Welcome back to the Tribe for a post on the best NFT to buy – A NFT horse!
In this post we are going to dive into what to look for when trying to purchase your first NFT horse!
Specifically, we will be looking at horses that run on the Zed Run platform and can be used in multiple ways like:
- Studding for passive income
- Breeding for new NFTs
- Racing for Ethereum
In this post we will mainly be discussing:
- Horse costs
- Utility
- Liquidity
- Horse value
- Different types of Racers (Aka what to buy and what not to buy)
- Where to buy a NFT horse
While this is extremely exciting and enthralling to new comers, please make sure to learn as much as you can before putting your money in the market!
In other words, do your research! This post is purely meant to be educational and help those that are new have a better grasp of what they are looking for.
Nothing should be considered investment or financial advice. Enjoy the ride!
NFT Horse
We are going to kick things off with one of the simplest questions.
What does a NFT horse cost?
NFT Horse Cost
In short, NFT horses can range from costing a few hundred dollars to costing several thousand per horse.
As we can see in the image above, the lowest price for a single horse is currently at .017 Ethereum (ETH) at the time of writing which is 10/19/2021.
That equates to about $65 for the CHEAPEST horse on the entire market out of all 130k of them.
Now as the market continues to grow and grow with more people breeding, these prices will continue to fall for some of the less popular horses that are not wanted.
While the low price tag of $65 might look appealing to new comers, these are almost always the price ranges that you do NOT want to purchase at.
Lets just say that you will get what you pay for.
If you buy a $65 horse or even a $100 horse, more than likely, you will not have fun on the platform.
Ideally, you are going to need at least a couple of hundred dollars and more likely a couple of thousand to get started.
In addition, you are going to need to dig through the market listings for a great underpriced horse, and even negotiate with some sellers to get them down to your budget.
In reality, if you want to dive into Zed Run with some decent horses with Genesis blood lines, you are going to need several thousand dollars or one to two ETH just to get started.
Although, what are you really paying for? Lets talk about the horse’s utility.
Utility
While you might think that you are investing in the future of NFTs, or maybe just buying a pony to race for a few bucks, there is much more to NFT horses that you need to know.
As we mentioned above, these horses have more utility then just racing.
They can be breed, be studded out, and eventually even get rented out to other stables.
Some horses like the Nakamotos can generate thousands of dollars per month alone from just studding or breeding without even racing.
As we can see above, these horses can get rather pricey and even go into the hundreds of thousands depending on their stats.
You need to keep this in mind when buying your first horse! Make sure to get ones that fit into your overall stable plan the best.
Liquidity
The next thing you need to consider is liquidity.
If you are new to the NFT market, then you need to know that these items are not the most liquid.
While you can easily sell Bitcoin or Ethereum on an exchange, selling an NFT can be challenging if you run into a pinch and need money.
Almost daily we see someone on Twitter trying to panic sell their NFTs due to a personal problem. Sadly, they are forced to liquidate their NFTs at a fraction of their worth. This is mainly because they do not have the time to allow their NFT to sit on the market.
It would be HIGHLY beneficial for you to be financially stable outside of the market before stepping into NFTs. (Not financial advice, just sharing common knowledge)
This will keep you from making rash or impulsive decisions about money as well.
This is not the place to try and “scrape by”.
Long-Term Value
Now that we’ve reflected on the importance of financial stability and liquidity, lets circle back to the overall value of a NFT horse.
If you know anything about crypto, then you will already understand that patience and timing are your best friend.
Whatever you purchase in the NFT market, it will probably require the same treatment.
If you are buying a NFT horse, make sure you buy one that you think will appreciate over time and produce consistently.
For instance, purchasing a genesis bloodline NFT horse is a long-term investment.
Overtime, there will never be anymore genesis horses made while there will be millions of other horses created from breeding in the coming years. (I.E. Legendary, Exclusive, Elite, Cross and Pacers)
Obviously, owning a genesis horse, and a good one at that, will reap its own reward over the years to come as the available supply becomes less and less compared to the rest of the market.
Now that we’ve discussed utility, liquidity, and value, lets dive into actually looking at a horse’s stats.
NFT Horses
There are a few things that you need to consider when looking at horses on the market:
- Do you want to race your horse?
- Do you want to breed your horse?
- Are you going to only hold your horse and hope it appreciates?
- Are you going to try and build out a stable
- Do you want to try and resell your horse?
Well, the best way to actually answer those questions is from experience.
While we did suggest that you purchase horses that are “worth something”, it is also good advice to buy a cheap horse at first to play with and learn the ropes.
Do not take this horse seriously, but use it to get your feet wet. For this, yes you can buy the $65 horse. In the name of science ONLY!
Ironically, most people that join Zed Run find out that their original plan for their stable ends up not being what they ultimately enjoy to do.
Although, lets assume you want to race your NFT horse. What are you going to want to look for in a racing horse?
NFT Horse Race
Here are the types of racers you are going to want look for (or not look for in some cases):
- U-shaped
- A-shaped
- Donkeys
- Average Winners
- Monsters
Lets go over each of these horse types.
For reference, if you want to compare a horse you found on the market to the charts below then go to KnowYourHorse and search the horse’s name.
You can compare your horse’s stats to the charts below to figure out if it is a good racer or not!
U-Shaped
The most common horse that people want is called a U-shaped racer.
These horses have a very special trait where they will either place in the top 4 or in the bottom 4 fairly consistently. Above is an example of a perfect U-shaped racer.
While this might not sound special, what the U-shape does is keep the horse relatively in the same class.
In Zed Run, if your horse is constantly placing in the top 4, then it will slowly start to move up in the class system and race against stronger horses.
In contrast, if a horse is constantly placing in the bottom 4 then it will slowly move down the class system and race against weaker horses.
As you can see, a horse that constantly alternates from the bottom to the top will typically stay near a middle to lower class naturally.
This allows the stable owner to profit from higher priced races while still staying in the same class racing against weaker horses.
Typically, these are good horses to own, and we recommend people looking for these in the market.
A-Shaped
The next type of horse that we are going to discuss is called an A-shaped racer.
As we can see in the chart above, an A-shaped racer will typically place anywhere from 5th to 8th in any given race with a majority of the placements being centered around 6th or 7th.
Here is why you do NOT want to buy one of these horses:
- They will never profit from racing because they will consistently lose entry fees and almost never win 1st (which is where you recoup most of your money)
- They can almost never down class to race against weaker horses (This hypothetically would help them to win, but they can not down class efficiently)
- Once you decide to sell this horse, very few people will want to purchase it netting you a horrible ROI
In your research of horses on the market, make sure to avoid these kinds of racers.
Now, one thing to consider is breeding.
While an A-shaped racer will not make you money on the track, sometimes they can still be decent breeders.
Therefore, look at the offspring’s stats to determine if the horse can be used for breeding.
Donkeys
Another type of racer that you do NOT want to own is a donkey.
A donkey is typically considered a horse that just can’t cut it anywhere.
They can’t win in the sprint, they can’t win in the mid distance, and they for sure are not marathon runners.
There has been a ton of discussion from the community and Zed on what to do with these horses from token burns, to set races just for donkeys, and even to tournaments for theses “losers”.
In short, do not buy one of these horses unless you are experienced and can understand potential that might be hiding in some of these.
Average Winners
These are the racers that most stables will want to look for.
From the chart above we can see that this horse wins and shows (gets top 3) a good amount.
Not to mention that this horse in particular is racing in class 1 (the highest class) and still winning consistently. You can’t tell that from the chart, but I am letting you know that additional detail.
These are the kinds of horses that you want to purchase if you can. These are great horses to race, learn from, and breed if they are genesis and within your budget.
Although, before purchasing you need to consider the TYPE races that the horse has run.
For instance, you need to be careful when looking at a horse’s race results because some of the races might have been mostly free or extremely cheap races.
Free and cheap races can tend to skew the data to make a horse look better than it really is since there is less competition in these races.
You can view all of this on the KnowYourHorse website by searching the horses name and scrolling to the bottom where the races are.
Monsters
The last type of racer we are going to discuss is what Zed heads like to call – Monsters.
These are horses that are just really a cut above the rest. They constantly win regardless of the class or competition.
Usually these horses will have a preferred distance set like 1600m through 2000m that they will absolutely dominate in.
The thing is, these horses are the king of the track in those distances. If you see these horses in a race, avoid them at all cost.
Although, if you are searching to buy one then you will probably come up short.
These horses pull a premium at almost all bloodlines, and will more than likely be out of most people’s budget right off the back.
An alternative method to acquiring one of these is to buy unraced horses that come from good parents or that are genesis and race them to see!
If you happen to land on a monster through that method, hold on to them and use them to race and build out your stable.
Buy NFT Horse
Now that you know what you are looking for in a race horse, it is time to try and purchase your first NFT horse!
The platform you are going to want to use is Opensea.io!
This is an NFT marketplace where Zed Run horses can be bought, sold, and bid on!
There are a few things to consider before diving into the NFT marketplace though.
Scams
The first thing to consider is, there are tons of scams.
You need to be extremely careful to make sure that any NFT you purchase is the real deal. The way you can typically tell is by tracing back the mint of the NFT to the actual platform or creators you want to purchase from. Alternatively, you can make sure that the account selling the NFT is verified by Opensea by the blue check mark on their profile picture.
Make sure your NFT horse comes from the Zed Run official Opensea page here.
Hackers are constantly trying to come up with ways to steal your assets, and a common way is by sending NFTs or links to your wallet that have malicious code lingering around. If you are ever given an NFT from an unknown source, leave it or delete it. Do not engage with it or use it in anyway.
Setup Your Wallet
The last thing you are going to need to do is add funds to your MetaMask!
We have an awesome blog here that you can follow in order to purchase your first NFT horse for those that need it!
Zed Run Platform
Thanks for reading our post on NFT horses for the Zed Run Platform!
We hope this post helps people make smart, educated decisions in the NFT space.
We’ll see you on the track!
Cheers
[/av_textblock]