I've taken the plunge into the world of NFTs, like many people at the moment I'm interested to see what opportunities lie ahead. With the help of my old friend @bleepcoin I've decided to finally get over my crypto PTSD and get back to the party.
I've decided to document my journey which hopefully will act as an interesting guide to other beginners, or simply give a laugh to some old heads as they watch me crash and burn!
Either way, it's going to be one hell of a ride!
A Brief History Of NFTs
To those that aren't aware yet, NFT stands for Non Fungible Token, a financial term meaning that each token is unique.
An example of an NFT would be the trading cards within the Hive blockchain's Splinterlands game. Each card has a set of attributes and you can battle those cards against others, battling for crypto and gaming pride.
Not all NFTs are part of a game, in fact most of them aren't.
NFT Types
High Art
The high art NFTs are exactly as they sound, one off pieces made by digital artists which more resemble a piece of art you might buy in real life.
These NFTs can take the form of high art photography, or paintings that have been photographed or digitally reproduced, and 3D art.
In my circumstance they weren't an ideal start to the game simply because of the prices. Being one-off pieces, the artists tend to put a hell of a lot of work into them and subsequently price them accordingly.
I found that some artists will do a range of pieces in different price brackets. So for instance somebody who has an NFT on sale for the equivalent of $100,000, may also have different less elaborate ones that they might price in the $50-$1000 range.
Toon Art
The toon art NFTs are much more cartoon-like in nature. They are not really my thing, but I can appreciate that there is some good stuff there.
A good example of a toon art NFT would be the Adorable Dinos on the Solana chain.
Just because they're toons don't underestimate them, I've seen some of them go for thousands of Sol (hundreds of thousands of dollars).
Manga/3D Art
I've lumped these two into the same category even though they are technically different, however I see a lot of crossover with these styles of art.
I definitely like these and want to get into them more. Like the high art NFTs they tend to be more expensive, however the collections are bigger and so the opportunity exists to pick up something more affordable.
A particular example I like are the Drip Art NFTs also on Solana.
Pixel Art
This category is very broad and includes some NFTs that are technically pixel art, however I personally don't consider them so. But that's just my personal opinion.
It is probably fair to say that this type of NFT is the most popular type, simply because of the much renowned Ethereum Crypto Punks which have sold individually for millions of dollars, and one was even auctioned at the famous UK auction house Christies.
I would say that the pixel art NFTs are my favourite so far. The style suits my tastes and I like the fact that a lot of them seem to be inspired by cute animals, such as ducks or dogs.
The NFT Chains
For a complete newbie coming into the NFT world, it can be rather daunting, simply because the choices you have to make are not exclusively limited to the type of NFT you will purchase.
Which blockchain you use to buy the NFTs is a choice with so many options it could make your head spin clean off your shoulders!
Ethereum
The biggest and most popular chain is the Ethereum blockchain. It is where you will find the highest number and most expensive NFTs. However the gas fees you pay can end up being extremely high, in some cases higher than the cost of the NFT itself. This makes picking up cheap bargains a lot harder on the Ethereum chain than others.
What I'll be monitoring is whether this 'new improved' Ethereum that we've been promised, will indeed lower the gas fees. If they do, then it would be mad of anyone into NFTs not to check them out.
Solana
The Solana chain seems to be the one most likely to catch Ethereum when it comes to popularity. The Sol coin, which you'll need to buy NFTs on Solana, seems to hover around the $200 mark, as opposed to Eth's $4000.
The main thing that the Sol chain has going for it, are the extremely low gas fees. It is not unheard of to pay $50 and upwards in gas on Ethereum, whereas on Solana you're looking at a cost of around the two dollar mark.
Solana is the chain that I've chosen to start my journey, I like the various sites that are used to browse and the minting process seems easy and hassle free.
Tezos
The Tezos chain seems to be popular because they have made it easy to produce NFTs and it is much more suited to people who just want to bring out one-offs. These artists tend not to want to do a collection and have all the hassle that goes with that.
Not to say you can't get collections on Tezos, but one-offs seem to be the norm on there.
Again, low gas fees are a feature of the Tezos chain, and the Tez coin is under $5 therefore the fees are literally pennies.
In truth I have not checked out Tezos as much as the first two examples, though now that I feel a bit more comfortable in the space, I'm ready to check them out and report back on my experience.
On a sidenote, I was watching the Formula 1 qualifying the other day, and I noticed that Tezos have paid for advertising on a Formula 1 car. This tells me that they have money and are serious about trying to grow their platform.
Hive
It would be remiss of me if I didn't mention Hive the very chain I'm writing this on at the moment. So far it seems that Hive is not as developed as it could be, however that's not to say there aren't opportunities and plenty of potential.
Hive has NFT Showroom to showcase the Hive NFTs and there are individual sites such as @markymark's incredibly successful Hive Punks.
The main problem for me is that there does not seem to be a Hive NFT wallet. Whilst trust is not an issue for me as I understand how Hive works and how trustworthy people like @markymark are. It's simply a case of the fact that if I buy something, then I want to see it in my wallet. Perhaps the point is moot and I'll get over it because a separate wallet is not needed, but for now I'll hang back.
Also, whilst some of the art on NFT Showroom is amazing, a lot of it isn't really what I'm looking for at the moment and the Hive Punks are out of my price range.
So I think with Hive, it's a case of keep an eye on it and come back when I expand my NFT types.
The Cryptogee Collection
With all that being said, I decided to choose pixel art NFTs being sold as collections on the Solana blockchain.
First of all I set myself up with the Phantom wallet browser extension, which attaches to my Brave browser with zero problems.
Then I use SolApe and Magic Eden to browse listed NFTs, and I use Twitter to find out about ones being minted.
Lastly using Discord to check out the various communities and to find out if there is a buzz behind the particular NFT project.
Dashing Dogs
The Dashing Dogs were my first foray into the NFT world. The story behind them is they were first thought to be a rug-pull, an NFT related term meaning the developers just up and ran after minting their NFTs.
However it turned out that the devs were just upset at the fact the mint did not go well, they only managed to raise 4 Sol, even though there were around 9 or 10 thousand Dogs.
The devs later came back saying that they would refund the money of anyone who minted and give out the rest for free.
@bleepcoin warned me that minting was addictive, and whilst the Dashing Dogs were free, I still had to pay gas fees. Plus he said that it was still a gamble, as the community had been left with a bit of a sour taste in its mouth after the initial disappearance of the devs.
In short, he said that they were good to use as experience, just so I could see what minting was all about and get into the whole vibe of it.
But damnit I like the little cuties! I've ended up with 12 of them, probably costing (due to price fluctuations in Sol) somewhere in the region of $20-$25. So no biggie if they never get listed and I end up not recouping a single cent.
Ducklings
These cute little suckers have really taken my heart. It's probably lucky I can't afford more because I'm pretty sure I would have spent a thousand bucks worth of Sol on these wee cuties.
Unlike the Dogs I didn't mint any of these but rather started 'buying the floor' and just got into them because they were cheap and I liked the look of them.
They were being sold at less than their mint price, but I realised after looking at the history of the cheaper ones, they were being listed at lower and lower prices by the day, sometimes by the hour!
Basically they were owned by people who were panicking in the mini crypto crash we had last weekend. These people were desperate to sell, so I obliged and have ended up with six ducklings. Some of them quite rare, so I think I've picked up a few bargains.
I've made an offer for another one that doesn't quite fit into my theme of smoking ducklings, however it's very rare and the person seems desperate to sell. If I get it, I'll immediately relist it for 10 or 20x the price I got it for.
Lana Frogs
I only have one Lana Frog that I minted, but it's a really cool one and seems to be pretty rare. I paid 0.33 Sol, which at the time was around $70 making it my most expensive purchase.
To be honest I like this little fella, and I'm not sure I'd sell it unless I was offered high double digits or more likely triple digit Sol. I'd like to get more, they seem to be higher than the mint price now so we'll see how that goes.
I like Lana Frogs because of their design, but also they are talking about bringing out a game pretty soon. There's info about it on their Twitter, and I think that could end up boosting Lana Frogs up to 'Blue Chip' status.
The Falcon Federation
To be honest there's not much to say about these. They're pretty low quality and I only have one, and bought it because it was very cheap and the top ones were selling for quite a lot.
Anyway, I bought it at around 0.02 Sol (circa $4) and have listed it for 0.2 Sol (circa $40). Hopefully it sells soon and I can use the cash to get something I'm more into.
Solana Bored Ape
Technically this was my first NFT, given to me by the aforementioned @bleepcoin. It's poetic that Bleep gave me this, because he is the one who helped me buy my first Bitcoin and also got me into Hive back when it was called Steemit. So it is indeed fitting that he should be the one to get me into the world of NFTs.
Apparently they were one of @bleepcoin's first purchases and he mistook them for Ethereum's Bored Ape Yacht Club. However they were only ever listed on the Grail Marketplace and are not as popular as their counterparts.
The Grail Marketplace is apparently shutting down and has a notice on it for everyone to delist their NFTs. However it is vague and the Twitter is pretty quiet.
So I don't want to try and sell it for two reasons. First; I could end up losing it if I list it and the marketplace goes down. Secondly, people are still buying them, and the team behind the project, claim that they are going to get them listed elsewhere and airdrop some bonus apes from a new project soon.
Not sure, they could be lying just to get everyone to buy the remaining apes as they get a commission each time one is sold, but hey it was a gift and I'm going to keep it. Either it will be loads of money in the future, or it will forever sit in my wallet as a symbol of mine and Bleep's friendship.
Moving On
So that's it for the start of my NFT journey, I'll try and fill you in as I go on.
I want to start looking at some more quality and therefore more expensive NFTs, however my main strategy at the moment is picking up bargains in collections that have sold expensive NFTs at the top.
The main thing to remember is that NFTs are a long-term play. There is less liquidity in the market, so selling off quickly if you need the money is not going to be so easy.
I'm excited moving forwards, I'm still investing in bog standard crypto, but this is more interesting and fun. It is more risky and expensive as well, so I'm going to just take it slowly and not overreach.
HAVE YOU GOT INTO NFTS YET? WHAT CHAIN(S) ARE YOU ON? HAVE YOU MADE PROFITS OR LOSSES? OR ARE YOU JUST GETTING INTO IT BECAUSE YOU LIKE COLLECTING?
AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!