Bored Ape NFT Priced at $300,000 Accidentally Sold for $3,000

The Board Ape Yacht Club is among the more prominent NFT collections that are currently being traded on the market with a limited run of only 10,000 digital pieces, each with its own unique design. Granted this fact alongside the booming industry, it can be easy to understand why a piece from this collection can be sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Unfortunately, this was not the case for one owner of such an NFT who accidentally sold their piece for much less than intended. The owner of Bored Ape number 3,547, maxnaut, accidentally made an error when listing the digital art online. What was initially supposed to be a sale of close to $300,000 was significantly reduced to $3,000.

Upon listing, the Bored Ape was immediately bought by an automated account that uses a bot to find and purchase undervalued listings. The owner meant to price their piece at 75 ETH but instead typed in 0.75 ETH. “How’d it happen? A lapse of concentration I guess,” explained maxnaut.

The buyer had also paid a very high amount of “gas” fees which measures how fast a transaction can be made on the Ethereum network. After being bought, the NFT was put back on sale with a price of nearly $250,000.

“I list a lot of items every day and just wasn’t paying attention properly. I instantly saw the error as my finger clicked the mouse but a bot sent a transaction with over 8 ETH [$34,000] of gas fees so it was instantly sniped before I could click cancel, and just like that, $250k was gone.”

While these kinds of errors are not unusual in finance, traditional markets will often have ways to undo the mistake. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for NFT trading, which is highly unregulated. Despite this happening, maxnaut understands that “Sometimes you fuck up, make a bad buy, out of gas fail, send Eth to the wrong wallet or fat finger a listing.”

“It’s going to happen. But, letting it occupy your mind for even one second after you can no longer affect the outcome is purely hurting yourself twice.”

The Bored Apes first launched in April 2021 which generates a mix and match of attributes for each piece. In the beginning, they were sold for 0.08 ETH each — approximately $320 — but prices have since escalated given their speculation and perceived value.

Owners vary from NFT enthusiasts to celebrities including Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Curry, who also enjoy certain benefits of being part of the “yacht club” aside from owning the digital art. This entails invitations to community events and access to exclusive digital content.

Sources: BBC, The Verge