A guide to ranking rare NFTs

Despite difficult times, excitement around NFTs persists. For example, feelings of nostalgia and pride abound in digital ownership, reflecting how many people feel about physical collectibles. For many collectors, minting NFTs is like opening a new pack of baseball cards. You never know the outcome, but there is always the potential to pull out something rare. With the offering of most PFP projects at 10,000, the odds aren’t promising, but the potential to hit big is enough to draw in collectors.

Others are more systematic and use NFT rarity tools to “sneak” NFTs out of the secondary market by finding market opportunities where an NFT’s rarity (read: market value) and list price are misaligned. Some do both.

So let’s dive deep into NFT rarity tools to uncover how rarity is calculated, how to use the tools, and the best tools to meet the needs of collectors.

What is NFT Rarity?

As the name suggests, NFT rarity measures how rare an NFT is relative to the rest of the collection. Generally driven by the laws of supply and demand, rarity and market value go hand in hand.

In the case of most PFP projects, rarity is derived from the exclusivity of properties, or the various building blocks and attributes that make up the final token. The most successful strategies include using trait groups, subtraits, and 1/1 moves to create objective rarity.

Let’s use Bored Ape Yacht Club as an example.

As shown at OpenSea, BAYC has seven distinct feature groups: Background, Clothing, Earrings, Eyes, Fur, Hat, and Mouth. Beneath each resides a collection of subtraits that have varying levels of rarity based on the frequency of their occurrence across the collection. The number of total traits can also play a role, which it does in BAYC, bringing the total number of “sub-traits” to eight.

But as with everything, there are exceptions to the rule. With 1/1 or limited edition artwork, limited supply can create both rarity and scarcity, which creates value and demand. In some cases, a lack of characteristics or a matching of characteristics (think: red shirt and red pants) will be perceived as having an added value in a community. In the case of BAYC, trait count is a community-specific trait, with all monkeys acquiring anywhere between four and seven traits. There are only 254 monkeys with four traits, adding to their rarity and intrinsic value.

But to really explore and uncover the nuance among NFT rarity, one must use a rarity tool.

Rarity Tools are programs that calculate and rank NFTs based on their rarity. Think of it as a database where users can search specific tokens to see how rare they are within their relative collection, while showing exactly what factors contribute to their rarity score. With this information, collectors can easily compare the rarity and value of individual NFTs within the same collection to better inform their purchasing decisions.

It is important to note that each rarity tool platform has its own proprietary scoring system, so although actual rarity rankings are the same across platforms, the rarity points themselves are likely to vary.

With this information, collectors can easily compare the rarity and value of individual NFTs within the same collection.

How is NFT rarity calculated?

Although there are three additional ways to calculate rarity (trait rarity rank, average rarity, and statistical rarity), the Rarity Score has proven to be the most accurate method.

First introduced and implemented by the founder of rarity.tools, a popular rarity tool, the formula goes as follows.

This formula was invented to address biases within previous rarity calculation methods:

• Rank of rare traits (rank only on the rarest trait).
• Average trait rarity (average of the rarity of all traits combined)
• Statistical rarity (multiplies all trait rarities together).

As demonstrated in a rarity.tools blog post titled Ranking Rarity: Understanding rarity calculation methods, if you were to compare three monkeys using three different methods, you would get three completely different results. While trait rarity ranking places also a lot of emphasis on rare traits, and average and statistical rarity don’t place enough, Rarity Score quickly becomes the perfect middle ground.

And now, while the formula may not be exact likewise, all rarity tool platforms have implemented their own version of Rarity Score that provides the same exact ranking result across all platforms.

With elegant and simple user interfaces, most rarity tools are simple. Let’s consider Rarity Sniper, another popular rarity tool on the market. First, find a collection you want to explore. Find the search field and enter the collection you want. We will continue to use Bored Ape Yacht Club here.

After a collection is selected, you are directed to a separate collection page that displays key statistics such as total supply, unique owners, floor price and volume, along with a view of the entire collection listed from most to least rare.

Users can sort the collection by ascending or descending rank, price, NFT ID and more on the left sidebar. You’ll also find a “Property” toggle, which displays a full list of all property categories, subcategories, and occurrence percentages.

To find the rank of a specific token, first find the token ID in the details section of an individual NFT listing on OpenSea (or another marketplace), as shown in the image below.

Then just enter the token ID in the “Check NFT field” and click “Check”.

The search will return your individual token, which you can then click on to reveal a full breakdown of each trait and its rarity in the collection, along with the token’s assigned rarity score and rank.

It’s important to note that while all rarity tools have similar core features, there are nuances to both design and features, so the user experience may not be identical. We strongly encourage you to explore each tool further to find the one that best fits your application.

Rarity Sniper

As shown in the example above, the Rarity Sniper is one of the most robust and reliable Rarity Tools on the market. With a loyal community of more than 492,000 Twitter followers and 321,000 Discord members, the platform boasts the details of nearly 1,800 NFT collections across 18 different blockchains. As the self-proclaimed “#1 Source for NFT Rarity”, the platform aims to be greater than just rarity tool, which provides users with a complete analysis platform, news outlet and release calendar to stay up-to-date on the fast-paced industry.

rarity.tools

Unlike Rarity Sniper, which provides a unique Rarity Score, rarity.tools allows collectors to filter by all four different calculation methods. It also allows users to explore specific attributes that platforms that Rarity Sniper does not offer. While rarity.tools is one of the most popular tools among enthusiasts, the user interface is a bit clunky and harder to navigate.

The collector Swaggy Z acknowledges the somewhat dated design of Rarity Tools, but its simplicity has helped him better understand key buying opportunities across certain collections. “While there are other trade analysis tools with more features, Rarity Tools is perfect for users focused only on rarity information. It does exactly what it needs to do.”

Trait sniper

Calling itself “The Ultimate NFT Trading Platform”, Trait Sniper is one of the most comprehensive NFT trading tools on the market. The bot detects art and instantly reveals and delivers the full rarity rating within 30 seconds. Users can filter by feature, rating and price while setting bulk bidding parameters. Trait Sniper also has its own Chrome extension to help users find ranks and floor prices while browsing OpenSea. Lifetime access cards can be purchased on the secondary market at OpenSea.

To Mike Crosbythe founder of the NFT Buy-Now Pay-Later platform Cyan, Trait Sniper has become his go-to resource for analyzing rarity, rank, and more. After playing around with various tools on the market, Trait Sniper’s user experience reigns supreme.

“The way NFTs are displayed in spreadsheet format, which makes it easier to browse,” he said in an interview with nft now. “The sorting for each category makes it easy to compare directly and filter by conditions when necessary. The user interface can look intimidating at first, but once you get over the slight learning curve it becomes a powerful tool.”

icy tools

The all-in-one NFT analysis platform icy.tools is designed to help traders make more informed and educated decisions. Founded in 2021, it quickly emerged as the most important resource for many serious traders, mainly due to its premium plan with real-time charts and data, favorites and fire hose feeds.

Ultimately, Crosby says, it boils down to personal preference and trading needs.

“Those looking to quickly identify NFTs that haven’t claimed an airdrop would probably be better suited to Trait Sniper, as you can quickly review the collection in tabular format.” he said. “Icy.tools has the most appealing user interface, although it retains many useful features. Trait Sniper has the best comprehensive analysis, but is a little more difficult to use without clicking around. NFTScan has the best top-down market overview, but lacks screening for wash trade. CryptoSlam does a better job of this, but is not always up to date.”

By now you should have a basic understanding of NFT rarity and the different tools on the market. But remember, NFT rarity is not a one-size-fits-all game. There are nuances in each collection and its specific tokens, and the industry is young. Utility is constantly being built into programs, where previously “ordinary” features can now have extra value. To become a more informed trader and collector, one must learn the ins and outs of the industry. These tools only help crack a small piece of the puzzle. What you choose to do with them is ultimately up to you.