Anyone Selling Prints As NFTs?

[smoke665]

All this block chain mumble, jumble sounds like so much "pixie dust" to me, but apparently there are some photographers making money selling NFT images. What are NFTs – and can photographers make money by selling them?

Anyone out there doing this? Is this really the wave of the future or a slick way to get suckered.

 

[SquarePeg]

People are buying these? Seems weird.

 

[smoke665]

People are buying these? Seems weird.

There's a whole lot of weird going on in these cloud transactions. One thought I had is it would let you bypass the online stock photo sites. Apparently there are quite a few selling, check out this site. https://opensea.io/explore-collections?tab=photography-category

 

[weepete]

The market for crypto is bonkers at the moment, and I think there's a lot of mis-understandings about what NFTs are. Currently there's a lot of people buying stuff as they think it will be worth something in the future, rather than what they are buying having intrinsic value.

If I was a full time pro, I would probably be seriously looking into doing a few limited edition NFTs to try and cash in on the trend. It may also be good in the long run to protect IP. I think that ultimatley, a few big names could make a lot of money out of it, but for most normal photographers, it's not going to mean or change stuff.

 

[smoke665]

@weepete I don't know enough about it to know one way or the other, but I think it's worth finding out more about.

 

[weepete]

@smoke665 it could very well be. I could see it fitting into a digital workflow, or as part of a marketing campain.

But from my basic understanding it's a long number that's generated, traceable, then verified by the blockchain. Any artwork would also have files that are accociated with that NFT (eg a jpeg image file). From there I'm unsure about how these interact exactly, but I think they would be seperate things. It's a really good proof of purchace, however, I don't think it has any real use outside of that. I don't think it will prevent screengrabs, copy paste, etc. So, it may well turn out to be a solution waiting for a problem.

That being said, if there's universal adoption, with platforms requiring authentication using the blockchain before displaying items, it could be useful. But that's a big ask. Personally, I'm pretty sceptical. But maybe I just don't understand it enough.

 

[smoke665]

@weepete as I said earlier, I don't know enough to even ask intelligent questions. I'm hoping someone in the group will have knowledge to enlighten us!!!!

 

[cgw]

The former First Lady is in on the deal!

Melania Trump steps back into the public eye

After months of relative public silence, former first lady Melania Trump before Christmas emerged from private life to announce a new project: A piece of artwork, a watercolor closeup of her eyes, in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) was now available for purchase.

www.cnn.com

 

[Rickbb]

Been thinking about doing it. Used to mine some crypto, made a few bucks over the electricity cost. Maybe NFT would be the way to go.

edit to add:

Just checked opensea.io and out of 201 collections of NFT photos only16 are above 0.00 ether coins. The rest currently have no value. Doesn’t sound like much until you realize that, currently anyway, one ether coin is worth $3,600!

The most expensive NFT photo they list is worth 0.41 ether, or $1,500. The least expensive is 0.05 ether, or $185.

 

[Rickbb]

Found this shot on another site that is selling for 5 ETH, that’s 15 grand!

Holy cow!

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[AlanKlein]

All this block chain mumble, jumble sounds like so much "pixie dust" to me, but apparently there are some photographers making money selling NFT images. What are NFTs – and can photographers make money by selling them?

Anyone out there doing this? Is this really the wave of the future or a slick way to get suckered.

I just read the article. It says you don't own the copyright when you buy the NFT. So what have you bought? You can't make prints. So all you own is some 1's and 0's in your computer to look at on a screen. That's it. Well, my wife might like that because she doesn't want me to hang any more photos on the walls.

Also, it says that the artist can sell multiple NFTs of the same picture which of course would bring down the value of each NFT. (Each NFT would have its own blockchain ID number).

But the main point is what do you have? Wouldn't it be better to just buy a print, to begin with, or buy the whole thing including the copyright? Then you have something tangible. Who's going to buy 1's and 0's years from now when you try to resell it?

 

[Rickbb]

It’s like buying stocks, you don’t own the company, just a piece with a promise of some value.

The seller can set up the sale as a one off or limited edition copies. Some offer a high resolution print to the buyer. Copyrights belong to the creator, like writing a book, someone else publishes, sells the copies and makes the lions share of the profits. But the writer retains the copyright and gets a little in exchange for the use.

As for reselling it, most buyers today are just speculating hoping to hit the lottery with an NFT of some sort, any sort. Probably none of them are buying because they want to look at the work as an art object.

Reminds me of the real estate scams going around in 08, your bank sells your 100k mortgage for a 10% markup to another bank who sells for another 10% markup, and so on. One day they wake up and realize they are holding a note that costs 200k for a house that’s really only worth 100k.

Sooner or later, like all investment markets, someone somewhere will be left holding an empty bag that costs them fortune.

 

[AlanKlein]

It’s like buying stocks, you don’t own the company, just a piece with a promise of some value.

The seller can set up the sale as a one off or limited edition copies. Some offer a high resolution print to the buyer. Copyrights belong to the creator, like writing a book, someone else publishes, sells the copies and makes the lions share of the profits. But the writer retains the copyright and gets a little in exchange for the use.

As for reselling it, most buyers today are just speculating hoping to hit the lottery with an NFT of some sort, any sort. Probably none of them are buying because they want to look at the work as an art object.

Reminds me of the real estate scams going around in 08, your bank sells your 100k mortgage for a 10% markup to another bank who sells for another 10% markup, and so on. One day they wake up and realize they are holding a note that costs 200k for a house that’s really only worth 100k.

Sooner or later, like all investment markets, someone somewhere will be left holding an empty bag that costs them fortune.

That's the greater fool concept. You hope there's another fool willing to pay more for it than you did. Someone winds up holding the bag when they run out of fools.

 

[TATTRAT]

I've been looking into it for a while now and even made the plunge. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. At the end of the day, art is only worth what someone is willing to pay and if I can make some money on the side with work that I already have just sitting on a hard drive, then why not? I'm sure that just like the standard art market, it can be a front for money laundering and what not, but if I'm not breaking a law by selling the NFT, then I'll gladly take the .eth and run.

I can also see how NFT may be more accpeted in the future and more stuff may move to the format for validating things from marriage licensees to deeds. remember when people said that the internet was a fad, and emails would never catch on? paypal? ebay? It all stats somewhere, so again, no harm in trying.

 

[AlanKlein]

I've been looking into it for a while now and even made the plunge. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. At the end of the day, art is only worth what someone is willing to pay and if I can make some money on the side with work that I already have just sitting on a hard drive, then why not? I'm sure that just like the standard art market, it can be a front for money laundering and what not, but if I'm not breaking a law by selling the NFT, then I'll gladly take the .eth and run.

I can also see how NFT may be more accpeted in the future and more stuff may move to the format for validating things from marriage licensees to deeds. remember when people said that the internet was a fad, and emails would never catch on? paypal? ebay? It all stats somewhere, so again, no harm in trying.

Can you show us what NFT you have for sale and any info about it?