Hello Friends 👋
In the last article, we talked about the difficulties you may come across when “Selling NFTs”. A really a big task nowadays. Here is the link to that article, before we talk about the various NFT marketplaces/platforms:
NFT Marketplaces and Platforms
There are dozens of platforms that let you sell NFTs across a wide variety of blockchains, so it’s almost impossible for any single guide to cover them all, much less tell you which one is the right one for your project. We’ll be covering two of the more popular marketplaces in this guide, but do know that there are alternatives if neither of these platforms fit what you want to do, like AtomicHub, which uses the Wax blockchain, or the Solana-based Solsea.
It’s also worth noting at this point that our guide will show you how to do things the basic way. Even with NFT markets, there are deep rabbit holes you can go down that won’t be covered in this guide (things like selling an NFT minted with OpenSea on Rarible, programmatically generating collections like Bored Apes, and so on). Just know that this isn’t meant to be a comprehensive compendium on selling NFTs — it’s just getting you to the path.
Both OpenSea and Rarible let you create NFTs on Ethereum without paying anything, thanks to what they call “lazy minting” systems. Lazy minting lets you create an NFT and put it up for sale without it actually being written to the blockchain, thus avoiding any fees. When someone actually buys it, the fees for writing your NFT to the blockchain will be bundled with the fees to transfer it to the buyer. That helps you avoid the situation where you pay $10 to $30 (or more!) to mint an NFT that no one ends up buying.
Wait… There Is Always a Catch
When it comes to Minting NFTs, most options have some sort of trade-off.
There can be catches — with OpenSea, listing your first Ethereum NFT for sale will require initializing your account, which can be an expensive transaction (during testing, I saw prices in the $300 to $400 range). It is a one-time fee, and after paying it, you’ll be able to lazy mint NFTs without having to pay anything.
With Rarible, I didn’t have to pay this sort of fee during my testing. However, trying to remove your NFT from the sale will cost a fee (I saw prices around $20 to $30). Both Rarible and OpenSea will take a 2.5 percent fee from any sales you make — if you sell an NFT for 0.025 ETH, you’ll actually receive 0.024375 ETH.
There are, however, alternatives to the Ethereum blockchain. Rarible lets you sell NFTs using the Flow blockchain (the same one used by NBA Top Shot) if you sign up for it using the Blocto wallet, and OpenSea will let you sell using the Polygon blockchain. Both options have much lower fees than those you pay for using the Ethereum blockchain, if any fees at all, so we will at least touch on using them.
As you might have guessed, if there were no catches or downsides to these low / no-fee blockchains, everyone would be using them. At the time of writing, choosing to use Flow on Rarible will limit you to single edition NFTs (one of them), and you won’t be able to sell them with an auction. Additionally, when you’re using non-Ethereum blockchains like Flow or Polygon, people can’t use Ethereum to purchase your NFTs (at least, not without going through extra, fee-inducing steps). While both platforms do let buyers add funds to their wallets to complete a purchase, having to convert or outright buy another cryptocurrency to nab your NFT may put some collectors off.
(Note: while Polygon does let you use Ethereum, it’s actually Polygon’s version of Ethereum. You can directly transfer Ethereum from its main blockchain over to Polygon and transfer back, but doing so will incur gas fees.)
Do I Have to Have a Marketplace Site to Create NFTs?
Technically, NO. You can create your own smart contract, deploy it to the blockchain of your choice, and then mint your own tokens using it. That’s jumping into the deep end, though, and probably not the route you’ll want to go unless you’re very technical. Most people will want to use one of the platforms discussed above.
Need Help With Creating / Minting / Managing NFTs, Wallets?
Reach out to me personally and I will help you out with all your queries.
I and my team generally try to understand your ideas first and then provide techno-functional consultancy which may help you have a cost-effective solution, possibly MVP (minimal viable product) before you burn your wallets deep :-)
So, no worries… Just get in touch with me, you are in safe hands!
If you want to share anything or have any suggestions/questions, please leave them in the comments!
That’s it for today :-)
Hope each of you has a great start to your day. I’ll talk to everyone tomorrow.
— Amit
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