Just for fun, I've decided to get into alternative investments. In this case, "alternative investments" means buying a box of Riftbound boosters and holding it for several years to see whether the price appreciates.
Riftbound is currently one of the hottest new CCGs in the market, with a major tournament actually happening over this weekend in Singapore. It is based on League of Legends, I believe. I was taught how to play this game a few months ago and found that the gameplay is quite simple, but the competitive strategy can go really deep.
At the moment, Riftbound is still an affordable game with a decent starter box at about $25. Players tend to be more about enjoying the game rather than collecting rare and premium cards, although there are cards costing over $1,000 USD, just like Magic: The Gathering or Pokémon. What's important to me is that I can still buy the first Origins set in English at a reasonable price, something I couldn't do with MTG in the 1990s.
So I guess this blog would be a fun way to track the price of my box of boosters compared to (1) DBS stock and (2) Bitcoin. I see Riftbound as the equivalent of paying for an altcoin. It certainly does not have the stability of Pokémon cards, or the longevity of Magic: The Gathering. If the game dies out in a year, I'll probably suffer a small loss.
While current players disagree with me on the longevity of Riftbound, I've been around to see better games fail in the market, like Legend of the Five Rings and Versus. So I'm effectively betting against myself.
Just for the record, I paid $360 for a box of Origin boosters.
A DBS stock is $78.65 today.
BTC is trading at $79,680 when I wrote this article.
For folks who also play the game, I have no intention of opening my box. I have a "pauper" attitude toward collectible card games: get a set of playable starters, find a character my kids and I have an affinity for, then search for free or cheap common cards to build a fun deck to play at home. Collectible cards can teach children strategy, and trading cards can teach them a little about speculation.
