The Journey of JOYScramblers: A Collector's Triumph

OG NFT Creator, JOY (John Orion Young), kicked off the JOYWORLD Scrambler project a year ago, before Easter with very little fanfare compared to earlier releases. He created a 10,000-item series and gave a free mint to all holders of JOYSmileys.

The Scramblers Journey

With a Smiley in your wallet, you could mint 2 JOYScramblers for free in the initial time-boxed offering, afterward, the offering opened and anyone could mint for 0.030 ETH (about $15 at the time).

Lots of collectors cashed in on the 2-for-1 per wallet smiley situation, and others bought up more, with only around 2700 total eggs minted.

While most people collected a few Scramblers and forgot about them for a year, one collector, (who happens to also be a contributing writer to Redlion), who goes by s_q_u_i_s_h amassed 191 of them, most of them at the minting.

A JOYful Surprise

In January, JOY announced on X that The Scramblers were to hatch in the last week of March and put a countdown on his website. A week before the hatch, JOY jumped on X to let the world know that the collector with the most eggs in their basket would receive the next 1-of-1 JOY, a huge prize!

Those familiar, know that JOYs have fetched values well into USD six-figures both at launch and in resale.

The most expensive JOY auction fetched around 128 ETH, while the highest resale has been nearly 42 ETH. Several newly released JOYs have sold for anywhere from 3-10 ETH, and OG JOYs are extremely difficult to purchase, starting at 14 ETH floor.

A Collector's Dream

With the announcement of the free JOY for the highest collector, you can imagine Squish’s excitement. We caught up with him to hear how he’s feeling as he awaits the unveiling of the next masterpiece which he’ll own upon release.

Redlion: Can you share the moment you decided to go all-in on JOYScramblers? What sparked that decision?

Squish: It's funny because what happened was that I had a lot of JOYtoys, and the way it worked was that JOY gave away five JOYsmileys to every JOYtoy holder, so I really became a huge JOYtoy and then a Smiley holder --I think I had more than 400 Smileys at one time. When he announced that he was giving away two Scramblers to every wallet with a smiley in it, I sat up one night when gas was cheap and created 50 wallets and moved a Smiley into each one of them.

When Scramblers came out, I ended up being able to mint two for each wallet. That gave me 100. Then, when the public mint came, I really wanted to get a good number, seeing as the Smileys with certain numbers (1, 100, 1000, 2000, etc.) were special, I tried for 666, so I watched the minting and bought like 50 at once. I got that number, but sadly, it didn't end up hatching to anything especially compelling.

After that, I decided I really liked the Kitty's, so I started collecting them. I've got a bunch, like 25. And then later, I wanted the Shroom heads, so I now have a bunch of those too. Floors on both of those went way up though, so I stopped collecting them. I have enough.

Redlion: How has your strategy for collecting NFTs evolved since your initial involvement in the space, and how did JOYScramblers fit into that approach?

Squish: It's funny because JOY was my introduction to NFTs. We both live in Portland and I have a friend, KD, who was working with him. We caught-up after not seeing each other in awhile and he told me what he was doing with JOY. I was oblivious. I knew a little about crypto, but wasn't paying much attention, and nothing about NFTs.

I was a little late to the game, but once I saw JOY's art, I was incredibly impressed. My friend introduced me to JOY at a coffee shop here in Portland and afterward we got to know each other a little bit and the three of us even did a little project together a few years ago. Getting to know JOY and his vision of JOYWORLD is really what drew me in. I became a JOY maxi, and through his work, I became more interested in the space.

My very first NFT was a JOYtoy (an Alpha Chromatic Flat Brush). Now I'm fully immersed. I'm a software developer and my goal is to build app experiences that really push blockchain and everything that comes along with it forward, getting people interested who wouldn't be otherwise, and hopefully adding something to the historical record and maybe changing some lives along the way.

I've got a couple games my team and I are building that have NFT components to them. So, collecting for me now is really about what I can do in the game space. I've got some plans for this JOY I just won and the Scramblers, so I'm going to keep most of them. I also do what I can to support some other artists I've grown to love. I'm interested in NFTs that have 3D components to them (FBX, GLB, USDZ, etc.), since I've gone all-in on developing AR software with my small company and have some ideas about where all this is headed.

Redlion: As the hatch date approached, what were your expectations about the JOYScramblers, and how did you react to the news of the 1-of-1 JOY reward?

Squish: Like everyone else, I was expecting the Scramblers to hatch last Easter. When that didn't happen I figured we just had to wait it out. I thought JOY might have hidden a JOY in one or two of the Scramblers, so I held on to all of them and bought a few more. I actually spent quite a bit of ETH on Scramblers that had matching tops and bottoms, which didn't work out for me. I think only one of the 10 or so I had actually came out to be something rare.

A few months ago gas got down to like 7 and I decided to move all my Scramblers and Smileys back to my main collection, which put me at 188. JOY had updated his website with a leaderboard, so my goal was just to make it to the top of the leaderboard. When he announced before the actual hatch that he was giving away a 1-of-1 JOY to the top holder, I was ecstatic, as you can imagine, not yet having become and owner of an actual JOY. But, that quickly turned to anxiety because I saw a few collectors amassing a bunch beforehand. I think TokenAngels bought 50 at one time, which put him at 88.

That stressed me out quite a bit. I was sure someone out there had multiple wallets and was going to converge them right before the hatch. There were a few wallets that had 100 and 102 in them, one was completely anonymous, so I just tried to get more than what a merge of those along with TA's 88 would produce. I was trying all kinds of Etherscan forensics to see if I could figure it out. I bought a few more, putting me at 191, but even then I didn't think I'd get it. I even had a few friends and folks on JOY's Discord offer me their Scramblers, but I didn't take them up on it, figuring there was no way I was going to win against someone who really wanted to beat me and had a bunch stashed.

When the Scrambler counter went to 0, I was a stoked! I was actually on Zoom with my dev team when it hit and we celebrated, but I reached-out to JOY and he reminded me that I wasn't actually the winner until the contract minted, so that added another week of anxiety.

On Easter morning, I figured the hatch had to happen that day, so I was essentially hitting refresh over and over on his website, hoping that someone's number wouldn't start going up as they started transferring assets. When the hatch happened was when I knew it was actually true!

Now I wait for the JOY reveal and to become a legit JOY collector --so exciting!

An Artist-Collector Relation

JOY's project, encapsulates the essence of innovation and community engagement in the NFT realm, its culmination, eagerly awaited by collectors like Squish, signifies more than just the revelation of art; it marks a milestone in how creators and collectors interact, blending anticipation with creativity.

As we stand on the brink of this momentous unveiling, it's clear that JOYWORLD continues to pioneer a future where art and technology merge in unexpected, delightful ways, promising new horizons for digital expression and community collaboration.