Top NFT Tips from the MomentRanks Team
by corporate trash
2/16/2022
As the premier NFT tracking platform, MomentRanks has a wealth of knowledge about NFTs within our team. We have been there through the euphoric days of Top Shot, through the bear market stress, and everywhere in between. And through it all, we’ve accumulated our top NFT tips for beginners in the space.
While there’s no substitute for time and experience, some of our top NFT tips can help newcomers as they enter the wild world of NFTs. We asked the MomentRanks team what their first NFT was, and what the number one thing they’ve learned about NFTs has been so far.
Top NFT Tips from MomentRanks Staff
Danny Adkins, Co-Founder & CEO
First NFT: Hachimura Series 1 base set Moment; I swear I thought this was going to $1k
Top NFT Tip: Always trust your gut on vibes; don’t buy into a project if it’s not something you feel good about. It’s easy to be dishonest with yourself because you’re trying to flip something, but only a few projects actually connect with you. For me, Cool Cats and Doodles hit that really close, and I absolutely will never sell my alien fren because I just love it and the people.
Clegainz, Content & MomentRanks Play Community
First NFT: Sabonis Cool Cats Moment. After being on Top Shot for a month, I finally got my first pack — Cool Cats Release 2. Up until that point I had not purchased a single thing on the site and simply watched the marketplace move up and down through the month of February into March. Got my Sabonis #148 and have been hooked since. Still own it to this day.
Top NFT Tip: Contrary to popular belief, being patient is super important in this space. Yes, things move incredibly fast and sometimes if you don’t act quickly enough you can miss out. However, it’s important not to jump the gun due to FOMO.
There are plenty of projects released every day and you should take your time to assess/review to try and find ones that resonate with you. It may sting thinking you missed out on a potential “quick flip” but if feels so much more satisfying when you don’t fall victim to a bad buy, or find a true diamond in the rough.I ended up completing the Cool Cats set on TS for under $2500 a week before the Nine Lives Lounge was announced. Lucky timing, or patience?
Seth Anderson, Content/Video Production
First NFT: Top Shot Series 2 Kawhi Leonard Is the first thing I remember buying, and a Ja Morant 15k. Then I drooled over Ghxsts and BAYC until I finally saw a tweet saying a banana Pudgy Penguin was purchased for 4 ETH. So at 2 a.m. I walked downstairs and bought my first ETH NFT, with honestly at the time a scary investment of $300 bucks (0.1 ETH).
Top NFT Tip: Be willing to put yourself out there.
Lew, Community Manager
First NFT: Luka Doncic, First Round 3-Pointer
Top NFT Tip: Do your best not to FOMO into projects because there are hundreds of new opportunities every day. Find art you like, communities that you love and the rest will take care of itself.
Justin Perri, Content Specialist
First NFT: Technically Top Shot Series 1 base packs, but my first ETH NFT is probably more special. I minted a cryptoblot on Feb 22 for 40 DAI and .045 in gas. It was the fourth-ever project on a small platform called Art Blocks I had heard about. I still use it as my background for my phone to this day. It’s like a symbol for me now.
Top NFT Tip: Line density is crucial. Lol just kidding… but kinda not, anyway — buy stuff you connect with and share a vision of the product with. NFTs are essentially brands, all trying to make it. It’s best to go with one’s you connect with or artists you enjoy supporting. You give the project value that way, basically: buy what you like.
Brian Kelleher, MomentRanks Newsletter Editor
First NFT: Technically Top Shot, but first ETH NFT was Top Dog Beach Club, which I still own.
Top NFT Tip: We are a tight community. We are still a small group of people in the grand scheme of things and we are all building/contributing to Web3 the best ways we can.
Christian Hardy, Content Lead
First NFT: I started on Top Shot, buying a Josh Jackson S1 debut for $10, and flipping it a few days later for $20. Top Shot was my first experience with digital ownership and NFTs. But since Top Shot is on a custodial platform, and you don’t have to ever interact with crypto, I truly consider my first NFT to be Artvatars, which I minted on April 14, 2021.
Artvatars were a collection composed of art of 60 artists who created a 1-of-1. The 1-of-1 was spliced into traits like hair, eyes, mouth, etc. The result was sometimes beautiful and sometimes quite horrendous, if we’re being honest.
But it gave me my first experience with minting from a smart contract, MetaMask, and moving ETH to Polygon. Looking back, it’s really funny that my first was on Polygon, since I really don’t do anything there now.
Top NFT Tip: Since I’ve started collecting NFTs, and now work in the NFT space, I see most things that mint and generate hype. But I tend to focus on projects, teams, and artists that are actually innovating, not copying traits and roadmaps. Seek out originality, dedicated teams, and the ones who are trying to do something different.
Also, time in the market is better than timing the market; understand that you are going to miss opportunities — like a LOT of opportunities. Some examples: I didn’t mint Cool Cats or Bored Apes, and sold multiple Gutter Cats under 1 ETH — I watched them get talked about endlessly. But if you stick around, you’re bound to find something that connects with you and picks up steam. And that’s a special feeling that will leave you wanting more.
Recap of our Top NFT Tips
Like many of us in the NFT community, most of the MomentRanks team got started through NBA Top Shot. As we moved onto other NFTs on ETH, some of us learned the hard way by jumping onto fear of bad projects through fear of missing out (FOMO).
Being patient and buying things that you actually like will help you to become a smarter NFT collector. Trusting your gut and having conviction on a project can also teach you how to slowly work your way up to more expensive projects.
As you continue on your NFT journey, MomentRanks has the tools to see your real-time account value, analyze the market, and see what’s available on the marketplace.