There have been few constants over the past five decades more reliable than the presence in some form or another of William Shatner. Endlessly protean, and infinitely recognisable, he has veered unpredictably between such disparate realms as the depths of outer space, and those of the publishing world and the spoken word scene. Perhaps due to this adaptability, it should have been of no great surprise that Shatner, in recent years, has managed to build a social media presence of uncommon size for a star whose career now stands at such a distant point from its inception.
With all of this established, it seems only proper that William Shatner would now take a step into the current new frontier of blockchain technology. In an exclusive partnership with the WAX blockchain, Shatner is issuing memorables and rarities from his long career in the form of non-fungible token trading cards (NFTs). These will be made available for the public to buy, sell, and trade on the WAX Blockchain, with comprehensive product specifications and trade histories for each card available, which will ensure complete security for traders and collectors. This is a profoundly exciting move for various reasons, some of which I will go into here.
Firstly, with the breadth of roles Shatner has inhabited over the course of his career, and the varying reasons for his fame among different demographics, this collection of memorabilia could provide a valuable indication of which direction collectors would like further releases to go. If Shatner’s more Trek-oriented memorabilia proves to be more desirable, then we see that there is a market bias towards franchise-related memorabilia, while if the NFTs more associated with Shatner as a person of renown seem to attract greater demand, then it would seem as if the access and intimacy granted to fans provides the greater allure.
My suspicion is that it will prove to be the case that collectibles related to sci-fi franchises will be the bigger draw, and is one which (personal biases acknowledged) I am much more excited about.
The value of sci-fi memorabilia, since its explosion in the 70s with the release of the first Star Wars film, has been consistently high, and the secondary marketplace, where collectors acquire and trade rarities, has a rich history of valuable trades. Just in the realm of Star Wars action figures, especially rare collectibles have fetched prices of nearly $80,000, and even less-desirable pieces regularly sell for up to $10,000.
Another factor in favour of pursuing ventures involving sci-fi collectibles is the unique adaptability of most science fiction franchises to the collectible format. Most science fiction properties contain a level of richness and detail that is readily adaptable to the segmentation necessary to create an attractive range of individual pieces of memorabilia.
If we take Star Trek as an example, we see that the content of the franchise is split nearly endlessly between different species and different organisations, and different starships and equipment associated with these species and organisations. Due to the diversity of the cast of characters, and the different configurations of the aforementioned presented by each instalment of the franchise, there is consequently a nearly endless array of fan factions that display remarkable loyalty to their chosen segment of the Star Trek universe, and it is the loyalty and adaptability of these fanbases that creates such an exciting opportunity for collectible expansion.
These fandoms which have grown up surrounding sci-fi are incredibly broad and well-established, and have historically been early adopters of new technologies. Science fiction fandom first moved online in the 1970s, and since then, the size of the total community has exploded, with the amount of websites devoted to sci-fi topics now numbering in the millions. Rather appropriately, it seems that the science fiction community is uniquely inclined to embrace technological developments.
Somewhat paradoxically, we do not have to look far back into the past to see the potential of the sci-fi community as a target market be disregarded. The most notorious instance of this is the set of circumstances surrounding a young George Lucas’ retention of the total merchandising rights for the then-upcoming film, Star Wars. At this stage in cultural history, the idea of sci-fi and fantasy enthusiasts as outsider weirdos had yet to be reconciled with the fact that these outsider weirdos together formed a fiercely loyal and passionate consumer base. We had the phenomenon of a horde of aspirant consumers looking for a product, coupled with a media giant casting aside the opportunity to provide to them, in order to save a mere $500,000, this being the cut to George Lucas’ directorial paycheck which he accepted in order to retain his merchandising rights. Since then, Star Wars has generated almost $10 billion solely from merchandising.
In fairness to film executives of the time, the more underground nature of the sci-fi fan-base represented a much greater risk than today, and so we may grudgingly forgive their trespasses. At the present moment, however, we are dealing with an entirely different set of circumstances. Far from the loosely defined, somewhat private network of enthusiasts seen in the 70s, sci-fi fans of today represent a hugely powerful and valuable market. We have seen in the past that this group consists of early adopters of new tech, who are uniquely loyal to the object of their fandom, and are specifically interested in topics which come pre-segmented into easily adaptable categories for collecting. Again, we have a mass audience perfectly positioned for someone to take a bold leap forward, and in the WAX blockchain, we have an infrastructure which has the capability to take this leap, and ensure safety and transparency for all involved.