Gary Vaynerchuk’s (Or Gary Vee’s) NFT project, VeeFriends NFT is one of the hottest collections in the market. He wanted to give back to his followers using NFTs as tokens to new experiences. Essentially, he pioneered the NFT fan club model. Vee Friends marked a turning point for the NFT industry. But who is Gary Vee and what is the VeeFriends Collection really? And why are VeeFriends so expensive?
Well, the Gary Vaynerchuk did something new and inspiring. Let us explain how:
What is the VeeFriends NFT collection?
VeeFriends made its debut combining collectible NFTs with social token utility. On the Ethereum blockchain, each of the characters have alliterative names like; “Adventurous Astronaut,” “Courageous Cockatoo,” or “Empathetic Elephant.”
Each VeeFriend signifies the most positive attributes that Gary Vee admires in people. In fact, he personally created and sketched all 268 characters in Series 1. This was much to the delight of his ever-passionate fan base.
The collection is named “Friends” because Gary Vee believes “that business with friends can be fun”. Essentially, VeeFriends is not just a collectible project, but an IP empire that he will be building for the rest of his life. At its core, each NFT offers access and utility. There are two major selling points of the VeeFriends NFT collections.
- Veecon – the most anticipated NFT event of the year
- Real-life access to Gary Vee
Yes, some lucky holders will have the chance to play tennis or eat dinner with him. Out of the 300 access tokens, 108 allow holders to have a one-on-one session with Gary Vee.
But, wait. Who is Gary Vee?
Gary Vaynerchuk, aka Gary Vee, is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and media mogul. Originally known for being a wine critic, he is currently the chairman of New York-based communications firm, VaynerX. Meanwhile, he is also the CEO of the media and communications company, VaynerMedia as well as VaynerSports.
Yes, he’s a busy bee. If not from those top companies, you might remember him as an early investor in several notable companies. Just some of these include; Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Uber, Snap and Venmo. What’s more, he is a five-time New York Times bestselling author. Now, his company, VaynerNFT, helps celebrities and brands launch their NFTs. The Ever Successful Gary Vee has a net worth over over $200 Million, at the time of writing.
When did VeeFriends Launch?
The hit NFT Collection by Gary Vee launched in May 2021. During the launch alone, VeeFriends raised over $20 million. Since then, VeeFriends NFTs have not stopped flying off the shelves, amassing 53ETH in total volume in just a year. Now Gary Vee is taking his NFT Project to the next level.
How Many Veefriends NFTs are there?
There are 268 unique characters and, in total, 10,255 tokens distributed in three categories. First are the 9,400 Admission tokens, then 300 Access tokens, and lastly, 555 Gift Goat tokens. Furthermore, each character has 40 different Admission tokens, divided into two categories—Core (20) and Limited (20).
All Core NFTs feature the same “Gary Bee” character on them. However, then the rest (limited category) divide into Rare (8), Very rare (5), and Epic (2).
The sixth type of token are the ‘Spectaculars’, which represent 1 of 1 art tokens. Basically, these are considered the “holy grail” of each character. All in all, there are five Spectacular types—Bubble Gum, Diamond, Hologram, Gold, and Lava.
Irrespective of the category, all token holders receive a three-year access pass to VeeCon.
How Does VeeFriends Work?
Some of VeeFriends’ utilities are actually pretty special! For example, the “Mentor Meeting Mongoose” grants the owner three two-hour mentoring meetings in New York City. The owner can claim these meetings once a year.
Then, there are 555 Gift Goat tokens. Basically, holders of these get gifts from the VeeFriends team. After activating their token, the VeeFriends team will give them a minimum of six physical gifts from over a span of three years.
Finally, there are competition access tokens. Basically, holders of these VeeFriends NFTs get to compete with Gary in a game. These games include bowling, basketball, bubble hockey, ping pong, and many others.
Additionally, there are 165 group access tokens which unlock shared experiences with Gary other VeeFriends NFT holders. The 9,400 Admission tokens come in different levels of rarity but all holders get to attend VeeCon.
Gary Vee Sorcerer Scholarship: How To Win An NFT for free!
Actually, Gary Vee also launched the Sorcerer Scholarship, which offers a mentoring session from Gary Vee himself. Then, five Sorcerer Scholarship Tokens, only available via application grant the holders 45-minute mentorship session with Gary Vee for 1 year. Plus, they also boast learning sessions with Gary Vee’s personal and professional network and an optional career opportunity at a Vayner-X Company.
What is Veecon?
Veecon is a multi-day convention for VeeFriends holders and influencial people in the NFT industry. The convention focuses on entrepreneurship, marketing, ideas, creativity, community building, and more.
The VeeFriends team promised to give NFT holders a three-year (2022 – 2024) access pass However, this was only the beginning. In the following months, Gary Vee has only added more exclusive benefits to token holders.
VeeCon features tons of amazing talks, galleries, installations and more from VeeFriends and other top collections. Check out our top 10 moments from Veecon to see what we mean!
Taking place in Minneapolis in May, VeeCon is one of the biggest real-life Web3 events of the year. Despite the strange coincidental timing of the 2022 bear market this year, VeeCon was a roaring success.
“VeeCon 2022 is inspired by favorite events I’ve seen throughout my life, including business conferences, music festivals, closed-door offsite events, and not least of all, summer camp activities,” said Gary Vee. “This is the career-defining conference of my life, and I will deliver.”
Although the entry is not cheap, can you really put a price on rubbing shoulders with Pharrell Williams?
Check out our exclusive Interview at VeeCon with Gary Vaynerchuk himself about how that journey was for him!
How do I buy VeeFriends NFTs?
Obviously, as the collection is now sold out, the only way you can get Series 1 VeeFriends NFTs is through secondary marketplaces like OpenSea and LooksRare. Although, you might want to check out your budget, because these Gary Vee NFTs are not cheap.
Whichever marketplace you choose, just ensure you’re buying the official VeeFriends NFT Collection by checking for the verified badge.
Why are VeeFriends So Expensive?
The most obvious advantage of VeeFriends is that it has the full backing of Gary Vee and his network. The project has already proved its commitment to providing utility to NFT holders. Even during the launch, Gary focused on rewarding his supporters rather than opening the gates to celebrities. In fact, he took the grass-roots approach and launched his project on Discord. Anyway, most vee friends see the NFT price as a small price to get access to the man himself. I mean, Gary Vee’s net worth is over $200 Million, remember?
For all these reasons and more, some of the NFTs in the Vee Friends collection have sold for hefty sums. According to DappRadar data, Empathy Elephant from the collection takes the top spot for the highest sold NFT. It fetched $489, 540.
What is the VeeFriends Series 2 NFT Collection?
VeeFriends Series 2 launched on April 12. The collection features a total of 55,555 NFTs, with each token costing $995 in ETH. Essentially, Gary Vee wanted to extend the VeeFriends community.
All in all, VeeFriends Series 2 has 251 characters—236 characters from Series 1 and 15 new characters. Then, each character has a maximum supply of 220 tokens. Of these 220 NFTs, 214 are completely unique 1/1 tokens. Plus, there are just six Character Spectacular 1/1s.
VeeFriends Series 2 minted their 55,555 NFTs in four batches—Friends List mint, Series 1 free claim, public mint, and new character drop.
What are Gary Vaynerchuk’s Book Games Tokens?
Gary Vee launched Book Games close on the heels of the announcement of his book, “Twelve and a Half: Leveraging the Emotional Ingredients Necessary for Business Success”. Basically, this is a first-of-its-kind Layer 2 project that links to his book. Launched in August 2021, Book Games feature 125,000 burnable tokens in a game that’s “played forever”. Basically, its Gary Vee’s own VeeFriends’ version of the popular game uno. It’s a lot of fun.
The Book Games tokens showcase 16 unique artworks hand-drawn by Gary. Within this, there are 13 core Book Games characters and three Special characters. Each drawing has five spectacular rarities and each comes in one of the 15 randomly generated frames.
In January 2022, VeeFriends launched the gamified version of Book Games. You can play using the tokens’ various trading capabilities. For example, holders can either exchange their tokens for other NFTs, VeeCon tickets, and sports cards, or sell them. Holders were also eligible for the VeeFriends Series 2 Friendslist.
VeeFriends Trading Cards: Compete and Collect
VeeFriends 2 Mint opened to Veefriends and book games holders in early 2022. With each primary purchase of a VeeFriends series 2 NFT, they offered a box of brand new collectible trading cards. Titled “Compete and Collect”, the project created the cards in partnership with the trading card company, Zerocool.
Everyone who purchased Series 2 NFTs during the primary sale had the option to receive one box for every NFT they mint. Yes, completely for free! This was applicable to every primary buyer, irrespective of how they claim the NFTs.
Each box contains 52 random collectible VeeFriends cards that you can use to play the Compete and Collect game. Further, each card features a VeeFriends Series 2 character along with its score made up of its Aura, Skill, and Stamina. The rarer the card, the higher the player’s final score.
The game is played between two players, who start out with an equal number of cards. Each player will flip their cards one by one and the player with the highest score will take the other player’s card. Ultimately, the goal is to collect as many trading cards as possible.
VeeFriends Partnerships
Since its launch, VeeFriends has partnered with several notable brands and other NFT projects to bring added utility to members. For instance, early last year, the project partnered with NFT collection Avastars to giveaway 1700 Avastar NFTs to Vee Friends NFT holders. Similarly, in December, it collaborated with the leading global toy company, Mattel Creations to launch a UNO deck featuring VeeFriends characters.
VeeFriends has also teamed up with streetwear brand, Staple to launch a limited-edition “collaboration capsule”. The “capsule” included a Heather Gray Hoodie, a Black Short Sleeve Tee, and an artwork embroidered baseball cap. On the other hand, the project collaborated with Empathy Wines to release a limited edition Empathy Elephant 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine label featured VeeFriends’ character, Empathy Elephant. Last December, VeeFriends also partnered with LA streetwear designer Anwar Carrots Self-aware Hare Carrots merch drop.
Gary Vee’s Pre-Launch Program (PLP)
Simple. VeeFriends and Gary Vee promises utility. Thus, VeeFriends launched the “Pre-Launch Program(PLP). The idea behind VeeFriends PLP is to give upcoming projects a starting point in terms of building their own community. In exchange, PLP participants will donate 555 of their own project tokens to Vee Friends. Then, the project will randomly distribute the tokens to existing VeeFriends NFT holders.
The best bit about the Program is that Vee Friends holders may get NFT tokens from the next top NFT Project- all for free.
What is VeeFriends Iconics?
During the Series 2 launch, the VeeFriends team had announced a future surprise. They finally revealed it in August, 2022—VeeFriends Iconics! Basically, Iconics is a collection of 1,175, 1-of-1 NFTs with VeeFriends Series 1 Spectacular characters. What’s more, all the artworks are hand drawn by artist Gilang Bogy and are available in a signature WPAP (Wedha’s Pop Art Potrait) style.
That’s not all. With drops like the trading card game, VeeFriends have time and again shown their support for physical collectibles alongside their NFTs. This time too, eligible holders can claim a 12×12 Metarelics Canvas of their VeeFriends Iconics characters for free!
Eligible Series 1 Spectacular holders can head over to the website, connect their wallet, and give the necessary information to make the claim. Remember, the team took the snapshots on April 15! You have until 11:59 PM ET on September 17, 2022 to claim the physical pieces.
The inspiration behind Iconics
Firstly, who is Gilang Bogy, the artist behind the Iconics? Bogy is the artist behind the 2018 NFT project, CryptoStrikers, the first sports-based Ethereum project. Launched before the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a total of 100 players are featured in the collection. However, only 32 are available in the most exclusive set called “Iconics”.
“These CryptoStrikers “Iconics” are not only celebrated as the preeminent pieces of the collection, but also act as the first NFT appearance for many notable and highly-collectible athletes,” wrote VeeFriends in a blog. Some of the top NFTs in the collection have fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars. The one featuring Lionel Messi, for instance, sold for nearly 39.96 ETH (or $129,000) last year. The second highest-sold NFT in the collection features Mohamed Salah and fetched 35 ETH.
When it comes to the VeeFriends Iconics, the inspiration for the collection dates back to the 1990s. At the time, companies had started experimenting with different foils, materials, designs, and more to create trading cards.
“These never-before-seen patterns of texture and color brought a broader appeal to the trading card industry,” the blog adds. The rare designs also raised the value of the cards. VeeFriends is aiming for the same, thus opting for “an experimental nature and compelling refracted designs.”
Is Gary Vaynerchuk legit?
As an ardent NFT supporter and collector, Vee Friends is not his only focus. Gary Vee has also championed several other NFT projects such as Fame Lady Squad, Women Rise, and World of Women. Boasting over 3 million Twitter followers, it’s safe to say that Gary Vee is one of the most influential figures in the NFT ecosystem at present. If you’re looking for a solid community, VeeFriends NFT project is probably a good start.
“There will be 45 years of building this brand. Imagine giant franchises like Pokémon and Star Wars. Except, Vee Friends will be based on positive character traits, it will be about human kindness, etc., changing the human race for good. That’s the legacy.”
Indeed, VeeFriends NFT provides a blueprint for other projects to follow on how to bring value using blockchain technology— giving access, community building, and real-life utility. Yes Gary Vee has created a real life community of Friends coexisting in the NFT x web3 space.
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