NFT auction celebrating NFL star Rob Gronkowski drives $1.8M in sales

NFL star Rob Gronkowski’s NFT drop has generated more than $1.8 million in primary sales on NFT market OpenSea.

The "Rob Gronkowski Championship Series NFT Collection" includes five different tokenized cards depicting in-game action shots of the player during championship-winning games.

The championship series consists of five unique collectibles, including a single one-of-a-kind token and four NFTs of which 87 copies each were minted and auctioned from Thursday until Saturday. The auction’s terms notably stipulated that any bids made in the last 10 minutes extended each auction by another 10 minutes.

The one-of-one “GRONK Career Highlight Refractor Card” is a collage of the four illustrations comprising the other tokens in the collection and is digitally signed by Gronkowski. The token's purchaser will receive the opportunity to meet the star, in addition to two tickets to attend one of his NFL games in 2021 and VIP tickets to Gronkowski’s next beach party event.

Bids for the one-of-a-kind NFT began at roughly $110, with bidders quickly pushing prices above six-figures. During the closing stages of the auction, bids pushed the price from $150,000 to more than $400,000 within two hours. Bidder “9DD7B7” bought the token for 229 Ether (ETH), worth roughly $430,000 at the time.

The buyer was busy throughout the auction, purchasing 160 of Gronkowski’s NFTs, including each of the top five tokens by clearing price — with the five collectibles generating a combined price of roughly $650,000.

Some of Gronkowski’s tokens are already changing hands on OpenSea’s secondary markets. “Gronk Championship LI” has sold for 14.2 Ether ($26,000), while “Gronk Championship LV” fetched 7.77 Ether ($14,000).

Gronkowski started playing football professionally in 2010. After winning three Superbowls with the New England Patriots, he moved to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020 and won his fourth championship.

March has been a big month for NFTs, with the band Kings of Leon generating more than $2 million after launching a tokenized album and an NFT representing a freshly incinerated painting by renowned street artist Banksy selling for roughly $400,000.