How I made $7000 in 2 Days Flipping NFTs

Last week I had an idea.

I wanted to create and sell and NFT of a Tulip.

The concept was to compare Tulip Mania to this new wave of NFT mania. It's clear to me that NFTs are an expanding bubble and so I tried to sell an NFT that made the point that NFTs are a bubble.

I'm hysterical, I know.

I hired my brilliant friend Emily to draw a Tulip for me, and I minted it on Open Sea.

Behold, my first original NFT.

Now I'm in the game. I quickly realized that this was only the beginning.

Learning How to Mint and Sell NFTs

I've been following NFTs for a few months. I wrote an epic guide on NFTs and in the process, gained a better understanding of what they are and how they will incorporate themselves into society.

However, writing epic blog posts will only take me so far. I needed to get involved. So this time around I learned by doing.

Over the weekend I learned how to...

• Mint an NFT on OpenSea

• Wrap my Ethereum into WETH (WETH is a variation of ETH that makes trading easier)

• Bid and auction for other NFTs

• Find new opportunities with NFT projects and releases

• Find and participate in Discord servers

While I was researching other projects, I caught wind of a few exciting NFT drops happening this weekend. I was most excited about Gutter Cat Gang, Lonely Alien Space Club, and 0n1 Force.

To me, 0n1 Force seemed the most exciting because the illustrations were completely unique and original. It is labeled as the first Japanese art NFT project and it really caught my eye.

I scrolled through the collection and I said to myself "If I'm going to learn about this market, I need to get in the game." So I connected my wallet and I bought one. Say hello to On1 Force #2087.

How It all Went Down

I bought this piece because I like the pink jacket.

I want to be crystal clear that I still have a lot to learn about the rarity of certain pieces, and what makes one NFT more valuable than another. I checked the properties of a few pieces within this collection. Ultimately, the selling point for me was the pink bomber jacket.

I thought the pink jacket was cool and it was one of the more affordable pieces, so I pointed at it and I said "I want that one."

I bought the piece at .63 WETH.

As soon as I bought the piece, I jumped over to Twitter to follow the chatter around the new 0n1 Force hype. It seemed like instantly, the project was gaining a lot of excitement and everyone wanted to get on board.

At first glance, it appears as though I made a good choice. After spending another hour or so doing research, I closed my computer and started getting ready for a dinner party we were having.

I couldn't believe what happened next.

I woke up yesterday morning and I had offers for 1.8 ETH.

This morning, I wake up and I have offers for almost 2.2 WETH.

The Reality of the NFT Market

I haven't actually sold my NFT yet.

Every hour I get another email with another offer. The 0n1 Force project has a lot of hype around it and my hope is that the value will continue to climb.

But of course, there is always the fear in the back of my head telling me to take the money now.

I am choosing to be patient. We are still in the beginning of the beginning of NFTs and this may turn out to be an extremely profitable investment for me.

So now what?

I have no idea.

Let's be realistic about this. There is no way that this is sustainable. My original idea of the Tulip is as relevant now as it was two days ago. This is a bubble. 99.9% of these NFT project will collapse to zero. It's not mathematically possible for all of these minted digital files to retain value.

But, there will be winners. There will be more advancements and more creative people coming up with new concepts and use cases for tokenizing digital files.

More then Just an Investment Class

A lot of the hype around NFTs is that they make great investments. Art has always been one of the best ways to hedge against inflation. In fact, contemporary art has outperformed almost every investment class over the last 25 years.

The same is true with baseball cards, Pokemon cards, a few comic books, classic toys and other collectables.

In that regards, there is a promising future for NFTs as investments.

But NFTs are more than that.

Of course the technology that makes NFTs possible will continue to advance, but I'm referring to something deeper and something more human.

There is a huge level of community and enjoyment and fun that lives within this community.

I have always loved to collect things. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with collecting Superman comics and Magic the Gathering Cards. I loved buying them and selling them. I loved haggling with other collectors to get a better prices and trading cards with other collectors and players. I would go to Legends every Saturday, which was a local comic book store and spend hours there playing Magic, looking at comics, and trading cards with other collectors that came into the store. I loved it. I really felt like I was part of a club.

I feel that same kind of energy with NFT projects.

Community and Status Signaling

NFTs are status symbols. When we buy NFTs, we are signaling to others that we have something they want. Part of the human condition is being willing to trade resources for status. It's the oldest game that humans play.

Blockchain technology has simply transitioned what it means to status signal.

I go into these projects as objectively as possible. I do it for the money. I am only interested primarily in the returns.

But when I sit back and listen to that tiny little voice in my mind, I also must recognize that I am just as susceptible as anyone else in status games. I find myself looking around at other projects and imagining how it would "feel" to own that collectable. I could tell my friends about it and other people could look into my wallet and they would think I was special or cool.

That's ok.

NFTs are an arbitrage of status.

As I finish writing this article, I've gotten 2 more offers.

I still haven't sold.