In the beginning, a long, long time ago - no one’s sure just how long ago it was, some people are saying 6,000 years ago, I don’t know, that’s what I hear. But it was a long, long time ago, even before this wonderful country, I’m talking about the United States, the greatest country in the history of the world, even before this country was founded. But there was still God. God is a good person, one of the best. I would have loved to have had God as my Vice President, but , like Barack Hussein Obama, God wasn’t a natural born citizen so he wasn’t eligible. . .
OK, with them selling out so fast I’m thinking now that most of the scam is simply pump and dump. So they gin up 45,000 of this things, sell 43,500 to themselves. Resell them to themselves on secondary markets at vastly inflated prices (maybe laundering a few million Russian Rubles on the side).
Then the rubes see that despite all expectations there must be a huge demand for these things. They sold out in 12 hours! If they had gotten in on the ground floor they could have flipped their $99 investment for $500 (minus 10% commission). FOMO kicks in and people start buying at these inflated prices with Trump slowly releasing/repurchasing his inventory to keep the prices right where he wants them, and making a royalty on every sale.
Although as Chronos pointed out its possible to avoid having to pay the 10% royalty on an individual basis by simply trading wallet IDs, this is going to be more difficult in mainstream NFT auction houses which is where most of the rubes are going to be buying and selling.
Bonus: When the sucker who buys one of these on the second (or third) iteration resells he’ll* try to get even more to recoup his investment. If he finds an even bigger sucker, the 10% commission increases; if not, Trump&Co aren’t out anything.
* I feel that the assumed gender of the sucker is warranted in this case — we are, after all, talking about a more-rabid-than-usual Trump supporter.
I think once the details come clear we’ll find that:
This was thought up by some CryptoBros with vague connections in Trump world. They came up with a business plan that flattered Trump and gave him a guaranteed licensing fee plus a cut of any resales.
From the bottom of the Tragic: the Gathering page
NFT INT LLC is not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization, CIC Digital LLC or any of their respective principals or affiliates. NFT INT LLC uses Donald J. Trump’s name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Digital LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.
It’s not currently known who owns NFT INT LLC. It could be Donald Trump, but in this case I don’t think it is. I don’t think he and his advisors are quite dumb enough to spend their time and energy on this, but I totally believe he’s dumb enough to not see that that is what it looks like when it’s presented this way with a “Big Announcement” from Trump.
I would not be surprised if he soon disavows NFT INT LLC and either no sweepstakes winners will be declared all they will all get the shitty alternative prices.
At this point I think that Trump’s view is “in for a penny in for a pound.” There is really no logical reason for him not to continue committing crimes.
Either, as a former president and current leader of the Republican party, he is above the law in which case he will never get prosecuted. Or he is not above the law in which case the crimes he’s already committed are enough to put him away for the rest of his natural life and adding one more to the pile won’t make a difference.
Plus, in addition to the authorities dragging their damn feet in charging him, his own lawyers can probably delay, delay, delay anything. At some point he’s going to die, and it might be before he sees a day in jail. At that point, he figures he’s won.
