Meaningful choices for collectors to grow and curate their collections
The Problem: Oversupply of Collectibles
In the collectibles industry, there is a tension between the ever-increasing number of items released and the number of active collectors. For many — particularly those with an investment mindset — this supply/demand problem affects perceived value and necessitates management of the collectibles economy.
At Tibles, we wanted to develop a product feature to mitigate this issue in a sustainable manner, meeting three key criteria:
Reduce supply of collectibles in the ecosystem.
Increase demand for new and existing items.
Create meaningful choices for collectors to grow and curate their collections.
We considered many options, including burning unsold inventory and allowing collectors to burn or lock their items for Tibles Tokens (TIBL) or credits on future packs. While these may reduce supply, at least temporarily, they don’t necessarily address demand, and frankly aren’t that much fun.
Our Solution: Meet Craftibles!
Craftibles is our take on a crafting feature. It allows users to chase rare items by “buying” them with items already in their collection through pre-configured recipes. For example, in Seussibles!, one recipe will convert 24 items with mint counts of /2,000 to /10,000 into a new gold pin with a /250 count. This results in a 24% reduction in overall supply, an increase in demand for ingredients, and a new rare collectible to chase — meeting all three criteria.
Things get more interesting with multiple tiers. We can make a tier 2 Craftible that converts 5 of those gold pins into a /50 count platinum pin. And we can make a tier 3 Craftible that converts 5 of those into a /5 count 3D object. The ultimate tier could be a Craftible that is completely unique, an AI-generated 1/1 collectible, or even a physical collectible.
Meaningful Choices for Collection Curation
As Craftibles are completed, decisions become more interesting for collectors, especially given all the ways Tibles apps reward ownership — free barter trading, scavenger hunts, leaderboards, airdrop events, and other activities. If a collector is thinking in purely financial terms, they may compare the total price of the ingredients to the price of the Craftible. Should they buy the ingredients needed to complete the Craftible? Or sell what they have to others looking to complete it? Or should they keep their existing items for future challenges? As people work through these choices, a new supply/demand equilibrium arises from the availability of ingredients and the desirability of the new item.
The decision process is complicated by the endowment effect, where people place a higher value on items they own than on similar items they do not own, especially when there is an emotional attachment to the items being given up, as is often true with collectibles. This makes crafting a more meaningful choice.
Craftibles are currently available in Seussibles!, Tibles Fraggle Rock, and coming soon to OneShots. So far, the community has responded extraordinarily well. We would love to hear all your feedback as we map out new user journeys around them. Thanks!