My story
Collecting different things has always been part of my life – sometimes larger, sometimes smaller. I have never been really obsessed by collecting like some of my peers, but I have always loved owning various collections in different periods of my life.
When I was a little boy, I had a pretty big collection of playing cars. When growing up, I fell in love with music and started buying audio cassettes (I hope everyone reading this knows what these are). Back then, I wanted to have the rarest possible recordings, as for example the vintage Metallica bootleg concert that not many people even know it took place, or this unknown album of a band that I thought could someday become super famous. Some of my guesses were close, others were way off. Anyway, that didn’t matter so much because what was important to me was that I had so much music to listen to and enjoy. Moreover, owning these records help me socialize since many of my peers visited me just to sit and listen to those records together.
After that video cassettes and CDs came into existence. I loved watching movies and rented a lot of video cassettes and later CDs but only bought copies of movies that touched me deeply or were considered classical.
Fast forward to the 2000s. Years went by without me even noticing that I had stopped collecting things. Everything was becoming more and more digital but usually owned by corporations, websites and other entities. Just like many other people, I had become nothing but a consumer – merely a participant in a grand scheme where we didn’t own anything. At the same time, we had access to an unprecedented amount of music, art, movies and what not. Then I realized that my collector’s passion had slowly faded away.
The new NFT world
When I first heard about NFTs, I felt a something deep inside me that I could not quite put my finger on. I didn’t pay much attention to this slightly unfamiliar feeling, but the more I learned about NFTs, the more attractive that brave new world seemed to me. Before NFTs, I was interested in crypto because of its dynamics. When I started researching NFTs, though, its scope, vastness and myriad of applications truly amazed me.
So, what exactly is an NFT?
NFT is short for Non-Fungible Token. It stands for any kind of asset that is unique and cannot be replaced by anything else. It is a proof of provenance and ownership. Non-fungible as opposed to fungible tokens are one-of-a-kind items.
A non-fungible item is your house or your favorite painting – they are unique and though they could be traded or exchanged they have a different value that could change in time.
NFTs can be anything digital (drawings, music, animations, videos, etc.). They are powered by the same technology as cryptocurrencies – namely, blockchain. A blockchain is a way to record, transfer and store information blocks in a decentralized and secure way.
That nudging feeling grew even stronger, so I deep dived in the NFT multiverse. At first, I didn’t notice that my collector’s passion not only returned but was intensifying until one day I realized that now I could own anything digital that is sold on the NFT market – not just watch it or listen to it but really own a unique piece of music or art.
What is even more exciting in the NFT world is that not only can I own impressive fine artworks, music, videos and even a real estate property in a virtual world but I feel much more closely connected to the artists who have created them than ever before. Now I don’t own just a copy of their art identical to the thousands or millions other copies but buy a unique piece of art and feel like it has been created especially for me.
Since the NFT world is a comparatively recent phenomenon, there is scattered and unsystematized information about it on the Internet. That is why I decided to share my findings of different marketplaces, hoping that they will help other fellow collectors.
NFT Marketplaces
MakersPlace
MakersPlace is a curated NFT marketplace. In my opinion, it offers the most high-end artworks. I love it as every piece there is quite good. While browsing all the amazing digital artworks on MakersPlace, I feel like I am in a luxury gallery that represents top artists. This, of course, doesn’t mean I like all of the pieces displayed there, but as a collector I recognize high quality when I see it, no matter if I like the style or not.
The interface is the most user friendly and easy to navigate as compared to the other marketplaces. In contrast to all other marketplaces, where you need a crypto wallet to register and pay for your purchase, here you can buy art with a credit card or via PayPall. Of course, you still need a wallet to securely store your collection, but MakersPlace offers you to create it for you if you don’t have one.
The featured creators’ section is a good way to find trending artists. There you can buy a high quality NFT for just 0.1 to 0.3 ETH ($180 – $540 at the time this article was written) or find works of renowned artists for 1 to 20 ETH ($1,800 – $34,000) and even more.
The artworks are quite versatile in their nature – from paintings, illustrations, abstract works to gifs and animations. However, I couldn’t find music, I mean there is music but it is usually combined with a visual artwork. I am not sure if it is due to the platform’s rules or the musicians haven’t discovered it yet.
MakersPlace has an additional feature which is quite interesting. In the Activity tab, you can check out all featured artworks and artists as well as top collectors. Moreover, you can see what other collectors have bought and are selling.
In March 2021, Christie’s issued Beeple’s NFT Everydays: The First 500 Days in partnership with MakersPlace and sold it for $69 million at auction. The platform periodically organizes raffles with Beeple’s artwork and if you are lucky, you can buy one of his pieces for quite a good price.
I absolutely love MakersPlace and think it is the best NFT marketplace. What I miss there is the element of discovery. It is too perfect, too curated and there is no much room for discovery. As a collector, I like having amazing art pieces from known artists but I also love finding new talents. I feel happy when I find an amazing artwork in a pile of paintings.
OpenSea
The platform proudly calls itself “the largest NFT marketplace”. Another favorite marketplace of mine. OpenSea stands by its name. It seems like everyone is there. It is really a vast sea of artworks. Their goal is to become the “Amazon of NFTs”.
Until the beginning of March 2021, the platform had approved all the uploaded collections. However, that changed due to the unprecedented growth. Now the platform allows artworks to be sold without verification. When collectors purchase items, OpenSea warns them that they have not been reviewed by the marketplace.
Registration on the marketplace is made through a crypto wallet. Use MetaMask, which is a Chrome extension, since this is the wallet usually recommended by NFT marketplaces.
On OpenSea you can search in different categories like Art, Domain Names, Virtual Words, etc. and apply various filters to your search. The marketplace integrates other NFT marketplaces. So, there collectors can also purchase NFTs offered by other platforms.
What I like about OpenSea is that it gives me the opportunity to discover new talents. Sometimes I catch myself browsing for hours on end to find real gems – amazing artworks by unknown artists, which have the potential to become hype and rise in value. Let me give you a piece of advice, however. You shouldn’t buy NFTs as a purely speculative venture. In the end, it might turn out that you own forever something you don’t like, but cannot sell.
The prices on OpenSea vary significantly. You can find great, original works that are pretty cheap as well as not so good stuff that might be hugely overpriced. Use your own discernment when dipping your toe in the open sea. There are cases when artists register two profiles to buy and sell their pieces in order to create false hype and pump up the prices. Beware of sharks in the sea!
Nifty Gateway
The platform boasts about “being the premier marketplace for Nifties”. It’s another curated market like MakersPlace. It is a user-friendly platform as well. You can register with an email and password and start buying NFTs with your credit card.
The homepage offers an overview of featured artworks and creators and top collectors. What is different about this marketplace is that in the Activity tab you have a live feed of all deals. Also, there is a Stats tab which provides real-time information on top selling nifties by secondary market sales.
In February 2021, The Canadian musician and artist Grimes sold $6 million worth of crypto art as NFTS on Nifty Gateway in less than 20 minutes.
VeVe
VeVe is a mobile app which offers premium licensed digital collectables. If you love pop culture, film and TV, animation, gaming, or sports, VeVe is just for you. VeVe offers 3D digital collectible figurines of famous brands. Batman, Superman, Adventure Time, Monster Hunter, Star Trek, Jurassic Park, Fast and the Furious, Back to the Future characters and many more popular heroes are waiting for you. VeVe’s augmented reality feature and virtual showrooms, where you can showcase your newly purchased collectables, significantly boost your experience on the platform.
The marketplace uses its own currency – gem, which is bought in the app with fiat money (credit card). 5 gems equal $4.99 so it is quite easy to calculate the price of each collectable in USD.
Each NFT can be viewed and interacted with on your phone and the look and feel is as if you hold a real figure. Most NFTs are offered in 2500 to 7500 copies. New drops are announced in advance and selling really fast. Like the other marketplaces, VeVe has a secondary marketplace for collectors to buy and sell from each other. However, at the time this article was written, it was under maintenance so I can only speculate that the prices on the secondary market would be much higher that on the primary one due to the scarcity of the collectables.
Decentraland
This is more than a marketplace for NFTs. It is a blockchain-based virtual world where you can buy and sell land, build your own house, purchase goods and services (clothes, accessories, etc.). I am still new to all this virtual world thing but I find Decentraland fascinating. Obviously, many other people do too as someone has recently bought a digital house, created by the contemporary artist Krista Kim, for $500,000.
You need a crypto wallet for navigating and buying in Decentraland. The platform has its own fungible cryptocurrency token called MANA. Many people are constantly joining this virtual community where they can create an avatar and interact and communicate with other users. They can also participate in concerts, art shows and any other events organized by community members.
In Decentraland, NFTs meet the virtual world. You can display your art in your virtual house and or visit an NFT art gallery.
I will continue to explore other marketplaces and share my experience on this blog. NFT is just starting to take off (even though the turnover for the first few months of 2021 is $500 million (!) ) and I am sure that there will be many new exciting news, platforms and services coming in the near future.
