Why are the prices of Reddit's Collectible Avatar NFTs so wildly different? Let me break it down for you.

As I'm sure most of you have seen, Reddit's Collectible Avatars have been been making headlines, and many times it's because of the surprisingly high prices they're selling for. So what gives a Collectible Avatar value? Why are people throwing a pile of ETH at some avatars, but your free Reddit avatar is only fetching a few bucks? Here I'm going to break down some of the elements that make certain avatars more valuable than others.

The Artist (e.g. Rojom, Tyler Foust, Stutter, Eric Hagan, etc.)

This is probably the biggest factor. The avatars you've seen that have sold for the big bucks are the same avatars that have been very popular from the very start of Reddit's avatar shop. These collections were created by artists who already had a following and were known for their artwork on Reddit and elsewhere. Many people buying these NFTs see themselves as buying a limited edition art piece by the artist, which they are.

Total Mints (e.g. 100, 1,000, or 1,000,000+)

Every paid avatar has a set number of editions or mints that are sold. Some avatars such as The Hands have only 100 and cost more to purchase initially. Other paid avatars have as many as 1,000 editions and were cheaper to purchase. Reddit's free avatars (The Singularity, Drip Squad, Meme Team, and Aww Friends) do not have a set number of mints and can theoretically mint an infinite number of them, so this decreases their overall value. The Singularity already has over 1,000,000 mints!

Low Mint Number (e.g. #1, #5, #10)

What constitutes a low mint number mainly depends on the total editions in the collection, but numbers 1-10 will be always be considered low mint avatars regardless of the collection. In a collection of 1,000 editions, anything with 1 or 2 digits would probably be considered low mint. In the case of the free avatars, many people consider mints under 1,000 to be a very low mint number and mints under 100 to be super low and rare mints.

Final Mint Number (e.g. #100 out of 100 total)

Having the very last mint of a collection is also a driver of value. If a collection has 1,000 editions and you're able to mint #1,000 you'd be considered very lucky. However, this is a nuanced topic because of the next point.

Overmints (e.g. 1,008 out of 1,000 total)

Reddit's minting mechanism allows for the possibility of "overmints". If an avatar is nearly sold out and multiple people purchase at the same time before the avatars have minted, it's possible to go over the total number of editions. For example, when there's a rush to purchase an avatar before it's sold out, you could end up receiving mint #1,021 out of only 1,000 editions. Overmints as they're called have become sought after and can increase the value of an avatar.

Attractive Mint Number (e.g. 22, 55, 100, 123, 2020, 10101)

Any series of numbers that is repetitive or sequential, such as 123, 444, or a popular number, such as 100, will increase the value of the avatar.

Meme Mint Number (e.g. 69, 420, 80085)

69 and 420 are the most popular meme numbers. There's a lot of them, but here I'll list the ones that I can think of:

• 42 (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
• 69 (Sex)
• 314 (Pi)
• 404 (Page Not Found)
• 420 (Marijuana)
• 666 (Devil)
• 911 (USA Emergency)
• 1337 (Leet or Elite)
• 80085 (BOOBS)

Desirable Traits (e.g. cone, watch face)

What makes Reddit's Collectible Avatars unique and gives them utility is that they're built in separate components so that you can mix and match different components between avatars to create your own unique, custom avatar. What traits are desirable is highly subjective, but here's some examples:

• Cone (from the Cone Head avatar)
• Watch Face (from the free Drip Squad avatars)
• Viking Hat (from the Knoo avatar)
• Poo (from the Mouse au Chocolat avatar)
• Coffee (from the free Drip Squad avatars)

Hopefully this clears up some of the confusion with why some of these avatars are selling for astronomical numbers and some aren't. Please keep in mind that "value" is highly subjective and some people may not agree on some of the things I've listed, and also please let me know if you feel that I've forgotten something.

Good luck :)