I saw it, I knew it could be something big. When I turned the card over, it was a Lamine Yamal Panini NFT numbered 8/10.
For a few seconds, nobody said a word. Then everyone completely lost it. You can hear in the video the exact moment everyone realizes what had just been pulled. Even Prime Collectors, who has seen countless incredible pulls, couldn't believe he had just captured that moment on camera.
but honestly, the value wasn't the most important part. What made it unforgettable was that it happened on my wedding day, from the one pack I had intentionally saved two days earlier.
It's also important to mention that the wedding was already fully paid for, so this wasn't a story about "paying for the wedding" with the card. It was simply an unbelievable coincidence and one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments that you could never plan.
Looking back, I honestly don't think I'll ever experience another moment quite like it. On the same day that I married the love of my life, I also pulled one of the biggest cards I've ever held in my hands. That's what makes this story so special.” @PaniniAmerica
MNdownunda retweeted
A textbook example of corporate negligence. They took everyone's money during the initial boom, and now that their priorities changed, collectors are completely ghosted with frozen assets. Inexcusable failure by Rubin, Fanatics and Topps.
How’s that collection looking on @opensea?
Are our assets unfrozen yet so we can buy, sell, and view them? Do we finally have that @opensea landing page that was mentioned in late 2024?
Enter a new era of collecting with toppsnfts.com !
#nfts #nft #nftart #blockchain #crypto #cryptocurrency #nftcollector #nftcollectors #toppsnft
MNdownunda retweeted
I just want cool digital collectibles that can live in my wallet and not 404 because some company decides they don’t want to do NFTs anymore or goes under.
That’s it.
Why does this have to be so difficult?
MNdownunda retweeted
We're approaching Month 3 of our collections being locked with zero public communication on what they did or the reasons for it. Fanatics and Topps have acted with complete disdain for their customers.
The only reason they resolved the security issue was because we pointed it out to them. In return we get a useless NFT we can't even view properly let alone trade or sell.
When I talk about the control issues with smart contracts, it's not the FUD some seem to paint it as. This is a real life example of how a contract with broad controls that can be changed can go wrong.
Yes, the mutable contract allowed them to stop further exploitation of the security flaw but it also allowed them to take a unilateral action to freeze the entire collection of NFTs without customer consent or communication.
MNdownunda retweeted
👀 Quick update for @CandyDigital fans,
I just checked in with our CTO and he says that everything is going very well and he anticipates initiating the Solana mint in the next 24 hours, after which our best guess is that Solana will require up to a week to complete the migration. Fans will be able to see the progression of their own assets by logging into their accounts. 🔥
I want to take this opportunity once again to thank the many fans who wrote to us with suggestions to fix or improve the overall experience of Candy and fan assets prior to this mint. We prioritized the fan assets so we could commence with the Solana mint and will turn to the Candy.io website fixes in due course. That said, our tremendous fan feedback made our efforts hugely better although it put us a little bit behind our original schedule. 💪
Thank you - we are doing something unique here and to have had so many supporters contribute their time and effort to make us better has been hugely gratifying to all of us on the @CandyDigital team. 🙏
Apologies of course for any inconvenience caused by our delay.
Tad