Digital Card Central

I apologize for not writing much about Huddle lately, as it is still my main app when it is in season. Over the last few months it has been in hibernation, with ENORMOUS exceptions for the draft and Rookie Premiere. With the start of the 2015 season about a month away, I think its time to start the countdown and think about what is in store for the new build.

Gearing Up

Right now, everything in Huddle is pretty stagnant, which is both unfortunate and advantageous at the same time. Because the fan feed has so few people trading in it, if you have a large collection with lots to offer, the people will literally fall all over themselves to offer good trades.

Outside of that, its not all that active in any aspect, even though many of the releases over the course of the offseason have been top quality. Because we have LITERALLY no clue as to how Huddle is going to work for 2015, its best to stock up with as much stuff as you can to use as trade bait for the new build.

Im not saying that you should go out and pick up every insert, but definitely ones that would still carry value in a new season. This new season may or may not look to bring action shots back into the mix in some fashion like we saw with the draft and rookie premiere. Huddle is finally coming out of their shell on those two events, which hadnt happened at all since week 2 of the 2014 season. Hopefully they will find some way to transition that into a better look and feel for 2015 than another year of head shots.

Some of the cards I would look to pick up:

• Offseason Sigs
• Sigs in general
• Action shot 2014 cards
• Parallax cards
• Rare inserts with low card counts
• NFL Draft
• NFLPA Rookie Premiere

Even if the new season has action shots in play somehow, the draft cards will still look amazing next to anything we might see in 2015. Same thing goes for the other stuff on this list, especially rare VIP sigs and the like. Because many of the people that own these cards know they are going to have value carryover, it wont necessarily be easy to get them cheap.

NOTE: It should be assumed that all 2014 cards WILL NOT SCORE for 2015. Those 20x boosts from the Super Bowl will not help you in the new season.

What to Expect

This is where things get muddy, as I have absolutely no clue what might transpire as we lead up to 2015. One can hope that Huddle eventually releases early 2015 cards similar to the way Bunt did in March, but Im not sure they are ready to make that leap. There has been no communication as to whether or not the app will be NFL licensed or not, and I would imagine that it will be a closely guarded secret until the first day of the new build. Each and every day that passes, I get a little bit more excited that something might happen on this front, but its just one of those things we all have to be patient with.

Similarly, the app is likely going to be updated to match what Bunt and Star Wars have done with their builds. Contests from Bunt will likely be ported over to Huddle, and will likely work much better in the format that the NFL week is structured. I think that building contests for Monday, Thursday and Sunday is much more manageable than building contests for 7 days a week. With Throwdowns already a big part of Huddle 2014, I would guess this will be a smooth transition for users, more than it was for Bunt. Im pretty excited to see how it turns out – especially considering lessons learned from version 1.0 in Bunt.

I would expect that the pack formats and master access paywall will be used for Huddle this year as well, as it is now in place for both Bunt and Star Wars. Although the paywall in Bunt has come down a bit since the beginning, I expect it to be up from day one in Huddle. They may soften as the year progresses, but it shouldnt be something that people fear, even more so now that we understand the trade economy attached to it.

Boost Culture

This is where things get very complicated, as Huddle was boosted to the high heavens as the year progressed. The Topps team talked on a few occasions about how gameplay would be more of a focus with headshots being the norm, and that translated to a bunch of 20x boosts by the time the season ended.

I actually had fun in the playoffs, chasing down all the fun cards, and it was clear that by the way people were buying, I wasnt the only one. If the head shots are back for 2015, crazy boosts will be as well. If there is a way to involve more action shot photography, I expect more of a happy medium. Its about the way the game is perceived, and Huddle is much different than Bunt in that way.

Overall, I am super excited to see what the team has in store, as Huddle’s design team and content team is among the best there is. Hopefully new developments and features for the new build will continue to be as fun as it was in 2014. Im pretty sure they will be.

If you are reading this site, you are likely playing along with one of the four Topps apps. You also are likely very similar to me, in that you have a lot to say about your experience regarding the apps you are involved with. Because I feel like these stories need a vehicle to be told to the world, I wanted to organize a way to give you a chance to tell them. Some of you likely have blogs already, or post on Reddit, or on a message board. If you dont, this is your opportunity to start a discussion.

Here is how this is going to work.

Pick any of the questions listed below and write. Take it any direction you want, use any media you would like to use. If you want to do a blog post, please do so. If you want to do a video on youtube, that works too. As long as it has a direct link, that is all that matters. My only request is that your writing is substantial, I.E. more than a line or two. Write a few paragraphs, talk for a few minutes, whatever you feel is right to say what you want to say. If you are going to write two lines, make them worth everyone’s time to read, at the very least.

When you are finished with your submission – please post it in the comments below. I will not be able to include it without your submission. Shoot me a link that goes directly to the content, and not a link to a general site. We want to ensure that people have easy access to what you put together. With the link, include the name of the post, include the name of the site, and the name you want to be known by.

After the deadline has passed, I will take all the links that are posted and compile them into one major post on this site. Hopefully it will provide an audience to your discussion, as I know many people involved with the apps read this site frequently.

Some rules:

• No trolling – keep this constructive. If you have something negative to say, that is perfectly fine. Just make it business, not personal. If your post is a hate rant, im not going to link it. It wont help anything if the discussion is just a way to antagonize people.
• Do not call out other users – if you want to talk in generalities, that’s fine, but no “I hate SCUncensored because he offers crappy trades.” type of stuff.
• Keep it clean – I know we have a tendency to use a lot of adult language, but for this particular exercise, please keep it PG13 at most.

Now, without further adieu, here are the topics for discussion – please choose one for your entry into the Download. There will probably be other opportunities to more of these if it is successful, so dont worry if there are a few you would like to cover. For now, just one.

1. What got you interested in digital cards? What were the main factors that hooked you and why did you stick around?
2. What is your favorite card or set? What is the reasoning behind your attachment to it? How many do you own?
3. If you could have a discussion about (INSERT YOUR FAVORITE APP) with (INSERT APP PRODUCER HERE), what would you want to talk about? What are the things you feel that they ABSOLUTELY need to know?

Deadline for submissions: Tuesday, August 11th.

Participation prizes will be randomly generated for people that submit content! Prizes include inserts from the app of your choice, gold cards, and other fun stuff. Who knows, we might even be able to get some publicity for your site in the process!

Have fun and lets make this a big deal for everyone involved! This is your opportunity to be a voice for change or a voice for whatever you feel is important.

NOTE: Please do not post your entire thoughts in the comments below, I would like to make sure that we have a permanent place to display these thoughts. WordPress and Blogger offer free services if you need a place to post, and you can always post a youtube video, or on a forum.

Right now, there is a bug that has caused some issues with recent award recipients not being able to see their cards upon delivery. Other users can pull up these cards when trades are offered, but they are not visible on the personal card sheet of the person who owns them.

This first happened with the purple base variant awards, where the people who completed the sereies 2 gold set got a notification that the award cards were delivered. When they went to their sheet, many if not all of the cards werent visible. The same thing recently happened with the blue badges award last night, which caused a lot of confusion as to why their card wasnt showing up.

A few people were able to figure out a way to get the card to show up, but it requires a bit of teamwork with any friends you might have in the game. Find someone that has the same card you cannot find on your sheet, and offer them a trade for it. When you pull up the trade screen, offer your card in return. Once the trade is accepted the card should be visible on your sheet. It might be visible as soon as the trade is offered, but I havent confirmed this yet.

If you cant find anyone to trade with who has the same card as you do, I am happy to help you out by doing trades to unlock your cards. Shoot me a tweet @SCUncensored and we can talk about a way to make sure you can get this taken care of in a trustworthy manner.

I let the Topps Digital team know about the bug last night, and they should be looking into it already. In the mean time, this work around should take care of the issue for anyone who has missing cards.

I saw it coming a mile away. With each passing day after the all star break, without series 2 in packs, I knew there would be less and less of those players who end up traded at the deadline. It was getting clearer that the players would be put in packs, traded, and then sold out before anyone could have the chance to pull them. We saw it a bit with Series 1 and some of the early trades/DFAs that happened (Upton, Quentin, etc), but nothing like this. So the question is, is it worth chasing them down? What value do they have? What if they are Series 1? I think these are all valid questions.

Bottom line, with the checklist for awards now showing that the cards are not required to complete the set, do they still have the same extreme value? I dont think they do. I mean, they are cool if you want to have them for posterity’s sake, but other than that, they dont really serve all that much of a purpose. I would even go so far as saying they are great trade bait if you are looking to pick up a few inserts here and there.

Aramis Ramirez is the base card that seems to have the lowest count in the game. In fact, he might end up being the lowest base card there is, period. At just 86 copies there are not a lot out there, and I am SO glad they took him off the checklist. His green, red and blue have even less, with the Blue at only 18 copies. Pretty low. If you are one of those completists, you might have to give up some major firepower to get one, if you can find one that is available. Personally, without these being needed for the award, I dont think they have as much value. Same thing goes for Uribe, Cueto, Price and others. The longer they were in packs, the lower the value they have.

Series 1 that are recently sold out have even less value to me, as there are still tens of thousands of copies out there. Scott Kazmir has been in packs since day 1, and I still get it added to offers like it is some crazy must have base card that I dont already have 30 copies of.

For the Series 1 that were sold out initially, there is more value attached, but we still saw them in packs for a few weeks. Now that they have been sitting at the top of everyone’s card sheet for three months, its just not the same shock value as when they first went sold out. The novelty has worn off. The same thing will happen with this group too, so it might be better to wait until things cool off.

Once I saw how few base cards were out there for many of the players, I gave up on collecting the sets, and traded off my sold out players for some NICE inserts. Now that I see the sets are not inclusive, Im even more satisfied with the decision. That’s just my approach, and you will find people out there who will still go nuts trying to get every card. There are only 18 TRUE master sets out there now, and that’s only if all 18 of the Ramirez cards are on active accounts. Interesting how that works.

If you arent a collector of physical cards, this most is probably going to be a bit of an introduction as to what is going on this week in Chicago. Each year, Topps and the rest of the trading card manufacturers set up what is the equivalent of San Diego Comic Con for sports cards, and tens of thousands of people attend through the weekend. For the first time, Topps Digital has a presence at the Topps Booth, and have been doing some fun stuff the last few days.

Previous Conventions

If you remember last year in Bunt, they released four of the special NSCC (National Sports Collector Convention) Allen and Ginter cards in the app. Although digital wasnt as much of a focus for the show, it was on the map. The checklist was Trout, Tanaka, Feller, and Derek Jeter, and the cards were available in special packs during the show.

What the NSCC is All About

Starting a number of years ago in Los Angeles, the show has turned into the largest gathering of card collectors during the year. All the manufacturers, auction houses, and big dealers of sports cards and memorabilia attend, setting up Wednesday through Sunday. I have attended 3 of the shows, and each time I was in awe of how many people made the trip to the show each year. For some of the collectors who have been around since they were kids, the NSCC is a yearly pilgrimage that they plan around each and every time the show opens.

Although the collecting hobby has shrunk dramatically over the 2000s and 2010s, the show still gets national news attention, especially when the big auction items hit the block. This year, William “Refrigerator” Perry’s Super Bowl ring was sold, going for over $200,000 in the main auction last night. Other items included game used items and other historical sports artifacts – including stuff like the boots Muhammad Ali wore for the Thrilla in Manila.

The show floor is expansive, spanning multiple football fields worth of dealer tables and massive booths set up by trading card manufacturers and auction houses. The newest element of the show is a stage dedicated to group box breaking, where emcees get on a web camera and open boxes of sports cards for customers who buy in piecemeal. I wont get into the details, but its become one of the biggest phenomenon in the industry. Shoot me a tweet if you want to learn more.

Giveaways

During the show, Topps and other booths will have show exclusives that they give away for people who bought product at the convention. Topps digital also has giveaways for fans that stop by, including special Bunt posters and free codes for promo packs. The physical giveaways can sell for a lot of money, just like they do for SDCC, especially for the big name players like Trout and Kris Bryant.

If you are at the show – go check out what Topps Digital has there, and make sure to have a lot of fun at TOPPSMARC’s expense. Tell him I sent you. You might even get internet famous!

Potential for This Week

I would love to see the Allen and Ginter promo cards come back to Bunt for another year, as the large checklist is lends itself very well to a set for the weekend. The cards are die cut Xs to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the physical card set, and they look really cool.

There could also be other releases planned, but its all up to Topps as to how far they want to integrate the show into the app. SWCT had a lot of fun with SDCC, and hopefully Bunt gets the same treatment.

If you have any questions about physical cards, or want to learn more – check out my other blog that has been dedicated to the hobby for the last 7+ years.  You can also send me a tweet @SCUncensored.

Hard to believe we are now 20 plus weeks into the launch of the app, and with the beginning of the 21st week comes a new chase for all the Marathon cards. Not only does this mean a new opportunity to get into the run for one of the sets, but it also means closure for the second leg. For reference, all legs are 10 weeks long. Leg 1 was weeks 1-10, leg two was weeks 11-20, and leg 3 will be 21-30. There is no indication yet of what happens after week 30. Here is what to expect coming up.

Closing Out Leg 2

Everyone probably saw that the Vintage award should be hitting around 2pm ET today, at least that is what the payout reminder said. I would guess the award will be around 1000-1250, depending on how many of the Vintage hoarders want to take the time to send complete sets to alt accounts. Connections and Widevision will also be highly coveted, and those awards should be a little higher – maybe close to 2000.

I would expect a VERY nice card for Vintage today, especially if the Death Star card from wave one is any indication. I know a lot of people have been oddly obsessed with a Slave Leia card, which I find a bit odd, but I would much rather have an action focused moment from the trilogy. The XWing Vintage is still my favorite, and Boba Fett Attacks isnt far behind. We need something awesome, and I think we will get it.

Starting Leg 3 – Week 1 Card Value Speculation

As we have all seen, Vintage Boba Fett has settled in as one of the more valuable cards in the game. There are a few contributing factors, in my opinion, and I am EAGER to see if they are replicated today with the new Week 21 vintage release. First, all the week 1 cards carry more value due to a groupthink approach applied to the last two legs. More individuals are in the chases during week 1, so the print run tends to be a bit more spread out. When that happens, supply diminishes for the normal group of collectors for that set.

Its also worth mentioning that the value of the true week 1 cards also contributed to the value of week 11, as people werent as understanding of the dead account situation, and thought they could reclaim total value the missed for Vintage Han and Obi WV. The true situation is that supply for those cards was greatly diminished because of user attrition and ease to pull them, leading to what we see today for the big three.

The Android launch also contributed highly to the value of Boba Fett, as it was the first time all the new Android users had access to a week 1 card. This time around, the attrition has already taken place, so the value will likely not be as high.

Lastly, character selection was also a big part of the value, as Boba Fett is a cult favorite that had yet to be featured on a Vintage card. Doing a short printed week 1 card with a new user base led to a relative perfect storm. Im not sure that will happen again, but its possible.

As for the other sets, Funeral Pyre WV and Han/Leia connections also had increased value, but no where near what we saw with Vintage. We know that Vintage took its spot atop the marathon set chase during leg 2, and leg 3 will likely continue to be the same situation.

How to Approach the New Leg

Each new leg should have a strategy – one that fits what you are looking to get out of the marathon. For example, I stopped collecting every set, focusing my energy in amassing a new collection of Vintage and WV only. I completed both leg 2 sets to match my leg 1, and I will likely employ the same strategy this time around.

Here are some other tips:

• Collect as many of the week one cards as you can. If you are going to spend money, week one is your chance to get a bunch of trade bait for the later weeks. If you are lucky, you can set yourself up nicely.
• Pick your sets wisely. Vintage is running at around 1 in every 75 packs, so it will be the most expensive set to chase. WV and Connections will be next, followed by Bounty and GM. Fan’s choice is the easiest to complete.
• DO NOT TRADE YOUR PREVIOUS LEG SINGLES FOR NEW SINGLES – there is an award for a complete marathon, so if you have sets, this is not the time to break them up unless they are easily replaced.
• Offering your week 11 dupes for new week 21 cards this week likely wont get any bites. The new cards will be hotter than you can imagine, and though the value will eventually even out, its not going to happen for a few days minimum. Dont ruin your reputation by being that guy.

Most importantly, just have fun. This is your chance to start over and get back on the horse. Its going to be a fun close to the first “Episode” of SWCT, and you will not want to miss out on all the surprises that are likely to come.

If you have been playing the apps for as long as I have, you know what getting a new high end insert feels like. Scrolling through all of your locked cards to determine which of your other collection pieces needs to be taken off quarantine and opened back up to the world. In each of the 3 apps I play, I am well past the point of 25 locked cards. In 2 of the 3 apps I am desperate, and frequently have to fend off terrible offers for cards I would never trade. The only protection we have is coming up short, and I am PLEADING for more card locks throughout the Topps apps.

Background

Prior to 2014 Bunt’s release, there was no such thing as a locked card. You were literally open for business on every card, even if you had a 1 of 1 card that has your own picture on it (right Lee Obrien?). After the users asked fervently to get a way to take cards off the market, a small respite was provided in the 25 no trade locked cards that each user may use at their leisure. These “locks” prevents another user from making an offer that includes that card, basically giving you all control over which people get access. Locked cards can still be offered in trades by the person who owns them. However, if the person getting the offer wants to counter, any locked cards are automatically removed from the block. Its a great system.

The problem is, for users with big collections, spanning multiple years in Huddle and Bunt, 25 cards to take off the market can be a drop in the bucket. Even if it were expanded to 50, those extras might not even be enough. That is the desperate nature of this need for some people.

Reasoning for 25 Available Locks

Here is my take on things. Im pretty sure that the 25 locks were put in place to keep the trade economy partially secure but not completely stalled. If unlimited locks were available, too many cards might be removed from regular circulation. Although I would make an argument that this likely isnt a big enough concern to not move forward with the unlimited situation, Im guessing its a factor.

Im also guessing software is a limiting factor, as revamping a system significantly could impact the general running status of the app. Im sure that they have tried to figure something out, but the software may have limited their changes.

Solutions

Despite software limitations, I fully support overhauling the entire card display system. This is a feat that will likely need to happen during an offseason build development, but my suggestion is simple.

1. Bring back the display case – in 2013, each build had a 9 card display that popped up every time a trade offer was made. It was mainly used for the play system, as a card had to be in the 9 card loading screen or they wouldnt score. When games werent being played, we used this as a way to show off our best cards, or cards we were looking to trade. It needs to come back, even if the play system is not involved.
2. Create a For Trade / Not For Trade toggle – Think of this utopia. You are on the fan feed and you see someone offering their cards. You pull up their sheet and sort by “for trade.” In this tag, you will see every card that the user wants to move. You can also sort by Not for trade, which acts like a lock, and is available unlimited. They cannot be put into offers. If a user is indifferent, they can leave the card untagged, which is the default setting. The card can still be traded, but its not advertised.
3. Create a Wish List – give users an opportunity to designate which cards they are looking for from any in the game. This could be extremely helpful if we could sort our sheet by cards they have designated that they want.
4. Create an auto accept system – give users an opportunity to build their dream deal, which will automatically accept if someone offers the cards they designate.
5. Create an auto decline system – give users a setting that says they only want inserts or they only want base, etc.
6. Build an offer strength indicator – functions on the above elements to let people know if they should continue with the cards they are giving. Use a pop up if the trade doesnt meet even minimum standards. Prevent a negative trade experience for new users who dont know any better.

In the mean time, my plea is simple – just give us enough to tide us over. I have heard that Kick supports 100 locks, which would be great to have in each of the other three apps. Give us some sort of defense in games that function on releasing high end cards each day.

Im past the point of being nice. Im past the point of educating new users that I dont want their base for my Gold Variant Sig. Help me out so I dont have to be the bad guy.

Let me start by introducing a special guest post for today – as I feel this is a great opportunity to expand this site’s horizons. I love what Topps has done with their digital portfolio over the last few years, a testament to the commitment to this medium in sports cards. One of the apps that I really havent found my place in is Topps Kick, as I just dont know anything about Soccer. That being said, it is the app with the largest active user base, and its time to get some content for the game. My buddy ONEGAUCHO is an active Kick player, and utilizes Twitch.tv to bring more life to the game. He asked if he could provide some content, to which I enthusiastically obliged! Check out his feed here if you are interested in learning more.

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ToppsKICK: What You Need to Know!

For those of you who are unaware, ToppsKick is an app dedicated to Soccer worldwide, or “football” as everyone else knows it. The app has hundreds of thousands of users from all over the world and at the moment, is in full swing on the US side where the MLS season is heading into their All Star game this coming Wednesday. The game is structured just like both of the other sports app, with a dual fantasy/collecting type layout.

App Play

This particular app’s following really digs into the fantasy side of the gameplay, or more commonly referred to as “the chase”. This is a bit different from what we have seen before with BUNT and HUDDLE, as collecting can be just as important as fantasy in many cases.

Though there is a decent group of collectors, a large majority is focused on chasing points during the matches for MLS (US Major League Soccer), Barclay’s Premier League and Bundesliga.

Whereas in past seasons, the base cards had a similar structure as BUNT and HUDDLE where there were 5 tiers of base, this MLS season, they decided to do away with those tiers and there’s only one level that scores at 1x. It makes for a very interesting play style, especially from people who are both collectors and chasers.

As a result of this flattening approach, a premium has been placed on inserts and awards that score in the traditional green/red/silver/gold levels. Award cards for chasing sets come with a 1.7-2.0x boost, so there’s value to both collectors and chasers. This has seemed to created a tight community within the top article chats, especially among the people who participate frequently.

Hot Items and the MLS All Star Game

Due to the MLS All Star game on Wednesday, they have released some exciting new sets with great artwork. More importantly, these inserts are coming out at a 1.5x so that’s key for chasers. Most sets come out at 1.2x so this is a significant bump in value. The current All-Star set boasts a hefty 100k coin award (vs the usual 60k) and comes with a gold variant of one of the game’s elite scorer, Kaka from Orlando City.

In general, as with the other apps, sigs are near the top of the food chain when it comes to lasting value. Like HUDDLE and BUNT have done, they also have a variant chase and those are what everything seems to be valued against. The first few came out at a lower count relative to current ones (150 vs 175) so those are the keys to the marathon chase. And since many play for points, these are gobbled up in bunches by chasers but are also coveted by collectors. This perfect storm makes the value skyrocket both within the app as trade bait and outside on the open market.

Staying Up To Date

TOPPSCHARI is the app’s producer and runs a tight ship churning out these goodies for the community. You can also follow @toppskick on Twitter, where they post all the new releases. If you have any questions about the app or values, drop me a follow on Twitter (@onegaucho) or reach out to Chari on the app and shoot him a 1:1. Most importantly join us on Kick, crack some packs and enjoy the All Star festivities! You will not be disappointed.

Also – check out my content on Twitch, as I do a lot of fun stuff that has to do with the everyday goings on of the app. I try to make it very participatory and give people in the chat an opportunity to find out what it takes to be successful in the game. My name is the same in all 4 apps, so dont hesitate to reach out.

Here is a video I added to Youtube if you cant make it onto the live feed, it talks about card value and trading on the app. Great starting point for everyone.

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A big thank you to OneGaucho for the post – hopefully we can get more just like it.

I have noticed a trend in the app recently, and I talked a little bit about when I did my insert breakdown a few days ago. Insert sets in card trader are the lifeblood of the app, running neck and neck with the marathon cards as a reason why most people return multiple times per day, day after day. With sets like TK and others eclipsing the 10 card mark, with multiple parallels for each card, there is a lot of volume. So, the question remains, what is the best way to approach collecting the set, and what is the value of each card?

Collecting Strategy

There is no easy way to explain the best way to collect a set with 20 cards in it. You definitely dont want to spend a million coins every day trying to get what you need, and you also dont want the gargantuan task of putting an entire set together the day before the award. Believe it or not, the best way to do it is a bit of a waiting game in my opinion, using daily bonuses and small purchases to get as many cards as you can along the way.

The reason I say this is the best approach is because of the extreme drop off in value as cards age. New stuff is SO hot that it is almost worth twice to three times as much as the older stuff. So, if you can get lucky along the way, pull a new card, it can be easy in most cases to trade it for more than one of the cards you are missing for the set.

I think its worth discussing that that first and last card of the set are almost MUST PULLS from packs. The first card in a long set will retain its value more often than not, and this is similarly true in principle for the last card in the set. Make it a point to try to get these, and you wont be scrambling to find them as the sets conclude.

Lastly, I cant even say how important it is to be patient. Be patient with your trade offers and be patient with soliciting offers. You WILL get what you want eventually, as long as you can navigate the fan feed with extreme cautious patience. If that time and work isnt available to be had, well, may god have mercy on your soul. Trust me, sometimes its impossible to practice what I preach.

Value

This is the one thing I am going to run through pretty quickly, as some of it was already addressed above. Basically, the middle pieces of the set are interchangeable save two circumstances – card counts are different, or its a popular character.

If the character is someone like Boba Fett or Darth Vader, its best to chase it down as quickly as possible. If its some random droid or another example of checklist filler, it can wait until the end. It will be one of those easy pick ups one for one. In the same vein – dont trade away popular characters one for one at first, wait for the market to be set and then pounce immediately. You dont want to be the person who gives your prized set piece away for nothing. It can work against you too though, as you might get more up front before people realize the market has been set much lower.

Also – this is the one time I would encourage you to stay on top of eBay. If the cards are selling high – you should be able to get more in the app. If the cards are selling low, they become transitional parts of the set that can be part of your wheeling and dealing later on.

Focus

Unless you have the funds to do so, focus your energy on a specific parallel or part of the set. Dont try to get every card, unless you are fully aware of how much it will cost you to do so, either in cash or in cards.

Award

Here is the worst part of all this – the award will likely NOT be worth the entire set in trade. That means the effort you spent to complete the set will not return what you get out of it. Of course, that isnt what this is all about, as it is likely that one card will never take the place of the 20 it took to achieve the reward. That being said, this game is about completion and collecting, so the award is just gravy on top. Be happy with the satisfaction you get from a completed set. It feels good, doesnt it?

Set collecting isnt easy, that I know. On the other hand, it doesnt have to be impossible, as long as you understand the confines of the marketplace. If you know your enemy – its easier to defeat them.

It happens every year. Baseball’s trade deadline is easily one of the more active times in any sport for trades, even if you are a superstar face of team. No one is safe, and neither is your Bunt card sheet.

If you havent experienced this already so far this season, anytime someone switches teams, their original card is marked sold out, and a new card will be created for them on their new team. This has led to a number of cards already being very limited in their card counts – especially guys like Melvin Upton, Carlos Quentin, and company.

With Series 2 released yesterday, we have already had some casualties – including Aramis Ramirez, who’s white common sold out at a measly 88 copies. The green is even less at 77, and so on and so forth. His Gold didnt even make it into packs. With more trades undoubtedly on the way, its time to start preparing for life after the deadline.

Pitchers like Johnny Cueto and David Price could be on the move, which in turn will sell out their cards. There will be other players on the move as well, although they may not be easy to pick up on until the trades are announced. Because big names are endlessly speculated on, you can easily see the gears moving before the deals go down.

Its going to be interesting to see if series 2 awards will be available considering the situations that exist with the different cards that are already sold out. Curious if they will be part of the set, or if the checklist wont include the players who had less than a day in packs.

Bottom line, if coin rewards are going to be given for sets, everyone will be looking to track down the sold out cards. If you are lucky enough to end up with one of the low numbered cards that will eventually result, do not give them up unless you are getting something nice in return. I have seen low numbered base go for inserts that are below 500 if someone really needs the card. Obviously, let the market speak before you make a decision. Demand will not go down, and value will only climb as more people join on as we get closer to the playoffs.

To get an inside line, sites like MLBTraderumors.com is a great place to stay glued to over the next few weeks as the initial deadline passes. There is another waiver deadline later on, but that is still a while from now.