The 5 Types of NFT Buyers — Which one are you?
Since NFTs came to light, and now being involved in our own NFT projects, much of the attention falls on the actual NFTs themselves, obviously, however not much is out there on what I think is an even more important question — Who or Which Type of people out there actually buy NFTs?
Based on my time spent in the space, I have basically come to a conclusion that buyers can be generally grouped into 5 simple categories which the below outlines and illustrates.
- THE FANATIC
Here the Fan will purchase that NFT at all costs, due to the invaluable connection it brings to the Artist, Brand or Organization that NFT represents. The FAN usually doesn’t care the cost (generally speaking though usually most fans aren’t those ‘ultra rich’ buyers but rather the usual Tom, Dick & Harry that most probably work 9–5, true fans will save up or just outright spend any sum to ensure their ‘supporting’ or ‘connected with’ their team or idol), but rather the collectability and association of that specific NFT. These could be seen with any FAN tokens for Football clubs or NBA Top Shot of your favorite player slam dunking!
2. THE DOLPHIN
I use the dolphin as these speculators or collectors usually have one purpose when buying an NFT and that is to ‘Flip’ — which reminds me of ‘Flipper’ — which reminds me of my childhood watching ‘Flipper the Dolphin’. And as the theme songs goes “Flipper, Flipper, Faster than lightning, no one you see is smarter than he…” our Dolphins or Flippers want to make the quick buck as fast as possible, and exactly like the song goes, they think they’re smarter than the rest of us with their sole purpose and strategy of getting into that whitelist via discord, pre-minting then flipping that baby on Opensea faster than …well…lightning!
3. THE APE
This one I’m sure we were all once before or may come to realize we are still now, and that’s the Ape. The Ape basically follows the crowd (and with a huge helping of FOMO) to whatever the greater good or your favorite YouTuber says “I’m so hyped, this is going to be awesome! It’s going to be the next BIG THING!”, and so with a banana in hand, the Ape grunts a little and right clicks that baby and before you know it, you’re a proud owner of that NFT which you know nothing about and never even checked the links to their Twitter or Discord, but are confident that it’s going to be bigger than the Mekaverse or Azuki!
4. THE GOAT
I’ll raise my hand here and admit, that I’m actually this type. No shame at all. The Goat is basically a combination of #1, #2 & #3 — and like a Goat, eats a bit of everything. Yes, when I saw Street Fighter, Princess Bride & Robotech on NFThive on the WAX Chain, I went crazy like a little kid buy as many NFTs as I can feeling like a was a school kid at that candy store buy the foil pack of cards with the strip of gum inside! Alternatively I tried my hands at flipping some of those same NFTs but of course, to no avail (yes, i’ll eventually log in again and keep trying) and YES, I aped into a collection based on a YouTube ad I saw at 4:00am in the morning called ‘BabylonMisfits’ which made me get up, exchange some ETH then mint that baby! (BTW, reminds me I need to refresh that Metadata and see if my unique image finally reveals itself!?!)
5. THE PIMP DADDY
Well, it’s pretty self explanatory and The Pimp is on a league of their own and probably represents the 1% of us NFT buyers out there and that’s those elite buyers with millions in the bank that buys an NFT for an exuberant amount just to say -
“Hey, oh yeah… By the way, I just bought a Crypto Punk”.
I’d have to say the Grand Daddy of them all would have to be MetaKovan (better known as Vignesh Sundaresan) the proud owner of Beeple’s 5000 days, in which in a single purchase of $69,000,000 but both Beeple and NFTs on the map, forever turning the page of history one-step closer to the Metaverse! Others in this genre would be the likes of Snoop Dog, Eminem & Justin Beiber who are all members of the BAYC.
In one way, the 5 types above can also represent one’s journey into and through the world of NFTs, with no right or wrong order, but rather our own intrinsic interpretation and experience with the influences that inspire us, albeit Crypto Twitter, Angel from NFTverse_, BentoBoi, Kosherplug or still my favorite, Guy from Coinbureau, or perhaps a targeted add from YouTube or being automatically dragged into a Telegram group and seeing an image that catches your eye — NFTs are here to stay and will forever be part of our generations DNA time-stamped and smart-contracted onto the blockchain.
This article was written by the Robert Vicencio, the Co-Founder and COO of SMASHCHAIN — focusing on NFT Management, Marketplace & the Metaverse.
All SMASHCHAIN official links: https://linktr.ee/smashchain
View & Buy SMASHCHAIN’s NFT’s on OPENSEA :
https://opensea.io/SMASHCHAIN_OFFICIAL
Other articles written by the author :
*A special thanks for Jessica and Henrick for inspiring me to chart out the 5 types into a matrix.
