🐧 How I made ~$25k by selling digital Pudgy Penguins
This is the story of how I bought a couple of NFTs that turned out to be extremely valuable
If you are in the metaverse, the chances are high that you have seen a couple of Pudgy Penguins walking around. This collection has been making headlines recently. I’d like to tell you the story of how I made a couple of thousand bucks in a few days.
It all started on Twitter (as always). I saw a retweet about a new collection, and since I had just joined the Fame Lady Squad, I wanted to join another cool community. By the way, I know there has been a lot of drama with the Fame Ladies; the creators weren’t women; they were three guys from Russia who were running multiple projects in parallel. Pretty shame full, but that is another story.
So, back to the penguins. I joined their Discord and waited patiently until the release date. I was not 100% sure how many penguins I wanted to buy because I had seen some projects fail. It all changed one day before launch when the team organized an audio chat on Discord. That was the first time I heard Cole, the marketing mastermind behind the penguins. He is a very controversial guy for multiple reasons, but he knew how to lead. The guy was confident. He controlled the crowd very well. He said they would reveal the penguins one week after the launch date, and everyone was cool about it. Can you imagine that? You had to buy an NFT and wait one week to see it (you could only see an egg)? He explained the one-week gap would cause more people to purchase penguin’s eggs in the secondary market, and the community would be more prominent in the long term. I thought that was smart and bought seven penguins for 0.03 eths. I went to bed that day excited because they were already 0.5 a couple of hours after launch.
Thursday 22nd of July, 2021.
My initial investment = 7 * 0.03 = 0.21 eth (668 USD)
My penguins current value = 7* 0.05 = 0.35 eth (1106.86 USD)
During the next few days, I kept wondering if I should sell some to be on the safe side if things went in the wrong direction. I held. Then, two days before the reveal, there were some announcements, and the Discord chat was full of chaos. Cole and the team wanted to increase their secondary market earnings to 5%. The price started to drop, and I panicked. I sold five of my eggs, but I still made a small profit out of them. What I liked about the situation is that the team reacted SUPER fast. They were responsive over the next 24 hours; they made announcements and quickly solved the misunderstanding. I feel like this was a make-or-break for the project. It made the community stronger, and the penguins went to the reveal day with an exciting vibe (remember, at this point, none had seen their penguins, only sneak peeks).
29th of July, 2021.
My initial investment = 7 * 0.03 = 0.21 eth (668 USD)
My current value = 2* 0.05 = 0.10 eth (318 USD)
My ROI = 0.1954 eth (617.94 USD)
After the reveal, I held my two penguins and stayed away from the community for one week or so. Then, one day I woke up, and the Discord chat was going crazy (I live in Europe, so people are asleep in America). The penguins raised to a floor of 0.2 eths from around 0.07 eth overnight. I acted very fast and decided to buy two penguins at the floor’s price and one for 0.3 eths. I listed all of them for x2 floor price or more. At this point, I was getting excited, but I was also afraid to invest so much in this project. It is not like I have a big budget. I was going all in!
10th of August, 2021
My initial investment = 7 * 0.03 = 0.21 eth (668 USD)
My current value = 2* 0.05 + 2*0.2 + 1*0.3= 0.70 eth (2213.13 USD)
My ROI = 0.1954 (617.94 USD)
After a couple of hours, I sold the three listed penguins for 0.31 eth and two for 0.41 eth! What was going on? I made a couple of thousand dollars in a few hours! My reaction? Let’s buy one more 😄.
10th of August, 2021
My initial investment = 7 * 0.03 = 0.21 eth (668 USD)
My current value = 1* 0.3 + 1*0.4 = 0.7 eth (2213.13 USD)
My ROI = 1.12 (3,541 USD)
I listed one at 1.15 eths, and I thought it was so far out of range that none would buy it. Well… The next day I woke up, and he was gone. The penguin’s value started to fly and at one point crossed the +3.7 eths (+11k USD)! On the 12th of August, Kevin Roose wrote an article for The New York Times, and there is an article currently on the making by Bloomberg.
11th of August, 2021
My initial investment = 7 * 0.03 = 0.21 eth (668 USD)
My current value = 1* 0.3 = 0.3 eth (948.74 USD)
My ROI = 2.27 (7,178.78 USD)
I still hold one penguin, valued anywhere from ~2.5 eths to ~6.7 eths / ~7k USD to ~21k USD. I know I could’ve made more money, but I was also very fortunate to catch the wave so early. I feel like I played it pretty safe and ended up making a big profit out of nowhere. I also believe the founding team is very capable, and there are many directions on how they can take this project further, so I don’t plan to be “penguin-less” anytime soon.
Until next time,
- Kaloh
PD: I’ve been very excited about collectibles after this experience. I wanted to share a couple of projects on my radar if you are looking to jump into a more affordable collection. PLEASE, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH! THIS IS NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE! Thank you 😉
I’d love to hear about your experience with the Penguins or other collections. Please comment below and share your stories!
Could I use it ase pfp for a youtube channel