The Best Way to Buy NFTs
There are a lot of good and bad NFT projects out there, learn how to buy an NFT the safe and smart way
So you want to start buying NFTs, huh? Well, there may be a few things you need to be aware of before you jump in. As you may or may not know, learning about crypto is a tall order, and NFTs command their own impressive corner in the world of crypto.
Sure, the amazing headlines are alluring and persuasive, and maybe that’s what caught your attention to NFTs. But the million-dollar sales only account for a small amount of the trading volume in the industry. Of all NFT sales from the top 10 NFT marketplaces (a month prior to this article), the average sales price rounds out to $13,606.40 in USD terms. Removing CryptoPunks average price of $123,690 the average price falls to $1,374.89.
But is there a tried and true process you can use to buy NFT? What do you need to know? Aside from a few tools to purchase your first NFT (crypto wallet + see phrase record, crypto, a reputable marketplace to buy from) there are a few techniques to keep in mind.
From performing an NFT background check to select an NFT marketplace, and finally purchasing an NFT, we’ll walk through some basic procedures to help you make a safe and smart NFT purchase.
Choosing the Right NFT Marketplace
You may find it interesting that there are a bunch of NFT scammers and fake marketplaces out there (just see our article “Watching Out For Fake NFTs!”). But rest assured, you’ll mostly come across good actors as there are plenty of safe, reliable options to choose from in the NFT industry. The ‘right’ NFT marketplace for you is a personal decision, but here are some things you might want to consider.
If it’s your first time marketplace shopping, the best rule of thumb to hold fast to is whether or not an NFT marketplace provides metadata on their NFTs (we’ll touch more on this in the next section). But other good signs are if the marketplace verifies users, and if users offer their opinions on and verify their experiences in the marketplace. Even if you’re not new to the NFT game, it may be a good idea to choose one that is reportedly easy to find and trade NFTs on.
Before you start window shopping for NFTs, make sure you know what types of crypto are accepted in the marketplace. While one market will only accept Ethereum, another will accept Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, USDT and so on. This is important because the type of crypto the platform uses to make NFT transactions will impact how much you pay for fees. Always cross-check fees from different platforms using the same underlying cryptocurrencies to make sure you won’t get taken advantage of.
The Fayre marketplace is launching soon, and with it will be a handful of unique NFT experiences. Low fees, special perks, multichain (ability to use several cryptocurrencies to trade) transaction abilities, user verification, and a sweet platform will set Fayre in a league of its own. Plus, all of our NFTs will be highly secure!
Approaching NFTs Securely
It’s not uncommon for folks to rush into buying their first NFT without taking security factors into consideration, or worse, knowing if an NFT is legitimate or not. NFTs are assets, and should be highly regarded as sovereignty tools for the individual, which is why NFT security is incredibly important.
Blockchain technology is the foundation for all cryptos and all NFTs. They are decentralized public ledgers for storing information and are designed to be immutable when created properly. All NFT marketplaces should provide you with blockchain metadata to any NFT you wish to buy so that you can verify its existence. That being said, if you come across an NFT with misleading blockchain metadata it’s a scam, or if there is no blockchain metadata available, consider it a scam. But how do you know if the data is legit or not?
NFT Background Check
You might think that NFTs simply exist on a blockchain, but that’s not exactly the whole story. The most secure NFTs are hosted on an Interplanetary File System (IPFS) as their data is referred to in the metadata by a uniform resource identifier (URI). The URI is what is actually hosted on the native blockchain since retrieving data from a blockchain can be a slow cumbersome process. Instead, the IPFS secures all the NFT data in a decentralized manner, much like a blockchain but one specifically made for data retrieval. We’ve covered why IPFS’s are crucial to NFT security in our previous article “The Role of NFTs for the Individual in 2022”.
To find out if the NFT of your dreams checks out, answer these questions and follow these steps: [For this example, we’ll assume the NFT was minted using Ethereum]
- Is a minting smart contract available for you to check metadata with? If there is, you should see a smart contract address, a token ID, the token standard, and the blockchain it was minted on.
- Using etherscan, enter the address data from the smart contract. Then find the “Contract” tab, and click “Read Contract”.
- Next, use the ‘query’ function to find a function called “tokenURI”. Enter your Token ID from step 1 and you should now see your NFT’s IPFS metadata.
- Copy the IPFS into your URL. Rather, copy everything after “ipfs://” from your metadata, and then paste it onto the end of “https://ipfs.io/ipfs/”. That should then take you to your NFT or more metadata. If you see more metadata, repeat from step 3 with the newfound metadata. Extra metadata? New IPFS goes after “ipfs.io/ipfs/” in your URL.
- Enjoy proving the security of your NFT!
If at any point during this process the data didn’t check out, abort the mission.
The Purchasing Process
Okay, so you have found the NFT marketplace for you. It’s informative, reliable, and doesn’t take advantage of users. Plus, you’ve found the NFT you want and have performed your NFT background check, and maybe even double-checked (it never hurts!) Now it is time to go for it and buy your NFT!
First, you will need to download and create a crypto wallet, assuming you don’t have a secure one that supports NFTs already. When you make a wallet make sure to physically write down your seed phrase and keep it in a safe place (or remember it.) This is your safety net and allows you to recover your wallet if you need to. This wallet is going to hold your NFT as well.
Next, if you don’t have any, you will need to buy some crypto. Once you have enough to cover the cost of the NFT and some fees for transactions and gas fees, send your crypto to the wallet you just made. Each NFT marketplace is different, and depending on which one you chose you’ll need a specific type of crypto to make transactions. For example, with Fayre, you’ll be able to buy NFTs with Ethereum, Polygon, and BSC.
Finally, connect your crypto wallet to the NFT marketplace. To do this, you’ll likely need to create a profile in the marketplace. Whether or not this is the case, connecting your wallet is done on the marketplace. Once that’s taken care of you are ready to buy! Congratulations!
Bonus: Do you want your NFTs to shine?
Once you have a few NFT purchases under your belt and are forming an NFT collection, it may be wise to start marketing your NFTs and to consider joining an NFT community.
Building a collection of NFTs is one thing, but to do so under the eye of an NFT community can make all of your NFT collectibles more valuable. Fans and brands form relationships and when a community gains enough momentum, the NFTs therein can become highly sought after.
If your NFTs become more valuable, that may be a good chance to start trading up the NFT ladder, so to say. Once you’ve drawn attention to your popular NFTs and earned a reputation amongst your peers, it will be easier to begin trading for a reasonable profit. Then you can go buy more expensive NFTs and do this snowball process until you can purchase whatever you like.
Conclusion
Purchasing an NFT is not always the easiest task, it requires plenty of time and effort to conduct proper research. Be careful and take your time, there are a lot of scammers out there waiting to catch slip-ups.
Finding an NFT community and marketplace can be just as meticulous of a task. But when you make your first NFT purchase, it’s very exciting! We hope you enjoy it, and hopefully, you’ll keep up your interest in this exploding NFT industry. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll own famous NFTs and people will know the best NFT to buy is one of yours.
NFT communities are awesome, and they all offer uniquely interesting features and perks. One of the most exciting ones to join is Fayre! Fayre makes tools that allow creators and brands to establish and manage fan clubs, which gives NFTs unlimited function and purpose in real life, online and in virtual worlds.
THE FAYRE MARKET WILL BE LIVE SOON! JOIN THE FUN!
All of our information can be found on our website.
Make sure to also check out our token, $FAYRE, here.
