A set of community-proven principles that will help you succeed as a collector in the NFT space.
Reading time ≈ 45 min
Introduction
Investigating projects
Buying
What can you do with your NFTs?
Selling
Outro
Useful tools
For those who have minted the mirror.xyz edition NFT:
"Rare" collectors can claim a MetaCircles membership. "Legendary" collectors can claim two MetaCircles memberships, one for themselves and one for a companion.
Simply open a support ticket in our Discord.
GM! 🌞 This guide is created for all people who are beginning their journey as a collector and or as a NFT trader. We aim to create a comprehensive collection of tips and recommendations sourced from our community that can protect web3 users from having painful and costly experiences. This guide is a living document and will be constantly updated to keep up with this rapidly evolving space. So if you have anything to add, feel free to join our discord, submit your idea, and we will add it to the guide if the community considers it to be valuable.
In the following pages, you'll first get to know some security basics. The reason to start with this is, that if there is a lack of security, even the best collector can lose their valuable collection in one fell swoop, and that is something to be avoided at all costs.
We continue with emotions and why it is important to recognize them and not let them rule you when you are in the NFT space.
Next, you'll learn a few ways to investigate projects, what parameters can be important, how to organize your Discord, how to increase your odds of getting on whitelists, and what red flags to look for to avoid scams and unprofitable projects. After that, we'll learn how to mint and buy NFTs and what to look out for. Of course, you will also learn how to improve your NFT selling.
This guide contains tips and examples that can make your journey into NFT land easier. Please note, however, that it is not a promise of a successful journey. This is not financial advice and is for educational purposes only. This guide focuses on how to mint, buy, and sell NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain, but the tips provided here can be transferred and applied to trading and collecting NFTs in general.
A lot of people come to this space, trying to get rich quick. #ngmi They hear about people who have supposedly done this overnight and think they can do it easily, too. However, this approach can cause you to lose a lot of money very fast.
Becoming successful in the NFT space takes a lot of dedication, time, and effort, just like any other field you want to be successful in. You'll need to spend a lot of time on social media, especially Discord and Twitter, as well as on market analysis platforms and various marketplaces.
This area is highly speculative and trends and directions can change at lightning speed.
So, it is not recommended to join the space if you just want to make money without having interest and enthusiasm for this movement. One good practice when starting in this space is to spend time picking the types of collections you like and learn as much about them as possible before you buy into them. That way you don't have to worry too much about price trends either, because you're predominantly here for another reason.
When buying an NFT, it is therefore advisable to have informed yourself about the value you see in it and decide to be in it for the long term. Because if you are convinced of your decision (based on art, team, community), then it does not matter if the price of the NFT temporarily drops - You know what you have got, and you believe in what you bought.
https://twitter.com/Zeneca_33/status/1495505243479625733
Stay patient and calm if you're in it for the long haul, but also don't be ashamed to take profits from time to time. A key thing you should not lose sight of is to have fun and get involved in this new world. Because that's what we're all here for.
Every week, there are more and more incidents in which people are unfortunately deprived of their NFTs and crypto-assets. However, it must be clearly stated that in 9 out of 10 cases these are not tricky hacks, even if they are often exaggeratedly described as such. In the absolute majority of cases, these are scams where people unknowingly but voluntarily allow others to empty their bags.
https://twitter.com/punk6529/status/1461743364060164101
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) refers to the proof of identity of a user through a combination of two different and, in particular, independent components. This is one of the most important ways you can protect yourself and your assets. Your chosen passwords should also vary from platform to platform and be a strong combination of numbers, lower and upper case letters, and special characters. Use 2FA on all platforms where it’s available, like exchanges, Discord, and Twitter.
No matter under what circumstances and who asks for it. Never type your seed phrase or private key anywhere. Generally speaking, these two pieces of information should never be on your computer or any other digital device in any form. Do not take pictures of your written seed phrase. Store a copy of your seed at two different places (in case your house burns down) and/or use metal storage solutions that are safe against natural elements. Also, tell your family that you have crypto, so they know what to look for after your death.
With a hardware wallet, you use a device specifically designed for the secure storage of private keys. If you buy a hardware wallet, make sure you only buy it from the provider's website. Never buy from Amazon or other sites. You can have multiple wallets (i.e. ETH) secured with one hardware wallet. It makes sense to spread your assets across multiple wallets, this way assets in other wallets are still secure after one wallet is compromised. We at MetaCircles are big fans of Ledger wallets as it offers us great flexibility.
Don't click on any link if you don't know the source, and before you click on a link, make sure that the URL is 100% the URL you want to go to. Often, scammers set up fake websites that are almost indistinguishable from the original, except for one letter in the URL. If you connect your e.g. MetaMask wallet with the dApp and sign it on such a site, scammers can access your NFTs and all of your other assets. An example of this could look like this. Original: metamask.io ; Fake: metamask.lo Often, letters such as a small ‘i’ are replaced by a small ‘L’ to deceive people who are not looking closely.
So, look carefully at which link you have in front of you and be sure it is the right one before you click on it. You can assume that any link you receive from a person you don't know is a scam. This also applies to phishing attempts in your mailbox or on Twitter.
Regularly check the "connected sites" under the account options in your MetaMask, and remove connections that don't tell you anything and that you don't trust anymore.
One good piece of advice can also be, to disconnect from a site after you have minted. For the advanced collectors: In the course of the last exploits, it was necessary to revoke the allowances made. A useful tool to see all allowances in one overview and to revoke them is revoke.cash.
Especially on Discord, many scammers try to rip people off for their hard-earned ETH and NFTs. If you bear the following settings in mind, you can protect yourself well and the risk of being scammed will decrease massively.
This means that only your friends can send you DMs. If you don't do this, scammers will always contact you via DM and try to scam you.
Some servers require verification via DM. For this purpose, you can switch on the DMs briefly for this server and then switch them off again. To do this, you only need to right-click on the server symbol, and then you can set DMs explicitly for this server under "privacy settings". Don't forget to deactivate the DMs in this way immediately after verification.
We realize that this may seem a bit much at first, but we appeal to you to implement these basics. You want to avoid becoming the victim of a security breach.
All security basics summarized for you:
Always use strong passwords and 2FA authentication
No digital seed phrase / private key
Use a hardware wallet
Do not click that link and do not sign with your wallet
Keep your connected sites in check
Adjust your discord settings
If you need tips and help and have questions about security, no matter if you are a beginner or already have some experience, you can always find support and advice in the MetaCircles Discord.
https://discord.com/invite/ZvbPK3RDMs
Entering the NFT world as a collector is not for the faint of heart. As already mentioned, trends and market movements such as floor prices can drastically change the course. Therefore, you are advised to keep your emotions out of your actions and monitor them closely.
We have created a short overview of emotions and situations you should be aware of. If you master these, you may see an improvement in other areas of your life as well.
Don't regret the decisions you have made, because you cannot change them. If you feel something like remorse, try to find out exactly why and what you can learn from it for the next time. No "mistakes" are free, but they come with important insights on your way to success. Also, you can't invest in every opportunity, you will eventually miss huge gains because of selling too early or investing in another project. Learn to deal with it.
Avoid panic selling at a lower price than you bought at, for fear that the price will drop to zero once the project is in a down phase. Such phases will always come up, but are often temporary.
Be patient and don't get angry when the floor price undercuts your purchase price.It happens to everyone. Remember why you chose the projects you did. Patience is often rewarded. Observe how the project (community, promises, business model, engagement) and not only how the floor price is doing. You invest in a project you believe in, and this is not necessarily represented by the floor price at any given point in time.
Never make rash decisions based on hype. Do not let FOMO take possession of you. FOMO can be very dangerous and cost you a lot of money.
Anyone who has spent some time in the NFT or crypto game probably can't say that they haven't been caught up in the FOMO. Most of the time, actions that you take because you think you're missing out on something backfire. So take a deep breath, wait a bit, follow the movement and reconsider if it's worth it to act. Often it is better to wait until hypes cool down. It will never be your last chance to participate in an exciting project that is trending, on the contrary, patience is often rewarded here as well. With time in the market, you gain experience. The experience will help you to recognize trends earlier and earlier.
Also, don't get too euphoric just because you have had a good flip. That tempts you to get careless and make mistakes that can cost you a lot of money. Try to stay calm and humble. A good flip does not mean the following will also be successful.
Better, if you had a success be happy about it and then try to find out what the success was based on.
https://twitter.com/cyberh49/status/1482690194256154624?s=20&t=XmRg6r8-zeDQc-_Thhtnpg
You have probably heard the term DYOR: Do your own research. Now you'll begin to find out what steps this can involve and what most likely goes into good due diligence. First, you will get an idea of how to discover projects, second, you will learn how to investigate a project that popped up on your radar.
Your approach should be based on your perspective. So you have to define it first.Do you want to be a trader or a collector, or do you even have a different perspective in mind? This question should be clarified for you, as you will then be able to make better and more targeted decisions.
For this guide, we've chosen the perspective of a long-term collector, who also likes to do a flip now and then and aims to stay profitable.
https://twitter.com/Loopifyyy/status/1456627216473903106?s=20&t=fiu123ljQ1HKGlIFOJhQWA
There are countless ways to discover new projects, and every collector will probably develop their own strategy over time. There are several ways to get started if you want to discover more exciting projects.
The most common one is to use registries that show you which projects are going live or will go live soon. Some suggestions on what sites you can use for this can be found in the “Useful tools” chapter at the end of this guide.
Also, you can follow dazzling people from the space on Twitter and thus create a bubble of valuable information around you. To get an idea of what this can look like, check out our Discord #Hot100 channel, where we feed tweets from what we consider to be the most interesting people in the NFT space. The selection was based on the analysis of anchain.ai. On top, we added some important people to the selection, which in our opinion should not be missing. Thereby, you have your ear to the street and are always at the hub of the action. Learn to read between the lines, and you will quickly become a person that is always up-to-date.
More advanced NFT Collectors use sophisticated tools to track whales and get live blockchain data in a visual dashboard.
The weapon of our choice is Moby.gg. The given "Live feeds" allow a very direct view on the movements of the market. Especially in such a fast-moving environment, direct access to information is a key factor. This puts you on the heels of the biggest whales and influencers in the space and gives you a significant information advantage over many other market participants.
Moby is an official MetaCircles partner and provides us with live data, directly fed into our members' area. Save time and effort and get real-time alerts on trending NFT-Collections and get regularly updated live tracking of important whale wallets inside the MetaCircles Discord.
Get your membership here:
If you want to discover new projects, be aware that the real gems are often shared early in alpha groups. There are now dozens of groups that have made it their purpose to always dig up the hottest projects and share them within their group, which is usually not open to the public. These groups usually consist of experienced collectors and well-connected people from the space and can offer you an immense advantage in the search for new projects.
MetaCircles is also such an alpha group, where the community strives to share valuable contributions with their peers.
https://twitter.com/MetaCircles/status/1497255140319010826
Let's start with the team. If a token is a promise, which it very often is in terms of vision, roadmap, and future drops, you want to have a team that can deliver on that promise. Finding great teams that are committed for the long term can be a crucial factor. In your research, look to see if the team has a track record of success. If they are absolute beginners, it doesn't have to be a red flag, because everyone has to start somewhere. On the other hand, the probability of success increases if a team has already proven what it can do.
Does someone on the team have a track record or a high public profile? What kind of network is involved? If you can answer these questions well, you will already have a valuable insight into the project and its possible development.
One thing that should be highlighted is the following. Social proof and anonymity are not incompatible. It's not about the founder or everyone from the team around the project having to completely reveal their identity to create a trustworthy project. Because it should be accepted in Web3 that one remains incognito as a developer, artist and creator, and builds up a pseudonymous personality, without losing credibility and seriousness for it or being punished with mistrust.
Many well-known and reputable creators in NFT land are pseudonymous and let their work, behavior, art, and ideas speak for themselves.
It is much more important how the team deals with the trust of the users. If it can be observed that the support is eager and available to solve problems and answer any questions related to the project, as well as a presence on various social media platforms and connected with established personalities in the industry, this can build more trust in a project than if the team is simply doxxed. After all, being doxxed is by no means synonymous with competence and recognition.
It's never quite possible to tell if a project will become a blue-chip. However, all blue-chip projects have the following in common: an ambitious team that works conscientiously regardless of hypes and market events, acts transparently, and shares regular updates and progress with the community, as well as a level of quality in terms of art and originality of the collection. Of course, there is always a certain momentum and factors that are difficult to influence, as are large partnerships and prominent supporters.
Do you really like it? How large is the demand and the audience for types like this? Apart from pure utility tokens, it is only recommended to join if you like the art.In addition, it can be an advantage if you find that this type of art is appreciated by many other people, i.e. has a large target group or meets the zeitgeist and is currently in the trend. Also, art you appreciate will help you to get through difficult times.
It can be quite unpleasant if the price of an NFT drops, and you realize that you just bought it because you wanted to jump on a short hype to make some quick money. Because then you're forced to be reminded of it whenever you look in your wallet and think to yourself: “What was I thinking when I bought this NFT? It's not my taste at all, I think it is, ugly and I can't identify with it.”
As already mentioned, most NFTs also make a promise in the form of a roadmap or a benefit in addition to the artwork. Here, you should pay attention to how realistic this roadmap seems. At the same time, you can also see here how creative the founders are with their project. At this point, you will once again learn something about the team.
What is the mood in the community? Are people helpful and friendly, or is it more of a pump and dump atmosphere? These are two ends of the spectrum, and there is a lot in between. Look carefully and interact honestly, and you will quickly find the answer.Also, the ratio of holders to the total amount of the project can give you an idea of how solid a community is. One with a 2:1 ratio (NFTs:Holder) is in most cases stronger than one with a 10 :1 ratio.
How is the activity on OpenSea? It is important to look at the recent activity and the activity over time. Often projects are pushed for a short time due to news, and then stagnate again. How many people are investing more money than just the floor price?
Answers to questions of this type will help you to better interpret the available data and make better decisions.
Pro tip: Try to understand particular activity peaks. Look at the project's social channels and see if you can figure out what caused the spikes.
Whitelist sales could be called the IPOs of the digital art market, and their seats are highly coveted, as you have probably experienced. With a whitelist spot, you have the security of being able to mint one or more NFTs of a collection at release - because of this security, you can also choose a time window to mint when the gas fees are not too high. This will save you some money and keep you out of the so-called gas war. If a project gets a lot of hype before release, and you haven't managed to get a whitelist spot, it's often better to stay out of the public mint. The more people try to mint one or more NFTs at the same time, the higher the gas fees are (this phenomenon is called gas war because buyers with deep pockets would just pay a higher gas price just to be able to get one of the desired pieces). This can easily exceed the actual price of the NFTs by a multiple. In this case, one is advised to stay out of it and try to enter the secondary market.
What it takes to get these coveted spots varies from project to project. Sometimes it is enough to be active on the Discord server early, sometimes it requires invitations, and sometimes a combination of different tasks. If you find a project exciting, you should try to get on the whitelist. Keep the following tips in mind:
Follow the right people on Twitter and turn on notifications when you think something might come
Most projects have a channel dedicated to the whitelist requirements, read it carefully and ask a mod when in doubt
Engage with the community authentically
The issue of the whitelist has been extremely exhausted in recent weeks and months and has gone off the rails. The conditions for making it onto some whitelists are now completely disproportionate. Along with this, alpha groups and tokenized communities have become increasingly relevant and offer a good opportunity to get whitelist spots for interesting projects beyond all the madness.
The MetaCircles team regularly provides whitelist spots of interesting projects for their members to save them the hassle. Become a member here:
https://discord.com/invite/ZvbPK3RDMs
One thing you want to avoid is being "rugged" or experiencing a "rug-pull". The term "rugged" or "rug" comes from "having the rug pulled out from under your feet", also known as "being scammed".
It doesn't always have to be a real scam, either. Some red flags can also show you that the project at hand is just a cash grab and may be abandoned by the devs after mint. We've gathered some red flags that might set off your alarm bells:
Fake followers / low engagement. Simply look at the engagement concerning the number of followers. Also, you can monitor the engagement and research the audience with tools.
Possible max mint amount per transaction > 5 NFTs. If this is the case, it could be a clear sign of a cash grab.
A sloppily created website with spelling errors and/or lousy design.
Intransparent and/or toxic behavior of mods on the Discord server of the project.
Art that is poorly created or a derivative.
https://twitter.com/DCLBlogger/status/1449985181821980673?s=20&t=PWQQDpr8VdM5LenCKcqc2g
All this does not mean that if one of these red flags is present, the project is a rug pull or cash grab. Use your brain and investigate the project. Don't be afraid to ask critical questions in Discord. Being able to approach project founders directly is a great advantage of the Web3 world. Use this, and stay open and friendly despite critical questions.
If you are here for the art and the profit, try to buy at least three NFTs of the same collection. The logic behind is quite simple:
One to sell when the project pumps initially (often pre or during reveal) to cover your expenses.
One to sell during a further pump.
One or more to hold for the dream and appreciation.
This is a very simple principle that protects you from ending up in a so-called exit dilemma. An exit dilemma exists when you don't know whether, for example, after a doubling of the value of an NFT, the peak has now been reached, or whether you should wait with the sale. In the worst case, this can lead to you not taking advantage of a price movement and selling supposedly too late or too early for fear of missing out on something. If you always mint or buy at least two/three NFTs, you can protect yourself against this. When the collection has doubled/tripled on your entry, you sell one of the two/three NFTs.
In this way, you have 1) fulfilled the important investment principle of loss-prevention and 2) you can now calmly follow the further price movement and, if liked, sell the remaining piece at a potentially even higher price.
Apart from the advantages just mentioned, minting several NFTs also increases the probability of getting hold of one or more rare ones. These have a much better potential to generate high profits, as the demand for them will be much bigger. Also, they maybe look cooler and are more fun.
First, you need to add the Metamask extension to your browser, for this scenario we are referring to Google Chrome but MetaMask is compatible with Edge, Firefox, and more. You will need to go to the MetaMask download link to download, and it is recommended to pin the extension. After the download is complete, you can proceed to click on the extension which will then direct you to a “Get Started” page. Then, click “Create a wallet” and set up your account. We highly recommend that you do your research about the secret recovery phrase because this is your safe code in crypto terms. After storing this properly and confirming it on MetaMask, you now have your MetaMask wallet set up.Next, you need to send a certain amount of ETH from an exchange like Coinbase to your wallet.
If you are about to mint an NFT, first make sure that you are on the right website.For security reasons, make sure to use the links on the official social media channels of the respective projects. Once you are on the right website, you will be asked to connect the browser extension of your wallet to the site when you click on the "Mint" button. This will now connect your wallet to the dApp. After approval, you can now specify how many NFTs you would like to mint. If the amount in your wallet is sufficient, you only need to confirm your request and wait until the transaction is completed. When signing the transaction, always pay attention to the amount of the indicated gas fees and approve only if you agree to accept the indicated costs. They can shoot up to astronomical heights. Read more about the why, later. After completing the purchase, you can view your NFTs on the various marketplaces on your profile.
Minting directly from the contract instead of the minting dApps of the official websites is especially useful for very popular/hyped drops with high demand. Because of the high rush, it often happens that the websites crash. Furthermore, it is much faster, because the website needs some time to update after the contract is deployed. Knowing how this works can be very useful when it comes to drops that are expected to sell out within minutes.
To find the contract address, check the "official-links" channel in Discord for the Etherscan link. If it is not included there, you can simply get the contract from the collection on OpenSea. Make sure to open the official collection on OpenSea. There you can click on any NFT from the collection. As soon as the image opens, you can go directly to the contract address via the "Details" section.
Once you land on the Etherscan page, you are advised to check that the contract you are trying to access is verified. Source code verification allows the public to read and audit as well as write the contract. You can check this by looking at the green icon next to the "Contract" label.
The “Contract” section will take you to the three subsections "Code", "Read contract" and "Write contract", where the latter is relevant for now. There you will find the various functions that the smart contract contains. To use the functions, you must first click on the "Connect to Web3" label to connect your wallet. In the functions, you usually look for a label that contains the word "mint". You should also be aware of the correct mint price and how many NFTs are allowed per transaction and per wallet, as the "price" and "amount" are entered manually in this field. If you enter a mint price that is too high, the remaining money will not be transferred back to you. If you enter a price too low, the transaction can not be executed.
For example, if you enter 2 as the amount to buy, and one of them has a price of 0.1 ETH, then add and enter 0.2 ETH according to the amount you entered. After you have checked your entries and everything is correct, press the "write" button to execute the function. Your MetaMask will pop up and ask you to sign the transaction. Sign only if you also agree with the current gas fees.
If you see that a popular project has just opened for sale and minting has started, and you want to increase the probability that your transaction will go through, it may help to manually set the gas limit higher.
A useful tool here is the gas-estimator from Blocknative:
Check the current blocks as a reference point and set your limit many times higher to withstand the resulting gas war.
Please be aware that the method of minting through the smart contract is similar to the manual setting of gas fees and is recommended for advanced collectors and investors, as there is much more to consider here and accordingly a lot can be done wrong.So feel your way carefully and watch further tutorials if you are unsure, and/or try it in the company of experienced people in the space, so as not to lose a lot of money.
When buying on the secondary market such as OpenSea/LooksRare etc. it is advisable to pay attention to a few points.
Mind the owner count and by that the ratio between the number of NFTs in a collection to the owners. Generally speaking, the more owners, the better.A good ratio is e.g. 2:1, i.e. on average 2 NFTs per holder. This is often an indicator that there is high interest and the community is strong. Furthermore, the larger the number of owners, the more difficult it is to manipulate and sustainably influence a floor. For projects with a small number of owners, the price can be artificially driven up or down to spread FOMO (fear of missing out) or FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt).
Check the traits of the NFTs for sale and try to buy relatively rare ones.The rarity of an NFT is based on the frequency of the different traits present. You can check these directly on the trading platforms. Also, check out the ranks of rarity and use sites like Rarity.Tools for that. Choose your purchases wisely - scoop up the rarest one you can afford for your money. Inside the tools section, you will find further respective tools.
Watch the second market activity over several days/weeks. Don't make any hasty moves and don't get caught by FOMO just because the floor is extremely swept on one day. This can also be artificially inflated. When it becomes clear that there is sustainable activity, the probability increases that an entry here will pay off.Also, make sure that wallets with deep pockets are involved in the project and buy and hold. If the activity only shows purchases at the current floor price, it is not guaranteed that people are also willing to pay high prices.
However, if buyers are already buying rarer NFTs for high prices at relatively early stages, even though the floor price has not yet risen too much, then this is a good sign that there is serious growth potential.
Beware of fake collections on OpenSea. Often, immediately after, and directly at the public sale of various projects, deceptively genuine duplicates/fakes of the original projects appear on OpenSea.
Always use the direct links to the collection on the real website and social media of the project. You will always find them on Twitter or Discord as soon as the first pieces are available on OpenSea. Also, only the real collection will be able to connect to the real Twitter page, because a login is needed for this.
Check if the NFTs are for sale on the right chain. Often fake collections are offered on Polygon, although the original is being sold on the Ethereum blockchain.
By now you can check Etherscan for the contract, so you can compare the smart contracts, to see if it is the real one. Simply compare with the published one on the project’s discord.
If you are sure that you have come across a fake collection, it is best to report it immediately. This way you will help the whole space and protect the community from running into it.
Maybe you have already looked into the wallet of one of your favorite NFT influencers and wondered why this person who holds original “CryptoPunks”, now mints so-called "Flipped Punks" or “Murakami Flowers” like in this example.
Most likely, he did not. Scammers use smart contracts, which make it look like that. Always make sure to look at the exact transaction on Etherscan.
There, the "From" address must be the same as the one from the wallet of your favorite influencer. Only then this person has minted something.
Yes, you will have noticed that gas fees on Ethereum can often be very high. However, pay attention to how they vary at different times of the day. Sometimes it can make sense to wait before buying. Especially, when it gets afternoon/evening in the US, you will usually see the highest gas fees.
https://twitter.com/elliotrades/status/1433814493146992641?s=20&t=wR69Y-NLnkKZUq4pw4t2wg
If you're looking to manually set your gas fees, there are different ways to do so depending on whether you're in the MetaMask extension or the mobile app. Regardless of the version of MetaMask you're using, keep the following in mind.
The gas limit is the maximum amount of gas you are willing to spend to carry out a transaction. Recommendation use the default setting, because you might not know what is needed to interact with the contract and your transaction could run out of gas.
The max priority fee, also referred to as the "miner tip", goes to the miner or validator, and incentivizes them to prioritize your transaction. Most often, the value you put in for "max priority fee" will be the amount you pay.
The max fee (GWEI) is the total, global amount paid for your transaction: It consists of the base fee + priority fee. You can change the GWEI based on current market conditions. Check the GWEI and adjust it regarding the given height.
Do not forget: The lower the gas, the longer your transaction will take. Also be aware that, when you go too low, the transaction can result in an error and can not be executed. When this happens, you will lose the paid gas.
Most NFT communities offer their NFT holders access to special channels within their Discord server. All you have to do is go to the relevant server and look for a Collabland verification option, or ask if you don't see it. Then a window opens, you connect your wallet and get access to the token gated areas of the community, where you are among your peers.
If you have bought an NFT because you are enthusiastic about the artist, then you might want to show it to other people.
There are now many ways to do this.
With oncyber, you can create your own virtual and fully immersive gallery. You can choose different rooms and then fill them with your NFTs. Afterwards, you can also share your space, so that other people can see your collection. It's so much fun.
Another way to showcase your NFT is Twitter Blue. It is a paid subscription that allows you to connect your wallet to your profile and choose your NFT as a profile image.Of course, you could also just "right-click + safe", but anyone can do that. An NFT in the hexagon is undoubtedly owned by the respective profile.
Before and during Metaverse's launch, various associated NFTs will also be launched in connection with this, which will play a significant role. For example, plots and lands within the metaverse that you can build on, own to rent out, expand, organize events, etc., as well as avatars that you can not only use as a PFP, but also play as a character within the metaverse or various items such as weapons, wearables, potions and so on.
Some NFTs yield tokens for you, which can mean passive income, just for staking them in an ecosystem. The most known are probably Wolf Game and Cyberkongz.
In the future, this area will certainly be much larger. In the meantime, there are already the first music NFTs and new innovative usage concepts are constantly being added. Possibilities are endless.
Always pay attention to the ranks and rarities when selling and especially when setting the price for your respective NFTs. Don't make the mistake of selling your rare NFTs cheaper than your less rare ones just because you personally don't like them as much or you haven't checked their rank.
It is useful to understand what a thin and a thick floor is when selling. A thin floor is when there are only a few listings at the same price until the next higher price is reached and a thick floor means exactly the opposite. Namely a lot of listings are at the same price until the next price level is reached. If you want to make sure that your NFT will be bought quicker, it is advisable to stay out of the thick floor and list your NFT just below it. It is important to understand that there are several "tiers" of floors and depending on the rank of your NFTs you should pay attention to which "tier" floor yours belongs to, instead of blindly undercutting the next best floor.
The procedure serves only as a guide. Since the market is very dynamic and unpredictable, floor prices can change very quickly and what was just a thin floor can rapidly become a very thick floor.
https://twitter.com/Loopifyyy/status/1456627224145276930?s=20&t=o4ts6q2LsXg8NYwLKF3fkg
We have already explained in the Buying chapter why it can make sense to buy several NFTs. Now you will learn how to minimize your risk in an illiquid market like the NFT market. For example, if you bought four NFTs for the total price of 1 ETH (including gas fees), then put two for sale for at least .5 ETH each, just to break even. If you talk to experienced investors, you will hear one thing they have in common: they all keep their losses as low as possible.
Think about a realistic exit point. Of course, this can be adjusted afterwards depending on the market situation and price movement. But in the best case, you stick to your target for at least one NFT of the collection.
Ideally, you still have 2 NFTs as in the example above while your trade is break-even. In this case you are in the luxurious situation to sell the penultimate at a chosen exit point to safely take some profits and to hold the last and to follow the price development and without risk to consider when at what price you decide to sell. Besides, you're not here just for profits but also for art, right? So maybe you don't even want to sell the last one.
Flipping is a loose term for buying items at low prices and selling quickly for a profit.
In the NFT space, it means buying NFTs on the secondary market to sell them as quickly as possible at a profit. This is not about holding the NFT for a long time and speculating that it will be worth a lot in years, but making as much profit as possible in the shortest possible time. In a market that is already very fast, we are entering the high-speed sector at this point.
When flipping, you should pay attention to a few things. On the one hand, it makes sense to check whether the project has minted out. If this is not the case, the supply that is displayed on Open Sea increases little by little, and thus the floor price changes constantly. As long as listings of the collection increase, the floor price often continues to drop, because people undercut each other, so that they can sell their listings quicker.
Many freshly minted projects have a reveal function. This means that the purchased NFTs are visible on the marketplace, but are not revealed until a certain point in time.In this case, you should find out when the NFTs will be revealed and only buy them when it is the right time. As the floor is usually very high during the revealing time and will drop as soon as the NFTs are unrevealed.
These kinds of dynamics and the thrills that come with them are not for everyone. Reflect on your role and perspective from time to time and ask yourself if you feel good and can still see yourself in this role in the future.
Finally, it should be noted that the NFT market is illiquid, compared to the crypto market. Accordingly, there is always the risk that in the worst case you may be stuck with your NFTs and no buyer can be found. For this reason, as already mentioned, one should carefully consider and pay attention to which projects one invests in.
The NFT market is a part of the crypto market and therefore it is worth keeping an eye on it and dealing with it as much as possible. Changes and phases in the crypto market can have a direct effect on the movements in the NFT world.
Since the NFT and crypto sector can be completely overwhelming,especially for beginners, and it may seem difficult to find your way around at first,it is a good idea to join a community you resonate with and get in touch with the people. Being part of a vibrant community can save you a lot of time and energy and give you a better chance of success, as many experienced minds share and pool their knowledge and information. This way you have a safe haven where you can always ask for advice, make great contacts, build friendships and grow together with like-minded people.
However, remember to never blindly listen to advice, always be aware of your responsibilities and DYOR.
https://twitter.com/MetaCircles/status/1498825675389739011
A great place to discover new art https://showtime.io
See projects in a live feed from the moment they are minting.
You see individual mints and trends. A top-notch tool to discover trending projects.
https://moby.gg
NFTGO is trying to become an all-rounder in the tools sector. You can discover upcoming mints, but also projects that are traded on secondary. https://nftgo.io/
There are dozens of NFT calendars, we suggest one that provides a good filtering option. https://www.nftdropscalendar.com/
Access the fastest NFT insights platform. Real-time data and visualizations that update the second it happens on the blockchain. Moby is our weapon of choice, not only because of the well-designed dashboard. https://moby.gg/
NFTGO is trying to become an all-rounder in the tools sector. This young tool offers upcoming mints, analytics, whale tracking, and portfolio management. https://nftgo.io
NFT rarity data analysis service at no cost for consumers. Creators must pay a fee to have their NFT project published on the site. https://rarity.tools/
A token-based rarity tool. https://freshdrops.io/
Inspect smart contracts, mint from the contract, and check gas level (GWEI). https://etherscan.io https://etherscan.io/gastracker
A gas platform that uses the global mempool data infrastructure in real-time to accurately and consistently estimate Ethereum transaction fees. https://www.blocknative.com/gas-estimator
With this tool, you can buy NFTs in bulk and save gas. https://genie.xyz
Moby offers dozens of great features. One also supports your buying. Once you set the criteria, new listings will appear in real-time. You can choose to automatically open a wallet transaction when a match is found to instantly buy NFTs. It brings you limit orders for NFTs. https://moby.gg/
With Supersea very useful information like the current floor price, the rank of the respective NFTs, and much more is implemented and displayed directly on OpenSea as an extension. https://nonfungible.tools/supersea
NFT Trader is a trustless peer-to-peer OTC NFT trading protocol allowing traders to swap ERC-721, ERC-1155, or ERC-20 NFTs securely and easily. It does this using a smart contract acting as a trusted third party for swaps, reducing the risks of fraud. https://www.nfttrader.io/
With Partybid you have the opportunity to buy single fragments of NFTs. Anyone can create or join a Partybid, contribute ETH, and place bids on supported platforms. https://www.partybid.app/
Discover and track interesting stats in DeFi, NFT, and Gaming. https://dappradar.com/nft
Basic NFT Stats + deeper insights for metaverse and gaming markets. https://nonfungible.com/
Get an impression of the data behind OpenSea and high-profile NFT projects. https://dune.xyz/home
Create your own fully immersive NFT exhibition. We love this tool and can’t wait for the feature that enables co-creating exhibitions. https://oncyber.io/
Checkmynft is a metadata checking tool to check how well your ERC-721 NFTs secure their metadata and gather a lot of other interesting insights on your holdings https://checkmynft.com/
Please let us know if you benefit from the experiences we have gathered in this guide.Have fun and enjoy your hopefully fruitful journey as an NFT collector.
This space is a new one, and we are trying to promote a philosophy of sharing.Open-source codes and open knowledge, that's what we are here for.The idea of living in an abundant world that understands these as fundamental principles fuels us.
First of all, a big thank you to the MetaCircles members who inspired us to create, contributed and proofread this guide. We are truly grateful that we can build a place where we can support each other. Special thanks to @CryptoPal, @bastianhanstein, and @0xboobavelli for your participation.
Big thanks to @polygraphia for contributing to this guide and a shout out to the whole Moby team.
Thanks to all the bright people who give their best every day in this space and inspire millions of people. The embedded tweets above are only showing a tiny fraction of the beautiful humans that are constantly giving.
Last but not least, thanks to those who support our work and have minted an edition of this guide. As mentioned in the beginning, "Rare" collectors can claim a MetaCircles membership, "Legendary" collectors can claim two.
As mentioned at the beginning, this is meant to be a living document. If you have something to add or want to give feedback, feel free to join our Discord.We are looking forward to seeing you.
If you think this guide has enriched you, please retweet it and forward it to your companions. Make sure others can benefit from it as well.