There are a variety of marketplaces on which to buy and sell NFTs: Nifty Gateway, MakersPlace, SuperRare, OpenSea, Decentraland, and Rarible are just a few of many. For NBA highlight collectibles, check out NBA Top Shot—where $230 million has already been spent trading tokens, or “moments.”
YellowHeart, the platform that Kings of Leon used to release their various album NFTs, is a music-centric platform that ensures authenticity of concert tickets and seeks to prevent scalping using blockchain. Some say it’s the future of concert-going, and can put more power back into the artists’ hands.
Last week, Christie’s Auction house set a record for the highest selling non-fungible token (NFT) to date, a transaction worth more than $69 million Ethereum tokens. This 1/1 piece dubbed “The First 5000 Days” by Beeple is just one of many NFTs selling at unprecedented amounts. Artists like Beeple are using NFTs to release digital artwork that can be verified authentic through the blockchain.
Non-fungible tokens are much different from other cryptocurrency investments. These tokens don’t have value from their utility like other cryptocurrencies. Instead NFTs have value because of the media attached to them –– the most common forms of media on NFTs today are art and music, but NFTs have the potential to tokenize any real world asset.
Step 1: Make an NFT Marketplace Account
There are many marketplaces to buy and sell NFTs. Depending on which marketplace you choose, you’ll be able to purchase different types of art or collectibles. A lot of these websites have secondary marketplaces with a variety of NFTs, but each platform operates slightly differently.
Here are some of the most popular NFT marketplaces:
- • Opensea is a marketplace for NFTs that operates on Ethereum. Users can interact with the network to exchange non-fungible tokens for cryptocurrency. It hosts a variety of digital collectibles, from video game items to digital artwork. To use the platform, you need a web3 cryptocurrency wallet such as Metamask. Metamask is a crypto wallet chrome extension that lets you interact with certain platforms like Opensea.
- • Rarible is a platform allowing digital artists and creators to issue and sell custom crypto assets that represent ownership in their digital work. Of note, Rarible is both a marketplace for those assets, as well as a distributed network built on Ethereum that enables their trade without a middleman.
- • SuperRare is a social network for NFTs. Each piece on the platform is unique, and users can buy and sell these original pieces on its website. The platform operates with Ethereum’s network, so you’ll need to fund your account with Eth tokens to make your purchase.
- • Nifty Gateway is an NFT marketplace owned by the popular cryptocurrency exchange Gemini. The platform works with popular artists such as Steve Aoki, Grimes, 3LAU and many others to release artwork on the primary marketplace. The company also has a secondary marketplace that allows collectors to resell artwork. You can fund your Nifty account with Ethereum, or you can connect a credit card directly on its website.
- • NBA Top Shot is a marketplace for licensed NBA collectibles. These digital items are a new take on basketball cards; these digital cards are more interactive than traditional trading cards. For example, the cards have in-game highlights of the featured players. The highest sold card on NBA Top Shot was a Lebron James Dunk card: the card featured a clip of James dunking on the Houston Rockets and sold for over $200,000.
Other notable places where you can buy NFT’s are Makersplace, Mintable, Axie Marketplace and BakerySwap.
Step 2: Fund Your Account
Since most NFTs are Ethereum-based tokens, many marketplaces for these collectibles accept Eth tokens as payment. If you already have an account with a cryptocurrency exchange, you can purchase Ethereum on it and send your crypto to your marketplace account.
If you don’t already have a crypto exchange account, Coinbase and eToro are good options for beginners. Other great ways are using metamask which allows you to buy Ethereum via apple pay. Crypto.com is also a rising star in the world of easy to use online crypto trading apps that allows you to easily buy crypto with your credit or debit card.
Step 3: Buy Your NFT
It’s an easy process to buy an NFT once you’ve funded your account. Most marketplaces are in an auction format, so you’ll need to submit a bid for the NFT you want to purchase. Some marketplaces operate more like an exchange, using highest bid and lowest ask for NFTs that have several prints.
A benefit of purchasing an NFT from the primary marketplace is the potential resale value directly after the product goes on sale. Some NFTs that are in high demand will sell for 5 to 10 times their initial price right after the release. The downside to buying NFTs on the primary marketplace is it’s hard to estimate the demand for the art. On the secondary marketplace, you can compare your purchase to previous sales.
