Sometime almost a year and a half ago I became a dolphin. At that time, dolphin-hood required 10,000 SP but it changed as price increased and was reset to 5,000 SP. With prices down so much now, there have never been so many dolphins swimming around the Steem waters and that would be true even if it was still at the 10k point.
I had a conversation with someone in a chat when I was somewhere around 9000 SP and they were saying that they would never keep more than 10k in Steem. I thought yeah, fair enough (they were at about 1500 SP at the time) but with me being so close to that threshold, I knew that I was going to go over it.
Unfortunately since I can't math very goodly, When I powered up I calculated poorly in my head. I am not obsessive compulsive but I am a bit annoyed :)
Once upon a time I had a family friend who spent thousands of hours a year casting and painting pewter figurines, mostly of soldiers and the like. They were high quality and he really enjoyed the process and even made some dragons and beasties for my brother and I to play with. I don't know much about collectibles but are they worth anything?
Some people spend their time collecting and building model train sets, some barbies and others beanie babies. Is it the potential value of the item in the future that drives them or is it the process of collecting? While some people might think me crazy, over the last two years I have been collecting Steem. I wonder though, how different is it to someone who collected Star Wars characters in the 80s and kept them in the box?
According to this random site I just searched, this is the most expensive Star Wars collectible in a box:
So, who would have thought that a person who kept such a little silly thing in the box believing it would one day be worth something was nerdy crazy for doing so? There are some very valuable collections out there I am sure for what? Toys.
We humans are funny creatures, aren't we?
By the looks of that thing, back in 1977 that was probably a dollar or so (maybe less) to buy and in just 41 years later, has a value of 18,000 dollars. Just imagine if Steem survives 41 years, about 23 years after the inflation rate has dropped to flat 1 percent per annum. If is did last, what would the expectation of price be? It is impossible to say isn't it?
I could have just "wasted" the last two years of my free time collecting something utterly worthless or, I could very well have made one of the world's greatest investments in history. Of course, I would have to avoid selling it along the way.
The difference between holding Steem and a star Wars collectible is of course, that I don't have to keep it in the box, I don't have to worry about wear and tear, I don't have to ave space for it on a shelf. And as a great and unknown philosopher once wisely said, "It is mine and I can play with it as much as I like."
I can use my collectible Steem in a growing number of ways and, I can use it to collect more of itself and, other collectibles too. I can use it to aid development of the system it runs on, fund applications, businesses, people, charities and support all kinds of things. And the most interesting thing is, using it doesn't lose it. It is a have your cake and eat it too position. Albeit a risky one.
It is pretty interesting to look at it in this way isn't it? Even if there is a great deal of uncertainty in it, the act and satisfaction that many have of collecting random stuff can be sated while helping others do the same in a way that drives the value up. Normally distribution of a collectible drives value down but in the case of Steem, usage and ubiquity does. Of course, scarcity does come into play but true scarcity won't really be seen until there are many more users than have some of the collectible at the moment.
People look short-term on all things but real collectors are looking much longer than a year or two down the track. That Jawa in the box would have likely been worth close enough to zero in 1982 and, many of these collectibles have likely benefited from the ability to share information and scarcity numbers broadly over the internet.
I don't know this for sure, but I would say that having a global network of various trading communities has pushed the values up significantly, as well as they hype. Rather than being "The only nerd in the village", there is a worldwide network of nerds interested in these things and the more of them that want that piece of plastic, the higher the value goes. Even when the latest movies have been mediocre and mainstream at best.
As I have said, I believe that 2019 is going to be an interesting year for Steem and crypto but, it is nowhere near where it is going to be in the future, 5, 10 or 41 years from now. That future is impossible to predict of course but this is the game of collecting isn't it? Find something you enjoy, get involved in the gathering of it and from a price perspective, hope it will one day be worth something, even if never planning to sell.
While some people spend their time gathering movie titles they have watched or pairs of sneakers, I gather Steem. While it might not be everyone's Jawa with a vinyl cape, I enjoy the process and I am glad that I don't have to keep it in the box because, I like to play.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]