The advertisement begins with a man opening his refrigerator. “There’s nothing to eat,” he says with a sigh. He takes out his phone and pulls up Rips, an app for opening digital trading card packs that is backed by a venture-capital firm tied to DraftKings, the online sportsbook. “I’m just gonna open some packs and see if I can make some money.”
He spends $100 on a digital card pack and swipes his finger across the screen to rip it open. Lights and colors flash as a basketball card featuring Dallas Mavericks’ Zaccharie Risacher is revealed. The card’s value, $119.90, is shown on screen with a “cha-ching” sound effect. “Let’s go,” the man exclaims, “now I can order some food!”
Platforms that offer virtual trading card packs, known as digital rips, say their apps are the future of card collecting. The products are also being embraced by the gambling industry, and advertisements reviewed by Barron’s promote opening digital rips as a way to make money and pay for everyday expenses.
“I’m broke. I need to pay rent. Let’s go open up some Pokémon packs,” says a woman in an advertisement for Packed, another digital rips site. The ad is currently running on Meta Platforms’.
