It’s simple to buy and sell NFTs on the OpenSea marketplace. Here is a detailed tutorial on how to complete it swiftly and safely.
Let’s take a step back and quickly review what non-fungible tokens are before getting started and demonstrating how to purchase an NFT on OpenSea.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are digital data that are encrypted and kept on the blockchain. They are tokenized variations of digital objects like photos, films, works of art, etc. What is tokenization, then? The idea is complicated, but in essence it refers to converting a physical object into a digital token that can be transferred between computers and recorded on a blockchain, like Ethereum or Solana, for instance.
Why Do People Purchase NFTs?
People buy NFTs for a variety of reasons. They desire to invest in a brand-new, speculative, and extremely volatile asset, which is the most fundamental reason among them. In 2021, the NFT market surged, and several collections, like the Crypto Punks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club, saw their values soar.
But other investors opt to buy NFTs as a sort of digital art instead of gambling on their potential value. Many individuals desire to acquire rare, verifiably authentic digital art as the world advances more and more toward a digital future in which most of our interactions and time are spent online and as the idea of a metaverse continues to gain momentum.
Another option is to purchase an NFT as a present for someone you know would value it, and so on. Although there are several causes, it cannot be denied that the market has grown significantly.
Let’s now examine how to purchase an NFT on OpenSea.
On OpenSea, How to Purchase an NFT
Step 1 is to obtain and fund a wallet.
To purchase NFTs, you require a digital wallet containing money. The money you will use to make purchases on OpenSea is ether (ETH). Although Coinbase Wallet is gradually overtaking MetaMask as the most well-liked online wallet for NFTs, we’ll utilize it for the purposes of this article.
Important: If you are installing the wallet for the first time, be cautious of phishing attacks and make sure you are visiting the right page; further security advice may be found here.
If you don’t already have one, go to metamask.io to get one as a browser extension, then link it to OpenSea. Go to OpenSea and choose profile from the top right bar to accomplish this. You’ll be sent to a different page where you’ll be asked to link your wallet. Pick one of the offered solutions, such as MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, or another.
Give OpenSea every authorization required to access your wallet and sign the signature request.
You are now prepared to check out the NFT collections that are offered on the OpenSea marketplace after installation. If you don’t already have ETH, go to your MetaMask wallet and select “Buy”; you may then deposit cryptocurrency or pay with a debit or credit card.
As an alternative, you may also create a Coinbase Wallet, which is a highly popular choice among customers and benefits from the Coinbase brand’s well-known reputation.
You only need to go to the official Coinbase website, add the non-custodial wallet as a Chrome extension, and create your wallet. The process is quite similar to installing a MetaMask. It doesn’t matter which wallet you use to communicate with OpenSea, however it does provide some extra advantages like the fiat-to-crypto on-ramp for the Coinbase wallet.
Step 2: Browse the OpenSea NFT collections.
You must first locate the NFT you wish to purchase. Click “Explore” under “Your OpenSea Profile” to get started. You may view the tens of thousands of NFT collections there.
By selecting Trending, Top, Art, Collectibles, Domain Names, Music, Photography, Sports, Trading Cards, Utility, and Virtual Worlds from the top right bar, you may narrow down your search results.
Step 3: Discovered What You Want? Buy Now or Submit a Bid.
You have the option of making an offer or outright purchasing whatever you want. Remember that certain NFTs will allow you to “Place Bid,” where you can make the owner of the item an offer to purchase the item. If you come across an NFT like this, be careful to check the amount of bids that have already been submitted to get a sense of how much you may bid.
Bids on OpenSea have to be at least 5% greater than the one before them. But for the purposes of this example, let’s just buy at a set cost.
Step 4: Making the Purchase
In this instance, we are purchasing a piece of art titled “Great Ball of Fire.”
To continue to the checkout, click “Buy now.” You’ll see the NFT’s specifics, including name, corresponding collection, subtotal, and total. Confirm Checkout by clicking.
The next step is for OpenSea to load your MetaMask wallet.
You may view all the information about your purchases here, including anticipated gas costs and processing times.
By selecting Edit, you may modify the gas prices, but you should be aware that doing so would significantly slow down transaction speed. When the Ethereum network is less active is the ideal moment to purchase using MetaMask.
To monitor the most recent gas prices, visit the Ethereum Gas Tracker on Etherscan. On ETHgasstation, you can also view the suggested gas prices.
When you’re ready to make a purchase, click “Confirm,” then watch as your order is handled.
Just unwind by relaxing! Your brand-new NFT will show up in your collection in a matter of seconds. Simply return to your profile and watch for the appearance of your new NFT.
Simple, right? To view the specifics of your NFT, click on it.
How Would You Sell Your NFT?
Now, if you want to sell it, simply click “Sell” in the upper right corner of the screen. This will take you to a new page where you can enter the terms of the transaction.
Choose the currency, the sale’s expiration date, and whether to sell it for a set price or at a timed auction. Although listing is free, OpenSea takes a 2.5% cut of every transaction.
Now, if your NFT isn’t showing up in your MetaMask wallet but you’d like it to, don’t worry; you just need to manually add it.
Go to Details by clicking on your NFT and then scrolling all the way down.
Clicking Contract Address in that area will take you to the Etherscan page for the particular address of your NFT.
Back in your MetaMask wallet, copy that address. The “Import Tokens” option is shown below. There, click, and select “Custom Token.” Copy the address from the Etherscan page and paste it.
Token Decimals is just a means to examine your NFT, and the token symbol is merely the public name tag. Your holdings won’t change as a result. For instance, if you select 3, you will receive 0,001. In this instance, we’re going to enter 0 and then continue adding.
Final Reflections
It’s not as challenging as you would imagine to buy and sell NFTs on OpenSea. However, keep in mind that there are a lot of con artists in this industry and that pricing can be very unstable.
People frequently lose money to con artists through phishing or rug pulls. The NFT industry is also rife with wash traders, who would fabricate trading volume on particular collections in order to increase their attraction to investors.
In any event, it’s critical to remember that this sector is still extremely new and is mostly uncontrolled in most countries. As a result, it’s important to treat it as such and take the appropriate security measures to safeguard your wealth.
