THE HORRORS SERIES 1: AN OVERVIEW
As more people find themselves drawn into the wicked web of The Horrors digital collectible card series, lured in by its awesome art and amazing community, it seems appropriate to offer some context for the series, and help those new to the project get up to speed.
The Horrors was the first release from Ultra Rare collectibles, an independent digital collectible and comic company based in the North of England. Launched on January 10th 2021, it sold out in under 2 hours and went onto make well over $200,000 on the secondary markets, earning incredible value for traders and collectors alike.
Packs came in 2 sizes — the 25 card Terror Pack and the 10 card Fright Pack. They were priced at $10 and $25 respectively, sold exclusively in wax, and making them an absolute steal at the time of sale. There were 60k cards in total: 1600 Terror Packs and 2000 Fright Packs. At the time of writing, the lowest priced 10 card pack on the market is for sale at around $200. An incredible 20x mark up on the original sale price.
The Horrors was the first project on wax to utilise the hybrid minting system. Before that point, packs had used mint-on-demand or pre-mint systems. However, Ultra Rare felt both systems had their issues, so with the help of atomichub, they employed the hybrid system, hoping to give their collectors the best of both worlds.
Exactly half of the packs were pre-minted and half were minted on-demand, with all the low mints contained within the pre-minted packs. But here was the clever bit, buyers didn’t know which packs they had until they cracked it open.
Once they clicked that unpack button, the first thing that happened (behind the scenes) was the pack was either selected from the pre-minted or mint-on-demand batches at random.
Ultra Rare’s creators — John and Richie — wanted everyone to have a chance at those lovely #1 mints even if they didn’t get lucky enough to open the first pack, and they wanted people to open packs for a long time after the initial sale. But they also wanted to keep some mystery to the set. The mint-on-demand aspect meant nobody would know total numbers for each card until all the packs had been opened, giving the series a nuance and variance that would appeal to and reward dedicated collectors.
It’s fair to say the hybrid was an absolute success, with many projects now following in Ultra Rare’s footsteps, adopting the same system. John and Richie are fine with this. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, as they say.
The Horrors had a 100 card base-set, comprised of 50 A and 50 B cards. There were five sub-sets, denoted by colour and collection numbers. Cards 1–10 were the Horror Icons, classic monsters we all know and love. Cards 11–20 were the Movie Horrors, 21–30 UK Folklore Horrors, 31–40 Asian Horrors and 41–50 Horrors of the Americas. Cards also came in several rarities — each of which perfectly encapsulated the themes of the series, bringing new and fresh takes on the art. Rarities included:
Base — 41.66%
Neon — uncommon — 18.33%
Glass — limited — 14.16%
Hypno — rare — 11.66%
Cosmic — epic — 8.33%
Bloodsoaked — legendary — 3.24%
Cursed — ultra rare — 0.83%
One of one signed — mythic — 0.083%
The series contained well over 700 individual cards, including the highly illusive signed mythic cards and the fabled Artist cards — 6 unique pieces of 1/1 art.
Building a series of this magnitude was no mean feat, and it was several months of hard work and thorough consideration for Ultra Rare. But it was worth it, as the series was quickly recognised as one of the highest quality projects on wax, appealing to both casual and hardcore collectors alike.
At the outset, John and Richie promised to reward collectors. They kept their promise and then some. Following a giveaway of awesome Black and Gold cards, Ultra Rare rewarded collectors in a unprecedented manner. For each completed variant, collectors were awarded an entire brand new subset — 20 Lovecraftian cards. This meant over 140 unique cards were given away as rewards. It was an incredible undertaking, completely dwarfing the rewards offered by any other project before or since.
But this is simply a testament to the team’s desire to build a thriving community — underlined by the fact they gave away Crytpids, an entire series of collectible cards. Collaborating with both established projects and new artists alike, Ultra Rare have shown time and time again how much they value working with others. And it’s fair to say, they have built the best community on the wax platform filled with the most devoted, generous and welcoming collectors you’ll find anywhere.
With Alien Horrors slated for release on April 10th 2021 and The Horrors II in the works, as well as the development of a revolutionary NFT comic viewer, this is just the beginning for The Horrors and Ultra Rare.
Buckle up. It’s gonna get gory.
For more info on The Horrors, visit www.ultrarare.uk
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Joing our telegram group here: https://t.me/The_Horrors
