Field Notes 5: Hanging Under 10 (Summer Edition)

Looking to heat up your VeVeVerse space for the summer?  Or maybe you’re adding last-minute touches to that pool party or beach party you’ve been planning, and you don’t have time to figure out how to make tiki torches look real?  

Let’s take a look at some hot ideas for your summer space decorating, with market prices that won’t cool off your decorating plans!

1.  Kahalo ver. Original and Kahalo ver. Rainbow

Kahalo is pretty much the epitome of a summer at the beach, and he even comes with his very own wave!  From the lazy seagull to the hang ten and ‘gotta be me’ vibe, it’s a must-have at the beach.  You can actually pick one of each up in the market and still be under 6 gems, so it’s easily my number one pick.  

Not only that, but if you want to try to get the SR or Special Edition, they’re only 14.99 gems in the store.  It may be worth a try, especially if you were planning on keeping it for your summer beach party anyway.  I decided to while I was researching the market today, and I landed the Special Edition!

2.  Welcome to San Diego Poster

This 2022 scene of a multitude of Spider-Man characters on the beach would make for a great backdrop behind the pool!  Just blow it up or stick it on a rectangular wall if you want something to anchor it to.  You’re instantly at the beach, and they’re currently under 5 gems.

3. Deadpool’s Chimichanga Truck

I mean, come on, you have to feed your guests… but it’s better when they are the ones that have to pay for their own food, am I right?  Besides, Deadpool could use the money.  He eats half his own proceeds, after all!  At last check, these food trucks were going for around 7 gems.

4.  Mermicornos (Various ones)

There are a lot of these in the two to three dollar range, enough that you can probably color coordinate to your summer party palette.  My personal favorites are Acquaria and Marina at 2 gems and Cerulean at 3 gems, but there’s plenty to choose from and reasonable enough that you can buy more than one!  These are also great pick-ups if you’ve given your kids a VeVeVerse space to play around in; they’ll love them!

5.  Amarena (Kawaii Princess Warrior version)

Summer is ice cream season, but it is also melted ice cream season!  I don’t know about you, but I want an ice cream defender at my next summer party!  Don’t let that sundae-do fool you, that sword and shield says she means business when it comes to defending your ice cream!  She also works cheap since she’s currently 2 gems.  She must really like her job.  You can also add some of her other companions in the 2-3 gem market price range.  Not only that, but the store price is also under ten gems (9.99) in case you’re feeling bear-y lucky.

6.  Big Bird (Rare)

Every day is a sunny day, and every day is A-OK when you have a Big Bird in your collection.  Roller skating is another one of those nostalgic summer activities, and Big Bird is aiming to capture that childhood nostalgia.  There are several of these currently in the market under ten gems, and with the animation, it’s a great addition whether you’re planning a beach boardwalk, park, or city street scene.

7.  BLACKPINK: Shut Down - ROSÉ  (Common)

Now this girl is totally ready for the beach.  From the shorts to the sweater to stave off those breezes, it fits any ocean boardwalk scene.  Let’s face it, those boots that let the sand know that she’s not messing around when it comes to foot protection!  Even if you’re not that big into Blackpink, this figure holds its own, and is only around 4-5 gems right now.

8.  Stitch (Common and Uncommon)

If you’re going for an island beach theme, Stitch is almost a must!  Stitch goes where the action is, bringing his own brand of chaos with him.  Both Experiment 626 and Crowd Favorite are under 4 gems, but personally, I like the model for Crowd Favorite a bit better.

9.  No Time To Die - Triumph Motorcycle

From famous bike runs to parades, motorcycling is often thought of as a summer activity.  This motorcycle has a lot going for it too; it’s the first motorcycle on the app, it’s a one-piece set, nicely detailed, and it sells for around 8 gems.  A great addition to a beach boardwalk scene!

Bonus:  Feature attractions

These collectibles aren’t in the VeVeVerse yet, but may be worth picking up for future use when they’re finally available.

Leisurely Loop

These shrimp-in-a-coal bucket are from last year’s Feeshmas even and are right at ten gems.  Once this lands in the VeVeVerse, it’ll be great at larger scales and sunk into the ground like a baby pool

MyCollectables (Uncommon)

Yes, I know, but let’s just look at the collectible at face value on the basis of aesthetics for a moment.  If you want to do a Venice Beach boardwalk scene both the wardrobe and the guitar fit right in.  At 5 gems, it’s a steal.  (Might be a bit awkward if you invite the real one to your beach party, though.)

Nemo’s Coral Reef

It’s a real head scratcher to me how few of these dioramas have made it into the VeVeVerse yet.  I think that’s actually one of the reasons some of these dioramas are super cheap (under two dollars) and may be worth picking up to have a sandy option down the road.

These are just a few of many of the market bargains out there for those looking for those summer extras.  Even if your summer is six months away, now’s a great time to pick up those hot bargains for your next seaside getaway in the VeVeVerse!

Something to Chew On: AiV Letter from the Author #11

Welcome to VeVe! The Fast Fashion of Digital Collecting!

I am Doublequill, an underdog who collects underdogs on the VeVe platform, and I’m going to talk about a very unpopular opinion, because it needs to be discussed.

Most people who’ve lived in Vegas for a while don’t really go to casinos to gamble much. We go there to eat at a restaurant, go to the movies, or go bowling. You become almost blind to slot machines most of the time; after all, they’re not just in casinos here, they’re in gas stations, convenience stores, and grocery stores. Why anyone would want to hang around a grocery store and play slots, I don’t know, but they’re there.

On the rare occasion that I do wander into a casino to play machines, I look for a machine that’s pretty hard to find these days: it’s called 100 Play Poker. Typically, it costs a penny or five cents per draw (so a dollar to five dollars total), and the reason I play it isn’t to win money, but to kill time and get a lot of casino reward points.

The way it works is pretty simple: you put in a dollar, and it draws a master hand at the bottom where you can hold certain cards. If there are two Jacks or three of a kind, whatever, you hold them, and it applies to all 100 hands. Most of the time you get junk, and you decide to hold an ace, or just let caution fly and don’t hold anything. Then it fills out all the poker hands and tells you which ones win and which ones don’t.

The benefit to the game is that, unless you decide to hold all five cards of a losing hand, you’re going to get something back. It’s a matter of percentages; out of a hundred random hands of poker, you’re going to get some pairs, flushes, and so on in the mix. This means that even if you have a weak master hand at the beginning, you know that you’re going to win some of your money back. It may be ninety cents or thirty cents, or whatever, but by getting part of your money back every single time you play, it means you can play that game a very long time before you finally run out of money.

Of course, the drawback to this method is that wins tend to lose their impact. Yes, there’s a chance that you can get a good master hand, like three of a kind or something that lets you get your money back plus extra. But after sitting there plugging partial dollars into the machine for a while, those wins are pretty muted. One starts going for riskier plays to try to get all kings or royal flushes just so that you can break even and get ahead. Or, in a more likely outcome, walk away with a cashout so pitiful that you don’t even bother turning it in. It’s just a long, drawn-out cannibalization process where your money goes away in smaller increments so you can push the button more often on the same amount of cash.

So, I know the game well and its rules… at the twenty dollar an hour level. I have no hope of playing that sort of game with VeVe comics and collectibles; it’s too high of a buy-in. But I know it’s being played. Why else would so many be willing to instantly throw back their commons and uncommons at such low prices all of the time? They’re playing the percentage game.  They’re content with getting those partial wins so they can get another pull. It’s the same exact game, just at a scale that’s above my head.

Why would I ever need to even go for a drop while there are people doing that? There’s no incentive for me. I collect uncommon comics. 

Why gamble when all I have to do is pick up their rejects in twenty minutes? They’re so busy getting instant gratification, they don’t stick around to see what happens to the prices of some of those uncommons after the comic burns. They’re all about the next drop, regardless of what IP it is.

As for the store, it’s pretty much irrelevant to me once the market opens.

Once the cannibals are out of the way, everyone else on the platform can pick up what they like for a fraction of the price. What is the point of even having a store if they’re going to open up the market so soon after the drop is over?  

Unless you want the secret rare and don’t think you can afford it on the secondary, the only people who are incentivized to buy from the store again are the cannibals.  Recently, however, most of the secret rares have been reasonable as well.  That means that everyone else simply waits, knowing that we’ll be able to pick up the sets for a lot less than most of those cannibals spent on their initial buy-in.

I feel like we’ve been letting this happen for far too long, really. As much as I personally benefit from getting tossed bones in the market, this sort of attitude is hurting a lot more than helping.

Would it really be so terrible if VeVe waited on releasing items on the market right away, so that people would buy from the store? So that artists could get paid for their work? So that we can take a step back and get a breather from the instant gratification?

If this is supposed to be ‘Collectors at Heart’, why feed the beast that’s keeping these collectibles from being relevant after that first half hour?  It’s not sustainable.

As an experiment… perhaps with a willing artist or something else flexible… why not try longer holds on the market? 1 hour, or 24 hours, or even a week. Or, perhaps run all of them as experiments, just to see what happens.

I really feel like this current fast fashion approach is hurting rather than helping, and I think if other collectors would step back a bit and think about this from a long-term approach, they might see it too.

We need to stop flipping ourselves out of existence.