The StockX IPO — Initial Product Offering™ — is quickly making waves across industries. First, we released limited-edition slides with Ben Baller; then we gave the big guys some ammo and helped adidas drop three Campus 80s via IPO; and now we’ve expanded to baseball cards, partnering with Topps for an exclusive Bowman Chrome release on the StockX platform.
The Product
The StockX Topps IPO introduced 2019 Bowman Chrome X, a brand-new, StockX-exclusive green parallel, numbered to 31. There are 100 top players (35 rookies; 65 prospects) pre-graded by PSA. See full checklist here.
Bowman Chrome X was available as either a one-card box (1100 units) or five-box case (400 units):
StockX Initial Product Offering™ – How It Works
The core feature of a StockX IPO is that the products are priced using a Blind Dutch Auction. This is the same mechanism used to price certain equities in a traditional stock market IPO.
A Blind Dutch Auction starts quite simply: everyone Bids the amount they want to pay for the product. That’s it. The interesting part comes when we set the price.
All Bids are ‘blind’. This means that you can’t see what anyone else Bids; and they can’t see what you Bid. The only information each participant has is a description of the product, how many units of that product are available, and how many Bids have already been placed.
The key feature of the IPO model is how we set the price. All winners are charged the same amount – what’s called the Clearing Price. To determine the Clearing Price, we simply match the top Bids with the quantity available for each product. So, if there were ten items available for an IPO, the top ten Bidders would win. The Clearing Price is then defined as the lowest of those ten winning Bids.
For example, if the top ten Bids are $100, $95, $95, $90, $90, $85, $80, $75, $70, and $60, then the lowest winning Bid is $60. This means that the Clearing Price is $60. And this means that all ten winning Bidders will only be charged $60. Even the top Bidder, who Bid $100, will only be charged $60!
This is why a Blind Dutch Auction is such a great model: everyone pays the Clearing Price, so most Bidders win the product for less than what they were willing to pay.
Topps IPO Results
2019 Bowman Chrome X IPO High-Level Stats:
| Box | Case | |
|---|---|---|
| Units Available | 1100 | 400 |
| Total Bids | 2665 | 2211 |
| High Bid | $1100 | $3500 |
| Clearing Price | $50 | $300 |
| % of Winners Who Paid Less Than Their Bid |
80% | 91% |
2019 Bowman Chrome X IPO Bid Distribution:
Everybody Wins
The IPO model has significant advantages over traditional retail pricing. Consumers have a fair chance to get the product they want at a price they are willing to pay (or often less!); and brands can realize the true market value for their products while minimizing the noise and headaches of trying to bring high-demand products to market fairly. Simply put, everyone wins in a StockX IPO.
If you look at the results above, you’ll note that 80% of the box winners and 91% of the case winners won the Bowman Chrome X product for LESS than what they Bid! But Topps was able to sell through all of their inventory, at once, without worrying about sites crashing or whether they chose the optimal retail price. And now that the IPO has closed, winners can turn around and resell a sealed box, sealed case, or a single graded card on StockX. So Bidders who didn’t win or those who missed the IPO can still purchase these items at a fair price.
Best of all, our IPO model avoids the many frustrations that come with a traditional retail release. Buyers didn’t have to contend against bots, stand in a line for hours, or enter some arbitrary and hopeless raffle. All Bidders had an equal shot at winning the product they wanted, and engaged in a process that was fair, efficient, and transparent.
We’re already in the process of planning many more IPOs for the near future. And the more products we IPO, the more we’ll change the game with this revolutionary release method. So stay tuned, because we’re just getting started.
Article Updated 02/06/2020
