How to Buy NFTs - A Guide by Blockgeeks

Updated on: October 19th, 2022
This content has been Fact-Checked.
How To Buy NFTs

Since you’re looking into how to buy NFTs, I am guessing you know what NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are, so let’s dive in.

We have several NFT marketplaces that are selling everything from virtual goods to real-life assets, including:

  • digital art
  • a piece of land in the metaverse
  • limited edition collectibles
  • music
  • rare stones
  • memes

Owning an NFT gives you ownership rights over that digital asset.

Until the invention of Bitcoin and the blockchain, any digital file could be copied an infinite number of times and every copy was exactly the same as the original. This was a problem that Bitcoin solved and ushered in a new era of digital money. Only one person can be the rightful owner of any specific BTC at any time.

Building on the same concept, NFTs have made it possible to provide verifiable digital ownership of a digital asset.

So owning NFTs gives value to the owner, but buying NFTs is not quite as easy as buying something from Amazon. Once you’re done reading this article, you will have all the information you need to buy your first NFT.

So let’s get into it and talk about what you need, which marketplaces to explore, and which NFT projects are worth investing in!

What Do You Need To Buy NFTs?

There are a few things you will need in order to buy NFTs. First among them is a crypto wallet. You can use any of the popular wallets such as Coinbase, MetaMask, or any Hardware Wallet.

You will also need some funds available in the right currency/token to buy your NFTs and some extra to pay for gas and/or transaction fees, as every marketplace charges a transaction fee.

What’s the right currency or token?

If a marketplace is built on the ethereum blockchain, you will need ETH to buy your NFT. If it is built on the Solana blockchain, you will need SOL. Some marketplaces have NFTs available to buy with multiple tokens or even USD.

Always make sure you have the appropriate funds and a native currency to buy NFTs.

Later, you can store your NFTs in the same wallet you used to buy it. If you don’t have a crypto wallet yet, read up on our guide where we rank the 10 best hardware wallets to safely store and manage your cryptos.

NFT Marketplaces to buy from in 2022

There are many NFT Marketplaces where you can buy NFTs but how do you buy them on those marketplaces? Below is a list and review of the most popular marketplaces.

Before you get started, it’s important to understand there are 3 ways for you to buy NFTs:

  1. Minting – You create the NFT from scratch and put it up for sale. You are the original/first owner of that NFT.
  2. Buy Now – You buy an NFT at the listed “buy now” price.
  3. Auction/Bidding – You get to place your bids on an NFT and whomever is willing to pay the most at the time of auction’s end gets ownership of the NFT.

Here’s a list of popular NFT Marketplaces to make purchases.

OpenSea

Category: Digital art, music, games, domain names, metaverse, sports, collectibles

Blockchain: Ethereum & PolyGon

OpenSea is the world’s largest dApp for buying, selling, and managing NFTs. It has a user base of over 600,000 users as of early 2022 and more than $4 billion in transactions have taken place on the platform to date.

OpenSea allows users to buy and sell NFTs from a variety of sources, including games, collectibles, art, and more. The platform also offers a wide range of features such as auctioning, bidding, and listing to help you buy NFTs.

Rarible

Rarible

Category: Digital art, photography, music, games, metaverse, memes

Blockchain Network: Ethereum & Tezos

Rarible is an open platform that welcomes anyone to join and participate in the NFT ecosystem. Users can buy, sell, or trade NFTs and enable deals with ease.

You can either place a bid or buy it instantly.

It has a sleek interface and user-friendly navigation for all users – kind of like Spotify; featuring top collections, hot bids, top sellers, and live auctions, all on the first page.

It has a user base of over 1.6 million users; created more than 400,000 NFTs with $274 million worth in trading volume to date.

SuperRare

SuperRare

Category: Digital Art

Blockchain Network: Ethereum

SuperRare is a platform that curates the best of art and design. It has an active social feed, calendar listings for upcoming exhibits, as well an editorial page with profiles on artists who are making waves in this new era.

With a market cap of more than $12 million, it’s the perfect place for artists to sell their one-of-a-kind pieces, and for art collectors to find unique artwork that they can’t get anywhere else.

Foundation

Foundation

Category: Digital Art

Blockchain Network: Ethereum

Foundation is one of the most popular NFT Marketplaces on the internet. It’s one of the places where you can find visionary artists and place bids on their artwork.

Foundation is known for its viral internet meme Nyan Cat which was sold for 300ETH, which is equivalent to USD $833,238 – at the current rate, and Pak’s Finite was also auctioned at Foundation for 444ETH, which is USD $1,233.192.24.

On Foundation, you can only place your bids to buy NFTs – the highest bid gets the NFT.

If you’re into collecting exclusive and rare art pieces, foundation may be the right choice. But it may cost you a higher gas fee, so you will have to decide for yourself if it’s worth it.

Looks Rare

Looks Rare

Category: Digital Art, collectibles

Blockchain Network: Ethereum

Looks Rare is a community-first platform that offers rewards to its users – meaning that it gives back to its community of creators and users for choosing Looks Rare to buy and sell NFTs.

Over the past few months its user base has grown tremendously to more than 30K a month with a trading volume valued at $3.06 billion.

Looks Rare has some of the most popular NFT collections available, including Lazy Lions.

[H3] Axie Infinity

Axie Infinity

Category: Video Game

Blockchain Network: Ethereum

Axie Infinity is a video game that is mostly inspired by Pokémon. Players collect different creatures called “Axies”, which they can then use to trade, battle other players, and build farming kingdoms.

These Axies are basically the NFTs.

Each Axie has its own unique physical traits as well as special abilities which give them unique offensive or defensive capabilities in battles. Players can sell or trade their Axies by placing them up for sale on the marketplace or can purchase them from other players.

If you loved Pokémon, you’re going to love Axie Infinity.

Aavegotchi

Aavegotchi

Category: Digital Art

Blockchain Network: PolyGon

Aavegotchi is a crypto collectible game where you can buy these unique crypto pets called Aavegotchis and trade them with other people on the marketplace.

These crypto pets have unique attributes defined by a rarity score and require food and care to help them thrive which they will express through their happiness. All that Aavegotchis will need is available on the Aavegotchi Bazaar.

You will need GHST tokens to make purchases on this Marketplace.

With a trading volume of $117.3 million, the marketplace allows users to take care of their Aavegotchis or sell them for another, happier Aavegotchi.

SolSea

SolSea

Category: Digital Art

Blockchain Network: Solana

SolSea likes to market themselves as “The Open NFT Marketplace on Solana.” because it enables creators to choose and embed licences when they mint NFTs.

In comparison to others, it offers incredibly fast transactions – something that is essential for a successful marketplace.

They have a variety of digital art collections on the marketplace with some of the most accredited artists who are creating the most popular digital artwork out there.

Its user base grew significantly over the past few months where more than 36K users per month buy and mint their collections. It has a monthly trading volume of $2.65 million and is only expected to grow because fast transactions, powered by Solana, is a huge appeal for NFT traders.

NBA Top Shot

NBA Top Shot

Category: Sports Collectibles

Blockchain Network: Flow

DapperLabs officially launched NBA Top Shot on the Flow platform in early 2020, with fans able to collect and trade NBA- and WNBA-licensed digital “moments.” Video highlights, player statistics, and box scores are included in these limited-edition packages or available through open trade on the larger market.

With more than 500K traders on the platform, it has an all-time trading volume of $862.37 million. Collectors may build curated collections, keep track of their favorite teams, and trade assets secured on the Flow blockchain.

How valuable are NFTs

If you are lucky enough to purchase an NFT from a collection that becomes very popular you could be holding a fortune. Here are some of the most valuable NFTs to date:

1. Everydays: the First 5000 Days sold for $69.3 million

Everydays NFT

Human One sold for $28.9 million

Human One NFT

CryptoPunk #3100 sold for $7.58 Million

CryptoPunk #3100

CryptoPunk #7804 sold for $7.57 Million

CryptoPunk #7804

Crossroads sold for $6.6 Million

Crossroads NFT

Ocean Front sold for $6 million

Ocean Front NFT

Stay Free sold for $5.4 million

Stay Free NFT

Replicator sold for $4.1 million

Replicator NFT

The First Tweet sold for $2.9 Million

The First Tweet NFT

Death Dip sold for $1.58 million

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NFT Projects to follow in 2022

NFT Projects to follow in 2022

The popular NFTs of today were worth way less than their value originally. Now they may be out of your reach, however, there are new NFT projects coming up in 2022 which are expected to grow in value. If you’re really into building your crypto portfolio, then starting now would be a great time.

How do you pick the right NFT project?

There are plenty of NFT projects out there. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, and to find your way through the tunnel and into the right NFT project, you will need to search a lot and make an educated decision.

However, there are some common practices that will help you sieve through the pile.

The best you can do is look out for the following red flags in NFT Projects that Wilxlee – creator of thelittlesnft collection on OpenSea – carefully curated in a twitter thread:

1. Undoxxed Team

2. Fake followers/account

3. Artificial Hype

4. Unrealistic Mint Price

5. Predatory Tactics

6. Meta Cliche

NFT projects Worth Exploring

Here’s a list for some of the most visionary NFT Projects that you need to explore in 2022:

Wrap Up!

Whether you’re a collector looking for the next big thing or an investor trying to get in on the ground floor of this exciting new asset class, it’s important to do your research before diving in.

We’ve given a quick rundown of what you need to know before buying NFTs and introduced you to some of the most popular marketplaces where you can buy them.

We also talked about the most valuable NFTs out there and a few tips on how to evaluate different projects and make sure you’re picking the right one for you.

With so many exciting things happening in the world of NFTs, now is definitely the time to get involved.

FAQs

What are NFTs?

NFTs could be anything of value like rare collectibles, expensive art, music, your identity, gaming objects, concert tickets, the deed to your house, absolutely anything valuable. These NFTs are built on blockchain technology and they use cryptographic tokens to represent unique assets.

What is Gas Fee?

Its the fee charged by the Ethereum network for enabling transactions.

What do you mean by Minting NFTs?

In crypto slang, minting NFTs means creating NFTs. So, if someone mints an NFT, it means they created that NFT on the blockchain.

Andrew Zapotochny
Andrew is the CEO of Blockgeeks and is the founder of AZ Blockchain, a boutique blockchain marketing company and consultancy. With 10 years of international experience in blockchain technologies, Andrew is known for launching tech ventures, leading marketing strategy development across dynamic fronts, and driving teams in executing digital campaigns, and creating successful new products. His entrepreneurial goal is to make blockchain accessible to all and create a mainstream hub for everyone to learn about blockchain technology. Andrew is super proud to have worked with global giants like KFC, Budweiser, Unilever, TD Bank, and government institutions. You can connect with Andrew on Linkedin.

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