Highway Robbery! - No bids on Chevy’s first NFT, even though it came with a "free" Corvette Z06, bids started at 206ETH

[Lightwreather]

Summary

Chevy’s first foray into non-fungible tokens was a dud. The automaker netted zero bids for its first NFT during an auction last month, (which should be noted: started at 206ETH (looking at you verge)) even though the digital drawing came with a free 2023 Corvette Z06, according to Corvette Blogger.

 

The image being sold:

 

Quotes

Quote

The NFT, which depicts a lime green Corvette Z06 blasting through a cyberpunk landscape, was created by artist Nick Sullo, who goes by xsullo online. The winning bidder would have also received a unique “Minted Green” Corvette Z06, which will be the only car painted in that color, and an option code RFN, which will “forever associate” the car with the NFT auction. And the Corvette’s VIN number will be in binary because NFTs are digital and computers use binary and you get it.
The auction was held from June 20-24. SuperRare, the NFT marketplace that oversaw the auction, tweeted on June 24th that it would reopen bids for 24 hours because some users “missed” the window. But apparently that didn’t work: the auction closed yet again with zero bids

Trevor Thompkins, a spokesperson for Chevy, shrugged off the disappointment in a statement to Corvette Blogger. “Our first step into Web3 has been educational, and we will continue to explore ways to leverage technology to benefit our customers,” Thompkins said.

 

Quote

It was also on Friday that a YouTuber actually read the terms of the NFT Auction which stated that GM planned to deliver the car sometime in September 2022, subject to change. Once GM saw that, they changed the terms of the sale to state specifically “the Vehicle is not currently in existence, and will not be built, fulfilled, or delivered until after the completion of the Auction.”

And that leads us to this final statement on the “Own the Color” NFT auction we requested from Chevrolet. Thanks again to Trevor Thompkins at Chevrolet for the reply:

Our first step into Web3 has been educational, and we will continue to explore ways to leverage technology to benefit our customers. The “Own the Color” project has enabled us to establish relationships and learn from leaders in the space, such as xsullo, SuperRare and The Crypt Gallery on how to authentically approach the passionate NFT community. We’ll take what we’ve learned and apply it to future projects.

My thoughts

Well, It appears no one was willing to pay~$250K for an image and a car. This shouldn't really cause much of issue to Chevrolet seeing as the car isn't even built yet and as for the art, they either paid the guy something around a 100-150USD or a percentage of the NFT sales, both of which would probably be a drop in the bucket. Also, I don't think anyone should really be surprised seeing as this came after interest had waned to a significant degree. I'd wager this to be a case of bad timing and of a bad minimum bid because if it had happened during the crypto hype period, this might have sold barring the high price of entry. 

 

Sources

TheVerge (Quoted (clickbaity))

CorvetteBlogger

[Bombastinator]

So basically they’re selling a sports car with a free poster for 206ETH.  No idea what that comes out to.  Tends to change minute by minute though.  I got a nasty suspicion the price is real high.  Afaik NFTs are worth near zero atm.  Looks like a marker rendering which is one of the quickest media there is. Even then that number might be low though. It would be about right if it was 1990.

[Spotty]

When the auction was held was right at the low point of the crypto downturn with ethereum dropping significantly to its lowest point in over a year in the days before the auction. Not surprising there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm for it.

They should have done it as a Dutch auction where the longer you wait the further the price of crypto drops. 

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, Spotty said:

When the auction was held was right at the low point of the crypto downturn with ethereum dropping significantly to its lowest point in over a year in the days before the auction. Not surprising there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm for it.

They should have done it as a Dutch auction where the longer you wait the further the price of crypto drops. 

Watched a Tom Scott video on Dutch auctions. In that description the price starts high and then drops until someone buys.  If the reserve was 206ETH when it hit 206 it would have vanished.  This is the problem with placing a reserve on auctions.  If the reserve is too high you wind up paying the auction fees without having sold anything.

[An0maly_76]

Color me surprised. With the poor quality issues and poor customer service I experienced with GM in regards to the last GM car I bought, it's a wonder GM is still in business. And that's coming from someone who drove for a living for twelve years, using mostly GM products. They were great until the mid to late nineties. Some vehicles were still okay until around 2005, but it's been a race to the bottom ever since with other mediocre auto manufacturers.

[Needfuldoer]

You can't right-click an NFT!

 

You can't paint any other car that particular shade of green!

 

21 minutes ago, An0maly_76 said:

Color me surprised.

 

 

[Eigenvektor]

39 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

So basically they’re selling a sports car with a free poster for 206ETH.  No idea what that comes out to.

As of now that would be around 223k€.

 

It basically comes down to, how many people are willing to spend that kind of money on a Corvette and how many of those also own enough crypto. Zero, apparently.

[An0maly_76]

7 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

You can't right-click an NFT!

 

You can't paint any other car that particular shade of green!

But it goes so well with your shades....

[Spotty]

31 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Watched a Tom Scott video on Dutch auctions. In that description the price starts high and then drops until someone buys.  If the reserve was 206ETH when it hit 206 it would have vanished.  This is the problem with placing a reserve on auctions.  If the reserve is too high you wind up paying the auction fees without having sold anything.

The 206ETH reserve stays the same but as the price of crypto drops the cost of the car effectively decreases. 

If the starting bid is 206ETH and the price of ETH is $2000 then the effective cost of the car is $412k. If the price of ETH drops to $1500 then it only costs $309k to buy the 206ETH required to buy the car. If the price of cryptocurrency is on a downward trend, which it was at the time of the auction, it makes sense to hold off buying in the hopes that the cost of the ethereum further decreases reducing the actual cost to buy it. 

Which is probably why holding auctions in a highly volatile currency is a poor idea. You set your reserve expecting it to be 400k+ then the value of the currency changes and you end up selling at/above the reserve but only getting 300k once converted to real money.

[Heliian]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

only getting 300k

LOL, the vette isn't worth 100k and nobody is buying nft's, even for $200

[ZetZet]

23 minutes ago, Heliian said:

LOL, the vette isn't worth 100k and nobody is buying nft's, even for $200

With current car prices dealer markup alone will probably be 100k on the Z06.