The state of Reddit Collectible Avatars, and why I’m not worried for the future.

Over the past months, Reddit has been incredibly successful with mass adoption through their main Gen 1-3 drops, as well as their free avatars themed around events and culture ranging from the Super Bowl, the World Cup, endangered animals, the OG free team avatars, and others.

A lot of the first buyers of avatars when they dropped came right from this subreddit. Then others like myself got curious about that mysterious shop you’d see when you’re customizing your generic Snoo with their free traits.

In late July, I noticed that store and bought my first avatar, not thinking of any financial benefit and instead just buying what looked cool to me. Then, come August, I got my free Drip Squad avatar that they released and got the option to pick one of the four teams that they offered (Drip Squad, The Singularity, Aww Friends, and Meme Team). This increased my interest, which led me to start researching collectible avatars and NFTs.

After reading, learning, and educating myself and joining the first active Reddit avatar community on this platform (AT), seeing the rarities of a lot of the avatars and just how cool they were made me want to look and get more.

This is what’s happening now...

The Gen 3 release included a record number of artists, mint sizes, and price ranges. ranging from $4.99 to $200 USD, and collections as small as 1/75 and as big as 1/5,000.

So, let’s talk about the money aspect since, with any collectible in this world, you buy what you like, hopefully, but if it’s financially valuable, then even better.

Gen 1 didn’t pump immediately after the shop sold out or after the most desired avatars sold out. It took time and a massive whale sweep in between Gen 1 and 2. Also, a lot of BAYC holders from Twitter came onboard to participate in the Gen 2 drop after seeing the hype and how much certain avatars were selling for. They were a massive contributor to the pumping market. But other than that, none of the numbers prior to those two events were anything spectacular.

I think in the future, for those looking for a quick flip and to make every drop count, you’ll have to adjust your expectations. As we saw from this last release, other than a few collections, everything is selling at or below mint. There’s still money to be made if you’re quick to buy in the shop or can snag and try to predict which particular avatars might pump and increase in value quickly, like the 1/75 collections.

For those playing the long game, whether you’re just a lover of the art or playing the long-term financial game, most of you probably aren’t surprised by anything going on right now in this dumping market. You’re probably still accumulating and just riding the wave.

This historic slump won’t last forever, and the market will pick back up. It’s the perfect time of the year for the market to hopefully follow Earth, and with the trees getting their leaves back and flowers blooming, hopefully these will begin to follow the natural course.

For those who spent a lot of money hoping to bank these and get out, if you want to recoup and try to profit, then you might just need to be a little patient. It’ll all be fine, but maybe longer than you were expecting.

Have fun and hold on strong! As always, buy what you like because you just never know. These lows are new territory for everyone.

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This Fiesta Dog airdrop by PRGuitarman for Nyancat holders and folks who had payment issues in the shop and received refunds also helps the market tremendously. The first official Reddit airdrop that is functional as an avatar was a fantastic surprise. The more they do for artists, the more it’ll help everyone involved. That airdrop has a higher volume than every Gen 3 collection so far.

tl;dr: things look kinda bad right now, but just be patient and adjust your expectations in the future regarding the next Gen releases, and the flipping aspect. Plan for the future and long term holding if possible. We’re seeing similar activity like what happened after Gen 1 sold out, and things didn’t just explode overnight afterwards. And wen marketplace?