Making a typo error isn’t anything new but leaving a big chunk of money on the table can be really annoying and that is what just happened to an individual who mistakenly sold a Bored Ape NFT for about US$3,000 instead of US$300,000.
The news made it around on the internet thanks to CNET for sharing the report. Max (Maxnaut) is a self-described solo-traveler, a bored ape, marketing agency owner, and an NFT investor – he’s also the owner of the said NFT that was listed for sale on Saturday.
The NFT was listed and was supposed to be priced at 75/items which would garner about US$300,000 but he “accidentally” listed the items for 0.75 which dwindled the price down to just US$3,000.
However, due to the speed of the internet, Max wasn’t able to fix his error as the NFT had been snapped up – apparently by a bot programmed to find and buy undervalued listings – a report said.
You can see the drama play out on the NFT’s OpenSea page.“How’d it happen? A lapse of concentration I guess.”
“How’d it happen? A lapse of concentration I guess,” Max told CNET. “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.”
There have been numerous memes made about this kind of error where one make typo error in crucial financial situations.
One such notable example is that of a junior Deutsche Bank employee who accidentally sent US$6 billion to a hedge fund client after messing up their calculations.
But because there are often some means of recourse when issues like this happen on the traditional market, the money was reversed the next day.
But in the case of Max, there’s nothing he can do to retrieve his item or money. As of today, there are said to be about 10,000 Bored Apes in existence and each of them has certain attributes such as laser eyes, sunglasses, etc.
NFTs aren’t about the quality of the artwork, though: they’re about speculation and perceived value.
And Bored Ape NFTs are an exclusive club, with owners including celebrities like Jimmy Fallon and Steph Curry.
They originally sold for 0.08 ether, around $320, but now cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Despite the loss, Max seems to be taking things in stride. “Sometimes you fuck up, make a bad buy, out of gas fail, send Eth to the wrong wallet or fat finger a listing,” he tweeted.
“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.”