There were the Football, NBA or Baseball cards, followed recently by T-shirts or Sneakers in limited edition and Action Figures of famous Manga and Anime characters. Collecting has always been a natural attitude of humans, who chooses to collect to increase the bond with their own passion and to differentiate themselves.
The evolution of technology has made everyday life more digital, we shop online, pay bills with a click, send money to our friends all over the world in seconds. And so, even collectors looking for new pieces to complete their collections, abandon trade fairs and find themselves increasingly interacting in the huge global web market.
But it is with digital collectibles that collecting meets and merges completely with the digital sphere. A new technological era is born in which collectibles are generated and stored online, cannot be stolen or ruined and are traced thanks to new technologies such as Blockchain.
How much is left of previous collecting in the most recent digital collectibles novelty?
Collecting is part of us
Collecting is part of human nature. Anyone at least once started collecting something. Often the goal is not even to complete the collection but to find a valuable, limited edition piece, desired by many.
Rarity is certainly one of the most important elements in the evaluation of a collector’s item, the rarer a piece, the greater its value. The desire to stand out in a community is what leads collectors to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the purchase of a unique or hard to find piece.
Very often the value we give to a collector’s piece does not match the physical value of the asset, an emotional multiplier takes over, the more time you hold onto an item, the higher its value becomes in our eyes and it is often very difficult to separate from it.
Collecting becomes digital: collecting online and the new frontier of digital collectibles
The world evolves, technology increases by managing our lives more and more and the market adapts to these changes, so even collecting becomes digital, to intercept the interest of the new generations of Millennials, more linked to the digital world and less to that of physical products.
Being able to offer that level of increased experience that new technologies have long allowed.
Just think that today 90% of the music is enjoyed in streaming or download. Physical media such as CDs or Mp3 players are already the past. Everything that is physical takes up space, can be lost, ruined or stolen, it is not compatible with a global and constantly moving lifestyle of the new generations. What is called the Age of Access.
To meet the needs of today’s audience, digital collectibles are created. Virtual products that can be purchased and exchanged, numbered and tracked items. Already in 2018, over ten digital collectibles were sold at a price above $ 100,000 each. It is the sign of how a market that has always been stable as that of collecting is overcoming the digital barrier, growing and also fueling the interest of investors. Forbes said it is an estimated $ 200 billion market in the coming years.
But what advantages do digital collectibles offer?
Companies that produce digital collectibles, also through Blockchain technology, can register the ownership and trades of their products. It is thus possible to demonstrate the uniqueness and rarity of each individual collector’s item.
On the other hand, collectors are sure to buy certified and non-falsifiable digital objects, which are not damaged, identified by a unique numerical code, which do not take up space and cannot be lost. Or worse, stolen, because everything is written indelibly on the net.
Transactions and exchanges between collectors are tracked through technology to ensure the safety and authority of both parties.
One of the best known examples of digital collectibles was seen at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, when Panini created a collection of virtual cards for the players. For each figurine it was possible to know the print run, the number of pieces found and finally who had finished the collection. But we all certainly remember the global Pokemon phenomenon that involved, and still fuels, millions of people in the search for cute virtual animals.
Digitization allows you to view and show your collection from any device at any time. There is no space in which to place glass bulletin boards or safes. Collectibles are always with us on the net.
The desires for exclusivity and difference make up the foundation of the Bitmonds idea, which has given life to a collection of digital collectibles to wear. A meeting point between collecting, digital and fashion, represented by collectable digital diamonds, all different from each other, which can be worn and traded.
Each item has a unique ID, a color, an index of purity and a name, simple peculiarities that make each stone a unique, perfectly embodying the ideal of rarity that every collector seeks.
Each Bitmonds is more or less sought after on the basis of seniority, rarity or purity. Thanks to a smartphone or a smartwatch it is possible to interact with your Bitmonds collection at any time, displaying it and interacting in 3D touch-mode, to show your collectibles both in the infinite world of social and in the physical world.
In physical collecting, it is not uncommon for a copy of your precious piece to be created, so that you can show it without fear of theft. Keeping the original safe in the safe. This is the irrational past.
Collect to differentiate. Each collectible is the equivalent of a unique card that no one else can own, in the world of digital fashion this allows each individual to wear a different accessory, there are no exactly equal Bitmonds, a bit as if no one could have the same tie or same handbag. Each outfit, thanks to its virtual collection, becomes unique and inimitable.
The video game Fortnite created its fortune on the same principle of exclusivity. By purchasing patches and skins, some of which have a limited edition, you can customize your player and make it unique within the virtual world. So each gamer has his own set of collectibles available to wear at will during the game.
Collecting online, the future of the digital collecting market
People like to collect, it is a need that has existed for centuries and billions of dollars are spent every year on collectibles: cards, records, autographs. But, in an increasingly global and moving world, the demand for a decentralized market of collectible pieces arises, the possibility of always having your own collection of unique pieces with you to show and exchange with friends.
Digital collectibles are the new image of passion of collectors, perhaps for this reason experts describe it as one of the fastest growing sectors that makes exclusivity and hype marketing their driving forces.
In an increasingly immaterial world, where smartphones and smartwatches are real extensions of our body, which allow us to pay for access to the subway or send money without ever touching them, digital collectibles seem to be the natural evolution of the sector.
They transcend the geographical boundaries of a passion that makes the community of collectors their soul. A collector from Rome and one from Beijing are now in the same virtual room. In an increasingly social world, where our lives are showcases to be shared with friends, there is no longer the fear of losing or ruining a collector’s piece that must therefore be protected or hidden, but rather there is a desire to show it to everyone safely. Digital collectibles offer this opportunity to a world that has changed.
Digital collecting is the natural evolution of a market that has always accompanied man. What about you? Have you already started your Bitmonds collection?
Sources
CITI I/O: https://citi.io/2020/07/06/is-the-future-of-collectibles-digital/
Techcrunch: https://tcrn.ch/2HZYsTg
Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/geraldfenech/2018/11/08/unlocking-a-200-billion-dollar-collectibles-market-on-the-blockchain/#2c0168655540
Fifa: https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/panini-digital-sticker-album-launched-for-russia-2018
