Any visit to New York would not be complete without a visit to Times Square. It is therefore not surprising that besides Wall Street, Times Square is also part of the Ultra Rare Collection in the Upland Game.
Famous for its brightly lit billboards and neon lights, it is a bustling tourist destination with an estimated 50 million visitors annually.
Times Square became the 6th NYC Collection to be unlocked. The announcement came at 12 pm Pacific Time on Christmas Eve.
The Times Square Collection
Players only need to own 2 properties with addresses located in Times Square to qualify for this Ultra Rare collection benefits.
The criteria for the announcement of this collection is that it has to be already SOLD OUT. What is the property price spread in this collection?
The lowest mint-price-property found in Times Square (1565 Broadway) was minted at 7,650 UPX. It has earnings of 110.16 UPX per month.
At the other end, the highest-mint-price property, located at 1535 Broadway had a minting price of 355,950 UPX. This property has monthly earnings of 5,125.68 UPX.
The 45,000 UPX one-time award
As long as you own any 2 Times Square properties, you get a one-time award of 45,000 UPX and an earning boost of 2.8x. If you want to find out more about how earnings work and how much 45,000 UPX is equivalent to in USD, head on over to the Christmas Came Early to Upland article.
The 2.8x Earning Boost
If you own the highest and lowest-mint-price properties mentioned above, then you qualify for the Times Square collection and can reap the benefits associated with this collection. Since this collection has a 2.8x boosted earnings, your combined monthly earnings for these two properties are no longer 5,235.84 UPX per month. The boost will give you total monthly earnings of 14,660.35 UPX.
The Yield
What is the Yield and ROI for owning these 2 properties and having them in this collection?
Your total cost of purchase for 1564 Broadway and 1535 Broadway is 363,600 UPX.
This is the cost of purchase but the actual cost of these 2 properties is less because you get a 45,000 UPX one-time collection award. Now, let's see what is the actual asset cost. Since you are getting a 45,000 UPX one-time reward for completing this collection, your actual asset cost is 318,600 UPX.
Now, let's look at what's your annual boosted earnings. Based on a 2.8x multiplier, your total boosted earnings for a year is 175,924.20 UPX.
This gives you an annual yield of 55.22%!
The ROI - Now
How much is the current value of Times Square properties? For that, we need to look at what kind of percentage markup owners are listing their properties for in the Upland Game's secondary market.
Only 3 owners, each of which are listing one of their Times Square properties for sale on the date of writing (26 Dec. 2020).
Of these 3 properties, the cheapest listed price is 1,436,704 UPX for 1550 Broadway. It has the lowest markup of 13,881%. The mint price for this property was 10,350 UPX.
Side Note: The author does not believe these listed properties will sell at the listed price but anything is possible due to scarcity.
In our analysis, we look at a more realistic and in fact very conservative 300% markup for your 2 properties. If listed at these markups percentage, it's a guaranteed sale. If not, this author will buy it from you.
Based on the 300% markup and the following:
Markup at 300% = 1,090,800 UPX
One-time reward = 45,000 UPX
Cost of purchase = 363,600 UPX
Your immediately realized profit is 772,200 UPX giving you an ROI of 212.38%!
The ROI - One Year Later
If you decide to keep these 2 properties for a year, then you'll enjoy one year's passive earnings.
At the end of that one year, you have decided to sell both properties at a markup of 500%. For calculations, the one-time reward and cost of purchase will still be the same. But earnings and new selling price will be as follows:
Let's look at ROI based on the new figures:
Earnings for 1 year = 175,924.20 UPX
Mark up at 500% = 1,818,000 UPX
For waiting one year, your return on investment is now at a staggering 460.76%!!
We have not taken into consideration that earnings obtained throughout the year can be used to mint new properties that give you 1.44% monthly earnings.
My usual Concluding thoughts
Okay, back to reality. Granted this is a game and not an investment. But once the property-to-USD is launched, these properties can be sold for USD. If you have read my Christmas Came Early to Upland article, you'll have noticed that the current 30 beta testers are already selling properties in USD with the highest single sale recorded at USD1,000.
Why do people look for play-to-earn games? You decide if this is a game, an investment, or both. It's simple, do your own research. Even if it's a game, you'll still need to do due diligence to ascertain if it's worth investing your time playing it, right? So, why is this any different?
If you haven't already, you can read about the previous collections here:
Is the Upland Game for you?
Only you can answer that. However, if you use this referral link (also mentioned in the next paragraph), then you will get an additional 50% UPX on your first purchase of UPX. You'll have to think a bit about how much you want to put into the game because this is a one-time benefit. Use it wisely and believe me, this helps a lot. And if you contact me through my Twitter, I'll assist you with the onboarding. Information is power. See you on the other side.
Here's my link - https://discover.upland.me/UplandDood. I'm a UCN (Upland Contributor Network) member and Joat at Upland Hub.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Upland.me, the game developer.