If you’ve been around the thriving Top Shot community, whether that be in a Discord (like the MomentRanks one) or just on Twitter, you’ve surely seen plenty about the badges that are on Top Shot Moments.
These badges are highly visible markers that commemorate a special Moment on Top Shot. Although they were announced near the beginning of Series 2, collectors have repeatedly been told badges will be coming to Top Shot in late March or early April.
We want to take this moment (no pun intended) to step back and explain what Top Shot badges are for collectors who may be new to the ecosystem. These badges distinguish Moments from others, as they are visible all over the Top Shot site, and special in NBA and/or Top Shot history.
What are Top Shot Badges?
Well, actually, as of writing this, we’re not exactly sure what badges are or how they’ll look on the platform. What we do know: badges are the mark of distinguishing factors of a Top Shot Moment. There are three main distinguishing factors worth of a badge so far: Rookie Moment, first Moment on Top Shot, and Championship Year Badges.
There are a few factors that have been confirmed by NBA Top Shot to be receiving a badge.
Here’s what each of the badges on Top Shot mean:
- Rookie Year Badge — any Moment that were minted player’s rookie season
- Rookie Mint Badge — a Moment minted in the player’s rookie year
- See Examples above. However, excluded in this Badge: Giannis Antetokounmpo Series 1 Run It Back
- Rookie Premiere Badge — a Moment from the player’s first appearance (coincides with rookie badges)
- Examples: LaMelo Ball Series 2 #/4,000, RJ Barrett Series 1 Layup (Base, MGLE, Rookie Debut, and Holo MMXX all receive the badge)
- Top Shot Debut Badge — the first Top Shot Moment minted of a particular player
- Examples: Kevin Durant Run It Back, all Series 2 #/12,000 Moments, Jimmy Butler Series 1 #/1,530
- Championship Year Badge — Moments from teams that won the championship in that Season. So far, this is includes the 2021-2022 Series 2 Bucks Moments, 2020-2021 Series 1 Lakers Moments, and 2013-2014 San Antonio Spurs Run It Back Moments. Rings will not be given to Moments from other teams at any point, even if the player switched teams, such as this Series 2 PJ Tucker Rockets Moment.
- Examples: LeBron James Series 1 So Fresh Block, all Series 2 Bucks Moments
On top of these badges, there have been additionally rumored badges, such as one commemorating Moments from a player’s MVP season and All-Star seasons. But these seem to be coming at a later date, and are completely unconfirmed right now..
Which Moments are Getting Badges?
Now that you know what badges are coming, you’re probably wondering how to start identifying these Moments. Luckily, the Top Shot community is always at work putting together resources to help collectors who do some digging.
You can now sort for Moments with badges on the MomentRanks Marketplace Explorer or on the Top Shot Marketplace.
How to Identify Badge Moments
There’s a few rules of thumb to know before using these great resources to identify the Moments getting badges.
Generally, the earliest date of the game the Moment is from will get a Top Shot Debut badge, though there are exceptions (like Run It Back). Of course, many of these Top Shot Debut will be in Series 1, where you will find the same Moment across Common, Rare, and Legendary tiers. All Moments that use that Top Shot Debut will receive the badge.
As an example, let’s look at that RJ Barrett Moment I mentioned earlier.
As you see, four of his six Series 1 Moments use the same Top Shot Debut on October 23, 2019: Base Set, Metallic Gold LE, Rookie Debut, and Holo MMXX. While this is unique to Series 1 Moments, all four will receive the Rookie, Rookie Mint, Rookie Premiere, and Top Shot Debut badges.
This is considered a Triple Badge Moment, and it’s the only Series 1 Triple Badge that will ever exist, which is why you’ll see a market premium on it. However, the Barrett Dunk from Series 1 will only receive a Rookie Year and Rookie Mint badge.
In addition, all of the #/4,000 Series 2 rookies are also “Three Star Rookies” — this means they will receive all four of the badges mentioned above.
For the majority of Series 1 Moments, the Moment that has a Holo MMXX is going to be a player’s Top Shot Debut. In addition, look for Series 2 Moments that are #/12,000, as these will always indicate a player’s Top Shot Debut.
Why are Badges Important?
Although many experienced collectors have accounted for these soon-to-come badges and the value is somewhat baked into the price, we’re still likely to see these Moments get a jump in price from newer collectors when the badges are actually live.
Remember, there are still questions in the main Top Shot Discord every day about what badges even are, despite several Top Shot blogs on the subject. Once they go live, these will be the collectors that rush to the newly-badged Moments.
There’s no guarantee, but with Top Shot’s incredible design chops and added search filters, these Moments are going to be the shiny new object getting all the buzz on the market. And challenges have shown us how much the market loves shiny new objects.
Once people are talking about the badge, it’s all people are going to want. Being early to these Moments before badges hit the platform could help you get in the green in your MomentRanks “Purchase Price” column as the market prioritizes badges.
Get Top Shot Insights from MomentRanks
As always, staying in the loop on the latest Top Shot happenings can give you an edge in the marketplace — and badges are just one example. With The Moment’s Notice, our daily Top Shot newsletter, it’s easier than ever to do just that. Just sign up, and get the latest updates on Top Shot and the world of NFTs straight to your inbox every day.
As always, you can keep up with all things Top Shot in our Discord community or on Twitter.
Christian Hardy is the Lead of Content at MomentRanks. You can follow him on Twitter: @ByHardy.