Earlier, we learnt what Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are, how are they used and what makes them valuable. Now it is time for us to learn how to invest in NFTs as a beginner. 

Where do I start?

To start, one needs to have some ETH and a crypto wallet that can store ETH. The most notable crypto wallets that can load your ETH are Metamusk and Coinbase. This is necessary for all sites to interact with an Ethereum application. The process of creating our own NFTs is called Minting. Mintable is one of the best platforms we recommend for minting NFTs. The minted NFTs can be sold in your own store or in Mintable’s store.

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How do I get started as a Buyer?

1. First, we could find a suitable NFT marketplace. Mintable, OpenSea and Rarible are some of the largest marketplaces available for NFTs.
2. Then, we could choose a suitable item we wish to buy. Another site called Rarity Tools will help us find the best NFTs in the market.
3. Once we find what we are looking for, we can choose it and press ‘Buy Now’ and then proceed to payment.
4. We can complete our payment either using ETH or a credit card.

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How do I get started as a Creator?

First, we could sign up for an account on Mintable. It is free to start Minting NFTs on Mintable. We get three options to select from when we choose to mint.

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1. Our own store

We are making a smart contract on the blockchain when we create our own store. We are then the only party that owns and controls this store. This is the most recommended way for creating NFTs. But there is one single condition. Creating a smart contract costs a ton if gas prices are above 50 gwei. The initial investment to deploy the smart contract costs around $100. But after that, we can mint hundreds of NFTs for as small as $10 using Mintable's batch minting option. We could think of it as an 'operational cost' to get an online business going. But if that is not a cost we can afford, we can then mint under Mintable's store. Here, everyone shares the contract and can mint NFTs (that we still owned) but need not worry about deploying our own store.

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When we create our store, we can choose where the data is stored:

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Most Flexible: Let Mintable run it

Decentralised without batch minting: IPFS has the data

Complete control: Our own servers or other locations we can choose

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2. Mintable's Store

We can save on transaction fees when we use Mintable's store as we don't need to pay the initial overhead of deploying our own store to the blockchain. Mintable's store is available to everyone for free use. Mintable's store can mint thousands of NFTs in a single transaction.

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3. Gasless Minting

We are able to mint directly on Mintable's store without having to submit a single transaction. This means that no transaction fees are charged from the blockchain.

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