How do you buy an NFT? It looks complicated until you've done it the first time. There are a few steps to get yourself set up and I'm about to teach them all to you. Right here. Right now. Get ready.
You need to buy some crypto (not as scary as it sounds) and the most common crypto in the NFT space is Ethereum(ETH). The most popular wallet for storing your ETH is MetaMask.
So step one is buying some ETH. There are many exchanges where you can do this. Here's one I recommend: Coinbase
Coinbase is very easy to use, and once you get used to it and want more features, they have a pro version that is fantastic.
Next you need to buy some ETH. Put some fiat ("real" money like US dollars) into your Coinbase account and buy some ETH.
Once you've bought some ETH, it will be in your Coinbase account. Which is great except you can't really do anything with it now other than buy more or sell what you've bought. In order to interact with an NFT marketplace you'll need to put it in a wallet.
Next step: Download Metamask, the most popular wallet out there for Ethereum. Download and install from the official website only: https://metamask.io/
One important thing to know is you will have both a seed phrase and a password for Metamask, and you need to keep both secret, but by far the most super top secret is the seed phrase.
Ok, now comes the scary part. You need to move your ETH from Coinbase to your Metamask wallet. Here is where you need to be triple careful. First, copy the ETH address from Metamask.
The address is longer than what Metamask is showing you, but it will copy the whole thing. Now go to Coinbase where your ETH is stored. On the Assets page click on "Send/Receive" and you'll get this:
Make sure you choose Ethereum since that is what you are sending. If you only just bought it today you might need to wait a few days for your bank funds to clear. Assuming that has happened you now need to paste the Metamask wallet you copied in the To: field.
Double-check that the address you pasted in Coinbase is the SAME as the one in your Metamask wallet. Then check again. If you send to the wrong wallet, your ETH will be lost. Make very sure you have it right. If you have an Address Book in Coinbase you’ll need to add the address there first.
Hit the continue button and read everything. Take your time, there is no rush. There will be a fee ("gas") charged for transferring the ETH, make sure you understand that.
When you're ready, complete the transaction and send the ETH to your Metamask wallet. It will take time to complete the transaction. Be patient and go get some tea or something.
Now wipe the sweat off your brow, you are ready to buy an NFT. Which one? Depends what you want and how much ETH you have. I suggest buying something cheap the first time. Choose something you like and that you will want to hold for a long time.
The biggest marketplace for NFTs is https://opensea.io so go there in your browser. If you are on your phone use the browser within Metamask. On your desktop any browser will do as long as you have the Metamask extension installed.
If you hit the Explore button on the main page you'll be give some categories to choose from. Pick one, explore, find an inexpensive NFT that you like, and buy it. Lost? Here's a nice collection to look through.
Once you've chosen an NFT, you can either "Buy Now" and pay the asking price, or "Make Offer" and place a bid on the piece you like, which the owner can accept or not.
For this example we will Buy Now.
Read everything, make sure you understand it, and click the little circle.
Hit the checkout button. Your Metamask wallet will open and ask you to confirm the purchase. Since we are on OpenSea this is all safe. But if you were on another site clicking ok could be risky, so be careful. It will tell you if the purchase is successful.
After you've done all that you can see your new NFT on OpenSea. Just click your little profile picture top right, and it will take you to your NFT collection. And that's it!
I wish you many happy NFT purchases.