OpenSea key features
- The largest NFT marketplace in the world with over 1.8 million registered users, making it the best place to find liquidity for buyers and sellers.
- Supports three other blockchains outside Ethereum, namely, Solana, Polygon, and Klatyn.
- Thanks to OpenSea’s new Seaport contracts, it is one of the most gas-effective Web3 marketplaces with various features like bulk listings and real-time creator fees.
What was once considered a speculative bubble has now become a market-expanding technology. From social media creators to large-scale enterprises, everyone is looking to enter the NFT space.
Why? For the simple reason that NFTs represent the simplest gateway to the metaverse and larger Web3 landscape. Further, NFTs have many innovative use-cases that can potentially disrupt industries like fashion, gaming, and music. So NFTs are here to stay and lead the Web3 revolution — are you ready? If you are, you should know how to buy and sell NFTs.
We understand it can be complex for someone new to crypto and NFTs to set up a wallet and interact with a marketplace like OpenSea. Don’t worry, friend — we’ve got you. This guide will walk you through a simple step-by-step process of buying and selling NFTs on the OpenSea marketplace.
How to buy and sell NFTs on OpenSea
Step 1: Load up your wallet with sufficient funds
Step 2: Select the NFT you wish to purchase
Step 3: Make an offer or buy at fixed price
Step 4: Pay gas fees and confirm your transaction
What is OpenSea?
OpenSea is a Web3 marketplace where you can buy, sell, and create all sorts of NFTs in a peer-to-peer fashion. It currently features nine main NFT categories:
- Art
- Collectibles
- Domain names
- Music
- Photography
- Sports
- Trading cards
- Utility
- Virtual worlds
OpenSea was founded in 2017 by Alex Atallah and Devin Finzer. Both saw immense potential in NFTs when CryptoKitties captured mainstream interest in digital collectibles. But they quickly realized marketplaces for digital goods operated in silos. And when the ERC721 token standard rolled out, their idea to create a unified marketplace became possible for the first time.
Fast forward to 2022, OpenSea emerged as the largest NFT marketplace with a market share of over 80%. Last year, it recorded over $40 billion in trading volume and generated close to $350 million in profits. Seeing the profitability of the company and the urge to scale further, OpenSea raised multiple rounds of funding from top VCs like Paradigm and a16z. After the latest Series C funding of $300 million, OpenSea stands at a $13.3 billion valuation.
What are NFTs?
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are unique digital certificates of tokenized assets on the blockchain. The assets can represent anything in the real or digital world, from images and videos to metaverse avatars and virtual lands.
People buy NFTs for various reasons, including but not limited to price appreciation, access to an exclusive community, and whitelist spots for NFT sales. The utility of NFTs also translates to blockchain games. Axie Infinity, My Pet Hooligan, Treeverse, and many more NFT collections enable holders to play games using their NFT avatar. In addition, they also create in-game economies around these gaming NFTs to incentivize active players.
On the creators’ side, NFTs make sense because content ownership is fully retained. For example, artists and musicians no longer have to depend on third parties and forgo a chunk of equity stake. Instead, they can create a limited set of NFTs and fully leverage their fan base.
Now that you understand NFTs, it’s time to dive into how you actually buy and sell them on a marketplace like OpenSea. Let’s get started!
How to buy NFTs on OpenSea marketplace
Step 1: Load up your wallet with sufficient funds
Unfortunately, you can’t directly exchange fiat money with NFTs on a Web3 marketplace yet. So you need to have a wallet like Metamask or a Coinbase wallet. For this walkthrough, let’s use Metamask, as it’s the most popular one. It is available on metamask.io, and you can add it as an extension to your browser like you normally do.
Once you have Metamask installed, it’s time to buy some crypto. You can buy directly from the wallet using a debit or credit card or transfer funds from a centralized exchange. It is always advised to have slightly more funds than necessary because gas fees can sometimes be unpredictable.
Step 2: Select the NFT you wish to purchase
After adding funds, you need to connect your wallet to OpenSea and select the NFT you wish to purchase. If you have never created an account with OpenSea, it will ask you for some permissions and signature requests. After you complete these, you will become a registered user on OpenSea.
Now that you’ve registered, it’s time to explore the marketplace. You can simply select the category that interests you and apply the necessary filters. You should also check whether OpenSea verified the collection you selected or not.
Step 3: Make an offer or buy at fixed price
The easiest way to buy an NFT is at a fixed price set by the seller. But some sellers don’t list their NFTs. So you have to make an attractive offer much better than previous bidders for the owner to accept. You can directly filter NFTs available to purchase and on auction under the Status bar, as shown in the image below.
If you are going with a fixed price, select the “Buy Now” button. You will see a few pop-ups asking you to complete the purchase. Please click on it and ensure you have sufficient funds in your wallet. If somehow you don’t, you can immediately buy the NFT using a third-party API like MoonPay.
Step 4: Pay gas fees and confirm your transaction
Once you click on “Confirm Checkout,” you will see your Metamask pop up on the right side of your screen. It will ask you to pay gas fees and confirm the transaction. You need to make sure you are paying the lowest gas fees possible. For that, you can check network activity on Etherscan.
To initiate the transaction, click on “Confirm.” It will take 1-2 minutes for the NFT to appear on your profile.
How to sell NFTs on OpenSea marketplace
Step 1: Go to your profile and select the NFT you want to sell
After you’ve connected your wallet to OpenSea, go to your profile and select the NFT you want to sell. Before deciding on how you want to sell your NFT, you should have a rough estimate of its value in the market. Check sales history and see at what price NFTs with similar traits as yours are selling for.
Step 2: Choose type of sale
You can sell NFTs at your desired/fixed price or let the market decide its highest value by setting up a timed auction. With an auction, your NFT will be sold to the highest bidder after the duration is over. You can select up to 6 months as the duration.
Step 3: Confirm your NFT listing
Once you enter all the details, click on the “Confirm Listing” button at the bottom. Your Metamask wallet will pop up asking you to pay the gas fee. Click on “Confirm,” and your NFT will officially be listed on the OpenSea marketplace.
OpenSea buying and selling fees
If you listed your NFT for X amount, you would not receive the same amount after making the sale. There are several fees involved that eat into your profits. For starters, there is a one-time fee you’ll have to pay for account initialization and token approval. If you are a creator who built a custom smart contract, you also have to pay a one-time approval fee.
Besides one-time fees, OpenSea has another category of fees called recurring fees. This applies whenever you buy NFTs, cancel listings, and transfer (gift) NFTs to someone. You also incur OpenSea’s commission of 2.5%. In addition, the creators can take a maximum royalty of up to 10% of the sale. So, you can potentially lose 12.5% of your final sale amount in fees.
To sum it up
Web3 wallets, smart contracts, blockchain bridges, and more! We know it can be overwhelming to explore the crypto space. But you don’t have to go all-in at once. Your first entry to Web3 can be through NFTs.
At the same time, you must remain cautious of the scams people are pulling these days in phishing attacks and rug pulls. Buy NFTs if you resonate with the community and have done thorough fundamental research on the project.
FAQs
Can you sell on the OpenSea app?
OpenSea is a decentralized marketplace for selling, buying, and creating NFTs. You can automatically transfer NFT assets to interested parties without any intermediaries. OpenSea will handle all the sale operations with its Wyvern smart contracts.
How much does it cost to sell on OpenSea?
There are mainly two fees involved when trying to sell NFTs on OpenSea. The first one is a one-time fee for account initialization and NFT listing. Depending on the network traffic, the one-time fee can range anywhere from $70 and $300.
On the other hand, there are creator and OpenSea commission fees. OpenSea and creators take home a maximum of 12.5% in commissions and royalties for every sale.
How do I sell on OpenSea for the first time?
Selling NFTs on OpenSea is not complicated. Here is a quick breakdown:
- Connect your wallet to OpenSea
- Go to your profile and select the NFT you wish to sell.
- Pick between a fixed price sale or a timed auction and set duration.
- Pay a one-time account initialization fee along with gas fees.
- Confirm the transaction, and your NFT listing will be live.
Do you have to pay to sell on OpenSea?
Yes, OpenSea charges a small compensation fee for the infrastructure they are offering for free. It includes a 2.5% commission and 10% creator royalties on every sale. You don’t have to pay anything upfront outside of gas fees. OpenSea will automatically deduct these charges and transfer the remaining amount to your wallet.
