Fanatics Collectibles Launches zerocool, the First Trading Card Brand For Culture

zerocool is partnering with Gary Vaynerchuk and his NFT Project, VeeFriends, to launch their first trading card set through a direct-to-consumer, Blind Dutch Auction

Fanatics Collectibles, a subsidiary of Fanatics, Inc. announced the launch of zerocool, the first trading card brand for the world’s most important people, IP and brands across pop culture, art, and entertainment. zerocool’s premium culture-focused products will be available on zerocool.com – a transformative direct-to-consumer platform that utilizes market-based pricing to ensure fair and transparent access to product for all collectors.

The brand’s first release is a highly limited, collectible trading card set based on Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT Project, VeeFriends, which will be sold as a true Blind Dutch Auction. Buyers can place their bids starting today on zerocool.com through Thursday, March 10 at 9pm EST. Although the company is keeping future releases confidential for now, zerocool has signed partnerships with other culture-defining entertainment franchises and creatives, and has upcoming collaborations with several of the biggest production houses and streaming services.

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“Trading cards have historically been centered around sports, yet athletes are a tiny fraction of society,” said Josh Luber, Co-Founder and Chief Vision Officer, Fanatics Collectibles. “Musicians, designers, artists, entrepreneurs, politicians, philanthropists, educators and more (including the brands, companies, organizations and IP they’ve created) have as much cultural power and importance as the world’s greatest athletes. Trading cards are a historical record, the immortalization of accomplishment, and a way to turn one’s support and fandom into investment and partnership. zerocool was created on the belief that ‘fans’ are fans for life, and that life is more than what happens on the playing field. It’s also what made Fanatics Collectibles the perfect company to birth the brand.”

Perhaps even more transformative than the brand itself, zerocool is also launching the first direct-to-consumer technology platform wholly dedicated to the concept of ‘market-based pricing’ and has productized the Blind Dutch Auction pricing mechanism as a way to sell trading cards. Cards have long been the perfect combination of consumer good and financial asset – a true supply and demand-constrained product – making this type of distribution method more efficient than retail pricing. Not coincidentally, the only trading card company to ever sell a product using a true Blind Dutch Auction before today was Topps, the new sports trading cards cornerstone brand within Fanatics Collectibles – in partnership with Luber at StockX – in October of 2019. The company believes that a Blind Dutch Auction is the fairest way to sell valuable, high-demand products. With this style of auction, the market sets the price and almost all buyers pay less than what they were willing to pay.

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The ethos of zerocool is bound in three principles:

1. Valuable Product: zerocool believes in creating trading cards that have long-term value and will err on the side of valuable product over short-term profits

2. Equitable Distribution: zerocool believes in providing fair access to trading cards through a holistic distribution strategy, transparency of process and, whenever possible, transparency of data (including print runs)

3. Market-Based Pricing: zerocool believes that the price of trading cards should be set by the market, not manufacturers, and will attempt to release as many products as possible using market-based pricing, including, but not limited to, a Blind Dutch Auction, when appropriate.

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VeeFriends Collaboration

The zerocool x VeeFriends trading card set brings the VeeFriends NFT collection to physical form through a premium product for collectors and the passionate VeeFriends community. All characters used in the zerocool collection are the original art from the VeeFriends NFTs, with the color parallel structure mimicking the NFTs parallel structure. For NFT Token holders, this collaboration brings a new level and dimension of collectability to the VeeFriends characters.

The zerocool x VeeFriends cards are printed on premium, 36-point paper embellished with a full border and metallic etched foil stamp, with specialty holographic foils throughout the set. The cards feature a soft-touch coating with a Spot Glass UV on the characters, creating depth that makes the VeeFriends characters the hero of the design. The zerocool x VeeFriends collection is packaged in a displayable, white wooden cigar-style box.

“Anyone who knows me in any shape or form knows that this is an absolute dream come true,” said Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO & Creator of VeeFriends. “My own intellectual property and my own cards are something that 15-year-old me could have never imagined. So, I am very excited for zerocool, a new super-premium card brand for culture, and I’m incredibly humbled that VeeFriends gets to be the first one.”