Digital Card Central

Of the 100 or so posts I have done on this site, most of my topics in the tip category have been on trading. I believe that it is one of the most nuanced parts of the game, and many inexperienced users have really no idea how to do it. I have posted most of this before, but I feel its of service to go through some of this again.

Let me start off by saying, inserts rule the trading game, and the newer/rarer the insert the more volatile their value. If the insert has a signature anywhere on the card, it automatically becomes the highest valued card in the game. No one, and I mean no one should go into a low numbered signature trade without something awesome involved. That means, no base cards, no inserts numbered over 500, and definitely no Men of Action. Shooting a bad offer on a sig is a one way ticket to the ignore list.

If you have a collection score that is less than 60, I would do yourself a huge favor and send a same card 1:1 trade with a message before offering, as its likely you wont have the ammo to trade. They will be much more responsive to that approach, trust me.

Moving onto from the most valuable inserts in the game to the least valuable, Men of Action and On Deck are meant to help the new Bunters with having nice cards to play, not really to trade. If you are offering Men of Action or On Deck in any sort of meaningful trade to someone with a collection score over 55, you are asking for trouble. Not only will these individuals likely not want to give up anything of value for those cards, they will have already gotten a million trades that day with them involved. They are not to be used as throw ins, and they are only valuable to people who have very few cards to play – the point of the set. I have had to lock my Men of Action cards so no one can offer them to me. That is annoying.

Going back to the inserts – weekly inserts will be exponentially more valuable as long as the set collection reward is in place. Once that award expires, there will be a drop off in value. So, if you are in the market for a Tier One card while the Tier One award is available, you will have to give up more to obtain it. Once the award is expired, dont expect to get that same amount in return, because less people will have demand for those cards. Just the way it works.

In terms of exchange rates on inserts, they really dont exist. I can tell you that the only truly solidified value exchange is on sigs, as lower circulation sigs will always be more valuable than higher circulation. There are really three categories you will have to understand – 250 and under, 500 and under, and 700 and above. Each category has its own ranking system, but its close to impossible to trade a 500 level for a 250 level without adding a ton more stuff. Same thing goes the other way, as I WOULD NOT offer a 700 level sig for a 500 level sig without some major added value in other inserts. Sigs like Ventura and Swisher are basically higher end inserts, and that’s stretching it. The real sigs start at 500 and below, and I apologize if that bursts your bubble.

Dual sigs started off as quite valuable alternatives to the single sigs, but have dropped in value with the release of Swisher Dual and Fielder dual. Because the release of those cards showed that it was more of a series set instead of a special release, its almost like collectors have moved on. Gywnn and Pujols/Gonzales Duals are still valuable, but you are going to have trouble trading them for a single sig 500 and below.

Lastly, inserts delivered in high value packs can be a double edged sword. The more available a card is to the general public is part of appeal, especially if it is impossible to get. If the pack costs 10k, and the card was easy in that pack, but had low circulation because no one bought, that’s going to be a wild card. Usually, a higher pack price will prevent the normal users from getting that card, and impact the the need to acquire it for the user base.

Bottom line, I wish I could write out the rules of the road, but it changes almost daily. With new releases constantly flooding the market, its hard to keep a pulse on what is more valuable than something else. The most basic rule is that as long as you are happy with a trade, its a good trade. Live by that, and the rest will take care of itself.

Yesterday the Bunt team threw a curveball in changing the scoring system, even though there were quite a few people who were expecting it to come. Its hard to be the architect of a baseball game, where its clear that the only cards worth playing are Pitchers. I would not be happy, and I would seek to change it. Starting for the second half of the year, it looks like that will be the case.

Contrary to what you might have heard, this doesnt change the dynamic of the game 100%. Although I dont think the changes discussed yesterday makes every hitter playable all of a sudden, it does make guys who mash extra base hits much more worth considering for your lineup.  This goes doubly so for guys who have giant OPS and also hit a lot of home runs.

Take a look at what I mean:

• Old GOLD SR with 2 for 4 day – 1 HR, 1 2B, 3 RBI: ((72+36+27)-24) = 111 pts
• New GOLD SR with 2 for 4 day – 1 HR, 1 2B, 3 RBI: ((200+100+75)-40) = 335 pts

You can see where those extra base hits are insanely valuable. This makes the gold Trout, Abreu, Cruz, and everyone else who is killing the ball this year that much more important to the success someone will have in game. If Topps also reduces the play in time, it could end up being about as balanced as it can get.

Pitchers arent devalued to the point of trading them all away, especially ones who still strike out a ton of batters and dont have a high WHIP. Felix Hernandez, Clayton Kershaw and Johnny Cueto are still hugely important players, as are a lot of other pitchers. Here is why – not only do strikeouts matter more, but each pitcher still has potential for 9 chances per game to score points, where pitchers only have 3-5.

Regardless, HR is now 52% more damaging than it was before, even if you get more points per out recorded. On the other hand, if a Pitcher gets a lot of GIDPs, or is more suited for Ks, its definitely worth to play them. Other than that, not much has changed to the point of throwing off a pitcher’s value.

Although fielding also factors in, its still better to throw out a great pitcher than a great fielding hitter. The difference, like with Hitters, is in the Home Runs, as those can basically wipe out entire games worth of pitching points in a single swoop. So, guys who give up the long ball are no longer worth playing.

Ill have further commentary on the new trading economy and people to chase as the week moves on. Stay tuned!

Update – Topps has released an updated scoring schedule with some changes. Although hitter value has decreased over the original proposal, and pitcher value has been increased a tad, its relatively still looks like this is not going to help change balance structures.

Well, the week’s worth of buildup is finally here – the MLB All Star game is tonight! Of all the different sports that have and celebrate their top players with a game, Baseball does it best – regardless of how the winner factors into home field at the world series.

It has been just as big a deal in the app since last week, with over 100 new cards all created for the event. Not only did we get a really nicely designed card for each all star, but we got some for the HR derby, fan fest, and MVPs as well. Completely awesome how this was tied in.

So, what are some of the other events that Bunt should look forward to? Here are my guesses (in order of how they will happen).

Trade Deadline

With players like Samardzija already on the move, its likely a few more deals will take place, which potentially includes David Price. We could see a small contingent of new cards for players on their new teams. as well as some historic moves as well.

MLB Post Season

Last year in both Bunt and Huddle, special post season sets were created for every team, with special boost sig rewards for the users who could put together the whole set. This year will likely be just as big, and likely bigger with all the influx of new users. Im excited for sure.

MLB World Series

Building off the post season, the biggest event in baseball is the World Series, and I am guessing that the Bunt team will go crazy trying to get new influx into the app before the year closes out. There are always off season programs to keep people engaged, but this is the last big draw before the game ends for lack of a better term. Historical cards, weekly sets, champion’s set, and MVPs will all be in the mix no doubt. Sigs will likely follow suit.

MLB Awards

For each of the awards last year, Topps issued commemorative cards, and I am guessing that will happen again with more celebration. You would expect more flashback style releases as well, combined with new cards.

Season In Review

Both Huddle and Bunt came out with a Best of 2013 set last year, and its quite possible that this type of thing will happen in 2014. The difference might be that these cards could end up being extremely rare, and usually quite coveted.

Remember, with each new event in 2014, the scale has increased exponentially over 2013 because of how many people have joined in playing the app this year. Very excited for all this, even though my wallet is not.

Well bunters, your three day break is here! YOUVE EARNED IT! Nothing feels better than knowing I dont have to worry about whether or not CJ Wilson is going to give up 8 runs while Im not paying attention, right?

Topps will definitely be pouring it on over the next few days to keep things interesting, and I am one of the people who cannot wait to see what happens. With the Home Run Derby tonight, we have already gotten 10 new cards commemorating all the guys socking some dingers tonight, and Im sure this is only step one of ten.

There will likely be a number of new cards over the next few days, including a signature series card that I have been told is likely going to be the Twins’ player this week. There will also be new all star cards as they finish out the squads, and im sure a few surprises here and there.

We have already gotten some throwbacks in the 1985 All Star cards, which I love, and I am guessing there will be more tributes to past All Star games, and likely some sort of Jeter tribute as well. The fan fest cards have done a great job highlighting the collectibles expo going on in Minnesota, but we may not be done with those either.

I want to tell everyone to save their coins during this bonanza, but this might be one of the biggest weeks of the year for Bunt, as the events are so concentrated over two days. With the post season, its more of a month long process, and the World Series can take a week or two to get done. All Star is different, and I am loving every minute of it.

I dont think there is more of a debatable issue in the game right now than the value of 2013 cards. Even more debatable is whether its in everyone’s best interest to trade inserts from 2014 for top cards from 2013. Im going to try to offer my opinion on the matter, but please realize there are many different ones.

Personally, the only 2013 cards I have in my collection that matter to me, are the inserts from my favorite team. Its kind of counterproductive to have the inserts in some cases, because default filters prevent people from seeing them unless they are truly trying to seek them out.

Because 2013 cards no longer score, the cards are worthless to the gameplay, but collectors (especially ones that were around then), still value a lot of the 2013 cards more than the 2014. Mystery Andrew McCutchen, Bryce Harper Sig, Hank Aaron RC, and Mariano Rivera’s RC cards are still sought after in a lot of ways, but you have to find the right person.

To further highlight how I feel about 2013, I do not seek them out one bit. If they are offered in trades for any card of mine that has even remote value, I will usually turn it down. As a person who is full of vanity and wants my collection to be seen, its hard to trade a card that looks good on my card sheet for one that will never come up.

It should also be quite clear that the 2014 cards werent as design friendly as a lot of the awesome inserts from 2014. The game has evolved, and its evident that the design and look to the newer cards are much better. If you like the 2013 cards, more power to you, its whatever you feel is a target for your collection.

Now that the All Star game rosters have been released, im guessing we will start to see the new content start to come into Bunt. If you have perused the card sheet from 2013, you can see that there were some releases to celebrate last year’s rosters. Im guessing it will be bigger this year, and I cant wait. Here are some of the things we can expect based on Twitter and my recent interview with Chris Vaccaro.

All Star Current Inserts

Im guessing that similar to 2013, we will get a plethora of cards that celebrate the all stars and give them a commemorative card. Hopefully there will be a lot of them to go around, as I am guessing they will be quite cool.

All Star Retired Inserts

Chris hinted that there might be some celebration of past all star games in MN and also a few other surprises. I wouldnt be surprised if there were some pomp and circumstance assigned to Jeter’s last ASG as well.

All Star Signature Series

Based on a quick conversation I had with Chris on Twitter, im guessing the Twins sig card will be released either this week or next week in celebration of the all star game. Mauer is the ASG ambassador, and I sincerely hope he is the subject of the card. I will be raising some hell if he isnt, that’s for sure. I wouldnt be shocked if there were more than one release, maybe even someone like Killebrew or Carew getting some love.

Home Run Derby

I would LOVE to see some HR derby cards, and I think that after hearing many Bunters saying the same thing, Topps is likely going to listen. Too big of an opportunity to pass up.

This could end up being just a sampling of what is to come, but you never know until the game goes live. As a Twins fan, I cannot wait to see what they have in store.