At New York ComicCon 2026, I got a chance to speak with Jeff Smith, marketing director for Alliance Authentic, an exciting new company in the collectible space.
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Check out what he had to say below and learn all about a cool new collectors service!
Q: Tell us a little bit about Alliance Authentic and what your brand is all about.
Jeff Smith: Our mission is bringing the forever copy of the collectible to the fans. Fans who are collecting certain IP, certain characters, and vinyl records as well. It’s that forever copy, because of our encapsulation process. Knowing that 50 years, 100 years from now, they’re going to have a pristine, untouched copy of that collectible. That’s why we’re bringing it as a certified, uncirculated piece of collectible, because it’s never been at retail. So you’re getting it in the best quality that you can absolutely get.
Q: What really caught my eye, honestly, was the fact that you guys were doing vinyl and CDs and stuff like that. Where did it come from, the idea to branch out into the vinyls, the music and stuff like that?
Smith: Because it hadn’t been done before. There’s so many record collectors that are not opening records, including myself. It’s like buying one to rock, one to stock, right? So I get a variant that’s assigned exclusive from the record store. I don’t open it. This is the next level of that, to protect that forever, to have it sealed, have it not been at a record store, knowing it’s authentic, it’s not a bootleg. You have that copy that is literally untouched and with you forever. Record collecting today is a little bit different than it was even 10 years ago. I know plenty of people as fans are putting their records on the wall or using it to decorate a room or collecting all the different variants. So this is just a natural extension of that because it’s already present in sports cards, comic books, things like that. So having it extended into this format is just the next level of protection of preserving it.
Q: Now, can you tell us a little bit more about the technology?
Smith: There’s an NFC chip within each record or each collectible. It holds its identity, its authenticity. And so when you tap that chip, you’re getting that certificate of authenticity, but also with the Funko Pops that we have, you’re silent numbering those, so you don’t find out what number you have in the run until you tap that chip. There’s some records that we have that are one of one. So with that technology, then you can use it for simple things like adding it to your collection on the site. But if you were to, let’s say you were going to sell it to a friend or there’s a run that sold out and you want to flip it or something like that, that is preserved on the blockchain so that every one of those transactions you’ll see. That way you know it’s authentic. You know that when you sell it to someone else or they sell it to someone else, that provenance goes along with it.
Q: Anything else you’d like to tell people about Alliance Authentic.
Smith: It’s the best way to get that forever collectible, right? Something that means something to you that you identify with, being able to protect and seal it forever. I think that’s a really cool concept. Hopefully everyone else thinks it’s good as well.