How to buy and sell NFTs: Minting & NFT marketplaces

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have become an extremely hot commodity, as tech enthusiasts gear up for the shift from Web2 to Web3. But how do you buy an NFT? And perhaps more importantly, how do you sell an NFT?

It’s worth pointing out that NFTs aren’t a failsafe way of becoming an overnight millionaire, like some new entrants to the space believe. The most expensive NFTs sell for tens of millions of dollars, but they are simply gems in a very vast space, and the chances of finding a true blue-chip NFT that you can make millions on are extremely slim. The world of NFTs isn’t purely about making a profit, though. It’s about finding creations that you appreciate and preparing yourself for the shift into the metaverse with Web3. So if you’ve found the NFT you like, here’s how to get involved.

How to buy an NFT

For newcomers, buying an NFT is by far the most daunting part of the process. Unless you’re already well-adapted to the crypto world — which some first-timers may well be — it often means putting large sums of money into a digital jpeg or other file types in the hope it won’t become a useless utility.

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Buying NFTs can be done in one of two ways: minting, or buying on a secondary marketplace.

Minting an NFT

Minting an NFT is to be the first owner of the product. This usually means buying the NFT straight from the group creating it, as soon as it goes on sale. This can be a struggle if it’s a particularly popular project. You will have to link your crypto wallet (such as MetaMask or Coinbase) to the website of the project and make sure you have the funds readily available — including gas fees that will be incurred when purchasing. If you’re unable to mint the project, though, it’s time to head to the secondary market.

Buy NFTs on marketplace

If you’re not one of the lucky people who are able to mint the NFT you want, your best bet is to head over to a secondary marketplace. The most popular one is OpenSea, as it operates on the Ethereum blockchain like most major NFT projects do. That means you can buy and sell Ethereum NFTs on OpenSea.

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On other blockchains, such as Solana, you might want to head over to Solanart, while some projects — such as NBA Top Shot or NFL All Day — will operate on their own marketplace. On these marketplaces, you can see the prices for individual NFTs, find the ones you like and explore new ones you might not have found before. The main drawback is that it might end up costing more than if you minted the NFT originally. Now you’ve got yourself an NFT — what about selling it?

How to sell an NFT

Once you’ve started building out your NFT collection, you might have noticed that some are worth more money, or perhaps you don’t like them as much as you did originally and want to offload them onto the next buyer. Fortunately, the process is pretty easy. All you have to do is head over to the marketplace you brought your NFT on, select said NFT, and find the option to sell it. From there, just list it for however much you want for it and wait for someone to buy it. There will be fees involved, and the first time you list something for sale there will be costs involved, too. Not only that, but you’ll lose some money if you remove something from sale, too. Providing you’re fine with that, and you make a sale, the crypto will be sent into your wallet and you’ve sold an NFT!