NFT 101: How To Buy

At the height of the NFT hype, two CryptoPunk NFTs sold for $7.5 million. In the same month, a digital collage by contemporary digital artist Beeple sold for $69.3m. Despite the hype dying down in recent years, the NFT space has developed a lot, with a larger focus on utility, Web3 gaming, and phygital products. Even with these changes, buying NFTs in most forms still follows a similar process .

Step one: hunt for exciting NFT projects

This is the fun part where you get your NFT goggles on and go searching for the best and most exciting projects out there. Whether you're in NFTs to look for unknown gems that will see their value skyrocket or to invest in a resonating community with a meaningful message, this is where you get into the trenches and scope out projects.

Look for NFTs that resonate with you on a cultural level. Follow NFT experts on X, follow artists, and see what projects the general community is hyping up.

Remember to search within the subcultures you are already part of. Whether it's in sports, music, skating, art, fashion, philosophy, or philanthropy— there are projects popping up everywhere across all kinds of communities.

Which NFTs will hold long-term value?

It's no secret that hype around NFTs has died down, experts and investors say that 95% of NFTs are now worthless according to the Independent. To avoid choosing the wrong projects, and find the ones that is more likely to withstands the pits and peaks, you need to consider two main things.

First, look for projects that have reliable, credible creators with a solid team behind them. Just like anyone can put paint on canvas, anyone can create an NFT— knowing which ones are valuable or not is a large part of the game now.

Second, make sure the project has a meaning, purpose, and community behind it. NFTs that are made for the sake of it are destined to fail in the long term. The reason for this is simple: people stop caring. The projects that will see long-lasting growth and maintenance value are the ones that cater to a specific community or worldview.

A great example of a well-run NFT project that has stood the test of time so far is CryptoPunks. It launched in 2017 and is a collection of 10,000 unique pixel portraits based on the 80s London punk scene. They are not invincible; they did suffer during previous NFT crashes, but they have a long-standing community behind them and are known as one of the most successful NFT collections to date. Despite the general devaluing of NFTs across the market, rare alien CryptoPunks are still valued in the tens of thousands.

Step two: buy cryptocurrency

NFTs are almost exclusively bought using cryptocurrency.

Most NFT marketplaces run on the Ethereum blockchain. This means you need to buy some ETH on an exchange (such as Gemini, Binance, or Coinbase).

Side note: If you are choosing to purchase an NFT on the SOL blockchain, you’ll need to buy SOL instead, but don’t worry about that for now. Make sure you read the next steps in this guide before you make a decision on which crypto to buy.

Once you own some Ethereum on an exchange, you can then transfer this to a digital wallet. This may seem like a convoluted way of doing things, but it’s all in place to make sure your digital assets are safe and secure. Besides, it doesn’t take long, and once you have your exchange and wallets set up, everything else becomes easy.

The wallet you choose is dependent on which blockchain your chosen marketplace runs on. Most marketplaces, such as OpenSea and Rarible, run on the Ethereum blockchain. This requires you to use wallets such as:

• MetaMask

• Base App

• Trust Wallet

Again, if you are buying an NFT from the SOL blockchain, you’ll need a different type of wallet. But we’ll discuss those later when we’re talking about Solanart.

For some marketplaces, however, you can buy crypto straight from them. Keep in mind though, the transaction fees tend to be much higher so it’s much better to purchase crypto from exchanges first and transfer them to your wallet.

Step three: connect your wallet to a marketplace

An NFT marketplace is a platform to buy, sell, and browse NFTs.

To sign on to an NFT marketplace, you’ll need a digital wallet. Your wallet acts as a username and password and lets you interact with the NFT marketplace, such as the ones listed below. Once you’ve connected your wallet, you’re ready to start browsing the market and placing bids.

Where can I buy NFTs?

There are plenty of platforms available where you can buy NFTs like Rarible and OpenSea. We have a complete guide comparing Rarible and OpenSea to help you decide which one is right for you.

Step four: purchase your NFT on a marketplace

So, you've picked your NFT and you're ready to purchase. The next step should be easy, and it often is, but it’s not uncommon to run into difficulties. Buying an NFT is not the same as purchasing an item on Amazon or eBay— there are other factors at play that make it more complex.

To use the most common example, let’s pretend you wanted to buy an NFT off OpenSea. If you've got your wallet sorted, it should log you in automatically. If it doesn't click the wallet icon in the top right corner, and login to your wallet.

Next, if you know the project you're looking for, you can type it in on the search engine. Let’s say you were buying a CryptoPunks piece. You’ll see here that it is pretty easy to find: once you type it in, there is a blue tick that indicates that the collection is authentic. You need to be careful and ensure the project you choose is authentic, as there are a lot of fakes out there.

Tip: If you are unsure about whether the collection you have clicked on is official, go to the project's website or X. They will usually have a link that you can be certain will navigate you to the official collection. You will see a few pieces of data, such as ‘floor price’.

So, if you just want to be part of a community and are not too fussed about the piece itself, just go for one on the floor. If you are more focused on the individual NFT itself, browse through and find one you like.

Purchase the NFT

Once on the NFT listing, you’ll see two buttons. ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Make Offer’. If you are happy with the price the NFT is being offered at, click 'Buy Now'.

You will be taken to another page and assuming you have enough funds, you can click ‘Confirm Purchase’. Once you do this, first you will pay a gas fee. This is a fee paid to ETH miners and is usually between $90 and $150 depending on how busy the network is.

After gas fees are paid, the relevant funds from your wallet will be transferred to the previous owner and the NFT will appear in your profile.

If you decide to make an offer, you are required to input an amount less than the buy now option (obviously). You can then set a time limit in which the NFT owner has time to accept or not. If the time runs out, your offer is automatically rejected.

Step five: display your NFT

So now you're a proud NFT owner- congrats! You are officially a part of the NFT community, and it’s your right to showcase it. Let’s get into some cool ways to display your NFT to the world (other than just having it as a screensaver on your phone for you to look at).

Display your NFT online

Although they may be digital assets, you can still display your NFTs to the public. One popular way of doing this is to put it as your profile picture on social media, such as X or Instagram.

Then there's a bunch of web-based social media platforms for NFTs, where you showcase your favorite crypto art. Basically, it’s the Instagram of NFTs – you can follow other users to populate your feed, you can like, share, and comment on their NFTs, and discover what’s trending on the platform. When you sign up for an account, connect your wallet and choose the NFTs you want featured on your profile, like Lazy.

Display your NFT in real-life

Whether it's hanging up a printed version or using a screen to display it, there are some really cool ways to display your NFT in your home or workspace.

Showcasing your animated NFTs in their full glory using a video frame is perhaps the most interesting— it’s like being in some futuristic gallery. These are digitized frames made for NFTs, and all you need to do is sign in to your wallet, connect to WiFi, and begin casting your own digital piece.

Keep in mind though, these frames don’t come cheap – a 10” frame may cost over $300. Still, it’s worth the investment if you want to do your NFTs justice, and let’s be honest – having an entire screen dedicated to a digital asset is pretty innovative interior design.