2 biggest beginner friendly NFT marketplaces: What you need to know to get started with NFTs
NFT marketplaces are platforms where people can buy, sell, or trade non-fungible tokens.
What are Non Fungible Tokens?
NFTs are digital assets that are not interchangeable and have unique properties. They are often used to represent items in games, art, or other digital media.
Two of the biggest NFT marketplaces are OpenSea and Nifty Gateway. They have a wide variety of options to choose from, yet different enough in what they offer. So you can find the perfect marketplace to find and buy the latest digital assets in no time. This is by no means any recommendation or an exhaustive list at all but simply these marketplaces are ones that you commonly hear about and in my opinion, a good starting point into NFTs.
these marketplaces are ones that you commonly hear about and in my opinion, a good starting point into NFTs
In this post, we’ll provide a high level overview of each of the 2 marketplaces and try to break it down into costs, what you can do and some history of each.
Let’s go shopping.
1. OpenSea
OpenSea is one of the oldest marketplaces by NFT standards, having launched in 2017, its basically ancient in this fast moving industry. As a result, it is also one of the biggest marketplaces out there. Open sea sells some of the most popular NFTs, including art, photography, music, collectibles and virtual worlds.
Often, if you hear about an NFT on the news or from a friend, you can probably find it on OpenSea
In my opinion OpenSea is the simplest way to get started with buying, selling, and discovering digital assets. So whether you’re looking for your first DAO membership or your millionth CryptoKitty, OpenSea is the place to be. Just purely looking at beginner friendliness, OpenSea ticks all the boxes. The biggest catch here is you need some crypto savvy ad you will need a “wallet” and some cryptocurrency to pay for things.
Fees?
Fees are pretty reasonable. From a buyer’s perspective, you need to be aware of commission fees which are 2.5% as of this writing. You also need to pay the gas fee which is the fee you pay to the blockchain your NFT lives in order to perform transactions. As of this writing OpenSea also supports up to 150 payment tokens so the world is your oyster.
As of this writing OpenSea also supports up to 150 payment tokens so the world is your oyster.
For sellers, OpenSea provides very beginner friendly tools to just drag and drop your NFT creation. Almost all of the NFT generators out there has support for OpenSea. Check out my previous article for details.
2. Nifty Gateway
If you are not into searching and discovering NFTs and you just want to get straight to the good stuff, Nifty Gateway offers just that. It is a heavily curated collection of NFTs and it had made some headlines recently for some eye popping NFT sales. Like Pak’s “The Merge,” which sold for an insane $91.8 million. But this just shows how NFTs are not just pictures of monkeys on twitter profiles but a platform that empowers artists.
Pak’s “The Merge,” which sold for an insane $91.8 million. But this just shows how NFTs are not just pictures of monkeys on twitter profiles but a platform that empowers artists.
Some differences from OpenSea is Nifty Gateway mainly focuses on art so you you will not be finding tickets or DAO membership tokens. Collections are often from celebrities or famous artists. Think of the platform as a heavily curated art gallery especially with their concept of “Open Editions” where when an NFT is released, you can only buy it for a limited time.
Think of the platform as a heavily curated art gallery especially with their concept of “Open Editions” where when an NFT is released, you can only buy it for a limited time.
Fees?
Probably one of the easiest marketplaces to buy NFTs since you can just make purchases with a credit card.
Nifty Gateway is one of the best examples of something Web3 but with the Web2.0 accessibility of an e-commerce site. One more interesting tidbit is Nifty is run by Gemini, which is owned by the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
Each of these marketplaces has its strengths and weaknesses. OpenSea has the most variety but can be overwhelming for new users. Nifty Gateway has a more limited, pricier selection but is easier to navigate and more curated if that’s the experience after.
No matter which marketplace you choose, you don’t have to commit to anything. Give it a try, browse and if there is something you like, buy it and see what this NFT hype is all about.
My recommendation will be if you are already crypto savvy, OpenSea will be easier. But if you don’t know what a “wallet” is or own any cryptocurrency, then Nifty Gateway is for you.
Good luck and go get some NFTs.
