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Pros and cons of NBA Top Shot
Pros
Easy signup. Requires an account, but it's a simple sign up with only a few steps and no need to connect a third-party wallet.
Visa and Mastercard payment options. Options to pay with a Visa or Mastercard are convenient.
Fewer risks. Since you can only acquire these NFTs on NBA Top Shot's official website and marketplace, there's less risk of scams or counterfeits. The platform is officially licensed by the NBA.
Proof of concept. Sport-themed trading cards have proven to be valuable investments.
Cons
Exclusive. Top Shot NFTs are only tradable in the official marketplace and aren't platform-agnostic.
Smaller blockchain. The Flow blockchain might be innovative and fast, but it doesn't have as large an ecosystem as Ethereum.
NFTs stay in your account. Top Shot NFTs are native to the Flow blockchain, which doesn't support popular wallets like Metamask. For now, you can only store them in your Dapper wallet.
NBA Top Shot is a leading sports NFT marketplace. Not only do people enjoy collecting sports memorabilia, but this marketplace offers NFTs that are officially licensed by the NBA.
In a way, NBA Top Shot carries the same spirit as sports trading cards — think baseball cards, but digital.
With NBA Top Shot, collectors can purchase licensed highlight clips called "moments" with cryptocurrency or a credit card.
Our take on NBA Top Shot
For the last few years, the utility of NFTs has been argued. But some are on the side that trading cards and NFTs are a great marriage: Collectible digital artworks with proof of ownership thanks to blockchain technology.
NBA Top Shot is a premier basketball NFT marketplace featuring officially-licensed NBA highlight clips. Top Shot is also a joint venture with the NBA — super official!
Image source: NBA Top Shot
The platform was founded in 2020 by Dapper Labs — one of the most reputable blockchain companies to date. It also launched other successful projects, including the mega-popular CryptoKitties.
Most NFT marketplaces require you to set up and connect MetaMask or other digital wallets when onboarding, which can be complicated for the nontechnical consumer. In contrast, Top Shot only asks you to create an account. The platform allows you to pay with a credit card, which is ideal for customers who don't own cryptocurrency.
The platform is geared toward both NBA fans and Web3 enthusiasts. Top Shot may be built on blockchain technology, but users with little crypto or NFT experience can easily navigate the platform.
About NBA Top Shot
Top Shot is built on Dapper Labs's Flow blockchain. Each NFT "moment" comprises a short video clip that replays a particular highlight in NBA history, such as LeBron James's one-handed slam against the Sacramento Kings or Jayson Tatum's turnaround three-pointer against the Brooklyn Nets.
Image source: NBA Top Shot
Once you buy an NFT clip, it's stored in your account, allowing you to view the moments at any time, show them to your friends or sell them on the peer-to-peer marketplace for a profit.
Every moment has a fixed number of copies with its own serial number. The number of copies for an NBA Top Shot moment helps determine its rarity and value.
Other factors such as the featured player and serial number also affect the price of each clip. The price disparity is high, with some moments fetching over $200,000, while others struggle to sell for $12. Like any NFT collectible, values can appreciate or depreciate over time.
NBA Top Shot blockchain and currency
Top Shot is built on the Flow Blockchain, and accepts five cryptocurrencies. It was originally meant to be built on Ethereum, but with the complications around CryptoKitties on ETH, Dapper Labs decided to put Top Shot on Flow.
Accepted cryptocurrencies are: FLOW, BCH, BTC, DAI, ETH and USDC.
Priorities security with a $750 million insurance fund
User-friendly user interface
Long list of features such as lending, borrowing, staking and crypto debit cards
Poorly rated customer service
Certain cryptocurrency support is geographically restricted
High withdrawal fees
Crypto.com supports a wide range of cryptocurrencies and features. Its user-friendly interface makes it a good choice for both inexperienced and experienced users.
Fees for trading are competitive, though can be high when withdrawing to an external wallet from the exchange.
There is a detailed knowledge base available on how features work, as well as Crypto.com university that teaches about various assets.
The company prioritizes security, marketing and design, but reviews suggest that customer service is lacking.
Deposit Methods
Bank transfer Credit card Cryptocurrency Debit card PayPal Wire transfer Apple Pay Google Pay SWIFT
Deposit Fees
None
Withdrawal Fees
Cryptocurrency: Fees vary
Trading Fees
Maker - 0-0.075% Taker - 0.05-0.075%
How to buy NFTs on NBA Top Shot
Buy NFT moments with a Visa or Mastercard or cryptocurrency.
No matter how you pay, you need an NBA Top Shot account. It's a simple email and password combination, or you can sign in with Google. You'll also need to enter your phone number and save a recovery code.
After setting up your account, you're greeted with a welcoming message and a short intro to the NBA Top Shot platform and digital collectibles community. Choose Get Started at the bottom. Next, you're asked to join the Discord community and choose your favorite basketball team.
To fund your account, open your wallet via the accounts page, select Payments & Payouts from the left menu, then type the amount you wish to deposit in the field. Choose your payment and confirm your deposit.
There are two ways to buy NFTs on Top Shot:
Buy them in packs directly from the platform. Packs are a random collection of moments that users buy at an advertised price directly from NBA Top Shot. In general, it's cheaper than buying moments on the secondary market, where the price may get inflated. However, you won't know which moments you'll get until you buy and open the packs. Opt to reserve a Base Set, which consists of three common moments, which the platform offers to new users only.
Buy specific moments on the peer-to-peer marketplace. Hit the search bar and look for your choice moment. Filter out your search based on the player, team, set, tier, price, game start and end date and more.
What types of NFTs are available on NBA Top Shot
Important things to know about the NFTs include:
Sets — Curated collections of Top Shot collectibles are like decks in trading cards. For example, the Rookie Debut set is a collection of moments from the top up-and-coming NBA stars like Jordan McLaughlin and Jarrel Brantley while the Throwdowns set consists of 20 of the most memorable dunks in basketball history.
Clip tiers — A moment's tier determines its rarity level. The platform has four collectible tiers: common, rare, legendary and ultimate. The common tier packs contain around 10,000 or more copies while the rare and legendary tiers respectively boast 150 to 4,999 and 25 to 499 moments.
Serial number — One of the most important attributes to consider when purchasing a moment or considering its potential value is its serial number. Each Top Shot NFT has a unique serial number linked to it, to differentiate it from other Top Shot NFTs depicting the same highlight.
The NBA Top Shot platform is exclusively reserved for NBA Top Shot NFTs and doesn't allow you to buy other Dapper Labs collectibles such as the popular CryptoKitties.
How to sell NFT's on NBA Top Shot
You can't list your NBA Top Shot NFTs for sale on secondary marketplaces — such as OpenSea or Foundation — but you can list them on the platform itself.
Selling your moments on the marketplace is even more straightforward than buying:
Go to your moments page.
Decide which NFT moment you want to sell and select it.
Select Place for Sale and enter the fixed price you want to sell it for.
NBA Top Shot fees
The Top Shot marketplace charges the seller 5% for every NFT sold. For instance, if you sell a moment for $100, you would receive $95 in your wallet. The platform doesn't charge for listing or delisting moments.
NBA Top Shot NFT drops
The platform releases exclusive packs of clips and allows you to reserve your pack before the actual drop. Many packs run for less than $20.
To view the platform's drops, select Drops on the main navigation bar. You'll see starter packs here, as well.
Image source: NBA Top Shot
Is NBA Top Shot legit?
NBA Top Shot is a legitimate marketplace. It's partnered with the NBA, and it'd be hard to get more official than that.
We couldn't find any evidence that the NBA Top Shot platform itself has been hacked. It was reported on the Top Shot subreddit that the platform's Discord was flooded with malicious phishing links in the announcements channel around October 2021, however, these are the only security breaches or "hacks" we could find.
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Bottom line
Dapper Labs takes on the tried-and-tested concept of sports memorabilia cards, capturing the nostalgia and desire they evoke. It uses NFT technology and the NBA's notoriety as vehicles to present an innovative and gamified product for avid NBA fans and collectors.
While being built on a new blockchain ecosystem like Flow may pose initial limitations, Dapper Labs has a proven track record of successful ventures in the NFT space and is working on advancing its ecosystem to cater to its product requirements.
Whether products shown are available to you is subject to individual provider sole approval and discretion in accordance with the eligibility criteria and T&Cs on the provider website.
Bethany Hickey is the banking editor and personal finance expert at Finder, specializing in banking, lending, insurance, and crypto.
Bethany’s expertise in personal finance has garnered recognition from esteemed media outlets, such as Nasdaq, MSN, Yahoo Finance, GOBankingRates, SuperMoney, AOL and Newsweek. Her articles offer practical financial strategies to Americans, empowering them to make decisions that meet their financial goals. Her past work includes articles on generational spending and saving habits, lending, budgeting and managing debt.
Before joining Finder, she was a content manager where she wrote hundreds of articles and news pieces on auto financing and credit repair for CarsDirect, Auto Credit Express and The Car Connection, among others.
Bethany holds a BA in English from the University of Michigan-Flint, and was poetry editor for the university’s Qua Literary and Fine Arts Magazine. See full bio
Bethany's expertise
Bethany has written 401 Finder guides across topics including:
A deep dive into eBay’s foray into the NFT ecosystem, looking at everything from available categories to potential drawbacks.
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Image source: NBA Top Shot
Image source: NBA Top Shot
Image source: NBA Top Shot
