vIRL NFT versus Physical Print

Hello, I'm Byron from Canada and I draw zombies.

Over the last 6 months or so I have had more than a few requests from people to purchase the original artwork and prints that I made into NFTs. People want to own the actual artwork or display an actual physical print, as well as the digital NFT.

Before I entered the crazy world of NFTs, I was a working artist trying to sell original artwork and prints online. I only moderately successful because it is hard to create an audience that is willing to spend real money to get on physical artwork or prints mailed out to them from a small time artist.

The NFT scene changed that, kinda.

The biggest problem with selling original artwork and prints, besides finding the buyers, was shipping things out. It was more stressful than I care to admit.

So when NFTs came along, I gave up the mail order game and stuck to the digital assets. I boxed up all my artwork and dove head first into the WAX blockchain.

So why am I getting back into selling original artwork and my signed prints? I don't know ... I guess the time is right and I like to try new things, plus I've been cleaning out my basement after the flood and I have rediscovered just how much stuff I have.
So it's time to start shipping things out again ... or at least selling the rights to owning the work.

And that is where vIRLs come in.

By buying the vIRL NFT of a specific piece, the metadata inside that NFT clearly states that you also own the actual physical product, and buy following the instructions in the metadata, the person can claim the physical product and have it sent to them.
For example ...

So in my case, when someone buys the vIRL NFT they own the physical artwork or print. When they are ready to actually have it in their home, they contact me so I can figure out what it will cost them to get it shipped. When I know, I sell them a new NFT specifically for the shipping, and when they get it they blend both the shipping NFT and the vIRL NFT together to get a new NFT that will say something like ... "I Bought this from Byron"

But WHY would anyone want to buy a vIRL NFT in the first place? Well several reasons that I can think of ... and there's probably some I never even thought of.

The ones I can think of are:
1. Support the artist
2. Support the artist and KNOW you OWN an actual thing that is tied to the NFT
3. Support the artist, know you own it but don't need it right now because you can't put any more art on your walls anyways, so keep it with the artist to keep it safe.
4. Support the artist, own the physical via NFT proof, and then when the artist becomes even more famous, sell the NFT for higher profit that benefits both you and artist without having to worry about shipping stuff around.
I'm sure there are a lot of other reasons to owning a vIRL NFT but that's all I can think of at the moment. The thing I like about it is that owning the NFT means you own the original artwork or the print, without actually having to own the original painting right away.

So that's what I am slowly doing, adding more vIRLs to my AtomicHub storefront. My first two are here:
https://wax.atomichub.io/market/sale/86867216
https://wax.atomichub.io/market/sale/87003457

When I do ship out my artwork and prints, I always include some extra goodies with every order, so people always get more than they expect.

Now the thing I need to spend some time doing, is going down to the post office and getting some quotes for shipping my artwork to different countries. Some places cost a lot more than others, and there's different rates with tracking numbers or without tracking numbers.

I kinda lost my train of thought for this article, so if you have any questions or want some clarity, please let me know.
Thanks for reading :)