Shiny FAQ: How Digital Pack Opening Works
What are zero-fee packs?
Zero-fee packs have 100% expected value and 100% instant buyback: sell the card you pull back to Shiny for 100% of its market value with zero fees until it mints, about 15 minutes after opening. They're currently available on Solana.
How much can I sell a card back for?
On zero-fee packs, 100% of market value with zero fees until the card mints (about 15 minutes after opening). On standard packs, Quick Sell pays 94.26% of market value minus a 2% fee for the first 24 hours, then 85% minus the 2% fee until day 7.
What does expected value mean?
Expected value is the average market value of the card you pull, as a percentage of the pack price. A 100% expected value pack returns the pack price on average; any single pull can be worth more or less.
What is Shiny?
Shiny is a retail destination for physical graded collectibles. Every card on the marketplace or in packs is a professionally authenticated card by PSA and available for trading or physical shipment.
How does it work?
Acquisition: Purchase specific cards on the Marketplace or open Mystery Packs containing one professionally graded card. Vaulting: Once acquired, the physical card is stored in secure vault storage arranged by Shiny (which may include third-party vault providers). Each unique card in supply is 1:1 backed by the exact card in vault custody. Management: Users can hold, trade, use quick sell for buyback, or redeem the card for global shipping.
How are pack openings randomized?
Pack openings use randomness from drand (League of Entropy), a decentralized randomness beacon operated by ~15 independent organizations worldwide. No single entity can predict or influence the randomness. Commit-Reveal (N+1): When you pay for a pack, the payment commits on-chain to a drand round that hasn't been produced yet, so nobody can know the random value your pack uses when you pay. Your pack then draws from the cards in stock when it opens, and that pool is saved with your result. Transparent: Every pack opening records the drand round number and derived result on-chain. You can verify any opening by checking the seed round (the committed round + 1) against drand's public API. Independently Verifiable: Anyone can audit the randomness by fetching the drand beacon for the round after the committed one and confirming the derived card matches the published odds.
How does the Marketplace work?
The Marketplace is a peer-to-peer environment for trading cards. Listing: $0 upfront cost to list cards. Fees: 4% seller fee; 0% buyer fee. Quick Sell: Quick sell option to sell cards back to the platform.
What is the Pawnshop?
The Pawnshop offers conditional liquidity options for your collection. Terms: 7-day or 30-day durations. Flexibility: Reclaim cards by settling the balance or choose to keep the funds.
How does Physical Redemption work?
Users can request physical delivery of their items. Upon redemption, the digital version is burned and the physical card is shipped with tracking and insurance.
How does bridging work?
Bridging moves the NFT for your card to another chain (Base, Abstract or Solana); the physical card stays in the vault. You pay a bridge fee of $0.50 per NFT in USDC on the source chain and approve the burn in your wallet. Your NFT is then re-minted to your destination wallet automatically, usually within a few minutes. A burn can't be undone, but if a bridge stops before the burn, your NFTs are untouched and your fee is saved — resume it from the Bridge page, or cancel it and the fee becomes bridge credit for your next bridge.
How does the Referral Program work?
Referrers earn a percentage of the marketplace transaction fee based on their referral tier. 10–25% Marketplace Commission (scales with tier).
What are Pack Bonuses?
Every pack purchase includes a free chance to win a bonus card. 1% Chance to win. 10 Upgradeable Stages. The bonus starts at Stage 1 (2.5x) and upgrades every 25 opens for the first 4 stages, then every 50 opens through Stage 10 (10x). Resets with a 30 second cooldown after a win.
Graded card packs
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Graded card marketplace
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Zero-fee packs
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Published pack odds
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How Shiny works
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