So here is something I thought about only because I play Pokémon go when I go for my walks on my lunch break at work.
I’ve watched some videos and met some players at Pokémon go events. I started playing late and am just a casual player.
But a lot of people put emphasis on rare Pokémon and Pokémon from 2016 when the game started.
I’ve also seen a lot of listings for Pokémon on eBay,
Now call me a boomer but I will always value a physical copy of something more than digital. It’s part of the reason I love Pokémon cards because I get to hold them line I did when I was a kid.
Do you see a shift moving towards digital collectibles like in video games in the future? Not like nfts which I thought was a scheme but who knows
Nah, the problem with digital is that it’s far too easy to replicate, and you have no serious control over your asset. (Blah blah blockchain, blah blah things could change, still nope in my opinion)
Pokémon as an example. When diamond and pearl released it was so buggy that even a child could watch a YouTube video and replicate anything from the game they wanted. Now patched, but smarter people can still do the same. Last year I still managed to get every mystery gift from soul silver even though Nintendo has stopped supporting online, by simply changing the DNS and getting Pokémon that were meant for a very limited time over a decade ago.
Pokémon go currently have a special event that can only be accessed if you are geographically on a specific Korean island. By some accident these special event bonuses started appearing in New Zealand and the people who managed to get them have just had the company that makes the game remove all the things they should not have had access to without even needing them to update.
I think digital collectibles will become much more popular, especially video games, but I don’t think it is going to replace anything. I think the younger generation may move more that route due to it being much easier to acquire, you can “earn” them through activities, and companies can create them for the cost of labor or eventually use AI to design them.
I don’t think the two sectors will battle it out; I think it’s just another market. Please know I am biased as I am currently helping a team create a game-like experience using the blockchain. With that said, I still pump way more money into Pokemon cards as I love staring at them as you do when they come in.
I think in the future there will be a market for digital and physical collectibles. We’ve already seen this with things like NFTs and other digital assets. However, I don’t think they’ll “replace” things like Pokemon cards anytime soon or in the future. They’re going to remain independent markets with independent collectors who are after totally different things. Personally, I want nothing to do with NFTs myself, but I can acknowledge why some people are interested in them from a utility perspective (i.e. digital and not physical).
Personally, I think the future in both could be strong. A lot of people are parking money in non-traditional investments like collectibles more and more over time.
Many collectors keep their valuable Pokemon cards in vaults for convenience or due to their high monetary value. The owners may never hold the physical cards in their hands, but they are “real” nonetheless.
Obviously vaulted Pokemon cards are not the same as NFTs or other digital collectibles. But it does feel pretty futuristic to buy, store, and sell cards that you have never touched.
I see these vault-to-vault and vault-to-buyer transactions increase dramatically in the coming years. PWCC Vault and PSA (Collectors) Vault have done a good job, but I think the eBay Vault is going to rapidly increase the number of regular users.
Short answer, no I don’t think digital video games will be collectible. However, I do believe that a market may emerge for those who desire storage devices with DLC or digital content that is no longer available for sale. People may pay for a whole console or login information for a digital account with rights to delisted media.
A 3ds with Pokémon Crystal is currently the only way to play the Celebi event in North America through a official Nintendo release. It has been delisted.
Forza Horizon 2(xbox game) had a DLC called Storm Island. It looks actually really fun, but it was delisted for purchase in 2018 and nobody can purchase the DLC anymore. It is still available to download if you purchased it originally. However, certain people have account with registered access to it. It can no longer be obtained. It has been delisted for 5 years now.
I think it will be interesting to see what happens to delisted and unavailable DLC in the years to come. Sure, piracy will make this stuff available, but for some people they prefer an authentic release.
If a company is no longer going to maintain the release of a product, then it should be freed from copyright. Was copyright even meant for companies in the first place? It’s supposed to benefit the creator - and companies are not people.
Unlike books (but even these too) things like movies, music and games deteriorate over time and by the time a company is willing to listen or are forced to give up copyright when we’re all dead, no one will care or the media can no longer be saved.
If I’m not mistaken MGM let the Alamo just rot instead of be saved even though they had no intention to monetise it because the situation just looked bad for them. That’s just going against the point of copyright in the first place. You only get protection because it eventually is owned by the public.
I once paid extra for a League skin code from an event I never attended because I wanted to have all the skins for my favourite character. Digital mount codes from the WoW TCG also come to mind.
Digital collectables will likely grow in popularity, but I doubt this has any effect on physical collectables (at least over the next few hundred years). There are new collectors of coins, books, comics, antiques, furniture, trading cards… you name it, ‘born’ every day. Plenty of young people have revived interests in old cameras, vinyl records, and modernist furniture. Those are people (myself included) who don’t know a world without the internet.
I wonder how many people collecting digital items also have or end up having some form of physical collection too?
Yup, I still don’t “get” NFTs fully. All I remember recently is Logan Paul’s illiquid marketplace and the Illustrator “NFT” thing and then it all just sort of went quiet after. I feel like some people made a killing on them because of abstract market conditions and hype of 2020/2021… but going forward I feel they are incredibly speculative compared to Pokemon or other collectibles that actually have some historical significance and trends behind them.
Those who made a killing in cryptography-related stuff were those who capitalize on hype, or who had held crypto for years and just happened to be there, then got out while the market was still hot. Compared to those I know who killed it, I know just as many who forgot their bitcoin wallet keys because they didn’t seriously consider it and are now sitting on unusable accounts.
I wonder if those who did ride the hype wave without wiping-out, have some kind of knowledge, or if they just got lucky… There’s a guy at work who was/is a crypto bro, and he made a decent amount in it, but now… He still has a job and complains from time to time about cash flow. Personal financial fundamentals STILL seem as important as investment fundamentals.
Those who engage in extreme financial risk-taking (e.g., dumping their savings into crypto) also tend to have no understanding of money management and engage in frivolous spending. There’s a reason why most lottery winners are either broke or dead within 5 years time.
I don’t see anything against in the future of physical collection.
Personally, I think the games example is a bad one.
I mean, I have tons of games on steam. Way more than physical copies.
It’s way better for storage to have them in digital, but that’s all.
I live in constant fear that valve can close up and say “thank you for the money you’ve spent, now fuck off” and we’re all stuck without the games we paid for.
Gog solves this problem giving you the .exe file to install, still if it says “goodbye folks!” and you haven’t the .exe saved somewhere what can you do?
Nothing can beat a solid physical collection with some attentions to preservation.
It will become dust someday.
But I will also be by that time.
There’s always a weird absolutist vibe about these discussions. Like that physical collectibles will never exist in the future. Or that digital collectibles are the future, therefore all forms of digital collectibles are equally valid and superior to physical collectibles.
The reality will always be more complicated. There will be physical collections, there will be digital collections. Not all physical collectibles are equal, not all digital collectibles are equal. In a way we already have existed in this world for years. Pokemon cards are more popular than ever and at the same time there are literal economies built on digital assets in certain video games.
if we go hyperbolically technical about there even aren’t any “digital collection” because the software are stored in some physical way.
Being an SSD or a bunch of pc scattered around the world (cloud).
You change the support but it’s still analog, physical.
If you can’t find the answer on your own are you even a collector?
Summary
May I ask for an emergency delete button for the first 0,3 seconds after making a post in half before running to the edit button with cold sweat spraying everywhere? Just leaving an hope for a future update here
