The Price of a Pack of Bitcoin Trading Cards

BTC Trading Cards, Series 1

That Alladan fellow who started up Bitcoin Trading Cards has a wee bit of a problem on his hands. 

Collectors enjoy his products so much that they're selling out in a hurry. In just six months the Series 1 and Series 2 cards have officially sold out. They are particularly popular among Vikings, it seems.

Not only are the collectors pleased with their bounty, Lord Cal Lekter is pleased as well. Seeing the problem ahead of time, I stocked up on a few boxes of cards, which will be shared with The Collectors Network's customers later this week. I do very much like to collect shiny things.

And while the art is half the fun, each card comes with a lesson—the sort you don't often get at school, in a newspaper, or on TV—actual knowledge about the ways in which the world works. That's just the sort of knowledge a gentleman crow can appreciate!

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What is the Value of a Pack of Series 1 Bitcoin Trading Cards?

At Scarce.City, an Orange Pill in a Pack (Series 1) recently auctioned for an amount of Bitcoin currently equal to $425 (and one penny, which counts).

Lord Calvin wondered if this price was too high, too low, or just right. In order to solve this problem, I put on my thinking cap, and went to work.

First, I checked the various auction house prices to find that common cards seem to be commonly traded at around $5 per card. There are 9 of these in each pack. The tenth card is one of several rare kinds. A total of 999 blue cards of 6 types were printed, and they seem to be selling for around $55 apiece.

A total of 500 of each of three red-bordered cards were printed. They are going for around $160 each.

Five works of art were printed a mere 100 times each, and auctions have hovered around $3,000 per card.

Finally, there are 14 unique cards, printed once each. And while those that have been discovered are not being traded on public markets, the chatter is that they might be worth around a Bitcoin each, which is to say $30,000 for each of the 1/1 cards.

Stirring all those numbers up in a pot yields a value of $356.44 per pack of Series 1 trading cards. This comes to $8554,62 per box.

And to think that just a few short weeks back, these were still for sale for $500 per box of 24 packs. Oh me, oh my, I should have purchased more. That certainly was a better investment than gambling in the stock market!

In various trading card markets, fanatics typically purchase packs at a price above the value of the cards. There is fun in the game, you know. It is ordinary for the value of the cards in the pack to be 20% to 80% of the pack price. Bitcoiners are a "long time horizon" bunch, so let us imagine that customers might purchase one of the rare remaining packs (if you can find one on Ebay, which is not easy) at $475, and a box then at $11,406.

Two weeks ago, four bidders each purchased three packs for $1221.72, which is $407.24 per pack. My estimates aren't bad for a bird, wouldn't you say?

While much trading now focuses on Series 2 cards, there is still a little fun to be had with Series 1. Some packs remain unopened, for now. Also…I am happy to report that this crow did happen to purchase the very last box of Series 1 cards. There is a plan to auction it off one day. But that day is not today.

Stay tuned.