A comprehensive guide to OpenSea part 2

Open sea is one of the foremost and leading marketplaces for all types of NFTs. It is the largest P2P (peer-to-peer) online marketplace for buying and selling NFTs at a fixed price or through auctions. OpenSea was co-founded in America by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah in December 2017. The masterpiece platform is headquartered in New York City as it stood out among its contemporaries and became a haven for all kinds of NFTs across multiple blockchains. OpenSea protects several categories of NFTs such as art, collectibles, domain names, music, photography, sports, utility NFTs and virtual worlds.

This guide is an extension of the previous treatise, ‘A Comprehensive Guide on How to Use OpenSea – Part 1′, where we delved into how to set up an account, create, list, buy and sell NFTs on OpenSea. In this extension, we will dive into how to use the essential functions of OpenSea for optimal user experience.

How to find popular projects on OpenSea

Apart from individual minting and listing of NFTs, the bulk of NFTs on OpenSea are collections of various projects from renowned and outstanding NFT companies such as Dapper Labs, Yuga Labs, Larva Labs, Forte Labs and more.

In order to find popular NFT projects in the selection of hundreds of thousands of NFTs on OpenSea, visitors can scroll down Open sea website to reveal a list of the top 10 most popular NFT projects.

These projects were not simply handpicked or enlisted by paying for publicity; they made the list because of their trade statistics.

This is how you delve further into OpenSea’s statistics

It is easy. At the top right of the homepage, users can navigate to the “Stats” tab and click on “Ranking” from the drop-down menu.

The collection statistics will default to the “Top” NFTs, so click on the “Trending” tab to reveal details of the latest high-flying digital assets.

In the picture above it is Grails III Mint Pass tops the list of popular NFTs on OpenSea. From the description of this NFT, it is a limited pass to an upcoming event with only 377 NFT available. According to the statistics above, it has the highest floor price (minimum or minimum price) and volume (trading volume) in the last 24 hours.

The two important metrics used in this ranking are floor price and trading volume. That is why TOGETHER VV ranks second even with its greater positive change of 32,292%, sales (6,388) and unique owners (2,498). The trading volume of 302 ETH and floor price of 2.70 ETH placed Grails III Mint Pass higher, in contrast to MERGE VV which has 24 hours trading volume of 101 ETH and a floor price of 0.01 ETH.

Visitors can also use this approach to find a trending project or which project will soon trend on OpenSea. As such, they can use these statistics to prepare an investment plan that is deemed appropriate, as trending projects usually attract higher prices due to higher demands.

How to learn about the trading history or data of an NFT

The next deterministic feature to look at is the trade history and data. This can help make informed decisions about whether to buy or pull back. To check the trading history of a particular NFT, click on the preferred asset.

Using Monkey Moss, as an example, the transaction history and other information can be verified by clicking on the relevant NFT. Then scroll down to see the trade history, including when it was minted, sold and transferred from who to whom.

From the information above, Ape Moss was minted two years ago and was sold at 0.08 ETH by the user 0908 to PartyFinanceHackedWallet a year ago. It was simultaneously transferred to the buyer, and the buyer also transferred it to PartyFinanceeight months ago.

Let’s use another NFT with more history

Mutant Monkey #12668 was characterized by Bernie_Straw a year ago and have been shopping for wallets. The image below reveals 11 months of trading history to date.

The utility of the above data is to fish out shady sales that might mislead investors or enthusiasts. For example, an NFT holder can sell an NFT to himself at an outrageous price and stick to the trend for five to six trades with different accounts and wallets.

How to Spot These Shenanigans

Collectors can monitor this by correlating buyer and seller accounts. If a former seller’s account shows up after 3-4 trades or transfers, it is likely a wash trade to deceive intended buyers that the NFT is highly sought after.

Furthermore, users can also make informed decisions with the price history of the token they intend to buy. The picture below is the price history of Mutant Ape #12668which reflects the upward and downward price trend of the NFT from the mint date to the present.

The data above shows that this NFT value rose from January to May 2022 before falling and holding a static price. A wise investor might conclude that for this particular NFT to survive an unprecedented crypto bear market, it will be an excellent piece to keep. In contrast, another investor may interpret it differently.

How to use filters to find rare NFTs

Rarity is a significant factor in the pricing of NFTs; it measures the rarity of an NFT’s attributes. All NFT collections usually have rare items with distinctive attributes, i.e. their attributes are found in very few NFTs. Such NFTs are rated and priced higher than others due to lack of components.

Although several online tools calculate the rarities of NFTs based on different standards, users can also use the OpenSea filter to discover these gems.

How?

Click on the preferred NFT Collection and click on the “Price Low to High” dropdown tab at the top right of the listed NFTs. Most NFTs with rare attributes are usually “priced higher, mostly seenand most favorite” by investors and enthusiasts.

For the higher price filter, click on the “Price High to Low” tab to view the listed items from highest to lowest price ranking. If there are few NFTs in such a collection, collectors can do a technical sorting by reviewing their attributes. By default, NFTs with small percentages of shared attributes are rarer than those with common or higher percentages of attributes. Let us consider the following examples.

The first properties (attributes) belong to one of the low-priced mutant monkeys, while the second belongs to one of the high-priced mutant monkeys. From the above, both NFTs have the exact number of traits (7), but the second NFT is rarer than the first because 2% of the entire 20,000 NFTs in the collection share 4 traits, while the first NFT only shares 2 properties with 2% NFTs in the collection. The essence of these percentages depicts the rarity of each trait; if an NFT shares most of its characteristics with 2% or less percentage of the NFTs in the collection, the rarity gauge card ranks higher than others.

For some NFT collections, the lowest rarity percentage may be greater than 2%; it could be 5% or more. What determines this is the smallest percentage in each collection. Visitors can also use the above technical details to confirm whether an NFT is overpriced or not because a piece may be aesthetically pleasing to an enthusiast and priced higher, while not appealing to the potential buyer.

Apart from using filters to find rare NFTs, the search field can also help filter and search for specific NFTs by their names, number tags, collections or user accounts.

This is how you stay safe at OpenSea

Fraudsters are rampant in the decentralized space, leaving no niche undisturbed. Users of OpenSea must be vigilant when using the platform to avoid falling victim to fraudulent schemes. Below are some tips to keep you safe on OpenSea

1. Avoid fake or counterfeit NFTs – Several high-profile collections on the OpenSea market are among the hundred million NFTs. It is easier for fraudsters to fraudulently create and list silly NFTs with recognized project names to fool unsuspecting enthusiasts. For example, someone might create and name an NFT “Bored Aped” or “Bored Yacht”. Although such appealing NFTs may seem appealing, users must remember that such NFTs have nothing to do with the renowned BAYC brand. Furthermore, such NFTs can lose value at any time because they are essentially created without utility.
2. Secure your crypto wallet with a strong password.
3. Avoid signing outrageous transactions from suspicious NFT airdrops.
4. Do your due diligence before buying NFTs.
5. Make sure you buy NFTs from reputable or verified projects.
6. Don’t buy NFTs based on media hype.

Conclusion

OpenSea is one of the recognized online marketplaces for NFT mining and trading. The platform has maintained its ranking with flexible features to achieve a seamless user experience. Although the Ethereum network is the most widespread, OpenSea is also compatible with the BNB chain, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Solana, Klaytn, Optimism and Polygon.

Check out ‘A comprehensive guide on how to use OpenSea – Part 1’ >> Here

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*All investment/financial opinions expressed by NFT Plazas are from personal research and experience of our site moderators and are intended as educational material only. Individuals are required to research all products before making any type of investment.