Let’s use our imagination. We bought a $45,000 comic book because we loved it and believed it was a good investment.
And then comes the next question: how do we protect that investment?
Is it a good idea to keep such an expensive collectible at home, or is there a better option where we may never need to take physical possession of it at all?
One solution is to keep the comic in a secure vault. We still own it and can do whatever we want with it: see it in our account, list it for sale, transfer ownership to another collector, or request physical delivery.
The comic itself may remain in the same secure vault while changing owners several times.
And this model is already being used for much more than comic books. Trading cards, rare coins, sneakers, luxury watches, sports memorabilia and other physical collectibles can now be stored in one place while ownership and trading happen digitally.
The numbers show that this has already grown far beyond a small blockchain experiment.
Let’s go through the process.
We buy a collectible item — for example, a graded card — on a platform such as Courtyard.
The physical card is stored in a secure vault. A digital record is linked to this specific physical asset and shows who currently owns it.
From there, we can:
Now let’s say we decide to sell our card.
The card does not need to be packed and shipped to the next buyer. The ownership record changes while the physical item remains in storage.
If the new owner sells it again, the same thing happens.
The card may change owners several times without leaving the vault.
If one of the owners eventually wants the physical card, they request delivery. The digital claim connected to that item is then removed from circulation so that the same physical asset cannot continue trading online.
Courtyard uses this model for physical collectibles stored in secure vaults that can be traded digitally and later redeemed for the real item.
Another platform, Fanable, uses the same model. It works with graded physical collectibles, including comic books and trading cards. Items are stored in an insured Brink’s vault, while owners can trade them on the secondary market or request physical delivery.
Trading cards were a natural starting point.
They are easy to store, grading systems already exist, collectors understand their market value, and some cards can be worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But the same model works with many other physical assets.
Courtyard, for example, now works with trading cards, comics, sneakers, coins and luxury watches.
In 2026, the platform introduced authenticated sneaker packs. A buyer can receive a pair of Nike or Jordan sneakers and then choose whether to ship them home, keep them in the Courtyard vault, sell them through an instant buyback, or list them on the marketplace.
The same year Courtyard expanded into luxury watches.
One of its watch products costs $10,000 and can contain an authenticated watch from brands including Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin and Omega. Courtyard said some watches included in the inventory were valued at more than $90,000.
This gives us a much better idea of where the model can work.
A physical asset becomes particularly interesting for digital ownership when:
That can include:
Rare books or comics
A valuable graded comic can stay protected instead of being shipped every time it changes hands.
Luxury watches
An expensive watch can stay authenticated and securely stored while ownership changes.
Sneakers
Limited and deadstock pairs can be held in professional storage and traded without repeated shipping.
Sports memorabilia
Signed jerseys, balls, equipment or other authenticated items can be traded by collectors in different countries.
Coins
Rare coins are compact, valuable and already have established authentication and grading systems.
Trading cards
Pokémon, sports cards, One Piece and other collectible cards already have large secondary markets and professional grading.
The technology can also be applied to other collectible categories where the same conditions exist.
Yes.
As of November 2026, CoinGecko tracks around 460,000 digital assets connected with Courtyard and almost 137,000 unique owner addresses.
On a recent 24-hour period, more than 10,000 sales were recorded.
Courtyard is also processing significant transaction volume. DefiLlama currently reports approximately $80 million in volume over the last 30 days, together with about $2.1 million in protocol revenue.
These figures show that people are willing to buy and interact with physical collectibles without immediately taking them home.
But there is an important detail behind these numbers.
A large part of the activity comes from another product mechanic: randomized packs.
Imagine that instead of choosing one particular collectible, we buy a pack for a fixed price.
We know what types of collectibles may be inside and what our chances are of receiving items from different value tiers.
Then we open the pack and discover what we received.
We can:
This is usually called a pack, mystery box or gacha mechanic.
And it has become a major part of the tokenized collectibles market.
Collector Crypt is one of the clearest examples.
The platform started with tokenized trading cards and now offers packs around Pokémon, One Piece, sports cards and other collectibles.
In May 2026, Collector Crypt reported that it had passed $1 billion in cumulative transaction volume.
More than 22,000 users had opened almost 4.5 million packs, according to the company.
Another number is particularly interesting: more than 30% of its users had redeemed physical collectibles from the vault.
So people are not interacting only with digital representations. A meaningful share actually chooses to receive the physical assets.
This is where the numbers need some explanation.
According to CoinGecko’s Q2 2026 market report, Collector Crypt increased monthly transaction volume from $97 million in January to $406 million in June 2026.
By June, it represented 62.8% of the tokenized collectibles market tracked in the report.
That sounds like an enormous secondary market.
But most of this volume was not users selling individual collectibles to each other.
CoinGecko found that, on average, more than 98% of transaction volume on the tokenized collectibles platforms it analysed came from gacha-style mechanics.
In simple terms, users are opening packs again and again.
This distinction is important.
If we see $100 million in platform activity, it does not necessarily mean that collectors bought and sold $100 million worth of individual cards, comics or watches on the secondary marketplace.
The same user may:
buy a pack → receive a collectible → sell it back → use the money to buy another pack.
The same capital can therefore create several transactions.
For a business analysing this market, two numbers should be separated:
secondary-market activity — people buying and selling collectibles;
and
pack activity — people repeatedly buying randomized products.
They show two different types of user behaviour.
A normal marketplace starts with a clear intention.
We know what we want, search for the item, compare the price and buy it.
Packs add discovery and uncertainty.
We may spend $100 and receive a collectible worth less than $100. We may also receive something rare that is worth much more.
That creates a reason to open another pack.
And another.
This changes the frequency of interaction with the platform.
A collector may buy a particular watch, card or comic only occasionally. Packs give the same user a product they can interact with much more often.
Courtyard is already building additional mechanics around this behaviour.
In November 2026, it expanded its Quests system. Users can now earn points for actions including buying packs, interacting with their collections, favoriting items and commenting on other users’ collectibles.
This shows how the model is developing.
The collectible becomes the core asset.
Around it platforms can build:
That creates a much broader product than a traditional online collectibles store.
Randomized packs create another issue businesses need to consider.
The user pays money and receives a random result that may have a higher or lower market value than the amount paid.
If the platform also allows the user to immediately sell the item back, its monetary value becomes very clear.
That starts to attract the same questions regulators have already been asking about loot boxes in gaming.
The rules are different from country to country.
Belgium takes one of the strictest approaches. Belgian authorities consider certain paid randomized loot-box mechanics to fall under gambling rules and have taken enforcement action around them.
The European Union does not have one single EU-wide ban on loot boxes. Consumer regulators are focusing on issues such as transparent pricing, clear information about products, manipulative design and protections for children.
The US also has no general federal ban on loot boxes.
However, regulators are paying attention to how randomized products are presented and sold.
In 2025, the US Federal Trade Commission reached a $20 million settlement with the developer of Genshin Impact. Among the FTC’s allegations were misleading information about loot-box odds and the real cost of obtaining rare rewards. The settlement also included restrictions on loot-box purchases by children under 16 without parental consent.
Tokenized physical collectibles are not the same product as videogame loot boxes.
But a business building randomized packs around items with clear resale value should evaluate regulation before launching the mechanic.
Product design matters: purchase price, randomness, odds, buybacks, age restrictions, resale and the countries where the product is offered can all affect the legal analysis.
Now imagine we already operate a collectibles business. We have authenticated inventory, customers and expertise in a particular market. In a traditional model, we sell an item and ship it. The transaction ends.
With a vault and digital ownership model, the same physical item can remain inside the ecosystem.
One collector buys it. Later they sell it to another collector. The second collector may sell it again.
Eventually somebody requests physical delivery.
This gives a platform several possible revenue points:
The platform also keeps a relationship with the owner after the first purchase.
That can be very valuable in categories where collectibles change hands repeatedly.
For the customer, the experience should be simple.
We open an account. We buy something. We see it in our collection. We sell it or request delivery.
Behind that flow, several systems need to work together.
The platform needs to know exactly which physical item exists, where it is stored and what condition it is in.
The physical collectible needs a reliable identity.
For some categories, this already exists through professional grading or authentication providers.
A digital record links the owner to the physical item.
The wallet stores and transfers the digital representation of the asset.
The wallet can be embedded directly into the platform so the customer does not need to manage a traditional crypto wallet.
Users need to list, buy and sell collectibles.
The marketplace also needs pricing, offers, transaction history and seller management.
Depending on the audience, the platform may support cards, bank payments, or stablecoin payments.
When someone wants the physical item, the system has to coordinate the digital asset with the physical inventory and delivery process.
The most important part is synchronization.
If a watch has been redeemed and shipped, its digital claim cannot still be available for sale.
If ownership changes online, the inventory system needs to know who currently has the right to redeem the physical item.
The current data gives us several signals.
The market started mainly with trading cards. It is already moving into watches, wines, sneakers, comics, coins and other categories.
The next categories are likely to have the same characteristics: clear value, established authentication, an active resale market and expensive or inconvenient logistics.
Rare memorabilia, art, luxury collectibles and other authenticated high-value goods are natural areas to watch.
A collectibles company does not necessarily need to build every part of this system itself. One provider can handle vaulting. Another can provide authentication. Another can provide wallets, blockchain infrastructure or stablecoin payments. Marketplaces can connect these services through APIs and keep their own brand and customer experience.
That opens the model to existing auction houses, collectibles dealers and marketplaces that already have customers and inventory.
The popularity of packs shows that users respond strongly to randomized discovery. Platforms are already adding quests, rewards, points and other engagement mechanics.
We can expect more experimentation here. At the same time, these mechanics will receive more attention from regulators, especially when random outcomes, real money, instant resale and younger users appear in the same product.
For businesses, regulation will become part of product design rather than something to think about after launch.
A collectibles company may already have the most difficult parts of the business: the inventory, expertise, authentication process, reputation and customers.
Digital ownership can add another layer to what already exists.
For collectibles businesses, that can mean connecting existing inventory, authentication and customer relationships with a new digital layer for ownership, trading, payments and redemption.
ND Labs helps companies build this infrastructure around an existing product or create a new digital collectibles platform from the ground up — from wallet and marketplace infrastructure to stablecoin payments, backend systems and integrations with custody or vault providers.
Thinking about adding digital ownership or marketplace functionality to your collectibles business?
