Hi everyone!
This week I had the chance to run a workshop about “How to Kickstart Your NFT Collection” at the Proof Of People event in London. I’ll share my experience of the event later (spoiler: it was awesome!).
The intention was to share an introduction for beginners. Starting with this technology's essential advantages compared to traditional art, touching on the different concepts and applications in the Tezos ecosystem, and closing with advanced metrics to follow an structured approach.
NFT Advantages
There are multiple reasons why NFTs make a lot of sense and provide numerous benefits. When we compare the traditional art world to this new medium, three major benefits standout:
Physical Space: You could hold thousands of NFTs in your wallet without physical space. This benefits personal and institutional (museums, funds) collections. Insurance, maintenance, storage, and transportation costs don’t exist.
Authenticity: In the traditional art world, you need to hire a specialized firm to authenticate and validate artworks. This is a complicated process that can take plenty of time and be very expensive. In some cases, verifying a piece is real and original is impossible. Thanks to the blockchain, this is doable with just a few clicks and will be especially valuable many years from now.
Transparency: Understanding the value of art is a complex and subjective topic, which is why historical figures are a great resource. Understanding who the owners of masterpieces are is also challenging (how did they receive these works? Where are they? Are they lost?). Both the transaction history and the ownership is openly stored in the blockchain.
The NFT revolution isn’t coincidental (or fake hype driven by speculators). That is why we are witnessing this crazy growth.
Collector’s Happy Path
Everyone's journey and goals are different. There are many artists, collections, platforms, projects, concepts, details, terms, etc., to learn, so that it could be overwhelming. Not everybody has the same amount of time.
The good news is that everyone goes through this, and the best way to approach it is slowly and on your terms. The collector’s happy path could help you to understand where you are in the process and where you are going.
It starts as a hobby, and you could take it more seriously as time passes. Keep in mind that you need to set your goals. Ask yourself, why are you doing this? Just for fun? to collect art and support artists? are you doing it as an investment? - For me, it is a combination of all those questions.
Benefits of Selling NFTs
There is a stigma when we talk about selling NFTs. Different ways of selling NFTs could harm artists, like using automatic bots to flip, controlling a collection market to do pump and dump schemes, etc. Still, in many cases, there are positive outcomes.
Royalties: remember, artists and platforms get royalties on every sale.
Spotlight: When an artist makes a secondary sale, it is a way of validation and visibility to other collectors.
In the tweet below, artists replied it was encouraging to see their pieces moving in the secondary market.
Artists: How does it feel to make a secondary sale?
As a collector, selling some of the works you have acquired helps you collect other pieces you appreciate or are more in line with your strategy.
Figuring Out Your Budget
You should figure out how much you can spend monthly on a hobby and stick to that.
The worst you can do is think of your NFT as a reliable source of income or cash. It can take weeks to sell even a popular NFT, and most will not hold future value.
“90% of NFTs Will Be Worthless in 3 to 5 Years, Coinbase Cofounder Warns”
Be careful with your expectations. At the same time, remember there are millions of NFTs, many talented artists, and extraordinary projects.
2.5M NFTs on the Tezos blockchain alone ~250k will hold value.
Understand the Different Marketplaces
Some months ago, I wrote an introduction to Tezos marketplaces. In just a few months, even more, platforms have emerged. Tezos is a great place to start because it has attracted talented and established artists and builders, and the technology has proven resilient and scalable.
Understand the Different NFT Styles and Trends
The NFT world is growing astonishingly (probably more than any other industry). Therefore, there are plenty of trends within NFTs, and it might be hard to catch up or become an expert in all. One efficient option is to focus on the style you are passionate about and learn it well.
Here is a non-comprehensive list:
Traditional art
Generative art
AI art
Photography
Pixel art
Pfps
Assets in games
Books, music, tickets, memberships.
Crunching The Numbers Behind NFTs
If you want to follow a more structured approach, you could use the data behind NFT marketplaces to find patterns and guide your collecting. I’ve written multiple articles about this topic:
📈 How To Crunch The Numbers Behind NFTs
📈 A New Metric To Find NFT Bargains
I also share weekly market analysis, segmented by price, blockchains, and platforms.
Useful Resources To Save Time
Crunching the numbers and discovering new artists and collections can take time. Many resources simplify this work for you. Use them to manage your time wisely and find fantastic quality.
Here is a list of publications and curated galleries to help you get started.
Here are the slides in case you would like to take a look or find inspiration for your own talks…
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uWXdLQ5O2KNEYan4yY8IXYd-NcCbohKCI61pA6BPDMM/edit?usp=sharing
Until next time,
- Kaloh
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