Yesterday, the NFT community had an opportunity to participate in the new Funko NFT drop dedicated to Squid Game. Unfortunately, neither the popularity of the TV show nor the improvements to the experience introduced by Funko and the Droppp marketplace managed to attract more collectors. As a result, the amount of unsold and subsequently burnt NFTs is estimated at 53%, dubbed by the Pop in Stock Funko NFT tracker as "the biggest burn percentage so far in the Droppp and Funko NFT world."
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Departing from its recent kid-friendly digital collectibles, this animated NFT series was supposed to attract a broader audience, capitalizing on the global success of the Netflix TV show, which amassed over 1.65 billion hours of viewership in the first 28 days after the release. However, according to Droppp representative Nicci, 11,462 Standard Packs and 11,440 Premium Packs were burned. Initially, a total of 42,000 packs were available to collectors during the drop.
These statistics indeed make the recent Funko NFT drop the most unsuccessful. Pop in Stock claims that only "two of the last eight drops sold out," referring to Funkoween and WB 1000th Anniversary NFT collections. The other six have witnessed considerably declining traction.
For instance, all Standard Packs with Back to the Future Funko Pop NFTs were sold out, while only 3,440 Premium Packs remained unsold, constituting 11.47% of the total supply. In the case of the Jurassic Park Funko Pop NFTs, on the contrary, all Premium Packs found their owners during the drop, whereas 21,238 Standard Packs were burned, which was pretty unusual as the latter type of pack is much cheaper. Thus, the Jurassic Park Funko Pop NFT drop resulted in a loss of 23.60% of the total supply.
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Unfortunately, things were even worse for the Steven Universe collection, with 2,352 Standard Packs and 9,768 Premium Packs unsold, requiring the burning of 43.97% of the total supply. The Powerpuff Girls Funko NFT collection experienced even lower interest from buyers, with 45.16% of the digital cards being burnt.
Finally, the Mickey and Friends Funko NFT drop set a record with the percentage of unsold NFT cards equaling 52.76% of the total supply.
"We can't say that things are going well," the team behind Pop in Stock commented on the situation, expressing hope for Droppp to "come up with some new fun NFT features in 2024 to change the trend."
Whether there will be any further upgrades or not is unclear, as Funko and Droppp had already introduced new features before the release of the Squid Game NFT collections. One notable enhancement was the addition of two extra cards to the Premium Packs, increasing the number of assets from fifteen to seventeen, finally making the purchase of a larger set of NFTs more profitable.
Furthermore, on December 20, Droppp shared the news with the collectors' community about removing its blockchain fees. "We're thrilled to announce that there is no longer a blockchain fee on Droppp Marketplace! Enjoy the 0% blockchain fee next time you list items on Droppp," the marketplace team wrote on X.
On top of that, there was also news about the launch of the new Droppp marketplace for secondary NFT trading. Many collectors hope that this particular update will resolve a burning issue with insufficient refunds, which actually discourages many buyers from participating in the Funko NFT drops.
This issue primarily affects collectors purchasing Funko NFTs on secondary markets, mainly AtomicHub. While prices for certain cards surpass several hundred dollars, Funko offers refunds of only $30 for any issues with shipping physical figurines provided for redemption codes. Shipment problems are indeed rather common according to Funko Pop NFTs, with frequent cases of delivering damaged or wrong figurines or not delivering them at all.
"You know what u would be thrilled about? Getting my Silent Bob redemption pops from a year ago that never shipped. That would be amazing, oh and for your customer service to answer my emails as well," the X comment from Vladimir Vasquez is just one of the numerous examples of Funko NFT collectors not being able to receive their physical figurines.
According to Gastlecast, the YouTube channel dedicated to collecting, the current refund offered by Funko in such situations is only $30, which appears to be inadequate to cover the costs collectors have to bear if they want to get a redemption token for physical figurines, especially if they have to buy their cards through secondary markets. At the same time, although Funko reportedly receives 10% of the profit from secondary NFT sales conducted through AtomicHub, it may not be enough to cover the real costs of acquiring physical figurines.
Whether the introduction of the Droppp official secondary marketplace will help resolve this issue or not is yet to be revealed. However, at press time, the shipment problem was one of the major factors contributing to the decline of Funko Pop NFT's popularity, according to Gastlecast.
Furthermore, Gastlecast believes the Squid Game Funko NFT collection was untimely. According to the channel’s team, although the TV show garnered a massive audience, most people finished watching the first season even within a single week. They wanted to have their collectibles right away. While Squid Game was released worldwide on September 17, 2021, it took the toy company over three years to launch the NFT collection. At the same time, the release date of season 2 is still unknown, which may indeed make the timing for the launch of the Squid Game Funko Pop NFT collection not perfect.
Squid Game Funko NFT collection
The initial prices for NFT packs were the same as the prices in the case of the previous drops, with Standard Packs valued at $9.99 and Premium Packs offered for $29.99. As mentioned earlier, a Premium Pack included seventeen items instead of the usual fifteen, while a Standard Pack remained unchanged, providing collectors with five items.
Read also: Squid Game Funko Pop NFT Drop Is Almost Here
At the time of publication, the minimum prices for Standard Packs were $12.89, whereas prices for Premium Packs started from $37.94.
To redeem the physical counterparts designed exclusively for the Squid Game collaboration, collectors must assemble a Grail, Legendary, or Royalty set of NFTs.
According to the official Droppp website, the metallic Grail Front Man figurine is expected to be the most unique, with only 999 available. Three Legendary figurines, Player 101: Deok-Su, Seong Gi-Hun, and a metallic Masked Worker with Blood Splatter, will each have 2,000 copies. The least rare figurine will be Freddy Funko donning the Squid Game costume of The Front Man.
