Tips and Tricks of Choosing the Right NFTs
In this section, I’m going to tell you about the dos and don’ts of picking and buying NFTs!
NFTs are a real rollercoaster - that goes without saying! The best example of this is the NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet - the Twitter co-founder initially sold it for $2.9 million, and when the new owner tried reselling it for close to $50 million, the highest bid he received was around $80,000, with the follow-up bid not even reaching $300. Just imagine how he felt!
We’ve all been there, though - bought NFTs that we really believed would rise in value, only for them to peak soon after, and then crash down, with no signs of recovery. This is why talking about the core aspects of finding the best NFTs is so important!
In this section, you'll find out about the dos and don’ts of picking the right NFT projects, and buying NFTs themselves. We’ll talk a bit about how the general situation within the market influences the prices of NFTs, and then cover the biggest points to look out for, when trying to find the most promising NFT projects for yourself!
Let’s get to it!
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NFTs and the General Crypto Market
So, to start off, let’s address the elephant in the room. As you can imagine, there are some steps that you can take when it comes to analyzing NFT projects, asking “what NFT should I buy?”, and finding the “right one” for yourself. It’s like, picking out a computer at the store - you look through the specs, see if the parameters suit your needs, and then make the purchase, if all seems fine!
Sorting through NFT projects can become a bit more complicated, however, when you find yourself in a bear market - a period of time during which there are few new projects popping up, and the various crypto asset prices are crashing down, hard.
Now, it’s kind of an unwritten rule that, during bear markets, teams tend to concentrate on developing and building their projects, so that they could be launched when the market turns around. This, in turn, makes finding and buying NFTs quite a bit more difficult - there simply aren’t as many top-notch projects to look at!
Another point to be noted has to do with motivation, as well. Think about it this way - imagine that, at some point during the summer, as you browse through the internet on your computer, you get an ad for winter shoes. The price is decent, and the shoes do look warm - however, just how likely are you to actually purchase them, at that point in time?
For most people, the likelihood of that happening is, frankly, rather slim! That’s simply due to the fact that it’s the middle of summer - you’re thinking about pool parties and beaches, not winter shoes!
The crypto market works the same way - even if you do find some amazing NFT projects, and learn how to invest in NFT technology, chances are that you’ll have a difficult time re-selling those NFTs, if the market is currently experiencing negative sentiments.
So, ya - that’s essentially the first major thing that I wanted to point your attention to. When looking at how do you buy NFTs, do keep the general market situation in mind - it could save you a lot of money and patience, in the long run!
Design & Originality
Now, moving on to the actual “dos and don’ts” of buying NFTs, the very first step related to the actual NFTs would be for you to look at the design quality of the project, as well as its originality.
Both of these aspects are very self-explanatory. It’s like picking out a game to play - would you rather play a copy-pasted version of some popular game that you’ve already seen dozens of times before, or a visually-stunning game with top-tier graphics and original storytelling?
Naturally, probably everyone would pick the latter. The same applies to choosing NFTs, as well!
By now, there are countless numbers of Bored Ape and CryptoPunk lookalikes. The wider NFT community knows this - projects like these don’t really get a lot of attention anymore, and thus, they tend to perform… Let’s just say, not so great.
Instead, your goal should be to look for unique NFT projects. This uniqueness could actually be anything - the design of the characters, some sort of a cool use case, an original twist on the tokenomics of the project - anything!
That being said, it’s probably obvious that visual appeal plays a big factor with non-fungible tokens. Thus, if you’re thinking about flipping the NFTs in order to make a profit, make sure to look for the most interesting, eye-catching designs!
Development Team
Next, once you have a couple of projects in mind, and understand how to know what NFTs to buy, the second major thing that you should do is figure out who are the creators of your chosen NFTs.
Now, this point’s a bit tricky, because there are countless of really cool (and successful!) NFT projects that have anonymous developers behind them. It’s kind of an intuition thing at that point - if you have a gut feeling that the developers of the NFT won’t just randomly abandon the project, and that they’re “in it” for the long term, the anonymity point becomes a bit more lenient.
That being said, you should still take the time and look into the developers (or, the general team) behind the NFT that you’re thinking of buying. Even if they don’t reveal their identities, you can still observe how they interact with the community - the way they talk, the things they say, how they respond to difficult questions, and so on.
All of these things can really tell you a lot about how the project will be managed! It’s actually something that can impact the price of your chosen NFT, quite a bit, especially in the long term.
What you should not do, though, is trust developers who appear like they have something to hide, or who are actively dodging questions from the community. If there’s any type of shadiness involved with the project, it’s probably a good idea to avoid it, and move on to something else, completely.
Community Support
Looking at what makes an NFT valuable, imagine this: you’ve come across an awesome-looking NFT project, noticed that it has some cool perks and features, and chatted with the developers, who seem to be very knowledgeable and positive. What do you think comes next, as a natural progression of things that you should do while picking out and buying an NFT?
If you said “community checks”, you’re on point!
It could be the best, most revolutionary NFT project in the world - if it doesn’t accumulate community support, and there’s no hype behind it, it’s very likely to flop, sooner rather than later.
Once again - if you’re interested in how to invest in NFT technology, strong community backing is an essential factor to consider and look into.
How is something like this measured? Well, it’s pretty simple, really - your quest should be to check out every existing social media platform that the NFT project has an associated account on. Twitter, Meta, Instagram, Telegram, Discord, and so on - you name it!
The last couple of platforms - Telegram and Discord - are actually some of the best places to begin your search on. This is due to the interactive nature that they possess - chances are that you’ll find the moderators or developers of the project chatting with their community on Discord, or answering questions on Telegram.
Look at the numbers of followers that the project has amassed, the likes and shares that it receives, and the number of people talking about it, in general. All of these things work to create a pretty good general outlook on what the community is like, and whether or not buying this specific NFT is the right pick for you!
One more point that I’d like to mention here is that there are some sneaky people out there. Specifically, there are traders who are selling themselves their NFTs, thus artificially inflating their price. These can be rogue, individual traders, or even entire communities, as well.
How do you spot something like this? Well, you need to look at the history of the NFT - how many times it has been traded, what are the wallet addresses of previous owners, whether or not they repeat themselves throughout the trading history, and so on. Make sure to keep an eye out for this form of trickery!
Project Roadmap - A Key Factor to Consider
Moving on, the next major thing to consider when you’re looking at buying NFTs with the most potential is the roadmap of the project.
I cannot stress this enough - it’s an absolutely essential factor that needs to be looked into! Think about it like this - imagine that you planned a trip, and wanted to fly from London to New York. You buy your ticket and board the plane. The pilots, however, don’t have a flight plan - they just take off, and fly straight. There’s a pretty good chance that you’ll end up somewhere flying like this, but it’s likely not going to be New York.
The same logic can be applied to NFT projects, and your consideration of how to know which NFT to buy. If the creators behind the NFTs don’t really have a solid plan where they want to take the project, this could result in failure, really fast. Sure, there might be some initial hype, and if the NFTs are really cool-looking, they could generate a few sales - however, in the long run, chances are that the community would abandon this project for a more planned-out one, pretty soon.
It’s not enough to simply “take a look” at the roadmap, though. You need to analyze what features the project possesses, what are the planned future updates, where will the money from the sales go, what platforms the NFTs are going to be hosted on, whether or not there is going to be a DAO, airdrops, giveaways, celebrity promotions, and so on.
That is, admittedly, a lot to cover! These aspects, however, can really help you differentiate between solid and well-rounded projects, and rug pulls in the making.
Not familiar with the term? It’s a type of scam that’s rather common in the crypto and NFT spaces - check out the dedicated section on this topic, to both get familiar with this concept, as well as learn how to spot and avoid potential rug pulls, wherever they might be!
As a final point that needs to be mentioned, when you’re reading through the roadmap of the project, you will eventually come across a section about the minting process of the NFT, and everything that relates to it. Make sure to pay extra close attention to this part of the roadmap.
Essentially, this is where you’ll be able to learn about how the NFTs were minted, how the rarity system works, and even about the floor price of the non-fungible tokens, when they’re finally released. All of this information will give you a better idea of how the project works, and whether or not it’s the right choice for you!
Conclusions
I do hope that you’ve learned a lot, and now know what to look out for! Whether it be traders selling themselves their NFTs, or questions such as “how to know what NFTs to buy?”, in general, we’ve covered all of the big aspects that you need to know, in order to make the right decisions!