Mike

27' 12.899N, 80' 9.113W is my happy spot. Angler Action Foundation, Recreational angler, Freelance writer, Outdoors photographer,

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[Mike @MikeReadling]

Are we ready to admit that Giancarlo Stanton is just an overpaid Jose Guillen at this point? Except Stanton doesn't /can't play the field. #Yankees

[Mike @MikeReadling]

The easiest fantasy sports entry around. Free each week. Competitive. And run by a bunch of cool dudes. Keep your summer interesting. #NoDoldrums https://t.co/aNwR33tcNJ @CollectHTH @RadishDijital

[Mike @MikeReadling]

@LegendSoulMiner @ethFRENCHIE @CollectHTH @Blokpax That was pretty amazing.

[Mike @MikeReadling]

@OUFCOfficial Sitting at a water park in Orlando mad I wasn't at Wembley to watch that win. Amazing.

[Mike @MikeReadling]

So, when clemson misses, alabama loses three points. Seems about right! #NCAAMarchMadness #alabama

[Mike @MikeReadling]

@ethFRENCHIE @Blokpax Imagine March Madness crammed into one week, only you're the one cutting down the nets. Strategy, scrambling, and a worn out F5 key when the Snap happens and you're trying to see how many tokens you have remaining. One of the few times whales and newbies stand on equal ground.

[FRΞNCHIΞ @ethFRENCHIE]

Web 3 Natives - You have been WARNED.

REVEAL TOMORROW - this one is built different.

Background:

We began building a physical TCG/CCG (collectible card game) last year for @WondersOTF .

BUT - Web 3 Natives - Read on…there’s something for you all hiding in plain sight here.

We enlisted a rock star game mechanics lead that has decades of experience (lead designer on many Magic The Gathering sets) and surrounded him with a team of highly ranked competitive players, CCG enthusiasts, and world class designers.

We designed a game that is unlike anything on the market. Truly.

I’ll share a play test related video in comments with some recent play test footage.

The game’s flagship product configuration (known as “Collect & Play Boosters”) will launch on Kickstarter soon. Our estimates project a solid 7-figure campaign. All from TCG/CCG people…not some degen mint.

Now. For web 3 natives. You can cop something right now that those without self-custody experience will have to get on eBay secondary markets later.

Our collector focused “Serialized Boosters” were pre-sold using NFTs minted for $225 late last year. This was before any of the pre-test success and hype the game is getting in meat space. These people bought on pretty much good faith and that was about it.

The holder of a Serialized Booster NFT can redeem for a physical box at release later this year (or sell the NFT).

The boxes represented as these NFTs ARE NOT the same boosters that will be available on Kickstarter (those will be collectible af too but they are built to feed player demand too).

The Serialized Boosters are the “highest tier” collector product in our lineup. Each of the 4 packs of 15 cards in these boxes will have a serialized (numbered) card. Which is huge. Never done before in this scale. The serialized cards feature some other goodies but I’ll spare you all that for now.

Only 3,393 serialized booster boxes will exist (we aren’t minting more and these boxes only get produced to match the NFT supply - any that aren’t claimed will be destroyed - literally burned). Claim window will be long. At least a year. Maybe more.

Tomorrow is our ART REVEAL for these Serialized Boxes. 2pm EDT.

There are 15 different art variations that will be produced. 7 of them are 1/1 designs (literally only 1 box produced with that art) including THE VERY FIRST BOX MADE. Other boxes are serialized /99 or less and the more accessible one will be /2500 (which is still less than 1% of what Magic produces for a single product and they do like 6/year).

If the pre-sale does anything close to what we hope, the demand for these serialized boxes will be fun to watch. I’d also say that any of the 1/1 boxes that get sold post-reveal (or later in meat space on eBay or at auction) will shatter any booster box sales prices of the 21st century from the big dogs like Magic and Pokemon. (These boxes are intentionally designed to create that type of record breaking opportunity).

All randoms are on-chain. Verifiable. You know you had a shot at the 1/1s including the first box.

But even the “still rare but more accessible” /2500 dragon art boxes will be loaded with each pack hitting a serialized card.

By my quick math, better than 1:10 boxes will hit a 1/1 serialized card if the set list stays where it is (design team in final stages of locking in all the cards). That’s insane. We are doing some really unique things and these serialized boosters lead the way.

If you scoop one off secondary by purchasing the NFT the worst case scenario is that you get a physical box to rip that’s built on an amazing rarity framework.

Best case? You hit a 1/1 or /99 box and the sealed box itself is likely more coveted than the cards inside.

I’ve done my good deed for the day. I’ve pointed it all out…REVEAL TOMORROW.

Good luck everyone in the art reveal.

1/3

[FRΞNCHIΞ @ethFRENCHIE]

WHAT MAKES [thing] COLLECTIBLE?

Sometimes I can’t help but 🤦🏽‍♂️ when a company says “check out this collectible [thing] we created”.

The [thing] is very often [junk].

We all have “edge skills” where we possess a natural talent, usually supported by countless hours of passionate hard work, that out performs 99.9% of humans.

A deep understanding of collectibility, the mindset of collectors, and the best value drivers across a wide range of collectible genres, is one of those edge skills for me.

I miss often but I have an established track record of being right a lot more than I’m wrong.

A lot of it comes from all that experience (and learning from my many misses) but there are some basics anyone can apply.

For [thing] to HAVE A CHANCE at proving to be collectible (i.e., have, hold and grow value), you must ensure that the components are in place for someone else to formulate a thesis (for themselves) on why they can also believe in [thing].

This is by no means an exhaustive list…but some stuff I look at (when I create - and when I collect):

- Can the provenance be trusted? Have you undertaken measures to ensure future buyers are confident [thing] is authentic and unaltered?

- What are the potential catalysts for future demand of [thing], and how "far-fetched" are they? You only need one catalyst if it's potentially powerful and/or far reaching. However, in most cases, it's a combination of potential catalysts that solidify a strongly held thesis.

- Will [thing] be difficult to obtain once demand reaches the catalyst driven projections? Many people fumble here because they grossly under-estimate “catalyst driven demand” because current demand skews their perception. It’s critical that you utilize these lower demand windows to accumulate if you believe in [thing]. From there, trust your thesis’ catalyst to take care of that future demand.

**TIP - if you don’t see a POTENTIAL catalyst for 10x future demand - question your overall thesis.**

- Does [thing] forge an emotional connection with the owner for the duration of their ownership? Or might [thing] just end up in a junk drawer of apathy after a brief honeymoon phase? (We will skip the counterplay of including "trash bin deflation" from the potential thesis.)

- Is one of the emotions [thing] sparks a sense of "pride"? Collectibles can create a wide array of emotions and be successful but if one of them isn’t a sense of pride…tough sledding.

- Does [thing] help the owner to create a new community or fit neatly into an existing one?

- Are there enough units of [thing] for a market to form with reliable sales comparisons over time?

- How does the uniqueness of [thing] contribute to its perceived value? Is there something inherently special or rare about [thing] that cannot be easily replicated?

- What is the historical significance or potential future historical importance of [thing]? Does it represent a moment in time, a cultural movement, or an innovative breakthrough?

- How does the craftsmanship or artistic merit of [thing] add to its collectibility? Is it made with exceptional skill or creativity that sets it apart from other similar options?

- Is there a story or narrative associated with [thing] that enhances its appeal?

- Does [thing] have the potential for cross-collectibility, appealing to collectors across different interests or demographics?

This is a good starting framework. If you form your thesis for [thing] using this checklist and then have patience…I think you will win a lot more than you lose.

1/2

[Mike @MikeReadling]

@ethFRENCHIE I mean, this even makes sense to me. Very well put.

[FRΞNCHIΞ @ethFRENCHIE]

First public play test for Wonders of The First @wondersotf CCG (Collectible Card Game - sometimes called a TCG - Trading Card Game).

These people have no vested interest or bias.

They have no idea these Wonders are “on the blockchain” or that members of our community hold Character Proofs and decentralized IP rights. But they will when they chase their own bite of that apple in physical card packs with digital redemption inserts for a Character of their own (very limited - rare rare hit).

We are working to raise (3) 🦄 🦄 🦄 over here in the @blokpax ecosystem.

All 3 are born. Now we work 🧱 by 🧱 to build the 🏠.

Wonders and @CollectHTH are first on the tee box for big developments (for each in the weeks/months ahead). Don’t sleep on our little Bantam guys either. I’m juggling bandwidth over here but I’m equally bullish on the road ahead for them too.

1/2

[FRΞNCHIΞ @ethFRENCHIE]

Did you know? At @blokpax we have an ERC-20 token on main chain ETH that you can deposit/withdraw freely into our bespoke marketplace for GAS FREE transactions across MULTIPLE chains to buy various digital collectibles as well as MILLIONS OF $$$ in tokenized physical assets (that you can leave tokenized or ship the physical - mostly graded sports cards do this point).

Let that sink all in fully. If you haven’t been following along at all it might even be worth a second read through ;)

This is a follow up to my now pinned tweet (please check that one out if you missed it) on the potential catalyst for just one of our major franchise NFT collections and how people have said all bear market they want to see builders. I say again. From my chest. With emphasis. We have fucking built.

No VCs. No influencer shills. Just hard work to find sustainable product market fit and sustainable economics while investing millions to bet on ourselves.

We have so many uses for our token coming. Its utility is unmatched. It’s not a speculative thing. It’s fairly illiquid to this point frankly. Mainly because it wasn’t launched as a speculative shit coin where we promised a bunch of nonsense. It’s truly usable. Day in and day out. Thats backed by mountains of data. The ENTIRE circulating token supply has turned over almost 2x in use/utilization in under a year.

Every thing we are doing is part of a master plan. Some things landed right immediately. We’ve leaned into those. Some didn’t hit the mark and have required thoughtful steps back in order to plan a new advance forward. Thats how real business works. But it’s all in part of a grand iterative process that is really taking shape now 3 years in.

A day will come where people look back at our ecosystem and say, “wtf happened here”?

Our team is stacked. World class devs and key leaders assembled across roles with an emphasis on “Edge Skill” alignment (ie what is your thing that you are the best at). This wasn’t our first rodeo…We didn’t rush to hire a bunch of degens and drop them in over their heads…nor did we go to executive recruiters to pull in fresh overpaid corporate suits. With the help of my Chief of Staff @nmchasinunicorn we took our time and put the right people in the right seats. At times that meant others had to help in ways they weren’t best suited (me included) but that investment in taking our time is paying off huge in the synergies I see happening among this team ever single day.

For those of you already in the Blokpax family…we have a fun year ahead. In the coming weeks I’ll be sharing a lot more details for 2024 and into 2025.

For those who aren’t in. Join us. Come to discord and talk to some people. You might be shocked at what you discover has been hiding in plain sight.

[Mike @MikeReadling]

@ethFRENCHIE @Blokpax All true. Great team and product.

[FRΞNCHIΞ @ethFRENCHIE]

I’m gonna say the quiet part out loud. It’s time.

You WILL NOT find a better or more SUSTAINABLE catalyst narrative for an NFT collection.

5,000 Wonders of The First characters exist as the ONLY collection created in Ethereum’s FIRST BLOCK on proof-of-stake (provenance established immediately after the merge in the POS Genesis Block).

These amazing Characters establish our universe and IP catalog.

The first physical CCG set Kickstarts in a few weeks. (CCG = Collectible Card Game - think Magic the Gathering or Pokemen).

Our first physical set (Existence) will feature 85% ish “already community owned” Characters.

The rest of the Characters?

Our CCG box ripping “normie” friends will be chasing redeemable hits to score their own characters (by claiming the Character’s NFT in the same Character Proof collection).

Character Proofs can be had on OS for under $300 right now. 🤯

So imagine if Pokemon dropped an NFT that established which community member had commercial IP rights to Pikachu. Rights they could sell at any time. Thats our IP model in a nutshell.

We have community members building comics, physical products and even an ambitious group doing a video game with their Wonders alongside us.

But. You don’t have to build anything. You can just hold your Character Proofs and chill (with a deep sense of pride knowing those rights are yours should you want to use or transfer them).

Our community claimed these characters for free by owning @LostMinersETH. As all this was built during the bear…very few even know about this right now. I promise that will change soon. But we won’t be advertising to web 3 degens or paying the influencoors to pump our bags.

We will be taking this CCG to normal human beings that love fantasy lore, CCG gaming and nerd culture to seek authentic, valid, and sustainable demand. (Nerd said affectionately as a proud one myself).

Once the CCG drops, every normie pack ripper will know these Character Proofs exist and they will be told that if they don’t find one in their packs (a rare hit) they can simply turn to secondary market to find ones they vibe with (we will gladly hold their hand and white glove concierge their acquisitions if need be).

In a world where single collectible cards sell for thousands…the idea of owning a Character from a franchise they enjoy (for a few hundred bucks) should be quite an interesting value proposition if they fall in love with their cards, the game and the Wonders universe.

Yes. I’m bull posting. People here say they want teams to build cool shit. Well…we’ve invested millions and countless hours of swear and hustle to build some cool fucking shit.

The game is getting great feedback in play tests. Our lead game designer has 25 years experience (including a decade making Magic and Pokemon sets). His team has CCG natives and competitive players that are like top 2% CCG ranked.

We are AI/tech native (again we literally tokenized the characters with intentionality as indisputable first POS collection - created and minted in POS Genesis Block. No part of the process touched mining. And we brought 5000 broad and diverse characters to life in 12 months time. It took Magic the Gathering about 10+ years to reach 5k characters.

Interested? LFG. Join us.

We gather in discord. I won’t link in an effort not to crush this post’s reach but you can remove the spaces below.

Discord .gg / wondersotf

Come in and learn more. This one is truly hiding in plain sight. 🤷🏽‍♂️

[FRΞNCHIΞ @ethFRENCHIE]

We are beginning to ramp up some marketing for the @wondersotf CCG.

It’s a bold experiment in IP rights, game mechanics and collectibility.

I believe building and retaining a CCG community takes 2 things.

1) great gameplay with thrilling and memorable moments.

2) cards that hold and ideally gain value.

If you get only number 1. You survive until the next shiney thing shows up. Tons of fun games get ditched because people simply have thirsts for new things. It’s human nature.

You can’t get only #2 because #1 is a pre-requisite for a strong collectible framework.

Many failed CCGs got #1 right.

They failed because without #2 the gameplay (although good) wasn’t sticky enough on its own. The next shiney thing arrives and since the “collectible” cards they hold have no real value…it’s easy mentally for the community to check out and move to the next thing.

We are unapologetically working to land BOTH gameplay and collectibility. We want to create a break out franchise. We won’t do that playing it safe.

I’m not afraid of failure. I am afraid of not taking bold risks in an effort to win big. If we fail while being bold…I’m ok with that.

We are leaning into the collectible side messaging wise because we want those who care about this to know that we see it as critically important to the long term success of our franchise. So we will say it from our chest.

I think so many of the failed CCGs missed on #2 because they followed Big-CCG (Magic the Gathering and Pokemon). But what works for big companies clearly doesn’t work for smaller upstarts. Again. Look at all the failures.

Big-CCG enjoyed a first mover advantage that catapulted their IP into a “too big to fail now” stratosphere. That first mover advantage is gone forever.

Whether the next break out is us..or something else…I am very confident it will come from being bold and different.

We might well fail. But it won’t be because we were scared to lean into what we believe in.

Like what you hear? Join us. You can own a character in the franchise with IP rights and be ready to rip physical boxes, collect, play and have fun.

[Mike @MikeReadling]

Oct. 12, 8 pm seems to be prime time viewing. I don't doubt this will be worth the appointment. #blokpax @CollectHTH

[FRΞNCHIΞ @ethFRENCHIE]

A lot new of new @blokpax collectors have joined our ranks in the past 3 weeks. I won’t share exact numbers (for various reasons) but it’s enough to (very) materially impact our collector base if they fully onboard as long-term collectors.

These are 99% web 2 users that don’t have a mm wallet. They are legit new blood. Most are 30-50 year old IRL collectors (the core of our acquisition ad targeting) trying a digital product for the first time. They have discretionary income and they are native to the mindset of collecting and forming a long-term thesis.

That said. They don’t use Discord. They also aren’t on CX (many aren’t on X at all) so one of the biggest challenges we are facing is meeting them where they are and fully onboarding them INTO the community. Not as a customer. As a member of something special.

Meaning. We now need to help them meet other Blokpaxers so they can truly understand how special things are in this ecosystem and why they should lean in fully.

Sooo. With that in mind we have cooked up something *experimental* that I’m excited to test. I won’t fully spill the beans but I want the existing community and our OGs to plan to attend (trust me - you will want to participate - we are gonna invest some money into seeing how it works).

So here are some PRELIMINARY details I can share (fresh off the planning press today).

- We are targeting next Thur 10/12 for the first one of these “events”. Looking at 8pm EDT as go time. Subject to change. We have work to do. But I want you to have time to plan.

- It will be @CollectHTH focused but Blokpax themed.

- It will be an interactive live stream DIGITAL COLLECTING ADVENTURE.

- We are allocating marketing budget to this effort and it will award meaningful value to the Blokpax community.

- You must attend to access any of the value we will have available. You don’t have to do much…but you do have to be in the live stream chat to get anything cool.

- You do NOT have to be an existing Blokpax collector to attend. But you will need a Blokpax User ID in good standing to receive anything of value (BP accounts are free fwiw if you are new here).

So. Mark your calendars now. We probably won’t have much more to share about it until next week. Once we fully reveal the plans I want it to happen fairly quickly…So we might wait until 24-48 hours prior and then push it hard until it begins.

ONE LITTLE HINT: What would a collector themed mash up of Sunday Red Zone and the Around the Horn show from ESPN look like if it was also packed full of free rewards for viewers? ? 🤔

RTs for awareness so Blokpaxers can mark their calendar are much appreciated. 🙏🏾

Let’s. Go.

PS - Yes. We are hiring. I have a backlog of DMs right now from my tweet yesterday (after the @proof_xyz RIF announcment) but I will read and reply to anyone that reached out. Please just give me some time there. Legit might take me a few days cause I have to review them in batches so I can give them each the attention they deserve. That tweet casted a net far beyond just the Proof layoffs it seems…exciting stuff really. The energy and interest in web 3 careers is more concentrated in the bear but it’s still there at a high intensity among the faithful with a long-term vision for what digital ownership can become. Like I said. Let’s build.

[Mike @MikeReadling]

For anyone looking to get involved with @CollectHTH, this is a great explainer. https://t.co/nE1tgVQJZ1
#HomeTeamHeroes
#Blokpax #Football #Baseball

[Home Team Heroes @HTHOrigins]

It's almost that time!! 🏈

Meet Quake, Solaris, & Lawman! These ultra-passionate superfans are inspired by the remarkable talents of Austin Ekeler, Amon-Ra St. Brown, & Trevor Lawrence, respectively. 🔥 🔥

Stay tuned to uncover more heroes and discover the full football lineup on September 7th! 👀

[Mike @MikeReadling]

@ethFRENCHIE @Blokpax @CollectHTH For something as new as the Market Place is, I can't believe how unbelievably easy it is to buy and sell HTH. No gas. No fees. Says "250 BPX", you pay 250 BPX and the nft shows up 5 seconds later. AMAZING JOB by the team

[Home Team Heroes @HTHOrigins]

Greetings from the @nsccshow!

Getting ready for our first set of live HTH rips at the booth! Join us at 4:30pm CT on the Blokpax YouTube! https://t.co/O7ig1BfPyZ

[The National Sports Collectors Convention Inc. @nsccshow]

Visit Booth #2411 for your shot at a $50,000 Bounty! 

Follow us at @CollectHTH to find out more!

Link: https://t.co/AaV3uSfuka