Getting Your Collection Visible on OpenSea, Step by Step

Once the contract is deployed and the tokens are minted with metadata on IPFS, the next step is making them discoverable somewhere people actually browse. For us that meant OpenSea, and the process turned out to be less obvious than the one-and-done marketing made it sound. This guide is the step-by-step I ended up following, using our own collection (Quantum Genesis on Polygon) as the running example.

The good news if you're on Polygon, like us: listing a token for sale is gas-free for the seller because it's a signed off-chain order, not a transaction.

Quantum Genesis NFT #2

Before you start

Make sure these are in place first:

  • A deployed ERC-721 or ERC-1155 contract — OpenSea auto-detects contracts on Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Avalanche, and other supported chains.
  • Minted NFTs — tokens must exist on-chain; OpenSea reads directly from the blockchain.
  • Metadata on IPFS or a reliable host — each token's tokenURI must resolve to valid JSON with name, description, image, and optionally attributes.
  • MetaMask (or another supported wallet) — the most common choice is the MetaMask browser extension.
  • A little native gas — on Polygon you need some MATIC for approvals; on Ethereum, ETH.

For Quantum Genesis, the contract is 0x488fCfaEA5fDf1cF6BAED5e8A34D7858033E1a27 on Polygon, all 100 NFTs minted, metadata pinned to Pinata IPFS.

Creating your OpenSea account

OpenSea has no traditional sign-up flow — your account is your wallet.

  1. Go to opensea.io.
  2. Click the wallet icon (top right) or "Login".
  3. Pick MetaMask.
  4. Approve the connection in MetaMask.
  5. Sign a message to verify ownership — this is a gasless signature, not a transaction.

Once connected you have an account. From profile settings you can add a username, bio, profile picture, and banner. Worth filling out: it's the first thing anyone sees on your public profile.

Connecting the right wallet

If you deployed the contract from a specific wallet, you must connect that same wallet to OpenSea. The deployer address is auto-recognized as the collection owner, which is what unlocks collection-level settings.

If your NFTs are on Polygon, make sure MetaMask is on the Polygon network:

  1. Open MetaMask and click the network dropdown at the top.
  2. Select "Polygon Mainnet". If it's not listed, add it manually:
    1. Network Name: Polygon Mainnet
    2. RPC URL: https://polygon-rpc.com
    3. Chain ID: 137
    4. Symbol: MATIC
    5. Explorer: https://polygonscan.com

OpenSea handles multiple chains at once, but your wallet must be on the right network when you sign listing transactions.

Importing your collection

This is where OpenSea does the heavy lifting: you don't manually add anything. Its indexer detects ERC-721 and ERC-1155 contracts and creates the collection page. After minting, tokens usually show up within minutes. If not:

  • Visit https://opensea.io/assets/matic/YOUR_CONTRACT_ADDRESS/1 (swap in your contract and token ID).
  • Click "Refresh metadata" on any NFT page to force a re-index.
  • For bulk refresh, use the OpenSea API: POST /api/v2/chain/matic/contract/{address}/nfts/{id}/refresh.

Quantum Genesis NFT #42

Setting collection details

Once detected, go to the collection page and click "Edit collection" (visible only to the deployer wallet):

  • Collection name — pulled from the contract's name() function; you can customize it.
  • Description — the story. For Quantum Genesis, we explain that each piece came from real quantum computer measurements.
  • Category — "Art" or "Generative Art" fits algorithmic/quantum work.
  • Logo image — 350x350 minimum; use a representative piece.
  • Banner image — 1400x350.
  • Featured image — 600x400, shown in collection cards.
  • Links and social — website, Discord, Twitter/X, blog.

Fill in every field you can. Complete profiles rank better in search and editorial picks.

Listing the tokens

Navigate to an NFT and click "List for sale."

Fixed price is the simplest option — set a price in ETH (or WETH/MATIC on Polygon), choose a duration (1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months), and sign. On Polygon this is gas-free because you're signing an order rather than sending a transaction; the buyer pays gas at purchase time.

Auctions — English (ascending) and Dutch (descending) are both supported. English auctions take bids in WETH. For a new collection I'd start with fixed-price listings; auctions work better once there's an established audience.

Batch listing — with 100 pieces, one-by-one is painful. Three routes:

  • OpenSea UI — select multiple NFTs and list them in batch (still one signature per NFT).
  • OpenSea API — Listing API for programmatic listings; needs a developer-portal API key.
  • Custom script — the Seaport protocol SDK, which is what we use for Quantum Genesis.

Royalties with EIP-2981

Royalties route a share of secondary sales back to you, and there are two independent layers:

On-chain (EIP-2981). If the contract implements ERC2981, marketplaces query it for the amount:

// In the Solidity contract constructor
_setDefaultRoyalty(owner, 500); // 500 basis points = 5%

This is the most reliable because it's enforced by the contract itself. OpenSea reads royaltyInfo() and applies it automatically.

OpenSea collection royalties. You can also set "Creator earnings" plus a payout address in Edit Collection; OpenSea enforces it on its own platform. Match this to your on-chain royalties for consistency.

One important note: since 2025, OpenSea enforces creator fees on collections using the Operator Filter Registry or carrying on-chain EIP-2981 royalties. Collections without on-chain enforcement may get optional fees that can be skipped. Implement EIP-2981.

Fees, for the record

A quick breakdown of the numbers, since understanding them affects pricing:

Fee typeAmountWho pays
OpenSea service fee2.5%Seller (deducted from sale)
Creator royalties0–10% (you set)Seller (deducted from sale)
Gas (listing)Free on PolygonN/A
Gas (purchase)VariableBuyer

With our 5% royalty, total per sale is 7.5% (2.5% OpenSea + 5% creator). On a 1 ETH sale the seller receives 0.925 ETH.

Wrapping up

A listing is only infrastructure — the part that actually moves things is telling people the collection exists and telling the story behind it. That's why every piece here carries its quantum certificate: the metadata isn't just a name and an image, it's a verifiable record of which processor and circuit generated it. If that part interests you, the format of those metadata files is the subject of the ERC-721 metadata post.

I'll leave it there. If you're listing a collection and hit a snag, happy to compare notes in the comments.

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