Last week, trading card titan Topps went public through a merger with Mudrick Capital that valued the company at $1.3 billion. This week, Topps is announcing its move into the future with its first sports-related NFTs.
Topps announced Monday that on April 20 it will offer 50,000 digital packs containing six cards for $5 each and 24,090 packs containing 45 cards for $100. That will gross Topps a cool $2.65 million without having to print or distribute anything.
The odds of getting a common card in the $5 packs is 78.1 percent, while the odds of getting a Super Rare or Epic Card is 0.83 and 0.22 percent, respectively. The most coveted cards in the $100 pack will be Epic (0.56 percent) and Legendary Exclusive (0.04 percent), which are 1 of 1 cards.
"Our MLB blockchain NFT series debut marks a historic moment in the modern evolution of collecting for both tradition and new collectors," said Tobin Lent, vice president and general manager of Topps Digital Sports & Entertainment.
The digital cards will be stored on the blockchain through a wallet in WAX, which to date has more than 1 million blockchain accounts. A secondary market will be created just like physical cards and collectors can buy, trade and sell.
This isn't Topps first foray into digital cards. eTopps launched in 2000 and has had a gamified digital collection game called BUNT for years. Recent acceptance of the NFT space, especially through NBA Top Shot, which has surpassed more than $500 million in marketplace sales has made success in digital cards more likely than ever before.
Topps has also previously launched several Garbage Pail Kids sets and Godzilla NFT collections.