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Note: I own 1 box of VeeFriends Series 1 x zerocool trading cards sealed. I bought it from the original dutch auction. I do not plan to sell any time soon and am hoping to get a good deal on another box, so I do not stand to gain any benefit from bringing attention to the POTENTIAL arbitrage opportunities laid out in this article.

It feels like I wrote about VeeFriends Series 1 zerocool premium trading cards over a year ago, but it’s only been a few months since the product has hit the market. 

With the hype and excitement of VeeFriends Series 2 Compete and Collect trading cards there may be an opportunity to dive deeper into the Series 1 trading cards. 

Series 2 trading cards launched with 55,555 boxes, a much higher supply than the 10,000-card, 1,000 box Series 1 trading card product. 

The latter depicts Series 1 art before the evolution of the characters, but are the true “rookie cards” in the VeeFriends ecosystem. 

While I will never tell anyone else what to do (read: this is not financial advice), the price of these sealed boxes is very intriguing. 

As I’ve analyzed the top 10 most expensive VeeFriends Series 2 trading cards over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed fewer and fewer sealed Series 1 boxes for sales on eBay. 

The VeeFriends zerocool Series 1 sealed premium trading card boxes originally sold for $2,150 per box. 

1,000 were produced and we tracked over 100 box breaks with plenty more happening behind-the-scenes. 

I’m going to deep dive into the sales data, fair market value of the boxes now, and more using data from CardLadder, which is software that tracks verified sales data of trading card products. 

Is VeeFriends x zerocool Series 1 Premium Trading Card Products a Play Right Now? 

You can check out the current prices of VeeFriends x zerocool Series 1 sealed boxes here.

I’ve written before about the guidelines I follow for purchasing any NFT or collectible and want to stress that you should never spend money you cannot afford to lose. 

The current FMV (fair market value) of these sealed boxes according to CardLadder is $3,577.18 based on recent sales data. 

That’s not a small amount of money. 

However, there are 1,000 of these boxes and their supply will only diminish as more people open the boxes. 

Over time, the supply of these boxes will get lower, while the supply of singles will increase. Your competition with singles will only grow as more cards are opened, graded, and listed on eBay. 

Scarcity drives collectibles markets — I’ve written numerous top trading card sales lists across multiple sports and products (hockey, football, UFC, Fortnite) spanning a large history and have become intimately familiar with the stories and reasoning behind the sales of big cards. 

If you are going to buy trading cards that hold value, you want to own cards that are desirable and don’t have a high supply.

The way I look at it is that there are 10,000 Series 1 trading cards and 55,555 Series 2 trading card boxes. 

The scarcest VeeFriends trading cards are the 15 hand-drawn new characters and are, in my opinion, the best bet because only 15 exist. 

Even the rarest sports cards of the most popular athletes in the world drop in value when a lot of supply hits the market. 

For example, the 2003 LeBron James Rookie Exquisite Patch Auto has 99 copies in existence. That’s a low supply, but consider this: 

On August 30th, 2021, a BGS 9 copy of the card sold for $2.03 million. 

There was only 1 sale of the card in 2020, two sales in 2021, and three sales already in 2022. 

The card last sold for $1.2 million on 7/21/22. The card lost 40% of its value in less than 1 year:

 Source: Cardladder

I’ll acknowledge that there are different autograph conditions and patches than can affect value, but all 3 sales of this card in 2022 represented at least a 40% drop for one of the rarest cards of the best or second-best NBA player ever (depending on how much you like Michael Jordan). 

On the flip-side, a rare triple Logoman LeBron James 1/1 recently sold for $2.4 million because it contains three Logoman patches from LeBron jerseys throughout the years and is truly one of a kind. 

True scarcity is a one-of-a-kind collectible that rarely hits the market. It’s hard for demand to support multiple $2 million+ sales even for the most coveted LeBron James rookie cards. 

While the 2003–04 Exquisite sealed boxes sell for $75,000, I think a second-best bet in the VeeFriends collectible space is sealed Series 1 trading card boxes. 

With just 3 up on eBay, it’s already feeling like supply is limited (although the more likely answer is that not many people are listing because prices are lower.). 

It’s the only VeeFriends collectible that will go down in supply over time. Yes, so will sealed VeeFriends Compete and Collect Series 2 boxes, but there are 55x more of those in the market. 

Let’s dive a little deeper to see if this truly is a play right now. 

Analyzing the Sales History of VeeFriends x zerocool Series 1 Premium Trading Cards

According to Cardladder, the VeeFriends x zerocool premium trading card sealed boxes have: 

• Sold 94 times since March 2022 

• Hit a high price of $14,590 on March 19th, 2022

• Sold for an average price of $6,386 since launch

• A current price of $3,577 as of August 10th 

• A market cap (current value multiplied by supply) of $3.58 million 

According to our tracker, at least 100 boxes have been opened and we know that plenty more have since we stopped tracking. Only 4 of the 15 rarest cards have been pulled and core cards have been selling between $280 and $350. 

Each box comes with 10 cards — typically 7 core cards, a 1/1 and 2 rares, very rares, or Epics. 

7 cores multiplied by $300 is $2,100. 

1/1s sell for about $900 on average, bringing us to $3,000. 

Rares sell for about $400 on average, bringing us to $3,800. 

After eBay fees, that’s $3,420, which is right around the current box value. 

As it stands now, you can purchase a box and open it for the upside of pulling an auto, hand-drawn card, top character 1/1, or get lucky for a box with 11 cards or one that includes an Epic (selling for around $600 on eBay). 

If you get the bottom cards of the bunch, you’d stand to lose a few hundred dollars if not less. 

We know that 1,000 boxes sold for $2,150 and the price likely wouldn’t come near that unless extreme economic circumstances forced it (people do not like losing money on collectibles). 

And 94 boxes traded hands at an average price of $6,386, so if the buyer didn’t rip them and sell the singles, they’re unlikely to want to sell for a loss. 

There’s a lot of excitement around VeeFriends Series 2 trading cards, which may cause the market to “forget” about Series 1, although core cards have been selling for more money than they were in May. 

The excitement will eventually dissipate, but Gary V has said he plans to do tournaments with Series 2 which will keep the cards relevant. 

Gary V also mentioned he has 50 boxes of VeeFriends Series 1 (and has opened at least 1) so the true market supply is 950. 

With at least 100 opened, that number drops to 850. 

With another 100 sold (we don’t know if they’ve been opened), we can carefully assume the sealed product in circulation is 750. 

That’s still high and the lack of supply on eBay means you’re competing for a scarce product, so you may not get the best deal. 

Despite this, the sales data for singles cards do make this an appealing play. 

The key is to keep an eye on current sales data and the value of the boxes. 

For example, if a box is up for auction and singles sales data hasn’t changed much, you could spend $3,420 on the box and likely break even by opening and selling the cards. 

You may get a dud box (7 cores, 2 rares, a 1/1, and not great characters) or you could score big with an auto, a hand-drawn, epics, or top characters. 

Remember that this is a gamble either way and the market can change quickly. Inflation is still a problem and the economy is on a rocky footing. 

Consider House Money from VeeFriends Series 2 Trading Card Sales 

I’ve made $778.05 in profit (after eBay fees) from VeeFriends Series 2 trading card sales so far and still have 2 more boxes on the way, with a few cards from my earlier boxes left to sell. 

Based on the top sales I’m tracking, there have been a dozen sales of $1,000+ and four sales of $2,000+. 

The $778 I’ve made so far from opening 3 boxes is from core cards, rare cards, and 1 very rare card. I haven’t pulled any foil, epic, or auto cards, and I’ve still done well. 

I did have to spend money on VeeFriends Series 2 NFTs, but I view the $778 as “house money” and if I hit a big card in my last two boxes, I’d consider selling to acquire a series 1 box. 

There are probably more than a few people who have sold VeeFriends Series 2 trading cards for $1,000 in total or more, and those people are invested in the VeeFriends ecosystem. 

In sports cards, I personally knew people who liked to collect before the boom, and they made a lot of money when their cards when up significantly in value. 

This gave them “free money” that they would then spend on rarer cards for bigger sums. 

There are probably not enough people that dozens of VeeFriends Series 1 box will fly off the shelves, but there’s more money in the ecosystem. 

This will likely flow back to rare cards or Series 1 cards if those people chose to spend it on collectibles, and if Gary keeps bringing value, they may earn money on flips elsewhere (e.g. I sold my Flex’n Fox Figurine for about $200 profit, so I have closer to $1,000 in VeeFriends house money). 

This isn’t something you can bet on, but if you own the rarest cards from these products, there’s probably more liquidity because of it. 

For that reason, I will continue to sell non-rare cards immediately and save to make a bigger purchase down the line. 

Closing Thoughts

I’m closely monitoring the VeeFriends Series 1 zerocool trading card boxes and singles sales. 

I fully expect demand for Series 2 to slow down, but in the past week, I had 7 new sales that made the top 10 list, and another card is at auction that will make the list. 

We’ve only seen 1 auto sale from the product, and if those sales keep going, I’d have to think people will eventually come back to Series 1. 

It’s a tight window. If Series 1 single card sales increase, I’d think people would catch on quick for Series 1 sealed boxes, but there will probably be a lag. 

Heck, I even track this stuff for the blog and didn’t realize Series 1 core singles were selling for $300 or more. 

So again, don’t do anything I do, make your own decisions, but if all the attention is on Series 2 cards with a higher supply, Series 1 may make for an interesting play.