We are experiencing a rapidly digitalizing world as Facebook digitalised your contacts; Instagram digitalised your photos; Google digitalised maps and encyclopedias; booking.com digitalised rooms; Uber digitalised cabs; tinder digitalised dating. How can also collecting industry turn into digital? The key issue is ownership and the answer to it is blockchain technology.
On 2021 August 19, Marvel revealed the first official licensed digital comic book NFT through VeVe, a leading company in digital collecting. An unstoppable paradigm shift from physical to digital with comic books began. The starting release is Marvel Comics #1 as first-ever digital comic, followed by Journey into Mystery #85 and Fantastic Four #1. In 2022, physical CGC 9.4 Marvel Comics #1 sold for 2.4 million$ via ComicConnect; physical CGC 9.2 Fantastic Four #1 sold for 1.5 million$ via Heritage Auctions. You may wonder why these graphed “paper’’ value that much… It is the historic value in these comic books as being the media for creation of fan-favorited Marvel heros. Spider-Man first appeared in the comic book “Amazing Fantasy #15(1962)”; Fantastic Four first appeared in the comic book “Fantastic Four #1(1961)”; Hulk first appeared in the comic book “Incredible Hulk #1(1962)”; Ironman first appeared in the comic book “Tales of Suspense #39(1963)”; Deadpool first appeared in the comic book “New Mutant #98(1991)” etc etc, those are the moments the world first saw these popular Marvel superheros. They are inarguably Marvel’s best asset.
Blockchain data as proof of ownership
You may be familiar with Marvel’s unlimited service in which you are able to read all the comics issued by Marvel once paying 10$ per month for the subscription. Having the access to tens of thousands of Marvel comics is a huge privilege to comic book fans thanks to modern technology. Yet, the better is here to come. Now with blockchain technology, you can truly “own” these digital comic books, giving you the ability to buy and sell digital comic books.
Physical problems vs. digital solutions
Imagine owning a physical Fantastic Four #1(1961) comic book(CGC 9.6 graded has fair market value over 6 million$), there comes the liability for you in proof of authenticity, dealing 6–12 month grading timeline with grading companies(CGC, CBCS etc), insurance and trivial tips for preserving. I bet you would be too afraid to take this amazing book out of your house in case ruining the potential million-dollar “paper”. It is even much more tricky when it comes to selling.
With comic book NFTs:
- Worldwide marketplace open 24/7, transactions are completed within milliseconds.
- They don’t degrade, saving you efforts in preserving.
- You can own thousands of comic books without storing them in several long boxes.
- Possible language toggle to allow owners to read comics in various languages, bringing comic collecting into a truly global market.
- They are officially licensed comic NFTs from IP holders with proof of authenticity and ownership.
Marvel comic book NFTs are not reprints
Here’s the original introduction of digital comics on Marvel official website: “ Following Marvel Entertainment’s successful, officially licensed NFT digital collectibles based on Spider-Man and Captain America, we’re excited to reveal, starting tomorrow, August 19, VeVe will be launching the inaugural series of classic Marvel Comics as NFTs!” It’s not hard to find out that Marvel is being extremely careful on their wordings, nothing from the description relates to reprint or facsimile.
The following are VeVe description data for Marvel comic book NFTs, you can see the starting year is the same as the original copies. They should have 2021/2022 as publish year if they’re considered reprints.
It’s the way to invest in original IP in premium digital format when you purchase these incredible comic NFTs. These digital comics are going to become more and more significant over time once the connection is made in people’s minds.
Sky’s the limit for NFT comics as an investment
1. Proven value for comic books
The followings are the sales history of high-grade significant Marvel comics, you can also find FMV of nearly every comic book in different grades on Gocollect.
2. Being able to use crypto to buy and sell NFT comics
In regard to huge deals, crypto is always the best option, we’ve witnessed several NFTs with 10000 edition sizes sold for over 100k value in ETH. The rarest variant of Marvel Comic #1(1939) and Fantastic Four #1(1961) both have a set supply of 600 edition and 100 edition is hold by Marvel, not to mention they are worth over millions for the highest grade in physical format.
3. Potential utility by Marvel
Marvel makes zero on secondary sales of physical comics. Now with blockchain and smart contract technology, Marvel can automatically earn 6% on every transaction of these comic NFTs, which strongly incentivizes Marvel to create extra value for instance exclusive fan experiences for those digital comic owners in order to boost secondary transactions and in turn benefit both holders and Marvel itself.
4. Scarcity
Most secret rare comic NFTs have a public supply of 500 edition; a few certain secret rare comic NFTs have a public supply of 225 editions. It has a set supply for every individual comic NFT as Marvel earns 6% on every secondary transaction, therefore, there are no reasons to remint identical NFT comics to dilute market value.
VeVe digital collectibles as the currently exclusive marketplace for Marvel comic book NFTs
Once purchased in the VeVe app, you can start reading your comic via the VeVe Comic E-Reader and trading in the VeVe secondary market. You can also experience a VeVe Digital Comic in Augmented Reality(AR) mode. The future of collecting is already here.
Guest Author: Dr. Howard (Twitter – @MrFF1_eth) is a Medical student passionate about web3, digital collecting and metaverse. He encountered VeVe NFT platform in April, 2021 and immediately fell in love with collecting NFT comics.
