LONG PLAY: Sandbox LAND
--
Stake your claim before it’s too late! 🏲
I really dropped the ball on this one, was meaning to make this post 2 weeks ago after I did my $SAND write up and figured I had plenty of time. I’m very bullish on The Sandbox as the prevailing Metaverse and as part of that I snatched up a parcel of LAND in their game. When I did that, and was panning to write this article, the price was around 1 ETH depending on where the plot was located. Well now the lowest I’m seeing on OS is around 3 ETH. I still think there’s A LOT of room to grow so let’s take a look at what LAND is, how to get LAND, and the Pros and Cons of adding it to your portfolio…
WHAT IS LAND?
LAND is exactly what it sounds like, they’re little parcels of space but instead of being in the real world they’re in The Sandbox’s metaverse. They exist on the blockchain as NFTs. Think of them as digital deeds.
A single 1x1 Plot of LAND is 96 metres in width by 96 metres in length, by 128 metres in height.
You can also buy Estates which are larger (see table below). You can buy an existing Estate or buy multiple Plots and combine them into an Estate.
Just like in the real world, real estate in the fancier area is worth more. So if you want a Plot next to the Walking Dead Estate for example, you’re going to pay a premium to be in that neighborhood.
So what do you do with a Plot of LAND??
There are quite a few ways to make money off LAND in The Sandbox. You can choose to simply sit on it until the price goes up to your Target and sell it off. You can lease it out and let someone else build on it. Or you can build whatever you want on it yourself and charge people to visit it. We really are entering Ready Player One times.
Now the graphics aren’t quite Oasis level just yet, they’re more like Lego blocks at the moment:
Inside the game you can build your world from scratch or buy digital assets to flesh out your world. And all of these purchases are made through The Sandbox’s in-game currency… SAND … which I wrote about in an earlier post.
HOW TO BUY LAND
First you need a Sandbox account. It only take a minute to connect your MetaMask wallet and you’re off to the races. So first sign up for one here:
https://www.sandbox.game/login/?r=Bmac3qY_0Gsdt~0vawzLAl
Once you’re logged in, click MAP on the left sidebar to see all the Plots and Estates on The Sandbox.
You can Zoom In and Out with the Navigator, move the Map around by clicking and dragging your mouse. You can also filter searches with the parameters on the left sidebar. And selecting a plot with a simple mouse click that brings up an info panel on the right side.
There are two ways to buy Plots and Estates:
- On OpenSea — just make sure you’re buying a real VERIFIED plot — there’s a lot of scams out there. Always look for that Blue Checkmark! OS offers LAND purchases in a few different cryptocurrencies.
- You can buy it on The Sandbox site, but you’ll have to make your purchase in SAND.
When you click on a Plot, the sidebar will show you if it’s available for purchase in The Sandbox, OpenSea or both.
When I grabbed my LAND two weeks ago, the Floor Price was about 1 ETH. Now looking at OpenSea, it’s almost 3 ETH. This is all pretty crazy seeing as they originally minted for a tiny fraction of that:
PROS and CONS
First let’s take a look at some hard numbers. You can simply glance at these charts and know that The Sandbox is on a bull run:
So the question becomes “Is this still a solid investment or have I missed the boat?” so let’s breakdown the Pros and Cons of Sandbox LAND right now.
PROS
- The days of the Metaverses are still in their infancy, so getting in early is always a solid plan if you believe in the platform. DYOR.
- Only so much land to go around, scarcity always drives up price in the long run.
- Metaverses are all the rage right now and the more that normal people begin to learn what they are the more mainstream they’ll become and it’ll drive the price up as demand grows.
- Younger people are already familiar with the brand.
- A lot of big players have partnered with The Sandbox already, like The Walking Dead, Atari, Snoop Dogg, and many many more.
CONS
- High buy-in price. Current floor is nearly 3 ETH. That’s almost a down payment on a real house in some places.
- Potential for price to drop when more LAND is released. All the dark blue squares on the map are Plots that haven’t been sold yet— they’ll be releasing these in 2022 and 2023. The problem will be trying to mint these now that the Metaverse is on everyone’s radar and there will no doubt be whales and bots snatching them up before we probably can.
- Competition. There’s a bunch of other Metaverse platforms out there (like Decentraland) and others in development (Facebook’s Meta 🤮). There’s always a chance that The Sandbox wont be the prevailing Metaverse and can go the way of MySpace and Friendster to the Facebook of whoever will rise triumphantly from the metaverse wars.
*NOTE: I don’t think the Facebook metaverse will be the winner. Kids these days don’t use Facebook and the boomers that still do are not the target demo for a Metaverse (my parents can’t even work their TV). Since younger people are already using platforms like The Sandbox and Decentraland, my bet is on one of them or a dark horse that will take the lead later on. If history has taught us anything, it’s that the first to the market is not always the winner. Again look at MySpace compared to Facebook, Yahoo search vs Google, etc…
DYOR
Buying LAND in The Sandbox is a big investment for most, so be sure to DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. This is not financial advice, just food for thought. I’ve included a few resources below to help start you on your journey:
