The Bored Ape Yacht Club has attracted an array of celebrity and brand owners over the last year and a half. Some use the NFT artwork as a status symbol, while others tap the IP to create and sell their own products. The latest such brand to claim ownership is a unique one indeed: a physical playing card brand established in the 1880s.
Bicycle Playing Cards, the long-running brand now under parent company Cartamundi, announced today that it purchased a Bored Ape NFT and that it plans to create and sell physical playing cards using the artwork. The brand also aims to work with other Ape owners to potentially create additional NFT-themed decks.
“It's communities like the Bored Ape Yacht Club that are shaping the future of the internet and the future of Web3,” Cartamundi Global VP of Brand Commercialization Masha Ievseieva told Decrypt. “The holders that are part of the community, they are pioneering and are the most innovative in the space.”
As with many other Bored Ape-themed products, Bicycle’s upcoming playing cards are not the result of an official licensing agreement with the NFT brand or its creator, Yuga Labs. Instead, holders of the Ethereum NFTs are automatically granted permissive rights to create derivative artwork and products and even sell them to the public.
Bored Ape holders have used their owned artwork to create things like fast food restaurants, virtual bands, alcohol and marijuana packaging, toys, apparel, and more. Rappers Snoop Dogg and Eminem even used their artwork to create 3D avatars that performed their collaborative song at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards.
Bicycle purchased Bored Ape #1227 in June for just over 103 ETH, or nearly $187,000 worth at the time. Crypto payments firm Moonpay apparently facilitated the purchase, based on public blockchain data, as it has for celebrities like Jimmy Fallon and Post Malone.
An NFT is a blockchain token that works like a proof of ownership for an item, including digital goods like artwork, profile pictures, and video game items. The Bored Ape Yacht Club is one of the most valuable and successful projects in the NFT space, generating almost $2.5 billion in trading volume to date from its original collection.
Bicycle isn’t the first notable brand to buy a Bored Ape—Arizona Iced Tea purchased one in 2021, but ran afoul of Yuga Labs’ licensing restrictions. Meanwhile, brands like Budweiser and Visa have purchased valuable NFTs from other notable projects.
Ievseieva said that Bicycle specifically chose an Ape with a joker playing card in a helmet, one of just 2% of the 10,000 total Ethereum NFTs that have that attribute. It also has a futuristic-looking visor, which she said makes the character look like a “metaverse explorer,” nodding towards the brand’s ongoing ambitions in the Web3 space.
Bicycle plans to release a physical deck of playing cards next year featuring its Bored Ape artwork not only on the packaging, but on the individual cards as well. Ievseieva said that it’s planned to be released widely to the public, but that the brand may also release exclusive decks for holders as well.
Furthermore, Bicycle intends to engage with the community of Bored Ape holders in the weeks ahead and seek potential collaborators, whose owned Apes could also be used for additional decks of cards down the line.
This isn’t Bicycle’s first step into Web3. Late last year, the brand released its own collection of Ethereum NFTs in which artists imagined what playing cards would look like in the future. The NFTs also enabled holders to receive a limited-edition deck of physical cards. Ievseieva described the moves as a way to bring the legacy brand and its fans into Web3.
“It's actually a natural progression of the brand, because what we want to do is bridge tradition with innovation,” she told Decrypt. “NFTs are becoming part of our daily lives, and we want to make sure that we bring our community into this future.”
"Cartamundi Global VP of Brand Commercialization Masha Ievseieva".... well I guess it's nice to know who exactly at Cartamundi has been wasting all their money on this NFT nonsense I hate these but am keeping track
A gold toilet that is specially designed to flush money would also make a nice marketing gimmick
Re: Bicycle Bored Ape Yacht Club #1227
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2022 2:49 am
by Jocu
Ugh.
At a time when production costs are rising and have risen by about 40% in just a couple of years wasting nearly $200,000 on a cartoon monkey is incredibly disappointing.
Re: Bicycle Bored Ape Yacht Club #1227
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2022 4:05 am
by Eric Lee
Was the 1st Bicycle NFT that successful to make them go for this? I suppose all that mattered was that they made enough $ on the NFT that they think this is the next big thing, even in a time when the world is suffering from global inflation and teetering on the edge of recession.
Re: Bicycle Bored Ape Yacht Club #1227
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2022 4:28 am
by Jocu
Eric Lee wrote: ↑Fri Oct 21, 2022 4:05 am
Was the 1st Bicycle NFT that successful to make them go for this? I suppose all that mattered was that they made enough $ on the NFT that they think this is the next big thing, even in a time when the world is suffering from global inflation and teetering on the edge of recession.
I mean even if it was a success, it's a terrible look for a company that manufacturers physical print products not only for the fact that these things should stay as far away from the digital realm as possible, but that it completely undermines the environmental credentials it claims to champion.
This kind of press release raises a few eyebrows and puts them in some dodgy company.
I can only speculate but seeing as the VP of brand whatever has spent his whole career in the USA that Cartamundi are using the Bicycle name as their commercial arm and Cartamundi here in Belgium is their manufacturing and this is less a Cartamundi thing than a Cartamundi group thing.
Still, not a great look and I wonder who's steering the ship.
Re: Bicycle Bored Ape Yacht Club #1227
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2022 2:36 pm
by Harvonsgard
If this is the future of web3... the gods may have mercy on all of us, lmao.
Re: Bicycle Bored Ape Yacht Club #1227
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2022 5:27 pm
by james001a
Oh hell no. No no no.
Re: Bicycle Bored Ape Yacht Club #1227
Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2022 10:12 am
by Räpylätassu
No... Just... No. No. Nope. No. Aivan järkyttävää paskaa.
I urge everyone to watch this well researched video essay from the Youtube channel Folding Ideas, a thorough explanation on why and how NFT's and crypto are fcking terrible.
If you spend Ape Hundred ($800) you get a free uncut sheet. So there's that.
Re: Bicycle Bored Ape Yacht Club #1227
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 12:58 pm
by manu
Seeing those t-shirts made me wish they made non-NFT Bicycle merch (which I'm surprised they don't).
Re: Bicycle Bored Ape Yacht Club #1227
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 1:23 pm
by GandalfPC
Seems a shame to not buy all of the of 1 of 1 variations they are selling at $49 each - seeing all the effort they put in to make the art work with the deck in such an effective manner. I may sell all my Karl and Elaine decks so I can purchase these…
I don’t know if its the images of apes put together from colorform pieces, or if its the “BORED APE” plastered on each card twice, but they just really up the level of playing cards, and its going to be tough for others to continue to compete in my eyes.
I think the extra few pips they tossed in is what really makes it sing… Or is it the serial number of each ape… Just too much to love to decide.
I know. It’s the sublime color pallet. That’s it for sure.
Re: Bicycle Bored Ape Yacht Club #1227
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 1:30 pm
by hsbc
george wrote: ↑Tue Aug 08, 2023 12:04 pm
If you spend Ape Hundred ($800)
It’s just unbelievable that: a notable brand in the community, a brand that started all the classic and custom playing cards - GOT THE GUTS to do this abomination…
Just…. VERY DISSAPOINTING
I like to get the cards, BUT NOT on that “tumor swelled” price
I rather buy Unbroken by Seasons (which I failed to cop and regret for life) than this
Haven't they heard that NFTs are dead? They really need to stop monkeying around with this concept.
Re: Bicycle Bored Ape Yacht Club
Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2023 9:28 am
by GandalfPC
Stories from Aug 6 2023 had these tidbits:
“NFT artists lose fortune as royalties plummet”
“NFT Market Slump Hits Artists Hard: Payouts to Creators Plunge 98% as Royalties Slashed”
NFT market sees declining artist incomes due to slashed royalties.
Leading NFT platforms Blur and OpenSea reduce royalties to boost sales.
Trading volumes dropped 95% since January 2022.
I also see board apes are now about 50k each - down from 400k
But you want to see the real drop off - take a look at the volume drop:
and this story:
“Bored Ape Yacht Club Prices Crash to Two-Year Low, Down 88% From Peak
Bored Ape NFTs are leading the charge in a brutal market plunge, but other "blue chip" PFPs are losing steam as well.“
and from a youtube video: “A cascade of collateralized liquidations could send the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT project into a floor price death spiral.”
Sounds exciting.
Justin Bieber's Bored Ape NFT was valued at $1.3 million in 2022—now it's only worth around $60,000.Jul 7, 2023
I think this random internet quote sums it up well: "I bought a couple [CryptoKitties] back in 2017, but it was kind of this blip,"
I for one am shocked at the lack of staying power of a cruddy digital colorform.
