What makes an NFT rare?

Have you bought an NFT from the latest fashion collection and want to know how rare it is? Do you want to unearth a nugget at a low price with all the information you need? Let’s answer the question: what makes an NFT rare?

The attributes of a rare or common NFT

Taking the case of avatar collections, several thousand NFTs are usually generated automatically. In fact, dozens of attributes, or traits in English, are randomly mixed by an algorithm to create these unique avatars.

Certain attributes are therefore present much more often than others, enabling us to establish an order of rarity for NFTs.

Frequent attributes of a rare NFT

It’s worth noting that the creators of the smart contract used to mint an NFT collection have the option of predefining the rarity of each attribute used. As a result, similar attributes can be found in many NFT collections, such as gold skin, fur or body, lasers in the eyes or simply an upside-down avatar.

An NFT in gold is therefore usually rare compared to the rest of its collection, but that shouldn’t be enough to convince you when the creators may well have decided to make this trait commonplace.

Attribute combos that make an NFT rare

A key point to consider is the mix of attributes possessed by an NFT. In fact, some traits go together better than others, either visually or simply by making more sense. If, for example, a collection possesses a very rare zombie skin attribute, as well as an uncommon zombie eyes attribute, the presence of both on the same NFT avatar could be extremely rare.

This sometimes leads to NFTs with no exceptional attributes becoming very rare thanks to a combo of several uncommon attributes. The aesthetic aspect is also a factor in attribute combos. Even if the latter are not rare, a mix of common attributes considered beautiful brings rarity to an NFT.

NFT aesthetics and subjective rarity

Indeed, sometimes the rarity of an NFT comes simply from the craze surrounding its aesthetics, leading owners to refuse to sell their avatar. The simple principle of supply and demand can then drive up the price of NFTs with, at first glance, no rare attributes.

The lack of attributes can also be the reason for the value of a piece of art. A perfect example can be found in the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection: Bored Apes with only 4 attributes are special in the eyes of collectors. Often more “uncluttered”, their simple art appeals enormously and makes them valuable additions to the collection. They are, however, rarely found among the 10,000 apes.

How can you tell if an NFT is rare?

Let’s get straight down to business. There are several options for checking the rarity of an NFT, and we’re going to introduce a few of them. Some sites reference an impressive number of NFT collections and calculate the rarity of each piece in the collection to obtain a complete classification.

Since their algorithms are different, the same NFT may have a different position in the different rankings, which is why we recommend you use several rarity ranking platforms when searching.

The sites most frequently used to obtain the rarity of an NFT are :

Raritysniper.com
rarity.tools
Howrare.is
traitsniper.com

Some sites specialize in a particular network, such as Ethereum or Solana, while others focus on upcoming drops, for example.

Each collection NFT has an identification number called ID. Choose the relevant collection and simply use this number to find a token and discover its rarity score, its position, as well as the various attributes responsible for its place in the ranking.