The Otis Top Shot Imaginary Shopping Spree: $5000 Edition
Let’s see what $5000 can get us at the beginning of the 2021 NBA offseason.
With the 2020–21 NBA season finishing up Tuesday night, and the Bucks having already paraded the Larry O’Brien Trophy through the streets of downtown Milwaukee, the offseason — or silly season, as I prefer to call it — is officially upon us.
This will be the first time in its short history that NBA Top Shot has to navigate an NBA offseason with a sizable and extremely active userbase, and there is truly a lot of uncertainty, along with some hesitant optimism, about how things are going to go.
I thought this would be the perfect time to do the second installment of my imaginary shopping spree series.
The first time around, I set the budget at $1000 with some parameters in place to keep things fresh and interesting. This time, the budget will be upped to $5000, but there will be similar restraints on what I can do.
The rules of this exercise are as follows:
Rule 1: I am doing no prior research into this beyond whatever knowledge I have already. I may check recent sales for a Moment, but that’s it.
Rule 2: I’m basically writing this live; that is, I’m going through and “buying” one Moment at a time as I write this, with no real idea of what I will do for each subsequent “purchase”. If I make a dumb decision and screw myself out of a great deal later, so be it!
Rule 3: I can only “buy” 5 Moments, with none cheaper than $500, and none more expensive than $2,500.
Rule 4: I’m not going to go serial number hunting. I’m just going for the current lowest ask, and that’s it.
Rule 5: I’m not going to put quotation marks around buy or purchase anymore. If you don’t get that this is an imaginary exercise by now and wind up rage-tweeting me that I didn’t follow through with any of these purchases, that’s on you. If you really want me to spend $5000 in the marketplace, my Buy Me A Coffee page is here.
Rule 6: I cannot stress enough how much this is not financial advice. I’m poor and terrible with money. Do your own research!
Okay, those last two weren’t really rules for me to follow, but they are important nonetheless. Now let’s get to it!
Carmelo Anthony S1 Run It Back ($2219)
My strategy for this first one is simple: get a truly special, premium Moment for between $2000 and $2500. I’m immediately drawn to several incredible options that I hope I’ll someday be able to afford for real, like LeBron’s S1 Base TS Block or his S1 The Finals rare. Jayson Tatum’s S2 Holo Icon is calling my name too, but in the end, the only real choice for me here is the Melo RIB.
I’ve always been a big fan of Melo, and this will forever be his premium Moment on Top Shot. On January 24, 2014, Melo made history in basketball’s most historic venue, breaking MSG’s all-time scoring record by dropping 62 on the hapless Charlotte Bobcats. With a mint size of just 275 and a precious few seasons remaining in Melo’s Hall of Fame career, I don’t see any better long-term play in this price range than this one, outside of perhaps LeBron’s TSD. Easy decision to start things off.
(remaining budget: $2781; max possible purchase: $1281)
James Harden S1 Base Set *TS Debut* ($915)
After blowing my load on that first Moment, I have to dial things back a bit for the next one to ensure I’ve got enough money left to last me within the parameters I’ve set for myself. With that in mind, I’m going to have to keep things under $1000 going forward to pull this off, so I set the max price in the marketplace filter to $950 for this one.
In this range, there are a ton of S2 Holo Icon options that are intriguing, but I’m worried that only really special legendary Holo-style moments will keep their luster and value as more are added each season. So instead, I’m going with a more sure thing: James Harden’s TS Debut.
Harden doesn’t need any special introduction. He’s simply one of the greatest scorers in NBA history — the true definition of a walking bucket — and has a clear path to potentially multiple titles with the Brooklyn Nets, which would further cement his legacy. He’ll be inducted into the Hall of Fame the very minute he’s eligible, so this is an easy call. We’re two for two on no-brainer choices so far, so let’s see what comes next.
(remaining budget: $1866; max possible purchase: $866)
Anthony Edwards S2 Rising Stars *Challenge Reward* ($799)
Okay, time for purchase #3. I was going to try to keep this one under $700 to spread things out a bit more, but while searching for the second Moment, I saw one that I simply could not resist adding to my imaginary collection: Anthony Edwards murdering Yuta Watanabe.
If I actually owned this Moment, I’d 100% invest in one of those NFT displays and have this thing playing on loop 24/7. It’s just absolutely spectacular and so fun to watch, even for the thousandth time.
Aside from how incredible the highlight itself is though, this Moment did also kind of represents a significant point in NBA Top Shot’s history. It was the first time that the userbase saw something happen live and then collectively demand that it get added to the platform, essentially giving rise to the #NBATopShotThis hashtag. I may have spent a bit more than I’d like on this third Moment, but it is definitely worth it.
(remaining budget: $1067; max possible purchase: $567)
Ja Morant S2 MGLE ($530)
I’ve kind of painted myself into a corner here. There’s not really a huge supply of Moments with lowest asks between $500 and $567, and the closer to $567 I get, the less I’ll have to choose from for the last Moment.
That’s okay though because Ja Morant’s S2 MGLE is here to save the day. Ja is genuinely one of my absolute favorite players in the NBA, perhaps only behind Tatum and Dame, and this Moment is sick. Any time a player tosses it off the backboard for a self-oop is pretty special, and Ja makes it look effortless and beautiful.
There are long-term concerns about how sets like MGLE will age over time, given that they’ll surely be released every year from now until eternity, but this is a special Moment from a special player, and as many super-smart people in this space say: “collect what you love.”
(remaining budget: $537)
Rui Hachimura S1 MGLE *TS Debut* ($501)
This whole exercise is cursed. Jayson Tatum’s TS Debut is sitting right there for me, but BlockchainGalaxyBrain decided to list the thing for $499, so I can’t take it. On the other end, Bradley Beal’s S1 MGLE TS Debut is there for $540, which would put me $3 over budget. Rules are rules, I suppose, but either of those would have been great ways to end this.
Instead, I’m left with a choice of some fairly cool Moments, but none that really wow me. I don’t particularly want another RIB in this shopping spree, especially not a lower-end one, and there are a bunch of the cheesy-themed rare sets from S1 here that I don’t have much interest in either. So while I’m probably overpaying for it based on recent sales, I’m going to go with Rui Hachimura’s S1 MGLE, which is also his TS Debut and has two rookie badges.
Rui is the first Japan-born player to be drafted into the NBA, and still has a ton of upside heading into his third season, especially after he began to impact the game on the defensive end of the floor more consistently in year two. This Moment also has a super weak floor, so perhaps a boost from an Olympics run could turn this purchase into a viable flip to raise funds for our next imaginary shopping spree, which will be coming at some point later in the off-season.
(leftover budget: $36, which will be spent on make-believe beer and pizza, since I can’t get the real thing in Vietnam’s current COVID lockdown)
That’s it, guys! What would you buy with a $5,000 NBA Top Shot shopping spree?
Let me know what you think of my decisions on Twitter, and make sure you follow all my fellow Packrip Media teammates there as well. Lots of exciting stuff is coming soon. Stay tuned!
