Digital Card Central

There is a new update in town – so make sure you go to the app store and download it.

It comes with a new feature called “lock card” that prevents another user from offering a trade. It also activates a new “view locked cards” on the user’s card sheet from their profile, so you can see all the cards they have set aside. I think this is one of the better features added to the game in a while and here’s why.

Trading

Lets all be honest, trading has become a nightmare for people with nice cards. It doesnt help that a glitch would sometimes accept a trade from another in your offer queue when you clicked accept on a different one. It caused all sorts of problem, both from people who didnt know card value offering base cards for your sigs, or the scammers trying to get you to give cards you didnt mean to. All that is gone now, as long as you lock your best cards.

Dont go locking cards you would trade as a duplicate, because if you lock one of the cards, you lock them all. That is the only negative part of this, but easily something I can live with.

Viewing

If you click on a user, click on “view profile” and then click the arrow next to their card stats. It will bring you to their sheet, where you can click the drop down at the top to see all their locked cards. It will give you an idea of what they hold dear, and maybe prevent some awkward trades.

Other Features

The trading screen has changed – all sorts have been defaulted to rarity which helps a lot. It also has taken a lot of the laggy type of trading window away from the top and made it all on separate screens. I think the interface is better, and if you click the little “I” on the top left corner, it will put indicators next to how many copies of each card you own. Its great.

More to come im sure, but this was a welcome improvement.

I like trading on Bunt, as I think it is one of the better parts of the game. Even though people havent been willing to make reasonable offers as of late, once you have found someone reasonable, it can still be fun. After receiving a ton of offers that dont seem to be solicited by me through the fan feed, I want to go over a few things regarding the two ways to make an offer.

Trading Through the Card Sheet

The first way to trade is to go to the “all cards” sheet under the far right icon on the bottom of the app. When a card is selected from the main card sheet, you can select “trade” at the bottom. This gives you the option to make an unsolicited offer on a card that you want.  This is great if you need a common or a base card to finish out your set, but it is NOT a good way to make offers on high value cards.

The reason I completely advise against trading from the sheet in this manner has to do with the owners of the card. Most are not looking for offers on that card, and its likely that they do not want to trade it. If you are going to be sending trades this way, you should overpay and then some to avoid getting blocked by the people you select. That’s what happens with me most of the time I get an unsolicited offer on a card I dont want to trade.

In the future, Topps has teased a NFT designation for some cards, which may solve some of this issue. Let me just say it is not to the advantage of your reputation to send lowball offers through the card sheet.

Trading Through the Fan Feed

This is the way I recommend trading, almost exclusively. Again my advice has to do with solicited offers versus unsolicited offers. Its become clear to me that even solicited offers can result in some of the most crazy requests I have ever seen, and they are becoming more and more common.

I digress.

If you are going to be making an unsolicited offer, again its a good idea to OVERPAY to avoid getting blocked. Basically, if someone says they have one card for trade and you are making an offer on a high value card they arent mentioning, its not a good idea to send junk. Actually, its never a good thing for your reputation to send junk.

I also realize that not many of you may realize what I am saying by overpay or lowball offers, and it all has to do with the cards you are sending. Dont send a trade full of 9 white and green base cards for a signature series card. No one will make that trade. If you dont have inserts to trade in exchange for a high value card, that’s fine. Its okay to play the game without inserts. You can either continue opening packs to get more cards to trade up to an eventual high value card down the road,  or buy coins, splurge on some packs and open until you pull one. It can be counterproductive to try to find someone who will take your duplicate base cards in trade for a nice card.

If you do pull a nice insert, that’s great! One of the best feelings in the game, and a complete high. It can be so much of a high that some people want others to trade the world for that card. I would not expect someone to give up 4 of their sigs for it and it is not a good idea to even ask without a message to them first. Take what you can get, do not try to build a collection with one trade.

Remember the golden rule of trading: Dont make an offer you wouldnt be likely to take if someone sent it to you.

This is going to be a tip that most people should be pretty on top of, but its worth mentioning regarding your lineup. It is literally impossible to be successful in the gameplay element of the game without changing your lineup multiple times per day. The more times you can accurately switch out cards that are no longer playing in their games, the better.

If you have a ton of cards, its going to be quite easy set a lineup of top scoring pitchers to change in and out through the morning, afternoon and night games. If you only have a select few, choose your best for each phase of the schedule, which is about 3 times per day.

Here are how I rate the player positions:

• Starting Pitcher
• 1B
• Relief Pitcher (as needed)
• 2B
• SS
• 3B
• C
• OF
• DH

I would check MLB.com daily to see who the starting pitchers are for each game, and set your lineup with as many of those guys (including doubles) as you can. Once the morning games are over, switch to as many pitchers for the afternoon, and same with the evening games. If you have more than 9 of pitchers that are going at once, you can score tons of points by playing along live and switching out the pitchers while teams are batting and replacing them with pitchers that are on the field.

THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH IS IMPORTANT:

Playing along live will also give you an opportunity to switch out the starters if they get rocked, or if they get pulled. At that point, its time to put in the relievers or switch to other hitters. The best thing to remember is that cards will not score if they are on your bench. So, if its bases loaded and none out, and you switch out the pitchers before the guy hits the grand slam, you dont get docked those points, even if you put him back in later! Then again, if the next guy hits into a triple play, you lose those points too. The points on the back of the card only represent the total scored – NOT the total score they have scored for your team.

Remember, just because a pitcher has a bad inning, does not mean they wont score again the next inning around. Its a good idea to keep an eye on them.

I mentioned a while back that its good to save up coins for bigger purchases on days where the inserts are the best, but I never took the time to write out what to expect on each day. There is a lot here, and remember, with the practice of running entire 20-30 card series like Heritage, it will be more than just this schedule per day.

Monday

Big day in Bunt because every user has a ton of coins to spend. For me, its about 10k (points challenges from previous week) plus the new weekly 9k bonus, which is a ton of coinage to sit on. The biggest release of the day in the Best of Bunt cards, cant be bought with coins, but the release usually triggers some trading. These cards are triggered through finishing somewhere in the top 500, and the better the finish, the rarer the card.

Similarly important are the AL/NL players of the week, which usually depends on MLB making the choice early enough that Topps can build the cards. These have been 100x better than the game changer releases, and score at 3x base for a week. They are usually out later, and can even bleed into Tuesday if MLB doesnt move fast.

Tuesday

In terms of release days, Tuesday is most important because there is the likelihood that a new sig will be released. These are usually only added to the 7th inning stretch packs, so you will need 10k just to have the chance at one. This is where most established bunters have the luxury of buying in, but to be honest, the price is VERY expensive for no guarantee on a nice card.

Wednesday

When you hit the middle of the week, this day has come to be a wild card – see what I did there? No scheduled releases, so Topps usually starts their new series or finishes one out with a bang. Stay on your toes.

Thursday

Thanks to an odd trend on Twitter called Throwback Thursday, Topps has used this day to release a non-playable card from the past, which I think is a pretty cool idea. Although the card’s value are only held for short term, the release is usually pretty nostalgic for the users.

Friday

Golden Moments have become odd as of late, and its mostly because the choice for the subject have been relatively flat. Both Aaron and Banks have done well, but outside of those its been lukewarm at best. These cards carry a 2500 coin reward, which at least makes them worth chasing for a pack or two worth of a reward.

If you have any other questions, please let me know, and if I forgot something, im happy to add it in.

When it comes to fielding offers, there isnt much to it. If you get an offer you like, its pretty easy to hit the accept button and move on. The question I have always pondered stems more from when it is a good time to counter.

A lot of the time, when it comes to taking offers on my best cards, you walk away just shaking your head like what was that guy thinking? I have had experienced bunters offer me trades on sigs with 9 base cards. That just isnt worth the time to counter, as its clear that the original offer is so low that there is no reason to try to start the negotiating process.

There are times when you can see an offer is just a bit off, the collection score of the trader looks like there might be something else worth checking out. When you get these types of offers, go into counter mode, and sort by rarity. It will put the rarest cards at the top of the list and easily show you the best they have. Move down from there. If you find something REASONABLE that you like, shoot the offer back with the new trade.

Additionally, under sort, you can tell the menu to only display cards you need, which can be really helpful in finding those pesky cards you dont have.

Lastly, if someone makes an offer on a card I have, I play the negotiation at the beginning for them to overpay slightly. They want the card, so they may have no problem giving me JUST a bit more than its worth. If that doesnt work, they can always counter back. Just dont go nuts unless you are trying to make a point.

I have been asked a lot what to trade for when you pull a great or new card. In all reality, there are a lot of reasons why anyone’s advice cant help everyone. Every fan’s collection is in a different state, but here is what I would look for in getting established.

Gold Starting Pitchers

This is the beginning of building up your account. After a while of acquiring cards by buying the 1500 coin niner or other packs, you should have enough to start chasing some of the gold starting pitchers. These guys are the most playable cards in the game, scoring at 2x base points. With pitchers being as valuable as they are, you will likely have to give up a lot to get them. That’s okay. Not only will they help you score more points, but they will definitely help you win more cards and coins.

NOTE: ONLY TRADE FOR GUYS CURRENTLY IN THE STARTING ROTATION – check team rosters to make sure the guy is actually playing and not Joe Blanton.

Duplicates of Top Scoring Guys

Most of the top bunters will have huge amounts of extra commons that they *may* be okay with trading you. I know I am fine trading cards of guys that I have more than 9 copies total. Again, starting pitchers in the current rotation should be your target, but I wouldnt give up your golds or inserts for them. Be patient and find someone who will trade you 1-1 or 1-3 max. DO NOT OFFER 9×9 TRADES FOR COMMONS.

Inserts

I know why everyone wants inserts. They are a status symbol – especially the sigs. If you are new, I would not even recommend buying the 10,000 coin packs when they are available, because you wont have enough cards for that to make a good impact. Once you have your collection built up – then go for it. Realize there is a high propensity you will walk away with nothing, there is no guarantee in that pack. That being said, if you do end up pulling a sig or a top insert like the Pujols 500, make sure you get some nice stuff in return. That means a 3-5 gold pitchers, and a 1-2 inserts of greater quality than Opening Day or Saber Stars. You CAN hold the card hostage, and you CAN wait for something that is going to be better. It isnt a bad thing to keep it in your back pocket if you want to.

To get established, most people will trade their lower rarity saber stars like commons. Same thing with opening day and others. Topps Illustrated are likely the easiest super rare inserts to trade for, so you can get your fair share for not much firepower outside of a few golds.

Remember, DO NOT offer base for sigs. Its just going to get you blocked by that trader.

Silver Starting Pitchers 

This is where the gold mine really is. Because so many people want to keep their golds because it counts SRs on the front page, they will give up Silvers more easily. If you have a gold hitter, trade for silver starting pitchers. Most people will give you 3-4. Its okay to let it go in the name of a better points score. Silvers only score 25% lower at 1.75x Base points than gold, so its still a lot of extra points. I traded almost all my gold hitters and built up a massive collection of silver pitchers. Guess what? It worked like gangbusters.

Sold Out

People like the sold out tag because they know exactly what they are getting in terms of the final card count on the back of the card. Personally, it doesnt matter to me. Im much more likely to want a silver pitcher than a sold out insert of lower quality. You can easily use that to your advantage. Attacking the trading boards to find the diamonds in the rough is what it is all about. Sold out Saber Stars are not those diamonds, but to some people they are. Just be aware.

Trading is an art. I will say that over and over again. If you make a bad trade, dont worry, you will make hundreds more to forget it. Dont beat yourself up, but be sure to learn what the trends are. If you have questions – ask me any time.

I got four questions in game and one on twitter yesterday from traders out there asking why having so many copies of one player is so important, so I want to take some time to walk through the reason.

Gameplay

Each time a player is in your starting lineup, they will score points. If you have more than one of that player in your starting lineup and they score in real life, you will get the number of points awarded times the number of cards of that player you have running. Each card scores independently, which is why many of the top bunters have been chasing down all those pitchers like mad.

Player X’s card is in your lineup and they get a hit = 9 points to your total score
Player X’s card is in your lineup 9 times = 81 points to your total score

If you have boosts of player X, you can play all versions side by side. Last night I ran 9 versions of Jose Quintana, including 2 Gold SR, 2 silver SCR, and 5 red UC. Its the equivalent of playing almost 8-10 extra cards because golds play at x2.0, Silver at x1.75 and Red at x1.5.

Player X’s SR gets a hit = 18 points instead of 9 (x2.0 boost)
Player X’s SR is in your lineup 9 times = scoring at 9x the points or 9 extra common cards.

I know this is confusing at first, but the easy way of putting this is to play as many of a good card as possible – especially pitchers on the mound.

Downside

If your player scores negatively in the game, that many more points will be deducted from your score. If there are boosts involved, they will score at that degree negative as well.

Its imperative that you watch the game in most cases to be effective – either on MLB.com or TV. You do not want to leave your guy in there if he is having a bad night. It can be detrimental to your score for the week.

Collecting

All that being said, there are just some people out there that like to hoard cards, as many collectors do like to keep a lot of copies just to keep. That is the essence of collecting. If you are looking to tear me away from my Joe Mauer cards, you had better be prepared for some quick declines. That’s just part of the game.

That being the case, most of the gamers out there wont have problems trading away a player they have more than 9 copies of in any form. Obviously, since you cant play more than nine cards at a time, its not exactly worth it for a non-collector to keep 85 copies of the same player, unless they can be used for trade bait.

The best way to do this is to play the game the way YOU want to play it. If you want to build a digital card collection, that’s perfect. If you want to be the top bunter in the game, that works too. Just be conscious of the fact that trading with other users may not reflect that same demeanor. You almost have to profile where you think they can fall in the spectrum of gamer vs collector.

So far this season, new cards have been released every single day. These new cards usually become extremely coveted by the collectors who want them as they are released, or the gamers who want them for their lineup. New hotness is a phenomenon that happens in every part of the card collecting world, so no one should be surprised. The question is, if you pull a nice card, should you sell right away?

Short Answer

It is always much more profitable to trade up front. In 95/100 chances, release will be the card’s top value and you will be able to get the most for it. We have all been there, the card of your favorite player is released, and you have to have it now. You overpay because you dont want it to turn out to be one of the 5 that will increase in value over time.

That being said, those other 95 times, the card’s value will drop as more people acquire it, and that’s when you realize you should have sold. We have all been there too.

Long Answer

The longer answer actually has to do with a number of things – card rarity designation (SR, rare, etc), expected time in packs, and whether or not the card has sentimental value to you.

Rarity Designation – Super Rare inserts will likely have VERY low card counts. With Topps explaining that most new inserts will now have a timer for how long they are in packs, these cards will easily be the most valuable ones there are. Sets like Opening day are victims of the opposite situation.

Expected time in packs – If a card is only available in packs for 24 hours, the card count will just not have a lot of time to increase because fewer people will pull it from packs. Those cards are automatically more valuable.

Sentimental Value – If you are like me and dont pull many nice cards from packs, this can be complicated. If you dont like trading away that huge pull, that’s fine. People have a connection to cards that they pull themselves. Similarly, if the card is for your favorite team or player, the decision to sell can be even more difficult.

Value

There is no rule of thumb as to the value of new inserts. If you pull a new card, DO NOT trade it away for a bunch of base cards. Field some offers and see what people are willing to give up. You have until the next day before the card count updates, which is enough time to see what its worth. Brand new SR inserts can command 4-5 other top inserts minus sigs in some cases. Keep that in mind. In the end – if you are satisfied, that is all that matters, overpaid or underpaid.

The good thing about Bunt is that lightning always strikes twice or ten times.

I am someone who likes to browse and post on the fan feed a lot. I have mentioned time and time again that you cannot be competitive in this game unless you trade. Trading is what makes a good player great. Here are some things you may not know about the forum.

• It doesnt refresh – make sure you refresh the feed frequently, otherwise you will be looking at the same posts over and over again. There is a timer on each post that shows how old it is, and I would not make offers on old posts if you want a quick response.
• Create a hook – there are close to 50 posts per second on busy times, so yours will need to stand out. Saying “please trade me” is not the way to get noticed. You have to create a phrase or post that can stand out from the rest.
• Use the emoji keyboard – One way to make your post stick out is to use the apple emoji keyboard from the settings on your phone, as it adds a picture to the post. You can see how many people do this, and it really works.
• Use text message as a template – The game does not allow you to hit return to go to the next line in any message, but it does let you copy and paste. Create your want and have list in the box you use for text messages, copy and paste that into the box on the feed. It will look nice and formatted, and also get a lot more info in there.
• Re-post like mad – you can only post once per 30 seconds, and I usually do so when I am in trade mode. It will help your post get seen as more people refresh the feed. This is where the copy/paste comes in handy. You shouldnt be typing it out every 30 seconds.
• DO NOT POST IN THE NEWS – I cant stand when people post their trade stuff in the news feed section of the game. Its horrible – stick to posting your trade needs in the fan feed.

Here is a picture of my recent post to get some extra Tanaka cards for his start last night: