Disaster Girl meme sells for 430K

[fandandy 3,311]

Kind of an interesting read and an awesome pic.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/disaster-girl-makes-over-430-000-selling-the-nft-of-her-meme-11619540211

 

Now “Disaster Girl” really has something to smirk about. 

The face of the beloved meme — which features a young girl smiling slyly into a camera as a house burns down behind her — has sold a non-fungible token (NFT) of her original image for almost half a million dollars. 

Zoe Roth was four when her amateur photographer father took the iconic picture (which featured local firefighters putting out a planned, controlled fire) in January 2005 and entered it into JPG magazine’s “Emotion Capture” contest. The pic was also posted online on JPG’s website as part of the prize, where it has since entered internet infamy as one of social media’s most recurring memes. 

But even though young Roth’s face became a Photoshop favorite, and her image was shared around the world, the family didn’t have a real means to monetize that — until now.

Roth, now 21, is a senior at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She told the Raleigh News & Observer that someone emailed her recently suggesting that she try to take control of her image by selling it as an NFT, with a potential profit of six figures. At first she thought, “There’s no way,” she told the paper. 

But she and her dad did their research, including chatting with other viral meme subjects like “Overly Attached Girlfriend” Laina Morris and gawky school picture subject “Bad Luck Brian,” aka Kyle Craven. And they hired a lawyer and a manager to help them handle the logistics of uploading the file and “minting” the NFT. (A refresher: a non-fungible token is a certificate of ownership for a digital asset that is unique and are not meant to serve as a means of exchange.)

Long story short, they listed the “Disaster Girl” token on April 16 for a 24-hour auction. Roth expected it to sell for 100 Ether, which is a cryptocurrency recorded on the blockchain Ethereum that equals about $2,200 per unit, on average. By the time the auction was over, a user named @3fmusic had purchased the token for 180 Ether — worth about $430,000 at the time, and valued at more than $470,000 as of presstime. (It should be noted that Ether’s value is volatile and can fluctuate by the minute.)

Roth and her dad didn’t just bank big bucks on the original sale of their token. By minting the NFT, they have also coded it so that anytime the NFT is bought, they receive 10% of the sale. 

“Being able to sell it just shows us that we do have some sort of control, some sort of agency in the whole process,” said Roth.

Some other recent headline-making NFT transactions include Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s first tweet selling for $2.9 million; Kings of Leon releasing an NFT-only album for more than $2 million; and a 10-second digital collage that took 13 years to make selling for $69 million at auction. 

And on Tuesday, the NBA’s Golden State Warriors became the first major professional sports team to sell its own non-fungible tokens.

[vuduchile 1,941]

I can't believe the amount of money being poured into NFT's right now.  

[TimmySmith 2,782]

What an industry for lawyers.  They are going to need courts just for NFTs.

[bostonlager 2,475]

Scumbag Steve must be worth millions. 

[Voltaire 4,570]

Desmond Howard and the guy who took his photo doing the Heisman pose had a huge legal war over the copyright of his image, which I believe the photographer won. In this case, when the photographer is your dad, the rights to the image are much less contentious.

[Cdub100 3,408]

25 minutes ago, vuduchile said:

I can't believe the amount of money being poured into NFT's right now.  

Same. I see real possibilities for this technology now and in the future, but I think sh1t like this is giving NFTs a bad name.

[Drizzay 648]

I had to click the link, as I was not familiar with the meme.

I just wasted my time.

[vuduchile 1,941]

45 minutes ago, Cdub100 said:

Same. I see real possibilities for this technology now and in the future, but I think sh1t like this is giving NFTs a bad name.

It reminds me of the dot.com bubble.  So many cash grabs and everyone thinking they're getting in on the ground floor of a tech revolution.  I believe less than 10% of current NFT's will be worthwhile investments.  

[Cdub100 3,408]

2 minutes ago, vuduchile said:

It reminds me of the dot.com bubble.  So many cash grabs and everyone thinking they're getting in on the ground floor of a tech revolution.  I believe less than 10% of current NFT's will be worthwhile investments.  

The money is going to millionaires. Why are people buying this sh1t?

I minted a picture of my daughter's chalk art for the laughs. Only 0.5 ETH for it. Nobody has bought it and rightfully so.

[peenie 1,696]

All this time I though it was the little girl's home that accidentally caught fire or a neighbor's home. Also, I thought she was giving an evil grin, like she was a the person who started the fire. 

Interesting that she was given ETH instead of USD. It's the gift that keeps on giving. 

 

[Mike Isles 583]

Father took pics of her and her brother and this one won the award and went viral. Splitting the money with her father and brother. 

[Mike Isles 583]

28 minutes ago, Drizzay said:

I had to click the link, as I was not familiar with the meme.

I just wasted my time.

Now you wasted ours. 

[fandandy 3,311]

31 minutes ago, Drizzay said:

I had to click the link, as I was not familiar with the meme.

I just wasted my time.

You don't think that's a great picture?  If I had taken that of my daughter I would have absolutely loved it.

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

43 minutes ago, Drizzay said:

I had to click the link, as I was not familiar with the meme.

I just wasted my time.

That pic is pretty epic imo

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

The NFT market is out of control. People will wonder why they spent so much on them down the road. Be smart and just buy a damn bitcoin

[Cdub100 3,408]

7 minutes ago, Frozenbeernuts said:

The NFT market is out of control. People will wonder why they spent so much on them down the road. Be smart and just buy a damn bitcoin

The people spending that kinda coin don't need the money.

[IGotWorms 3,351]

I’m old and don’t understand NFTs  

[Voltaire 4,570]

11 hours ago, IGotWorms said:

I’m old and don’t understand NFTs  

I've always avoided this bitcoin stuff since being dumb as rocks is the easiest way to get suckered on an investment. I guess a lot of people are making money on it, so good for them. Likely the day I jump in blindfolded is the day the bottom falls out.

[jonmx 1,631]

I sold some pictures on shutterstock for $0.60.