Vintage Niftys, Remember that name!
You may have heard of Vintage Niftys, you may not but if Noel and Ian, the creators, have their way, it will be a name that will become synonymous with high quality NFT Sports trading cards.
They are about to announce the launch of their first series — Old School Footballer Series 1. It’s the culmination of months of work that you could say have been years in the making.
The pair met at work nearly 20 years ago. Noel was a developer and Ian a creative, and they quickly established a rapport built on humour, the love of football and working in the tech space. This relationship has seen them work on many projects over the preceding years and it was of no surprise to Ian when one day earlier this year Noel reached out with an idea about creating something new utilising NFTs.
Ian: “I remember it well. I’d read the odd article about NFTs and to be honest that’s where my knowledge ended. Let’s face it, for those uninitiated in the complexities of blockchain trading and even knowing what NFT stands for, it’s a steep learning curve. But that wasn’t the point. Noel had an idea that just sounded like the perfect fit.”
Noel: “I’ve known about crypto currencies and blockchain technology for years but it wasn’t until earlier this year that I started to take more of an interest. I began flirting with alt coins, buying Polkadot, Cardano and loads of others… I bought a hardware wallet and setup a portfolio. I then went further down the rabbit hole. I stepped upon Opensea marketplace and began buying pixel art in the form of footballers. Madness I know! Then a visit to the in-laws in March triggered something inside of me. You see my father-in-law is an avid collector of anything old, especially anything football related and he has loads (and I mean loads) of cigarette cards, programmes, tickets, books…you name it. I love looking through the old cigarette cards and programmes and the smell, that old musty smell… and when you look at a football programme from the 40’s I think to myself… ‘who bought this, where has it been’. Reading about the game and the players back then is fascinating, from the sheer physicality of the game to the fact that many of the players worked for living yet were able to create records that still stand today! I thought to myself we’ve got to ‘nifty’ these guys!”
And so Vintage Niftys was born. The idea wasn’t to lament the “good ol’ days but to shine a light on the beautiful game by showcasing players of yesteryear that helped shape the modern game we all know and love (or hate depending on how your team are doing!).
Often pioneers and trailblazers, these players stories are becoming lost to the passage of time and whilst some are still household names in their own right, many have been long forgotten. Vintage Niftys hopes to address this.
So how do they plan to do this? Why would people want to invest their time and hard earned crypto on a bunch of yesterdays heroes?
Ian: “Well that’s just it. Today we are blessed with live coverage of just about every game, bright shiny pixel perfect football. Played by players with dazzling skills who’s earning potential is off the charts before they have even signed a contract. That’s just the way it is, like it or hate it, it’s something we just take for granted and our appetite hasn’t waned. Football is more popular now than it has ever been but what we are seeing now has come from somewhere — it didn’t just magically appear with the advent of the Champions League or Premier League. There is such a rich history with football that only seems to get rolled out by the older generations or when someone has sadly passed. These guys were the heroes of their day.
Ian: “So let’s celebrate them, let’s get them out in the public domain and spread their stories, show their faces and remember them — they’re still heroes. My Great Great Grandfather, Jimmy Cantrell, was one of them at the turn of the 20th century, helping Tottenham Hotspurs to win The FA Cup way back in 1921 – 100 years ago!”
Choosing the first 25 players wasn’t easy. Luckily Noel’s Father-in-Law was just the person to lend guidance.
Noel: “It’s easy to choose the well-known names but a balanced collection includes players who may not be household names, either locally or for their clubs, but are still legends. Their stories are what intrigue us and we hope they will intrigue you too. Each card has a flip side — similar to how trading cards used to look — which give the players details and story. We have 9 beautifully crafted variants that appeal to collectors alongside some fantastic blends.”
Noel: “Series 1 starts this journey for us and we are learning all the time. The community we are seeing from our brief foray into the Twittersphere is enlightening and we are thrilled to see support and kudos for the promos and sneak peaks we’ve been putting out there. It’s exciting times for NFTs, we feel they are here to stay and we’d love the chance to share our first collection and the ones we have in the pipeline.”
Noel: “We’ve got so many ideas moving forward from gamification to collabs. All will be revealed in due course. Can we make this work, grow the community, innovate and make this a success? Hell! We will certainly give it our best shot — and hopefully score!”
Vintage Niftys, Old School Footballers Series 1 is dropping on Neftyblocks on December 11th 17:00UTC. To qualify for the drop collectors must hold the Vintage Niftys Season Ticket NFT which will be included the Welcome Whitelist Pack (dropped 20th November).
You can follow Vintage Niftys on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VintageNiftys
And for more information about Vintage Niftys: https://vintageniftys.io/
