Just wondering if any toy makers have considered including low cost NFT's with your toys as a way to fight the flipper market/Sofubi sales fuck your mother guy? It seems like a pretty clear cut way to make sure you have an authentic toy from the artist creating it vs a copy. Blockchain tracks every transaction...
I think if you do some searches you'll find other people here proposing the same thing over the years. No one has done it yet as far as I know.
Planet X did. It was just met with confusion. I don’t think most sofubi collectors care about nfts and the added hassle or steps of transferring NFT ownership would just turn them off
this. I find the idea of nfts so distasteful I think I’d actually avoid purchasing any release that had them tacked on/involved whatever. The way to avoid flippers is to be knowledgeable about what you’re buying and to just not pay flippers prices for things. They are plastic toys. Don’t let fomo get the best of you. There will be other toys.
Thought 1: a post from slipstar?! Thought 2: do people even use/care about NFTs anymore? While I think this could in theory work for the discussion of authenticity versus bootlegs, the real issue - and also the one I think which more people would care about curbing, as it is much more pervasive [I think] than any copies out there getting mistaken for the real thing - is that any such endeavours take work/should have to also enable aftermarket sales; this is a legitimate part of any hobby, i.e. exchanging things between like-minded fans. And so, if you allow for the one - whether it is through NFTs or any other method you can think of - there is not yet a clear way, and likely will never be, to differentiate between friendly resales and flipping, as they are inherently the same operation. The only thing you can attack here is the price gouging that comes with flipping and such versus normal exchange. The only thing is to not pay those aftermarket prices, but as long as some individuals do and will, the system breaks down. {I would like nothing better than to see flippers stuck with closets full of unwanted stock.} But this is the basis of the flipping model. Because of the hypebeasts chasing that immediate fix to get the latest thing and somehow outdo each other in immediate gratification, and this is especially driven by a capitalistic mindset (even when it might have to come from 'non-capitalist' environs) and seemingly endless depths of disposable income, we will never see a stop to it. The only thing which can counter this is super cheap toys produced by the truckloads (which, let's face it, is not the nature of this hobby); and then I could also point out several examples where even that model - because of the aforementioned niche demand factor - has still resulted in this churn.
There's been a push to use web3 and blockchain for shipping and traceability. Dunno how you could apply that to toys though.
It's basically just a tracking system. Im not saying make a collectible NFT, or have it be art, it's just a way of tracking ownership. Every time a toy was sold the NFT would be transferred. Saying you hate NFT's is like saying you hate contracts, or credit. Alice isn't around anymore? I've been through a lot of crazy weird years, since I've been off Skullbrain, I have a kid now, and it's nice to share the weird fun stuff with her, hence I'm starting to sculpt and collect again, her mother is a Pokemon girl, so I caught a break in life.
But why would I want to complicate toys with either? Sounds like a pain in the ass, frankly. If I wanted extra paperwork I’d get another job…
Rentaro Fujiwara/Toky does this, kiiiind of. I received a code to authenticate my one toy from him using a product called 'Startrail PORT'. No idea about the technical details, but glancing at the site it looks like a proprietary blockchain for art. Dumb to go with a specialized solution in this case, but there you go. https://startbahn.io/startrail-port Anyway, it was fully opt-in, nothing embedded in the toy itself, and it would be on me to transfer the 'certificate of ownership' to a new owner, if I sell. I will probably forget. Maybe there was a QR code sticker on the foot that I removed. There are at least a couple of businesses I know of launching marketplaces with NFC tags embedded in all the products, so you scan the tag on receiving and see the asset is genuine. I can see this being helpful for KAWS dolls and the like, where bootlegs are now so good, it's hard to tell the difference from the original article. Not so in sofubi just yet, and I'm unsure if we'll ever get there. Although if we ever see Hirota on the front page of Hypebeast, it could happen.
As someone who made great profits on crypto and then lost it all, I want nothing to do with NFTs. Flippers will always be here, no matter how detestable they might be. They’re here because people pay the crazy prices. There will always be a customer for flipped toys. All we can really do is call out flippers.