Would you pay over $50 million for a live calculator of Julian Assange’s imprisonment? Or almost $30 million for an artwork (HUMAN ONE) of an astronaut displayed in a transparent box that can be changed from time to time by its creator—an artist known as “Beeple” (Mike Winkelmann)? How about a video reel of iconic moments of your favorite NBA star? Millions of people are buying NFTs of all sorts—in 2023 they will spend billions of dollars on them through numerous marketplaces that facilitate their purchase and sale. 

Collecting things of all kinds is a human past-time: fine art, baseball or Pokémon cards, coins, stamps, comic books, CDs, DVDs, you name it and someone has probably collected it. For decades now the Internet has allowed a collector’s paradise, with what were previously hard to find rarities available through specialty websites or eBay.