Why I Bought A Spider-Man NFT

Spider-Man is one of the most iconic Marvel characters, making official NFTs for the web-slinger sought after. Like other Disney IP NFTs, you can find Spider-Man options on the VeVe Collectibles Marketplace.

Follow along as Scott chats with Heather regarding the why and how of his brand new Spider-Man NFT.

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Episode Highlights

A Guide To Top Digital Collectible & NFT Platform VeVe: “In 2021, VeVe partnered with Immutable X to offer carbon-neutral and gasless NFT minting. By December 2021, VeVe completed re-minting all of its NFTs via Immutable X. With this move, all VeVe NFTs are now on Ethereum’s Layer 2 solution.” (NFT Evening)

Spider-Man Swings into the World of Digital Collectibles: ““It is very exciting to see our collaboration with Marvel finally come to fruition,” said David Yu, Co-Founder & CEO, VeVe. “We cannot wait to offer fans unique ways to collect their favorite Marvel Super Heroes and memorabilia in digital form. Marvel has been a great partner and we look forward to celebrating the ‘Marvel Month’ with fans around the world on the VeVe app.” (Marvel)

The Spider-Man NFT Collection

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NFT Investor Nation is the show for passionate NFT traders, collectors and investors. Listen in as host Scott talks with leading NFT artists and entrepreneurs.

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Transcript

Scott: Hi, I’m Scott.

Heather: And I’m Heather.

Scott: And welcome to “NFT Investor Nation.” Today…well, today, I bought an NFT.

Heather: You bought one today?

Scott: Today.

Heather: You bought one?

Scott: Today.

Heather: Wait, is that why we’re talking…

Scott: We’re talking about it.

Heather: Oh, my gosh.

Scott: Yeah, I bought one today. I fulfilled…

Heather: I knew we were talking about… I mean, like, you know, my Spider-Man ears, I knew we were talking about…

Scott: Your spidey senses.

Heather: Yes, my spidey senses living on my head right now.

Scott: You were driving the car and you were like…

Heather: No, but seriously, I knew we were discussing VeVe but I didn’t realize you’d actually made a purchase.

Scott: Oh yes. Oh yes.

Heather: Congratulations.

Scott: I fulfilled a childhood dream of owning a Spider-Man NFT.

Heather: All right.

Scott: But seriously, I mean, you know, I love Spider-Man. Spider-Man was my favorite, favorite, absolute favorite Marvel character as a kid.

Heather: Huh. Why?

Scott: Let’s see, nerdy.

Heather: Nerdy.

Scott: Gets the girl though.

Heather: Okay. Okay. Like the nerd that gets the girl, I see what you’re saying.

Scott: Nerd that gets the girl. And becomes super strong and saving people, and I love the web-slinging. I grew up in the city, loved swinging around the city, you know. I had all the games and this and that and, you know, the [vocalization]. And then when the Sam Raimi trilogy came out when I was in high school, I was, like, right there, opening night with my buddy. It was so packed.

I was, like, in the front. And so then that’s where, you know, like the web-swinging and stuff, I was like, “Oh.” But it was amazing.

Heather: That sounds…

Scott: And, you know, that’s what really kicked off all of the superhero really renaissance that we had. That “Spider-Man” with Toby McGuire really kind of showed, oh, these superhero movies can make a lot of money. So Spider-Man.

Heather: Spider-Man.

Scott: Spider-Man. And, of course, is now…and we’ve talked about Disney previously. And that actually is what really kind of kicked off. I was like, “You know what? VeVe Collectibles, cool. I want to find out more about this. And also, I need Spider-Man in my life.”

Heather: I need more Spider-Man in my life. I need to not only wear him on my head, I need to own him in my NFT collection.

Scott: And that’s what I have done. And I’m really happy with it.

Heather: Good.

Scott: I want to show everybody.

Heather: Well, stop saying, yes. I mean, I think that’s the point, right?

Scott: It’s called Hanging Out.

Heather: Oh, man.

Scott: Can we see this?

Heather: Go a little closer, Steven, you can get the focus.

Scott: Get the focus.

Heather: Maybe I’ll get out of the screen and then it will focus.

Scott: Oh, there it is.

Heather: Oh, there it is.

Scott: Hanging Out.

Heather: Hanging Out.

Scott: And this is… It’s uncommon, so there’s… On the VeVe Collectibles marketplace, you have uncommons, you have rares, you have very ultra-rare, and then you have secret rare.

Heather: What?

Scott: Yeah. So you have all kinds of rarity aspects. And you purchase it with gems, which is their currency.

Heather: Let me see it again. Here. You keep talking about it and I want to check them out.

Scott: Okay. So you purchase it with gems. Yeah, you can move him around.

Heather: Wow.

Scott: You can even… Are you ready?

Heather: Yeah, I’m ready.

Scott: Like, you can even do augmented reality.

Heather: What? Wait, what?

Scott: You can do augmented reality. And then, I’m not… It’s probably not going to work, but let me see. All right, let’s see. Here we go. Let’s see if it scans it. Okay.

So I don’t know if you can see this. Oh, that’s Heather. But basically, look, I can…

Heather: Oh, I thought he was going to be like sitting in the chair in the corner.

Scott: Yeah. It actually did do that. I totally took a picture of it. I’m just going to mess around on my phone for a second.

Heather: No, this is great. I mean, this is the whole point, right?

Scott: Look.

Heather: When we talk about investing… Oh my gosh. He’s hanging from the ceiling of the office. Get out of here.

Scott: That’s my Spider-Man.

Heather: Yeah. That’s your Spider-Man. He belongs to you and nobody else.

Scott: The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys [inaudible].

Heather: Yes, I did.

Scott: So basically, you can use gems, you have to purchase gems on the VeVe Collectibles marketplace. And you exchange them for these collectible items. You also can get comic books and other various, you know, digital comic books and other various things. And it’s one-to-one, $1 for one gem. And essentially, that’s what I did.

It was very simple going into their app and doing the whole deal. And it’s an official, you know, Marvel product, and Disney, of course, owns Marvel. And for those who are unfamiliar, there was a whole back and forth with Sony because Marvel initially sold Spider-Man to Sony many years ago. And that’s why those movies I was talking about, those were under the Sony banner, and then, you know, Marvel kind of took off with their whole thing and they were like, “We want Spider-Man in the ‘Avengers.’

Heather: …spidey webs.

Scott: Spidey webs. More like their money webs.

Heather: Reel them back in.

Scott: And reeled it back in. And now we have that. I want to just, I guess, share a bit about VeVe Collectibles because we talked about it as like, “Oh, this is the way to get Disney NFTs,” but there’s the question of, well, is VeVe an NFT? And what’s the difference between that? Because a lot of folks buying NFTs, they’re on, like, the OpenSea marketplace, and they’re working with their digital wallet.

Whereas this is a more, like, walled way of getting an NFT because I’ve downloaded an app, I’ve gone in and I’ve just… instantly, I used Apple Pay.

Heather: Yeah. I was going to say, and like you said, it’s that one-to-one currency.

Scott: Right. I want to read this because I want to get it right and explain how it is an NFT. So ECOMI, which is the company that runs VeVe Collectibles, it’s a Singapore-based company. And VeVe enables users to obtain common, rare, one-of-a-kind digital collectibles.

And they can also customize and showcase them in virtual showrooms, what we just saw there.

Heather: Rare, very rare, ultra-rare, secret-rare.

Scott: Exactly. And…

Heather: Rare-rare.

Scott: And essentially what they did is, in December 2021, they re-minted all of their NFTs via Immutable X. And with this move, all VeVe NFTs are now on Ethereum’s Layer 2 solutions. So essentially what that means is that yes, it’s on the blockchain, you can’t touch my Spidey.

Heather: Got it.

Scott: It’s an NFT. It’s mine. And their transactions on their digital collectible platform, those gems, they’re underpinned by the OMNI token, which is complemented by an innovative burn and buyback system based on the sale of NFTs, with future staking opportunities and a range of additional incentives designed to maximize both the utility and scarcity of the token.

The OMNI token offers a range of utilities within the ecosystem, so continue to be integral to the app’s operation while maximizing value for token holders. And when I’m looking at the VeVe marketplace, certainly with this NFT, I could offer to sell it for just a flat fee, you know, asking price. And then you can also…there’s auctions, so you can bid on various collectibles.

I looked through, I was thinking, I was like…I had my heart set on Spider-Man, but there was a lot of cool things. You know, we talked about Disney, there was, you know, some Mickey Mouse. Some of those were, you know, a little out of my price range. I was like, “Okay, well, you know, I don’t want to go home and tell the wife, you know,’ Well, I spend about 10 grand on a Mickey today, but it’s an investment.

Heather: I mean, like, we noted…and exactly. Like, we noted in the Disney episode, Disney collectibles, you know, whether we’re talking about actual porcelain collectibles or wearables or anything, collecting Disney items has been incredibly valuable and incredibly popular for many, many, many, many years.

So I hear, on one side, what you’re saying, is like, I don’t…you know, that makes sense for your household financially, but I actually think there’s a lot of potential with this whole Disney NFT investor landscape.

Scott: Right. And doesn’t it make sense? You know, for me, it’s, hey, I love Spider-Man. And I love from a…from a speculation and long-term investment standpoint, I’m saying, “Hey, man, Spider-Man’s not going around anywhere.” My nephew, he was… My sister was posting pictures on Facebook, and he’s got his little Spider-Man hoodies, he’s walking around the beach, you know.

I’m like, “That’s Spider-Man. Who doesn’t love Spider-Man.” Legions of people are like, you know, wanting to crawl up walls and can go [vocalization], you know. So bottom line, that’s kind of my perspective as well. And when you look at it, there’s continues to be… there’s going to be more movies, there’s going to be, you know, continued comics. The old comics are going to continue to have value and interest.

And so, to me, NFT is just the same outcropping of that. And now when you look at things we talk about like the metaverse, and I’ve got this and I can do augmented reality, and I could go like this. You know, as we look beyond that, what does the metaverse look like? And is it the kind of thing where my office here, you know, I’ll have my augmented reality and be like, “Yep, there’s the Spider-Man, and there’s my Mario, there’s my Disney, and here’s my magic cards, both here and in the metaverse.”

You know, whatever it might be. I think that’s where a lot of people… that’s where the collectible aspect of it, and the self-expression aspect of it, when we’re talking about art as well, which is such a huge piece for so many of these NFTs. That’s where a lot of this all kind of comes together. And there’s that value because, you know, there’s only… Mine’s an uncommon, there’s not that many of them.

So if someone wants my Spider-Man, you guys give me a call, I’m probably not selling it.

Heather: Not yet.

Scott: Not yet. Not yet.

Heather: Say you got to put your daughter through college and then my wife [inaudible]. sell that Spidey then.

Scott: Yeah, put the kid through, yeah. This is a down payment for my daughter’s education if I were to sell, which I’m not right now.

Heather: So what else?

Scott: I think that’s everything. I mean, I think the big thing is that maybe some of the pushback some might have for VeVe Collectibles is that it is centralized. It is controlled by one company. And a lot of folks say that that kind of goes against the decentralized ethos. That limits me.

And I understand those kinds of criticisms because I’m in a walled app, I’m doing this on my phone. I can’t necessarily, like, move it all around and do different things outside of the app with this. And so some people say, “Well, that doesn’t give it the same power.”

Heather: Right, you don’t have the same ownership. It’s not actually yours.

Scott: Right. Like it’s mine on the Blockchain.

Heather: But within these parameters.

Scott: But, you know, accessing it is a centralized thing. But then I kind of push back and say, “Well, so many things are centralized.” And centralization can be powerful, especially when it’s like, yeah. But VeVe Collectibles went out and signed a partnership with Disney. So Disney said, “Look, you know what, we’re not going and making…we’re focusing on all this. No, no, no. We’re going to go find a partner who’s going to focus on the technology aspect of it, who’s going to focus on the customer experience of purchasing this NFT, of all of that.”

Heather: Well, and what we’ve talked about in previous episodes too, around, like, differentiating between authenticity and something that’s a fake, understanding who it is that created your NFT, and tracking that group of artists and organization to make sure that it has the value that they claim that it has.

We know that because, like you said, this is a centralized scenario, that Disney has partnered with VeVe, therefore, it has that built-in authenticity.

Scott: Exactly, exactly, 100%. And I know that this is signed off on by Disney, it’s all good, it’s Marvel, it’s Spider-Man, and it’s not just some random person saying like, “Yeah, I minted this Spider-Man NFT.” And then I just sent them some money and then I’m like, “Oh, well, that was worthless.” So I think that’s my pushback for that.

Now, as for the future, where it’s going from here, I think that, you know, looking through VeVe Collectibles, they’re doing drops constantly. And so they’re constantly kind of figuring out ways to have, you know, special, you know, collections, that rarity, that aspect, all of these kinds of things. And I think they’re going to continue to push that forward.

And, you know, their partnerships don’t seem like they have any sign of slowing down. And you look, they have Marvel, they have the DC Universe, they have all the… not all, but, you know, so many Disney brands. As I was looking for Spider-Man, I saw Pixar, I saw all kinds of different fun things there. And among this, there were so many different Spider-Mans I could have gotten.

I got the upside down, you know, web-slinging one because that’s just… to me, that’s classic.

Heather: You mean this one?

Scott: Yeah. This one. Yeah, exactly. Stuck down there just [vocalization]. There he is. There he is.

Heather: Let me put my spider hat back on.

Scott: Get your spider hat. But yeah, I think that is the biggest thing is that it’s going to continue. And for me, I feel happy with this investment. I feel happy with just having that NFT and saying, “Yeah, I got a Spider-Man NFT.” And isn’t that what it’s all about?

Heather: It is exactly what it’s all about.

Scott
Scott

Scott is a writer Cryptogic as well as host of the several popular podcasts.

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