Can someone please explain this to me?

gallery | note me | journal | tumblr

Lately I've been seeing several deviations on the front page with the word ADOPT in the title, and the artist asking for people to adopt them but in exchange of money, via paypal or whatever. How the fuck does this work?

Is it like "pay me and I'll send you a nice HQ print" or just "pay me money and we'll pretend you're taking care of this drawing I made"? Cause that's just sad.