how to make a bid

OK, you’ve heard about all these artists and other people selling NFTs. You want to start your own collection. Where do you begin?

You can shop for them online through various marketplaces. OpenSea is a big one. Think of it as an online gallery where you can browse digital art, trading cards and other collectibles.

It works like an auction house, where you offer bids on items and hope you’re the winner, but some listings let you “Buy now” for a set price. I’m going to show you how to buy NFTs on OpenSea in this guide, but there are some things we need to do first.

It took me about 30 seconds to install the plug-in from OpenSea and set a password. Let’s do that now.

• Tap the profile icon on the top right of the OpenSea website.
• Click “Get MetaMask.”
• Choose “Install MetaMask” for Chrome, or the supported browser of your choice. This installs a Chrome plug-in.
• Choose “Get Started.”
• Select “Create Wallet.”
• Choose “No thanks” for sharing feedback.
• Create your password.
• Write down the secret phrase it gives you. This is super important and is your backup to access your account. Don’t lose it.
• Tap “Next” and confirm the secret phrase.
• Click “Next” to connect your OpenSea account with the MetaMask digital wallet you’ve just created.
• Click “Connect” again.

Ok, now you have a digital wallet that’s connected to OpenSea. Now you need to buy some ether you can spend on NFTs.

You can use any variety of apps to buy cryptocurrencies. Coinbase is hugely popular. So is Robinhood. But for simplicity, let’s use MetaMask to buy ether, since we’re already using that as a digital wallet and have already connected it to OpenSea.

In the last step, we installed the MetaMask plug-in for Chrome. We can use that same plug-in to buy some ether. To do that:

• Tap the little puzzle piece icon on the top right of Chrome at the end of your URL box.
• Click the MetaMask fox icon.
• Tap “Buy.” Or, select “Directly Deposit Ether” if you already have some in another account.
• Click “Continue to Wyre.”
• Choose how much ether you’d like to buy. There’s a $5 transaction fee and a $4.88 network fee, so buy all the ether you need now to avoid additional transaction fees. Get used to those fees; there are more when you buy something.
• Click “Next.”
• Enter your payment information and phone number.
• Tap “Submit.”
• Enter in the payment authentication code you received on your phone.
• Authorize the purchase by entering the six-digit code for a pending Wyre transaction in your bank account.

Now you’ve purchased some ether. In a few minutes, you’ll see it available in your MetaMask account. That means you’re ready to buy NFTs.

Now you’re ready to bid on and buy NFTs. Let’s go back to OpenSea. You can browse around by tapping “Explore.” You’ll find all sorts of images for sale, whether they’re rotating objects, flashing icons or just text sayings.

Eventually, you may come across something you want. Let’s say we like a CryptoKitties image, called “Zuzu Meowfluff.” It’s priced at .005 ether, which is about $8.96 at the time of publication.

To buy it, I just:

• Tap “Buy Now.”
• Select “Checkout.”
• Click “Submit.”
• Next, I have to confirm a “gas fee.” This is required by the Ethereum network to process the transaction and costs me $18.18. The full transaction ends up costing $26.68.

Now I own that Zuzu Meowfluff CryptoKitties NFT.

But I don’t collect these. So let’s sell it. I’ll show you how to make and sell your own NFTs, too.

You have some cool digital art, or maybe a Zuzu Meowfluff you’re ready to sell. Let’s make that an NFT and list it for sale now. I used Rarible, since it was just a little cheaper and easier to set up, and it links into OpenSea if someone happens to search it.

Go to Rarible.com and tap “Create” on the top right.

Create a single or multiple collectible — the latter for a collection of, say, photographs or collecting cards you’ve created.

Select “Choose File” to upload a PNG, GIF, MP3 or another file type. The max size is 30MB.

Enter in the price you’d like, or leave “put on sale.” I’ll list this picture of Porto, Portugal, I took for 0.5 ether. After a 2.5% service fee, I’ll get the equivalent of $826.91. If this thing ever sells. Seems reasonable.

Enter in a name for your NFT and a description.

Set your royalties. You’ll continue to get paid if it resells on the secondary market. This is based on the current sale price.

Choose “Connect wallet and create.”

Connect your wallet, which we set up in the earlier section above. So, tap “MetaMask.”

Pay the “Gas” fee to process the listing. In this case, it’s $75.64, or 0.044091 ether.

Click “Start” to sign the sell order using your digital wallet.

Click “Sign” in the MetaMask pop-up.

That’s it! Now it’s listed. In this case, I can find it on Rarible or on OpenSea by searching “Porto, Portugal.” Offers will appear on the sale page. If it ever sells, the funds will transfer to my digital wallet. Then I can use them to buy other NFTs or cash out using an app such as Coinbase.