From the beginning of the app, Star Wars Card Trader has been set up differently than any of the other apps that Topps has in its portfolio. Its not sports, it has no gameplay, but it is easily one of the most popular of the four. People love collecting, and they love Star Wars – a lot.
To make collecting a bit more interesting and to make more money on the packs, SWCT has developed a system of insert parallels for some of the non-marathon sets. Usually, there is one level of insert that is relatively easy in comparison to pull, all the way down to one that is super impossible.
For as long as I have observed, the parallels of the inserts are usually worth SLIGHTLY more than the base version, especially if the count is drastically different. Gold is worth more than silver, silver is worth more than black, and black is worth more than base. Gold is also drastically different in value than base, and silver is too, so on and so on.
As we have moved on to the latest group of inserts, it seems like there is a growing contingent of users who DO NOT want the parallels for a number of reasons. This group is getting large enough that the base version of sets like Badges of War are worth significantly more than the blue parallels. I have even see people trade the silvers straight up for the base. Pretty insane, as this is one of the more popular non-Nightbrothers sets since Posters.
What is causing this shift, you might ask? Im not sure if its so clear. One is definitely the cost of completing a set in a parallel fashion, as that has started to shy people away from the chase. Second is the cool factor, as the base inserts tend to be designed with normal colors, where the parallels look a bit off with shifts in color presentation. I think the base white Intergalactic is the best looking of all the colors. I dont think the other parallels look as cool. Lastly, because no one is notified of set length prior to the launch of a pack, people have been turned off out of fear of a long chase. At some interval, its just easier to collect the base.
Im curious if this trend continues with new sets that are going to be released in the coming days and weeks, especially as Series 2 eventually hits the sheet. Maybe this is just an anomaly and things will shift back. You never know.
Digital Card Central 
hey SC, I would say this has been happening for a while. I think it got more intense with the poster set — I could regularly trade blue posters for green posters and as the deadline approached, you could trade the lowest count blue poster (around 4700) for white posters (~300 count). the badges are the clearest example… i would say it is generally accepted in the community that the black badges are equal to blue.
Yes this behaviour is now very obvious at Star Wars, as I’m originally from Bunt, I first thought people are insane here, but I realised now that Topps created this with the Variant Craziness.
First of all Star Wars Card Trader has already the highest number of Users among all Topps Apps and most of them are Free to Play and are not purchasing many credits beside Tapjoy.With so many players opening packs there’re always players who almost “accidentially” pull rare cards, and of course they underestimate themselves and think they could never complete these rare sets and trade them away for “literally” nothing or the high count/low end inserts.
As a Bunter I also thought first it should be all about rarity, but Star Wars is way different. When I got first a very rare variant card I thought I can really cash in now and sell high on it, but the opposite was the case as no one wanted to have this rare card, because actually no one beside those poor “Top Guns” (with unlimited ressources) who are purchasing the packs for the rare cards directly, are interested in trading for these. I thought by myself is there really no trade market for rare Variants?
I made now two experiments and they both worked out pretty well:
BoW: I found the Silver Badges of War the best looking ones of them and I gave it a try to go for the Silvers and I also started very late to purchase packs only from the “Rebellion Card” on (8th card). So the pack came out and I purchased a few cards, of course I got “Blacks” and “Blues” I asked straight up for Silvers in the Fan Feed … as expected they all came in immediately. Within one hour of trading and investing arround 175k of Credits I had all 8 x Silver Badges within two hours!!!
Intergalactic: I started yesterday an experiment to see if I can be really “cheeky” on the “Red Intergalactics”, because I thought you only need the Red Final Vader Card as this is the final card to have a chance to complete the set, all the other 4 cards have already no more trade market as the card count is already higher. So I tried to avoid to ask people for their cards, as I wanted to avoid to offend traders who got those cards with their credits and collected already all 5 of the Set. I only asked again in the Fan Feed for Red Intergalactics (with not offering anything in particular) and I got luck that mentioned Vader (100+ count !!!) came in very quickly and he just wanted a few Gold Base (!), I even double checked with him if it’s ok as I don’t wanted to rip him off and he mentioned he had no use for this card (as expected). So I contiuned and of course trade offers came in and I’ve now almost completed the Red Set (the other Vader still pending, but I’m sure will come in soon) that’s a very rare card set and I got it for almost nothing in exchange and I also almost completed the Green Set in parallel!
The whole trading at Star Wars is absurd in the moment and with now so many players at Star Wars and after Comic Con it will be even worse I’m not sure where this app is heading to?