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- Welcome back to Yahoo Finance.

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Well, NFTs keep
gaining in popularity.

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And the latest
[INAUDIBLE] the allure

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of a designer Hermes
Birkin, out of

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reach to mere mortals tying
them into the digital art space.

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Here to discuss is the
artist behind the MetaBirkin.

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His name is Mason Rothschild,
MetaBirkins NFT Series Artist.

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Thank you so much for
being with us, Mason.

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And congratulations
because it seems

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like it's been quite the hit.

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MASON ROTHSCHILD: Thank you.

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- And I wanted to just provide
some context and some numbers

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as well.

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So the first MetaBirkin
sold for about 10 Ethereum.

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There's so much
price volatility,

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but let's say it sold
for above $40,000.

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And in five days, about
600,000 in volume sold.

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The cheapest listed MetaBirkin
is now about $13,500,

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on par with one of the lower
end of an Hermes Birkin bag,

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I guess.

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So this isn't your first
foray into Birkin art.

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What is the attraction
for you and for the buyer?

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MASON ROTHSCHILD:
I mean, for me,

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there's nothing more iconic
than the Hermes Birkin bag.

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And I wanted to see
as an experiment

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to see if I could create
that same kind of illusion

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that it has in real life
as a digital commodity.

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And I feel like I've
kind of accomplished that

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with the statistics that we
kind of have today, is being

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able to put together this
kind of digital commodity

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everybody loves, bringing
it into the digital world

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with this introduction
of the metaverse

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and seeing how it works
out and how it plays

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in the hands of like the
community, selling it at that,

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keeping that scarcity
of 100 bags total

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and seeing what the
community does with it.

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Because I feel like there's
nothing stronger in this NFT

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space than community and being
able to garner the attention

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of people and build that
relationship with the consumer

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and being able to bring it
forward and keep pushing

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and the support has been crazy.

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ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: It
really has been crazy.

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And, you know, you
talk about trying

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to build that relationship
with the community

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via the metaverse.

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We're looking at
the bags right now.

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They're pretty incredible.

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Talk to me about the inspiration
for doing this with fur.

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That's fur that you
see around these bags.

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MASON ROTHSCHILD: Yeah.

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ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: And I
know you also did the one where

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there was a pregnant
Hermes Birkin bag, where

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it was giving-- you
were able to see

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a little baby inside the bag.

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That sold for over
$23,000 in May.

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MASON ROTHSCHILD:
Yeah, it actually

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just resold to a collector
two days ago for $42,000.

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So that one is a collector
in the metaverse called

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SolaVerse is actually
putting them together

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and putting an auction together
in their like metaverse

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gallery.

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So that one just resold.

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But for this one, I
wanted to kind of,

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like I come from the
fashion industry,

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you know, just working
from the retail aspect

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in Saint Laurent and Dior.

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And with Kering Group's
like recent initiatives

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to go fur-free and you kind
of be a little bit more

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sustainable in the
future, I kind of wanted

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to bring a little bit of
irony to the situation

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and make these, you know,
MetaBirkins out of fur

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as that fur-free initiative.

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Since it's not doing anything
for animals or anything

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like that, it's actually
just digital simulated fur.

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So it's kind of
like a play on that.

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The baby Birkin,
like you alluded to,

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was kind of a play on the
words baby and Birkin,

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which is like the most
sought after Birkin size.

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So I decided to put
a baby in a Birkin

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and go through all
stages of pregnancy.

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And there, you know,
I'm really using it

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as kind of just artistic
representation of like what

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goes on in my head.

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- How surprised are
you by the reactions

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that these bags
have been getting?

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Because everyone and
his brother and sister

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want to get into the NFT space.

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The latest one is
Beyonce saying,

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you know, NFTs are the
wave of the future.

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Do you think that it
is, you know, that it's

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overblown a little bit?

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How surprised are
you by the reaction?

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Because, you know, there
are some out there that say,

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I had this conversation with
my daughter, for example.

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And she said, no way would
I spend that kind of money

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for digital art of a Birkin.

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What am I going to do?

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I want to hold it.

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I want to feel it.

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I want to walk around with it.

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MASON ROTHSCHILD: My thing is
that with this introduction

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of the metaverse.

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You know, like we all
already live in kind

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of our phones and everything.

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And this introduction of
like Web3 and the metaverse

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is allowing us to actually
own these commodities

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in this place where we can
actually show them off.

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I was explaining to
somebody before, there's not

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much difference in between
having the crazy car

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or the crazy
handbag in real life

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because it's kind
of just that, that

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showing of like wealth or that
kind of explanation of success.

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And now you're able to bring
that into the metaverse

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with these iconic NFTs that have
fetched crazy amounts of money

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in that resale market for NFTs.

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So I feel like the
difference between the two

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is like getting a little bit
blurred now because we have

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this new outlet, which is
the metaverse, to showcase

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our product, showcase them
in our virtual worlds,

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and even just show them online.

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You know, like people
have been posting

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the ones that they've gotten.

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And people kind of
like have this hype

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around them that like
oh, wow, you were

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able to secure one of those.

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ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS:
And real quick

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here, Mason, I know
that when you're

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talking about high-end luxury
items like an Hermes bag,

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counterfeiting happens
all over the place.

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Are you concerned as
the artist that you're

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going to start getting
that happening here, even

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though they do say
blockchain is going to keep

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it all on the up-and-up?

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But do you have to look out
for counterfeiting, you know,

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in the NFT space?

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MASON ROTHSCHILD: 100%.

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Actually, like before
my collection dropped,

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there was a bunch of
like counterfeit NFTs

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that weren't from my collection.

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We're in the process of like
verifying mine on OpenSea.

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But we had like $35,000,
$40,000 in volume of people

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buying fake versions
of my MetaBirkin.

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So, yeah, like counterfeits
are definitely there.

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I'm hoping that these platforms
have more of a connection

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with the artists moving
forward, so, you know,

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they don't lose out
on that kind of hype

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and people don't get scammed
and end up spending, you know,

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$40,000 on a fake.

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- All right, well,
Mason Rothschild,

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we are so excited for you
and so pleased to have you

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on the show.

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Congratulations with
all the success.

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MASON ROTHSCHILD:
Thanks for having me.

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- MetaBirkins NFT Series
Artist and we can't

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wait to see what comes next.