ART | ARTKAROON.ETH

“At the end of the day, collecting provides enjoyment and a sense of achievement… physical or digital, that feeling is the same.”

Art knows a good thing when he sees one. Web3 is one such thing. Originally from Thailand, Art spent most of his childhood in America and then went on to attend the University of Kentucky during its late 90s championship years. He returned to Asia after graduating and has been engrossed in the world of investment banking for the past two-plus decades. “I love my job…I get to help companies go public and raise new capital to grow their businesses,” he says.

From baseball cards to Garbage Pail Kids cards and now every other type of sports cards produced, Art has been collecting cards since the early 1980s. He’s also definitely dabbled into other collectibles along the way, like art, magazines, video games, coins, etc. With over 40 years of collecting, he still enjoys finding new passions to collect… and that led him to stumble upon NFTs.

In early 2020, Panini, the largest sports cards manufacturer, came out with their entry into the digital collectibles world with their Panini Blockchain cards – an inaugural set of 100 digital cards sold via Dutch auction over the course of several months. These digital cards came with their physical twin as a free gift. “I was like, hey, I get a cool physical card which I like and its digital twin comes along for free.”

He found the transition from physical to digital fascinating, and that began the process of learning about the various digital collectibles out there. “At the end of the day, collecting provides enjoyment and a sense of achievement… physical or digital, that feeling is the same.”

While mapping out what the NFT world has to offer, Art sticks to his key principles of collecting – it’s got to look good, it has to have some kind of rarity/scarcity, it stores value with possible upside, it’s culturally significant and its something fun to collect! And this led him to find his Cryptopunk #7298… which remains one of the most prized collectibles to date.