Fanatics Launches zerocool Trading Card Platform with VeeFriends

Today is a dream come true for both the VeeFriends community and the Fanatics brand. Fanatics Collectibles announced the launch of zerocool, the first trading card brand for the world’s most important people, brands, and IPs throughout the world of pop culture, art, and entertainment.

What better way to launch this transformative direct-to-consumer platform than collaborating with one of the most desirable top-tier NFT projects, VeeFriends?

Zerocool is a direct-to-consumer platform that utilizes market-based pricing to ensure fair and transparent pricing and access to products for all collectors.

One of the most unique aspects of the zerocool platform is its’ concept of market-based pricing. This means that to buy something from the platform, users will engage in a Blind Dutch Auction pricing mechanism as a way to buy trading cards at a fair market price.

A Blind Dutch Auction means no one can see anyone else’s bids. That way, bidders decide the value of the product and how much they are willing to pay for each unit of a product. 

Unlike a traditional auction where only the highest bidder wins, a Blind Dutch Auction works by matching the highest bids to the quantity of product available.

For example, if zercool is selling 100 units and each user can only purchase one unit, then the top 100 bids will win, and the lowest bid within the top 100 bids will become the clearing price that all 100 bidders would then pay for each of the 100 units sold.

Trading cards have long been the ideal combination of consumer goods and financial assets — a real supply and demand-constrained commodity — making the Blind Dutch Auction mechanism more efficient than standard retail pricing the most of us are used to.

The only other trading card company to ever sell a product using a true Blind Dutch Auction before today’s drop was Topps, in 2019.

Zerocool believes that this type of auction is the fairest way to sell valuable, high-demand products. Ultimately, the market sets the price and a majority of the buyers pay less than what they were willing to pay.

The main beliefs of zerocool are tied to three main principles:

1. Valuable Product: zerocool believes in creating trading cards that have long-term value and will prioritize a good product over short-term profits.

2. Equitable Distribution: zerocool believes in providing fair access to trading cards through a holistic distribution strategy, transparency of the process, and, whenever possible, transparency of data (including print runs).

3. Market-Based Pricing: zerocool believes that the price of trading cards should be set by the market, not manufacturers, and will attempt to release as many products as possible using market-based pricing, including, but not limited to, a Blind Dutch Auction, when appropriate.

The first release from zerocool is an extremely limited, collectible trading card set based on the original VeeFriends characters from the NFT collection.

This zerocool x VeeFriends collaboration brings the VeeFriends NFT collection to physical form through a premium card set for collectors and members of the community alike.

For VeeFriends NFT holders specifically, this collection brings a new tangible dimension of collectibility to all the VeeFriends characters.

The base set includes 235 short-print base cards, multiple shorter-print inserts and is printed on premium 36-point paper, embellished with a full border and metallic etched foil stamp, including special holographic foils throughout the set, and extremely limited editions autographed by Gary Vee.

Below are the set details:

The base set cards come in the following parallels:

• Rare: #/8
• Very Rare: #/5
• Epic: #/2
• Lava: #/1
• Bubble Gum: #/1
• Hologram: #/1
• Diamond: #/1
• Gold: #/1
• Autographs: #/1

• Gunmetal: 33 unique cards

Note that “Access Tokens” cards do not provide holders with any real access. This trait is solely based on the VeeFriends NFT collection.

• Hand-Drawn by Gary Vee: 15 unique cards

To tie it all together, the zerocool x VeeFriends collection is packaged in a displayable, white wooden cigar-style box, adding that additional touch of flair that you’d expect when purchasing a premium set of cards.

There are only 800 boxes available for purchase, so only those with the highest bids will have the opportunity to collect this extremely limited run.

Although unconfirmed, I wouldn't be surprised if there were another zerocool x VeeFriends collaboration somewhere down the line. Until then, we will have to drool over this first-edition limited run.