One lucky GameStop customer won an entire Bitcoin worth just over $63,000 at today’s values after opening up a pack of $30 crypto-themed collectible trading cards.
The winning card, which was first revealed in a Reddit post earlier this month, was hidden inside a first-edition pack of Cardsmiths’ Currency Trading Cards, which he had purchased at the games retailer.
The card series features crypto memes and cartoon caricature depictions of famous people within the crypto world including MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, anonymous Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, and Elon Musk. The series was first launched in 2022.
In addition to Bitcoin, the decks of cards also include rare cards that can be redeemed for Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Dogecoin (DOGE).
But this wasn’t anywhere near the lucky collector’s first time buying a pack of the collectibles, this was his 12th pack according to the Reddit post.
In addition, it took the Bitcoin winner some time to realize his good fortune. It took him “a while” after buying the pack before scratching the card to reveal the reward according to his Reddit post, saying the deck “looked better in the binder.”
The lucky winner said in his post: “This is mind-boggling to me, honestly.”
However, it’s possible other card collectors might not have quite the same level of good fortune.
According to reports by trading card publication Cllct, another Bitcoin was discovered back in March of this year by a different collector of trading cards.
Tonyk.com, the parent company behind the cards, claimed there would have been five Bitcoin tickets up for grabs when the first edition of the series was first released.
With two publicly known Bitcoin wins, it’s unknown how many, if any, Bitcoin rewards remain in the wild—at least from the first edition.
The first run of the crypto-themed cards is still in circulation, and Cardsmiths’ is still selling boxes of Currency Series 1 cards for $32.99 on its official website. Unsurprisingly, they also offer payment options in cryptocurrency.
They also released 2nd and 3rd editions of the crypto-themed cards in 2023 and in the early part of 2024.
The news comes as it appears that GameStop is trying to push further into the physical collectibles market, as they move out of other markets.
The games retailer killed off its NFT business in August 2023, citing issues around regulation, after first launching its own NFT marketplace based on Ethereum in July 2022, and announcing plans for NFT games.
The company even announced a $100 million token grant fund to incentivize game developers to come into the marketplace.
However, the company began buying and selling professionally-authenticated collectible Pokemon trading cards in 2024.
The highest-end Pokemon cards, particularly from the 90’s, can be just as expensive as a Bitcoin.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
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Will McCurdy
https://decrypt.co/250737/how-a-gamestop-customer-won-1-bitcoin-in-33-pack-of-trading-cards
2024-09-23 14:59:07
