DeFi Market
To price NFT art, look at what similar pieces by artists at your stage actually sold for in the last 60 to 90 days, then adjust for edition size, your track record and the marketplace's fees. Start at or a little under those sales, and raise your price only after pieces sell to real buyers. Listings don't count, because anyone can list for a fortune. And Beeple's $69 million sale at Christie's tells you nothing about your price.
Why Beeple's $69 million is the wrong benchmark
Beeple's Everydays: The First 5000 Days sold at Christie's for $69,346,250 on 11 March 2021, hammer price plus buyer's premium. The bidding opened at $100. It was one famous lot, from an artist who had posted a picture every day for more than 13 years.
Now the other end. Researchers who studied 6.1 million trades of 4.7 million NFTs, from June 2017 to April 2021, found the average sale price was under $15 for 75% of them. Only 1% averaged more than $1,594. That's from Nadini and colleagues in Scientific Reports. Even early in the boom, most NFTs sold for the price of lunch.
Prefer to watch? Pricing your first NFT, in under a minute.
Floor price, last sale and listings: which one counts?
Three numbers show up on every collection page, and only one of them is a fact about what people pay.
| Number | What it is | Use it for pricing? |
|---|---|---|
| Listing price | What a seller is asking | No. It's a wish. |
| Floor price | The cheapest current listing in a collection | Only as a ceiling. It's still an ask. |
| Last sale | What a buyer actually paid | Yes. This is your evidence. |
The same study backs this up. The median price of a collection's past sales predicted more than half the variation in what its next pieces sold for, and the prediction got better when it used only the last week of sales. Asking prices aren't in the model at all.
How to price your first NFT in five steps
- Look at sold prices, not listings. Open the activity or history tab on the collection page and filter to sales where you can. A block explorer shows the same transfers with the amount paid. Write down five to ten real sales from the last 60 to 90 days.
- Find artists at your stage, and throw out the odd ones. Same chain, similar following, similar medium, similar edition size, first or second drop. Drop the one freak sale at ten times the rest, and drop any "sale" that bounced between the same two wallets. An artist with a big following is a different market from you.
- Start lower than feels fair. One piece sold cheap beats ten sitting unsold, because collectors watch the sales history. A sell-out is proof. A year-old listing nobody bought tells the next visitor what your work is worth, too.
- Count your costs. Marketplace fees, gas, and royalties that buyers can often skip now. The table below has the details.
- Pick editions and a sale format. A cheap open edition for new fans, small editions in the middle, one of ones priced higher for collectors. Then choose fixed price or auction from the table below. Raise your price only after things sell out.
| Sale format | Best for | The risk |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed price | A first drop with no bidders lined up | Price it wrong and it sits unsold, in public |
| Auction, price rising | An artist with collectors who'll compete | One bidder means it sells at the opening price, or not at all |
| Auction, price falling | Finding the price when you honestly don't know it | It can slide lower than you'd like |
| Free or low-cost mint | Building a following fast | You earn little now, and resale royalties are often optional |
| Tiered editions | Serving new fans and serious collectors at once | Too many tiers confuses buyers |
What selling an NFT costs you: fees, gas and royalties
Take OpenSea as one example, because its fee page lays it out plainly (last updated 12 May 2026). It charges 1% on NFT sales and 10% on primary drops, and it says prices can change at any time. Plenty of older pricing guides still quote 2.5%. That number is out of date. Other marketplaces charge differently, and some charge far more on a first sale than on a resale. Fees change, so check the fee page of wherever you list on the day you list.
Where you list has changed too. Blur said on 12 October 2026 that it will shut its website in November, though its onchain marketplace keeps running (The Block). Magic Eden ended support for Ethereum, Polygon, Base and Bitcoin NFTs in early 2026 to focus on Solana, Decrypt reported. A guide that sends you to either one for Ethereum art is out of date.
| Cost | Who pays | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplace fee | Comes out of the sale | Varies by marketplace and by first sale vs resale |
| Gas | On OpenSea, sellers when they first list or accept an offer. Buyers, when they buy. | Paid in the chain's own coin. On Ethereum it's ETH, and it rises with demand. |
| Creator royalty | The reseller, if anyone | Often optional. Don't count on it. |
On a small sale it works out like this. The numbers are illustrative, using OpenSea's published rates. Recheck them against the fee page before you list.
| Sale | Buyer pays | Marketplace keeps | You get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your listing, 1% sale fee | 0.1 ETH | 0.001 ETH | About 0.099 ETH, before any gas you paid |
| Primary drop, 10% fee | 0.1 ETH | 0.01 ETH | About 0.09 ETH |
| A collector resells at 0.2 ETH, 5% royalty set | 0.2 ETH | 0.002 ETH, from the reseller | 0.01 ETH if royalties are enforced. If optional, only if the reseller chooses to pay. |
Gas is the network's fee for doing the work, and ethereum.org's gas guide says high gas fees come from demand. Check the cost on your chain the day you mint. A gas bill that eats a $15 sale makes that sale a loss.
Royalties are the soft spot. The Ethereum royalty standard, ERC-2981, says plainly that royalty payment must be voluntary, and that a marketplace which doesn't support it pays nothing on resales. OpenSea marks collections as enforced or optional, and on optional ones the seller can leave the royalty out. Price your first sale as if it's the only money that piece will ever make you. Our guide to NFT royalties goes deeper.
Don't fake your floor
Comparable sales are only useful if they're real. Some collections trade pieces between wallets the same person controls, which is called wash trading, to make a sales history look busy. If a run of "sales" bounces between the same few wallets, skip it as a comparable.
And don't do it yourself. Older guides tell new artists to make a few sales to lift their floor. That only works if the buyers are real. Buying your own piece from a second wallet builds a fake price history that misleads collectors, and anyone who checks the wallets on a block explorer can see it.
Scams that target new NFT sellers
The moment you list, you become a target. Most of these arrive by DM:
- The eager buyer with a link. A "collector" loves your work, offers a big price, and asks you to "verify" or "sync" your wallet on their site first.
- The look-alike token offer. An offer paid in a token with a name close to a real one, worth nothing.
- Fake marketplace support. Someone claiming to be staff says your listing is stuck and needs a fix.
- Pay to get featured. A fee to be "verified", promoted or put on a front page.
- The signature you don't understand. A wallet request can be a listing signature that sells your NFT for next to nothing.
⚠ Red flag
A real buyer buys from your listing. Nobody legitimate needs you to connect your wallet to their site, sign a strange transaction or pay a "verification fee" before they can pay you. If an offer arrives by DM and comes with a link, it's a scam. The same tricks show up in token launches, covered in how to spot a rug pull.
Rob's take
Eighteen years in PR taught me that people trust what other people already paid. A price tag is a claim. A sale is proof. Your first drop should produce proof, even small proof. I'd rather see an artist sell ten pieces cheap and raise the price on the next ten than sit for a year on one expensive piece, waiting for a buyer who isn't coming.
When should you raise your NFT price?
- When a run sells out. That's the signal. Step the next run up a modest amount and watch how fast it goes.
- When your pieces resell above what you charged. Someone else is now setting your price for you, in public.
- Never because a listing elsewhere looks high. Go back to step one and check what actually sold.
If cheap pieces sit for weeks, lower the next run or shrink the edition. Don't cut the price on pieces people already bought from you. Early buyers remember. Before your first drop, walk through minting your first NFT collection, and keep the wallet that receives your sales safe with hot wallet vs cold wallet.
How much is my NFT worth?
If you already own a piece, it's worth roughly what pieces from the same collection with similar traits sold for recently. The floor is only the cheapest listing, and it can sit above any real sale for months. Check sales on two sources, such as the marketplace and a block explorer, and skip wallet-to-wallet ping-pong. If nothing similar has sold in 90 days, there may be no buyer at any price right now. The Scientific Reports study found only about 22% of NFTs resold within a year. Most pieces just sit.
FAQ
How much should I sell my first NFT for?
At or a little under what similar work by artists at your stage sold for in the last 60 to 90 days. For most new artists that's a small number, and that's fine. A cheap piece that sells gives you a sales history to build on.
Should I use a fixed price or an auction?
Fixed price is simpler and suits a first drop with no bidders lined up. An auction only works when you already have collectors who'll compete. With one bidder, it sells at the opening price or not at all.
Can I change the price after listing?
Yes. You can cancel a listing and relist at a new price, though on some marketplaces cancelling costs gas. Lowering the price of an unsold piece is normal.
How much royalty should I set, and will buyers pay it?
Set a rate resellers will accept, and treat it as a bonus. The ERC-2981 royalty standard says payment is voluntary, and on OpenSea collections marked optional the seller decides whether to pay. Price your first sale as if it's the only money the piece will ever make you.
What are OpenSea's fees in 2026?
OpenSea's help center, last updated 12 May 2026, lists a 1% fee on NFT sales and 10% on primary drops. Many older guides still say 2.5%, which is out of date. Fees change, so check the fee page the day you list.
What is an NFT floor price?
The floor is the cheapest current listing in a collection. It's an asking price, so it tells you what a seller wants. Recent sales tell you what buyers actually pay.