[Guide] Buying Your First NFT? This Step-by-Step Guide Shows You How!

Reaching the decision to purchase your very first NFT is already a huge milestone, much less actually buying one. Much like how everyone makes online purchases, buying an NFT is not that far off. When you shop digitally, there are various steps you take to secure the item you wish to buy ─ entering the name of the website, finding the item you want, taking a deep breathe when clicking “buy/purchase”, entering your credit/debit card details or other payment modes (i.e. paypal, etc), keying in the address you want the item to be delivered to (or self-pick-up, if that is an option), getting confirmation, and waiting with anticipation for the delivery. Same goes for buying an NFT, there are also various steps to take to get it.

Before all that, you need to ensure you have a crypto wallet because you cannot buy NFTs without crypto. So the crypto wallet is akin to your credit/debit card. To shortlist a crypto wallet for you, check out this: https://www.coinlive.com/news/detail/?id=11215. After registration, ensure you have some crypto (usually Ethereum) in the wallet so as to make the NFT purchase. You may refer to https://www.coinlive.com/news/detail/?id=12936to see which NFT marketplace best suits your needs.

Depending on the project you are interested in, there are different ways to buy an NFT. Know which blockchain your NFT was created on for a start. This step-by-step guide focuses on how to make your first NFT purchase on an Ethereum blockchain using a MetaMask wallet, with Ethereum being the present leading blockchain service for NFT issuance.

The First Way to Buy an NFT ─ Minting

Generally, a majority of new projects allow buyers to mint or create an NFT on their website. When you mint an NFT, you become the first owner of that particular NFT. One of the major differences between minting an NFT and buying one is that you do not get to choose your digital art for the former ─ it is assigned randomly and every piece carries the same price. On top of paying for the mint, you have to pay the transaction (gas) fees too. Or if you were to find a legitimate free mint, all you have to do is just pay for the gas.

In this guide, I will be minting an NFT, which was available a couple of days prior to the time of writing; the new project is called Ballistic Graffiti Honorary 22.

P.S: Always remember to use a “burner wallet” when minting from website.

1)Go to the website of the NFT project and click “Connect wallet”.

2) Click on “MetaMask”.

3) First select “Next” then ‘Connect”.

4) Review the required gas fees before you click “Confirm”. The minting process can take between a few seconds to minutes. If the transaction fails, chances are the collection has been minted completely or sold out.

5) Head to OpenSea to view your newly minted NFT in your profile!

The Second Way to Buy an NFT ─ Actual Purchasing

As previously mentioned, you cannot select the NFT you want when you mint because it gets randomly assigned to you. But if you choose to buy an NFT directly from an NFT marketplace instead, you have the luxury of choice; how much you are willing to or able to fork out is another story altogether.

1A) If you are unsure of what NFT to buy, you can peruse the extensive collection by clicking “Explore” then “All NFTs”.

1B) lf you already know the name of the NFT project, then type it in the search bar and click on the correct one. Let’s say you want to buy an NFT from the VoodoosClub project. Type its name in the search bar.

2) Once you enter the NFT project, you will see what NFTs are available. Select the NFT you have your eye on.

3) You can see the details of the NFT like its description, its properties, the item’s activity, etc. Click “Buy now”.

4) Click on “Complete purchase”.

5) Ensure all details are correct before selecting “Confirm” in your MetaMask wallet to complete the purchase.

6) There you have it, your very first NFT purchase! View it in your profile.

You would probably have heard or still get this question occasionally, “Why are people buying NFTs? Especially if you do not actually get anything tangible, not even the copyright, just a line of code on the blockchain?”

When it comes to buying an NFT, there are a myriad of reasons but the most common is either as a potential investment or for the sake of collecting. For instance, you can buy a trading card for investment purposes because it has value or purely for the sake of keeping it in your collection; same goes for NFTs. Regardless, please DYOR extensively, especially if your intention is to invest and trade.