Great American Collectibles started out as a fan pull and switch plate manufacturer back in the 80s. We evolved into a collectible company in the late 80s, making resin figurines like teddy bears, angels and Santas. Then eventually we launched the Halloween related Old World Witches and Uncle Sams for the 4th of July. Along the way we have upgraded the artistry and beauty of our pieces, to where we are today.
So it’s been a long voyage of adaptation and reinventions in the past 35+ years. You can read more of our own history with Great American as the new owners since 2001, here.
In the spirit of trying to stay relevant and to differentiate our collectible company in a world where you can get a figurine made and painted in China for less than a cup of coffee at Starbucks, we’re moving in a new and exciting direction with our existing collectible figurines as well as launching a completely new line of collectibles called CryptoThingys. We know that our core collector demographic skews older. So it’s important, if we want to attract an entirely new generation of collectors, to appeal to the younger generation’s sense of purpose and belonging while continuing to release art that our core collectors can still enjoy.
You can read more about the new line of resin collectibles by clicking the “CryptoThingys” link above. But here let me address the way we are integrating new technologies into our collectible figurines. Our goal has always been to create a one of a kind collecting experience. This new feature most definitely delivers on that goal.
I’m sure everyone, by now, has at least heard of the new blockchain related currency called “cryptocoins” or “cryptocurrencies”. Examples are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and the list goes on and on. We’ve come up with a way to piggyback on the excitement of cryptocurrencies while at the same time, adding a simple and fun source of value to our collectibles. To our knowledge, we’re the first collectible company to do this. As a Great American Collectibles collector, you will be participating in something unique and different while still being able to collect the very familiar line of collectibles that you’ve hopefully been collecting for a while now. (And if you’re new, welcome to the family!)
This is how it works. When you purchase one of our collectibles from now on (released in 2020 or newer), you will also be getting a redeemable quantity of cryptocurrency embedded directly into the resin. All without doing anything different than you’re already used to doing. Just ordering a collectible. No crypto exchange/brokerage accounts or anything like that. No remembering passwords or seed phrases or proving who you are to a brokerage. Nothing. You simply buy a collectible.
Each of our collectibles from 2020 on, has an NFC chip embedded into them. All you do in order to see the information related to the collectible as well as the crypto that’s embedded into it, is tap the back of your modern mobile device to the backside of our collectibles and it’ll bring you to the web page that is specific to your collectibles. On that page, you’ll find all the data that is unique to your particular serial numbered collectible. This is also how you register ownership, too. There will be a button on that page for you to tap so you can claim ownership of that collectible after receiving it.
You can see the character’s story (if it has one) and its serial #, the date it was issued, how many were issued of that character, what the initial price of the collectible was, which and how much cryptocurrency is embedded into the piece and how much that crypto is valued at, right now, in real time.
This new feature does a few things that are crucial to understand.
Some might have questions regarding privacy or whether it is transmitting anything. Please don’t worry about any of that. We do not put any private info regarding ownership of the piece, on the NFC chip. And it does not transmit any signals. It is inert. When you access the info on the chip, what happens is your mobile phone’s NFC radio will excite the chip when it comes in close contact and reads the inert chip. But the chip itself has no power and requires no power to work. Your phone provides all the power. And it can only be read when it is within an inch or so of the NFC chip inside the collectible. So it is extremely benign.
When you get your NFC enabled collectible, it’ll come with a handy card that will answer any question you might have about how to access the chip and what to expect. We also send a “keycode” with every collectible so that you (or the person you’re giving it to as a gift) can claim ownership of the collectible. All they have to do is tap the back of the collectible and then on the resulting website that loads on their phone, they tap the button on that page that says "Claim This Collectible Now" and then you’ll create a Collector profile (or login to your existing account if you already have one) and then your collectible will become your registered property.
It’s important to note that you do not have to register it. However, if it’s not officially registered and someone steals it or it’s lost somehow, we can’t help you out. If someone tries to sell it back to us, we have to accept it. If no one registers it, we consider it Unregistered but the crypto value is still redeemable. But if it’s registered, we can render the stolen collectible null and void and worth nothing to anyone and issue you a new one with the same crypto amount you had before...etc. There would be a replacement fee for the actual resin figurine, but it’s better than losing the whole thing because it wasn’t registered. Especially if the cryptocurrency embedded is worth ten times what you paid for the collectible to begin with, 10 years from now. Just as an example.
Then when you go to sell it (if/when you ever do), if it’s registered, it is that much more valuable to the new collector since the registration can be transferred to them, officially.
Although our collectibles are meant to be traded, bought and sold among collectors, because you have crypto attached to it, your collectible will always be redeemable for the current value of that crypto by sending it back to us (Great American) and we will buy it back for the amount of crypto (at the current price of that crypto) that is embedded minus taxes we incur by the IRS on the sale of the crypto. See the FAQ on collector.me for more details.
Lastly, the NFC functionality of our collectibles (and the registration as well as authentication) is maintained by our collectible registration site at collector.me. That is the website you’ll interact with when you scan the NFC chip on your collectible.
We certainly hope you enjoy this new chapter. If you have friends and family that are interested in cryptocurrencies, this will make a fun and exciting gift for them. And we'd love to have them join the Great American family.
I haven't even talked about the new collectible we're coming out with. CryptoThingys. Those are going to be REALLY fun. And it's all year 'round thing, too. Stay tuned for that.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays (all of them!)
Dan the Man
Head Santa Maker
