In an auction that ran from Thursday through Saturday on OpenSea Drops, NFT trading cards released by Tampa Buccaneers tight-end Rob Gronkowski sold for a total combined price of over $1.6 million (830ETH).

The four-time Super Bowl champion had released a NFT ‘Championship Series’ which came in  five designs. Four were dedicated to each of his Super Bowl wins with a release of 87 editions. The fifth design commemorating Gronkowski’s career, came in a single edition and unsurprisingly was the biggest seller in the auction.

The ‘Gronk Career Highlight Refractor Card’ sold for roughly $435,000 (232ETH). The single edition includes game tickets, a meet & greet, and perhaps best of all, an all-access experience at Gronk Beach.

‘Gronk’ is one of the first professional athletes to release NFT’s. However, he will surely not be the last. Super Bowl LV opponent, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs announced this Friday that he is releasing a NFT series on Makersplace this March 17.

This week has been the biggest week NFT history. Digital artist Beeple sold his NFT work for over $69 million.

Perhaps it is utter madness, and it is surely a hype, nonetheless NFT fans argue that there is no difference to real-life collectibles. NFT’s are just unique digital collectibles created on the Blockchain and part of a new era, just as Gronk said on CNBC recently prior to the auction:

“It’s a digital trading card, so it’s a new era and it’s great to be that guy to kick it off.”