New Connected Collectibles category on OpenSea paves the way to bring physical collectibles on-chain

TL;DR — OpenSea just created a new category for tokenized physical collectibles — Connected Collectibles! And with Courtyard, collectors can now bring their own graded physical cards, comics, coins, and more on-chain.

OpenSea recently launched a revamped category experience that includes a connected collectibles category as a hub for tokenized physical collectibles. Enabling physical collectibles to be owned and traded on the blockchain is becoming increasingly popular across the NFT landscape, with web3 projects (RTKFT, Azuki) and legacy brands (Adidas, Tiffany) all embracing some form of connected collectibles. As collectors ourselves, we’re excited about this evolution of utility in the space, and we’re aiming to make it super simple for collectors to connect their own physical collectibles on the blockchain (join the beta here).

Collectors love to browse collectibles they’re passionate about, whether to see what’s out there or for the chance of stumbling onto a diamond in the rough. OpenSea’s Connected Collectibles category scratches that itch by making it easy to discover physical collectibles on the blockchain in one place. There are sub-categories for everything from Pokémon cards, to basketball cards, and baseball cards, with more on the way (comics, coins, and other collectibles). As a collector, when you connect your collectible with Courtyard, you can:

• Get rewarded for curation by earning 1% on all future sales of the physical collectibles you bring on-chain
• Vault, authenticate, and insure your physical collectibles through Brink’s at no cost and receive your own connected collectible
• Enjoy the ability to buy, trade, or sell something physical in seconds anywhere in the world, with none of the usual IRL hassles (packaging, shipping, transit issues, etc.)
• Empower your collecting decisions thanks to new levels of on-chain transparency and provenance

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We’ve been building infrastructure to enable tokenization of physical collectibles for over a year. We started off by classifying our products as physically-backed NFTs, but this phrase didn’t hold up to the core focus of our mission: collectibles (don’t even get us started on phygital). We shifted to connected collectibles as an original term to highlight the cherished physical things we’ve collected that can be supercharged by blockchain technology.

We’re thrilled to see it come together with its own category on one of the premier web3 marketplaces. If you haven’t been able to embrace “phygital” or “physically-backed” as your go-to for referencing this new kind of NFT, maybe connected collectibles is what you’ve been waiting for.

If you’re a collector looking to turn your own collectibles into connected collectibles on OpenSea, get started here or browse the existing selection.