In the strange world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain, digital assets are the main focus. One type of digital assets which have seen a historic rise in the last few years are NFTs.
What is an NFT
NFTs, also known as Non-Fungible Tokens are unique digital assets stored on a blockchain. NFTs can come in different forms such as audio or videos but are currently most famous for pictures of artwork.
Each NFT is a one of one, meaning the owner can digitally verify they own it and cannot be replaced. Game designers have taken this concept and based entire games around them; such as Axie Infinity or Sandbox. Users can use and interact with digital assets that they and others own which has bolstered metaverse development.
How Do I Sell NFTs?
So you may be thinking, how do I create an NFT marketplace? Good news is you don’t have to. Large NFT marketplaces like OpenSea already exist for the simple buying, selling and trading of NFTs.
What Options Do You Have? Of course you could always choose to create your own NFT marketplace, but if you’re simply dabbling your toes in the NFT world there are many different NFT marketplaces to choose from.
When picking what NFT marketplace you want to use, consider what blockchain the marketplace runs on as that will greatly affect the ‘fees’ associated with minting, buying and selling. For instance: OpenSea users must face Ethereum’s notorious gas fees while Crypto.com’s Cosmos is almost nothing.
- OpenSea: The leader of NFT marketplaces, based on the Ethereum blockchain and the largest market in terms of volume with over $20bn in sales since its launch in 2017.
- Axie Marketplace: A marketplace solely for the Axle Infinity NFT based game selling Axies and other in-game items.. The second largest marketplace by volume and part of the metaverse development and integration of NFTs.
- NFT Launchpad: For creators by creators, NFT Launchpad is for those wanting to mint and launch their own NFTs.
- com: Using their native chain Cronos, The crypto.com marketplace is another up and coming NFT marketplace.
If none of these excite you, read a guide on how to create an NFT marketplace.
How To Sell NFTs on OpenSea
To start, head over to the OpenSea site. Be sure you have a self-custodial wallet such as Metamask or Trustwallet as OpenSea is a decentralized NFT marketplace; meaning they do not store any of your funds for you.
All NFT sales on OpenSea incur a fee of 2.5%.
First, to be able to buy or sell NFTs, you will be asked to authorize the wallet connection. Don’t worry no gas fees are involved! Once connected you will be able to see your inventory, which is where all your NFTs will be stored. It should look something like this:
After deciding which NFT you want to sell, in this case my ENS (Ethereum Name Service), I can click on my NFT and hit ‘sell’.
When selling on OpenSea, you can choose between a Fixed Price sale or a Timed Auction. Fixed Price sales are set by you, whereas Auctions are sold after the duration ends.
You can set reserve prices to ensure your NFT is not sold at a value lower than you want.
Before hitting ‘Complete Listing’, check whether your price and duration are correct!
This is where users quickly find out about Ethereum gas fees! Any action on the Ethereum blockchain must be validated. Those validators need a reward for validating your action; Validation is what secures each transaction and makes it irrefutable.
So to list your NFT for sale, you must pay the current gas fees. Fee’s can vary drastically so it’s important to research when fee’s will be the lowest and be confident that the price you are selling at is realistic.
Gas Fees on Ethereum are the number one aspect stopping ETH NFTs becoming mainstream! NFTs on other chains have rapidly grown in popularity as users can list for less than $0.01!
Here my NFT listing is going to cost me $64!
On top of this, fees are also charged to validate new addresses on OpenSea, which puts NFTs barrier to entry much higher than people expect. If you are happy with the fee, once you click accept your transaction will be processed and soon your NFT will be up for sale!
Conclusion
With such high gas fees for Ethereum NFTs, if you are only looking to dabble choose a chain which requires next to zero fees, even if participation is lower!
NFTs are definitely here to stay, just maybe not in the form we are currently used to. Many believe jpeg pictures of monkeys or doodles simply cannot be worth six figures whilst others argue its the underlying technology of NFTs which make them valuable. Irrefutably owning a digital asset is a new concept and something which is here to stay.
