World’s first — Buy a crypto collectible token at an NFT marketplace, and redeem for a physical item mailed directly to you. Mike Kobneck Follow May 25, 2019 · 7 min read

We took our collectible Crypto Bobbleheads, turned them into redeemable tokens, and mail the item to you after buying on a marketplace — Secret: It involves NFT empowerment!

This article is an overview of how I, an non-technical crypto and blockchain enthusiast, was able to use Mintable to create Non Fungible Tokens, and OpenSea to list their first ever NFT that is bought with crypto, redeemed for a physical collectible item, and mailed to your door. That’s right, you buy the Non Fungible Token, redeem it for the item, and you receive the item with attached token in the mail within just a few days.

To buy a Proof of Bobble Collectible, take a look at the NFT collection on OpenSea here.

What is Proof of Bobble?

Collectible bobbleheads of crypto celebs!! Initially the bobbleheads were thought of more as a novelty item, a swag type of offering. A fun side hustle that would be a cool way for people to show off their support for this budding community. This bobblehead project started right after the ERC-721 standard was announced, and I went back and forth on this as a more long term project than just selling a figure. The idea of putting a Non Fungible Token on a collectible bobblehead immediately jumped out to me as a perfect use case. To apply that token to a real world application even though it came with some challenges, had always been on the back burner. The token itself allows the purchaser to know its authenticity, just like a certificate of authentication on a collectible baseball bat, helmet, etc. Unfortunately, as someone with no technical development experience, I ran into many walls. Big walls. Minting tokens, selling items with a digital footprint, along with all the other challenges found with a very early technology.

Fortunately, there are two projects that have really taken the NFT world by storm, and make this possible.

Powered by Mintable

The first challenge I had as a non-technical fella, was minting these tokens. I have zero development experience, and this barrier was a definite show stopper. Mintable made tokenizing this project possible, by doing all the leg work for me. Let me reiterate that, I started this project over 9 months ago with the goal of putting these items on the blockchain, and had this box of bobbleheads sitting in my closet for quite some time. After doing some light reading and coming across Mintable, I was very quick to reach out and dust off this box of toys. Mintable is a very easy to use decentralized application that allows you to mint NFT’s quickly and incredibly easy. If you haven’t seen this dapp yet, you absolutely have to take a look! It’s ridiculously easy to mint your own tokens, and you can make them for a seemingly endless list of items.

I chose to use the “Quick Mint” option, and within a matter of minutes I had my tokens created. The actual process is much faster looking back, and I made sure to take my time so I could understand what exactly I was doing. Mintable is a fairly young platform, however I had no hang ups or issues during the minting of these tokens. Even though I found the process fairly straightforward, I did reach out to the team prior to my minting, and they walked through the process while giving real time feedback on their application. That right there is incredible! As of writing this article, they had just hit their 200th user!

Finding the NFT Marketplace

The second piece of this puzzle was finding a marketplace to sell these NFT’s. OpenSea does exactly what I was looking for. A NFT specific marketplace where buyers can purchase these tokens, and then redeem it for the physical item. Up until now, OpenSea was a marketplace to buy, sell, and discover digital assets. Looking through their portfolio of digital assets, they have hundreds of thousands to choose from. However, this will be the sites first NFT that is redeemed for an actual physical product. I go into the purchase and redemption process below so you can see a little more on this.

This will be the first NFT with an attached physical item to be sold through OpenSea, and we can only hope for more!

Why are we selling Collectible Crypto bobbleheads as NFTs (and what is a NFT)?

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain is a relatively young technology, however there is no doubt that both have massive potential for real world application. Currencies are an obvious use, and blockchain for verification of information can be a great way to deter fraud. With the introduction of the ERC-721 NFT (Non Fungible Token), this allows a whole new world of potential uses for this token. Primarily we’ve seen this new concept used for digital assets like cats, pieces of digital art, and other media. For more info on the ERC-721 NFT, take a look at this article that does a great job of explaining the token’s anatomy, and this article that hones in on the application of the token.

The use of the NFT, acts as a certificate of authenticity, and validates the item was in fact created and sold by Proof of Bobble. Using the tokens in this manner will open up a massive world of physical assets being stored and verified on the blockchain.

Proof of Bobble is releasing the first series, a very limited number of these collectibles. Only 10 as a matter of fact! This initial run will be incredibly rare, and for sale to buyers in the US only. While this is a relatively small number of figures to be released, we are already working on the next couple series of collectibles to be made! All will be unique, all will be a limited number, and all will come with their own NFT!

Buying Process

The idea of purchasing a physical item, and having its authentication stored on the blockchain is a new idea and fairly straightforward. I’m going to walk you through the buying process and how the customer obtains this collectible.

The first step to making this happen is to get yourself set up with a MetaMask wallet and get set up with an OpenSea account. Both are incredibly easy, and you can start bidding on this item right away!

Here you can see the Proof of Bobble collection: Proof of Bobble Collection

Upon purchasing of the NFT, the new visits the Redemption page at Proof of Bobble’s site, and completes the redemption form.

Proof of Bobble will reply with the unique ETH address where the NFT will be transferred to a paper wallet.

Upon transferring to the paper wallet, the QR code holding the items public address is affixed to the collectible, and is ready for shipment to the new owner! In just a few short days, the incredibly excited owner receives the authentic bobblehead and private key.

Here you see the public address where the item’s NFT resides, and that this is item 1/10 of that specific series.

How Proof of Bobble plans to keep kicking ass and supporting the NFT community

This project took several turns, and has been continually evolving. After learning about the minting process, selling and transferring tokens, and what challenges still remain, there is no doubt that this project has just grown a pair of Non Fungible legs. We will be working tirelessly to identify and evaluate how to make the application of these NFT’s on physical items a standard within a variety of markets and use cases.

Over the next several months we will be working diligently with our partners to collaborate, and of course release the next several series of these collectible bobbleheads. The next batch will be released by the end of the summer, and of course, if there are any specific people you, the crypto community would like to see with their own NFT, let us know!!

Tokens are minted, bobbleheads are prepared for sale! Take a peek at OpenSea for the chance to buy their first physical item to be sold, and the NFT to go along with it!

To learn a little more about the projects involved, check out these links!

Proof of Bobble

Proof of Bobble Redemption

Proof of Bobble Collection on OpenSea

Mintable

OpenSea