On April 14, 2021, Dapper Labs CEO and NBA Top Shot founder Roham Gharegozlou tweeted: “I’m deeply disappointed in @Topps. Their product announcement with the @MLB is low quality and bad for NFTs. I feel the same about every other WAX project I’ve seen.”
Gharegozlou certainly didn’t mince his words.
This came on the back of William Quigley, the co-founder of WAX, saying WAX — the Worldwide Asset eXchange — is the NFT standard during an interview in March, and tearing into the Flow blockchain for their structural differences.
The result? A public battle has bubbled up between the companies, coming on the heels of WAX announcing that Topps — the legacy sports memorabilia company — and MLB will launch their own NFTs on the WAX blockchain on April 20. The MLB x Topps digital baseball card project will essentially digitize the static images from Topps baseball cards and make them into NFTs.
And Gharegozlou? Well, he’s not the biggest fan of what Topps is building with the MLB; primarily, it seems, because he wants them to create a better product. And from what we’ve seen so far — who doesn’t?
Let’s take a look at the implications of these two companies’ differences, the problems with the Topps MLB NFT project, and why the quality of the project matters for the budding NFT ecosystem (and especially for Roham Gharegozlou and Dapper Labs).
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Why should Dapper Labs care about WAX?
With his tweet, Gharegozlou made it clear that he cares deeply about what Topps and WAX are doing with their new MLB digital collectible. But why does it matter to him?
One quote from Topps VP of Topps’ digital business Tobin Lent gives us some insight.
“This is the first step with our longest-term partner into this new space, and it’s just the beginning,” Lent said to Coindesk. This piece goes on to say: “Should Topps’ late-April NFL launch also suffer from the overwhelming demand that intermittently ground NBA Top Shot to a half in March — Lent says his team is poised to deliver.” Lent then says that Topps is trying to learn from their competitors like Dapper Labs.
The comparison here is inevitable, and the key reason why is because there is major intellectual property (IP) involved. This is not just small NFT project that people are buying because it’s cool.
This is the MLB IP directly, and as a major American sport, it’s comparable to the NBA. Because of this, a lot of people — especially those who aren’t paying attention to the intricacies of each platform — may often just lump them together.
It’s going to be the NBA and the MLB, and eventually other sports leagues, and they’re going to be doing their NFT projects. Then, many people are going to see them largely the same way.
Here’s the dirty little secret that many might not know: Dapper Labs already has double the valuation of Topps. Not only that, but Dapper Labs is a much different company than Topps, and it’s important to notate that distinction.
Dapper Labs Position in NFTs vs Topps
Plain and simple: Dapper Labs is a blockchain company. Topps is not.
Dapper Labs has been building the Flow blockchain for a long time. They put NBA Top Shot into the incubator and developed it over a year, launched the Beta, they’re still in Beta and working out all of the issues.
Topps is positioned much differently. Topps is a physical card company that is dipping their toes into a new line of business, and one that they are largely unfamiliar with. Sure, they have had drops previously — Godzilla, Garbage Pail Kids (now on Series 2), etc. But having these drops is much different than building your own token and building new platforms.
They are completely incomparable, and making this comparison is unfair to Dapper Labs.
Bringing it back to Roham’s comments and why it matters. These comparisons could directly negatively impact Dapper Labs’s brand if the project doesn’t work out. Dapper Labs could get caught in the crosshairs of the “MLB’s Topps and WAX disaster in NFTs.”
That doesn’t mean MLB on WAX is going to fail, or that it will be a disaster. It’s simply a matter of showing why it’s important for Gharegozlou to be a part of the discussion surrounding NFTs.
If it isn’t done right, it’s going to reflect poorly on the brand Dapper Labs has built with Top Shot, and potentially even his company’s reputation and the reputation of NFTs at large. Because the Topps MLB project is major IP, that means a big audience, headlines, and people watching. That much buzz is going to reflect on NFTs as a whole.
Naturally, as Dapper Labs’ CEO, he’s invested heavily in the space succeeding. And it takes great projects to do that.
Why the Topps MLB NFTs look like a Cash Grab
Of course, these new Topps MLB NFTs are just about to be released for the first time, so maybe expectations should be low. But, even for its first launch, its lacking any semblance of depth that Top Shot has brought to the space.
And so far, Topps has not shown that they’re going to try to bring that depth in the future, either. That’s what’s frustrating for so many who wanted to see a quality MLB project brought to the space.
Issues with the Topps MLB Initial Release
When you look at Topps’ overall digital presence, it appears that Topps Digital is the main brand, then there is a separate Twitter brand for their baseball collectibles app. But nothing is devoted specifically to these NFTs on WAX.
Even the link in the bio of Topps Digital returns a 404: Can’t be Found. That’s not a great start.
In terms of the actual drop, they are static images that are digitized versions of the Topps MLB baseball cards, with sometimes some motion visual effects on the borders, depending on the rarity of card. This design is something that Gharegozlou mentioned in his tweet about Topps.
“Designers: what’s the point of a static card that doesn’t do anything? Digital unlocks infinite potential; use it!” Roham tweeted.
But there are more concerning parts than just the art. Topps Digital decided to hand everything over to WAX.
Topps is not self-hosting this project in any way. They had MLB IP in their grasp, and handed it over to WAX.
Compare that to the NBA, where the NBA formed a partnership with Dapper Labs, and Dapper Labs built an incredible platform dedicated completely to NBA Top Shot. This is not that, and it could make it difficult for Topps scale in the long-term, as they hand the engineering part of this project over.
They are at the mercy of a third-party platform — WAX. From what is apparent, this seems like a very shortsighted decision. It’s much easier to do it this way; it’s much harder to build your own platform. But in the long-term, that customization and flexibility is crucial to the project.
The Topps MLB NFT Website is a Mess
Not only is it hosted elsewhere, but Topps x MLB NFTs consist of just one landing page right now. That’s the entire brand. It’s not a website. You can’t click around. There’s no about page or contact page. There’s not even a Discord — it just redirects to the WAX Discord, which has a channel for MLB.
It’s just one page and that’s it. It’s clear that there’s very little that’s being built here. And it wasn’t built very well, either — grainy images, huge text, poor mobile experience, uninspiring graphics, and a general lack of strong aesthetic or brand.
For example, take the image of Mike Trout, one of the first images on the site. Even at a distance, the pixelation on the Angels across the top is noticeable. This is consistent across the single landing page.
Then take the links to “learn more” about the project in the first section. They link out to learn about WAX, Topps Digital, and MLB. No more details or context about the project, how to buy, or a general roadmap, beyond the first set of 74,090 packs that will pop up on April 20 and redirect you to WAX.
This is not just a billion dollar company’s product launch. But this is an NFT product launch — where visuals and design reign supreme. And they’re staking it all on one landing page, and on that landing page there are very basic and obvious design problems. That’s a huge issue.
With this one page, you hardly know what you’re buying — we know the number of cards, the price, and rarity levels (but not what they mean). But collectors don’t even know what players will be included in this drop.
There’s little to no info here, with no assurance that more info is coming. It’s a huge strikeout, and clearly shows that this was rushed to market by a company that’s not digital-native.
The Responsibility for Topps to Make Quality NFTs
To come back to Gharegozlou’s comments: as one of the biggest influencers in the community, with something so public as MLB NFTs, it completely makes sense and should even be encouraged for him to weigh in. When there is such a massive IP that’s closely tied to the NBA IP by its very nature, there is a responsibility to do it right.
If Topps isn’t doing it right, we should let them know as a community that cares about quality NFTs.
It’s not about criticizing a new collectible being brought to the marketplace. And it has nothing to do with one being better than the other. If we as a community care about high-quality NFTs — art, Moments, cards, anything else — then we need to be vigilant about upholding standards of quality.
Sure, Top Shot has had a myriad of issues with scale on its way to get to where it is. But what the MLB and Topps is doing here is way below the bar for NFTs today, and they lack control of the future with WAX handling much of the product.
Ultimately, that will come at the long-term health of the NFT community and collectors. By hearing feedback and skepticism from Gharegozlou and collectors in the space, hopefully Topps can adjust, re-evaluate, and turn it around.
This is surely only the beginning of the NFT Wars as the space continues to grow and new companies jump into the space. But how each company does that can be very telling of their motives and long-term outlook on the NFT space.
Follow Max Minsker (@MaxMinsker) on Twitter.
Additional writing and editing by Christian Hardy.