GQ Magazine NFT Drop Flops—and the floor falls fast

GQ is the last legacy printed magazine to make moves in Web3 with the launch of the GQ3 community and associated Ethereum NFT drop, which promised various benefits to buyers. But the men’s lifestyle magazine failed to outsell the coin, and now the brand is apparently trying to hold on NFT buyers happy when resale prices drop.

The GQ3 NFT coin began trading on Wednesday, with a total of 1,661 NFT access passes being offered for 0.1957 ETH each—roughly $290 worth as of this publication. But when the coin window ended this morning, only 1,060 of the NFTs had been sold per data from OpenSea marketplace.

In a Discord community announcement and also a since-deleted tweet, GQ said it would randomly drop half of its remaining supply of NFTs to existing holders. Projects that do not fully materialize sometimes do this to reward buyers, essentially giving them additional potential value when an NFT launch fails to translate buzz into sales.

“We are going to reward all those who supported our artists and believed in GQ3 by sharing an Issue 001 token to a randomized 50% of unique wallets,” the publication wrote in the Discord announcement, further suggesting that NFT recipients “share with a friend.”

The Condé Nast-owned publication said it will hold onto the rest of the remaining supply for “community and promotion.” Decrypt reached out to GQ representatives for comment after the completion of the release, but did not immediately receive a response.

Shortly after the coin was over, GQ revealed the artwork for the NFTs from artists Chuck Anderson, Kelsey Niziolek, Serwah Attafuah and the pseudonymous REO.

At the same time, secondary market prices for the GQ3 NFTs are falling sharply: The floor price, or the price of the cheapest listed NFT, is currently at 0.105 ETH ($155) at OpenSea and briefly fell below 0.1 ETH. So far, 27 ETH ($39,350) worth of NFTs have been traded since the mint ended.

GQ followed the lead of other legacy print publications that have entered the Web3 world via NFT drops and community efforts, including Time, toy boyand New York Times. The publication released an NFT-themed press release in 2022 to herald the launch of the GQ3 initiative, including the Discord server, which eventually led to the rollout of NFT.

Each GQ3 NFT comes with various upcoming benefits, including a year’s subscription to print magazines and digital access, a GQ hat and other merchandise, and access to GQ3 parties starting with one to be held at the NFT NYC conference in April. Holders can also enter an exclusive section of the Discord server and get priority access for future NFT releases.

“We are committed and dedicated to GQ3 and in this for the long term,” the Discord announcement said, “and we want everyone to see the inspiring work our artists created.”

GQ is far from the first legacy brand to fall short with the NFT fall. In January, car brand Porsche attempted to sell 7,500 Ethereum NFTs with vague utility and benefits, finding little interest at first, only selling around 1850 NFTs when the company announced it would cut the coin short. In the end, less than a third of the planned offering was sold.

In that example, at least, the reduced supply seemed to increase demand: secondary prices for the Porsche NFTs have increased, and now starting at 1.98 ETH (over $2,800) on OpenSea – more than double the initial coin price in ETH.