Baseball cards used to be the gold standard when it came to sports collections. Prior to the internet, baseball cards carried tons of value. The Internet, and online marketplaces like eBay, caused a crash in the value of baseball cards when people realized they just aren’t as scarce as people once believed.
Epics.gg is a company trying to use the digital age to change how people think about card collecting. The company on Wednesday announced an investment led by BITKRAFT Esports Ventures — the largest investment firm dedicated solely to esports – to finance a $2 million dollar seed round. BITKRAFT is joined by Jon Goldman’s GC Tracker Fund, Everblue Management, Hersh Interactive Group, Imagination Capital, Courtside Ventures and other angel investors in this round.
Jens Hilgers is the founder of BITKRAFT, as well as the founder of ESL and a co-owner of G2 Gaming, and he said he is excited about the investment because “there is no universal collectible in esports. It is something that works in traditional sports but has not been applied to esports.”
The cards feature prominent esports athletes across many titles. They are broken into two groups. The more common cards are the basic, bronze, silver and gold rarities. Those cards come with stats on the back, and the digital nature means the stats are always accurate.
The other group is the tiered cards. In baseball card lingo, these would be your relics. Things like rookie cards, special promotions or pieces of game-worn jerseys. For Epics, these cards feature unique artwork from a game’s artist, and they come with features that only a digital card could have.
The tiered cards could show player highlights, have location-based activations, or unique voice lines from the players themselves. Fans attending esports events can even get their cards signed by players through Epic’s built-in touch signature.
“There is a lot you can do with a digital card that you can’t do with a physical one,” Hilgers said. “If you visit the birthplace of a certain player, the card could unlock something or turn into a higher rarity.”
That something the card could unlock could be an in-game item. For example, a card could give something like the knife Keev used to win this OT at the CS:GO Major PGL Krakow in 2017. Epics would verify this, and that verification would follow the item through trades and sales.
“There is a lot of digital memorabilia in games already,” Hilgers said. “It is already appreciated by digital natives.”
Digital natives are people who have grown up with technology their whole lives. While that generation may not be frequenting physical card shops, they are still focused heavily on collecting.
CS:GO has a fully developed economy based around in-game skins and items. Like Topps has done with its digital trading card apps, the goal for Epics is to tap into that digital marketplace and resonate with young collectors in a way physical cards have not.
“I very much think this could (bring back the popularity of collectible cards),” Hilgers said. “Having something bound to a digital device, it can’t get lost or worn out in the way a physical card could.”
Card collectors know well the hassle of putting every card methodically into sleeved binders to protect the card’s condition. Mint condition cards are worth much more than excellent rated cards. With a digital platform, that is taken out of the equation.
While the baseball card bubble led to many a dusty box in a parents’ attic, it did provide a valuable lesson for Epics. Be transparent with how many cards are out there and do not flood the market. Because if everyone has a card, then no one cares that they have the card.
New pack designs and animation build! #CollectEpics – still not turning the cards over though! pic.twitter.com/tm26Iybxho
— Epics (@EpicsGG) November 22, 2017