Digital Card Central

Whenever there is a game that holds anything of value, there will be people who try to take advantage of those who are uninformed. I have been waiting to write a post like this because I know it can be a very touchy subject. I also dont want to give people ideas, however education is always a powerful weapon.

Mindset

BE CAUTIOUS AT ALL TIMES. If something is too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. Whatever you are offered in the game that you cant verify, see or play, your red flags should immediately come up. It does not take a lot to get established in the Bunt community, and if someone gets established, its easy to use that power for taking advantage of people.

Scams I have been offered

Borrowing cards: although there are a lot of people out there who have good reputations, that doesnt mean you have to take part. If someone approaches you and asks to borrow a card, make sure you are either A) getting something of equal value to hold as collateral, or B) you dont care if that card disappears. Both should be pretty good at warding off scammers. Basically what will happen, your card will be traded and traded back to you for the purpose of obtaining a coin or card award. If the card is a top sig, you can see why someone would want to keep it and not trade back. Trades are irreversible.

Cross App Trading: There are a lot of good people out there who want to trade their Kick or Huddle cards for Bunt cards. They will offer good trades to off balance trades, but just like borrowing cards, you will need to be very cautious about what you are agreeing to. What will happen is they will send you a card for nothing in Bunt, and you send them a card for nothing in the other app, or vice versa. The problem is, there is an element of trust, and if you are going to do cross app trading, the person making the offer should accept the trade first. At that point you should feel comfortable sending your card over.

Gift card sales: Personally, I wont go through with these in any single way. There is too much at risk. I have seen people try to sell their Apple Cards, and without a great reputation, there is a lot at stake. People will offer gift card codes and all sorts of cash and other things for cards, and the bottom line is that it is against the rules (as far as I know). Of course that doesnt mean it wont happen, but just stay away. Its not worth it.

Leagues and other card deposit scams: No doubt about it, playing with friends is awesome. Playing against lots of friends for a prize is also fun. However, if you are randomly approached to join a “league” with the promise of depositing cards for a prize pool, it can be someone looking to scam you. If you have a bunch of real friends that all want to play against each other, that’s different. Raffles where you have to give up cards to enter are also against the rules and will likely get you in trouble. You will be asked to deposit a card and they will raffle off the user name of the person who gets all the pot of contributions. Its a scam.

This is just a short list, and all of them are hugely frowned upon and hugely against the rules. I would just learn to look out only for yourself, and you wont get hurt. That’s not saying the rest of the community isnt completely awesome, but one bad apple can ruin the whole bunch. Find the people you trust and build a friendly reputation. Education is always the best weapon.

Whenever I get a trade offer that most would consider very low value, I always wonder what that person may have been trying to accomplish. That has led me to consider my next tip to be the golden rule of trading. Follow this, and most of the time you will not have any problem getting people to accept your offers.

“If someone offered this trade to me, would I accept it?”

Basically, if you wouldnt accept your own offer if you had that card, its probably not going to be something the other person will accept either. Its something to consider next time you are considering an offer on that brand new insert that was just released.

That doesnt mean it will be 100% fool proof, because circumstances will always change based on the owner. Here are some other things to consider before offering:

• Favorite player
• Favorite team
• Composition of their main collection
• Gamer or collector

Its going to be close to impossible to get me to trade away my Joe Mauer cards unless you absolutely blow me away. That’s part of the game’s allure. Same thing with me trading away cards that facilitate a higher points total – even if I have multiples.

Trading is an art form, and it is possible to be very good at it or very bad at it. I dont consider myself a Jedi Master by any means, and sometimes I break my own rules. However, I also know that its incredibly fun to interact with the community, and its very easy to damage your reputation if you consistently break the unwritten rules.

I completely understand why everyone wants to trade for 2014 signature series cards. They are cool, they are rare and they are the most valuable cards in the game. The hard thing for people to come to terms with is that you almost have to give up a limb to trade for one.

Here are some things to remember.

Duplicates

Each time I have traded for my two sigs, I have done so with someone who has more than one copy. That DOES NOT mean they will be easy to trade for, just more likely to be reasonable when getting a great offer. You will have to overpay as usual, but at least there is some likelihood the person will give up their extra copy.

Firepower

Let me put it this way – do not expect to trade 9 base cards or even boosts for these cards. You need to trade top inserts to get them. If you do not have top inserts, that’s understandable, but its something to work towards. Work up through the game, trading your rarer base cards and pack pulled nice cards for lower inserts, use those inserts to trade for others, and eventually amass a collection worthy of trading for one of these cards. You will likely need 5-7 Super Rare popular inserts with low card counts, maybe more depending on the person. To be completely honest, the first 2014 sig I traded for I had to go 18-2, two trades of 9-1. That’s how much you have to give up.

That being said – the 2013 sigs can be had for a lot less of a ransom, and usually are pretty cool cards too. If you just want a sig as a status symbol, 2013 works just fine.

Need

Let me be perfectly clear, you do not need sigs to be competitive and you dont need sigs to have fun with the game. In fact, trading for the sigs are likely going to be counterproductive to your gameplay. I learned that the hard way. If I could go back and tell myself what I know now, that 18-2 trade probably would go differently.

Etiquette 

If you find someone you think will trade you for a sig – send them a same card 1:1 trade to see if they are even interested. They can look at your card sheet and see if you have enough for them to trade their card. Not only will they appreciate the note, but they wont block you for what they believe to be a lowball offer. Most people who have the sigs to trade are big time collectors, and are understanding there are people out there who just dont know what’s up. They will be happy to educate.

The people who own these cards have gotten them one of two ways – pulled them in a pack or traded for them. If they dont have 10,000 cards, these are either the best pull they have ever had and will be tied sentimentally to the card, or gave up as much as you are about to give up to get theirs. They may just not want to trade it. That’s why its best to ask.

Most importantly, if you get a denial on your big gun offer, dont worry. It will happen eventually. Just dont go offering multiple times to the same person again and again and expect to not get blocked. Its better to just have patience.

Inserts are inserts, and if you havent found out by now, they are the pinnacle of pulling cards from packs. However, it can be tough to determine outright which ones will be valuable short term and which will be valuable longer term.

Here are some of the variables I look at when trading something new.

Rarity

Topps has done a great job in saying “this card will only have a print run of XXXX copies.” If that number is very low, its likely that the card will be a pretty big chase for the collectors. Even more of a contributing factor is time it will be in packs, combined with its place on the card sheet. SR cards that hit packs for 24 hours are going to be insane pulls and very valuable.

Card Design

If a card looks cool, its going to be a valuable card. Future is Now was a sweet looking set, and many people still want to trade for them. Sigs have a lot of this factor going for them, too.

Player Availability

This is a big factor – especially for pitchers. If the player only has 1 or 2 cards available in the game, be sure to calculate what that will mean. Stephen Strasburg only has 1 card, and its a low print run SR mystery card. AUTOMATICALLY this card will be coveted. If the player is marginally productive in points but a big name, they can still be worth a ransom with no other available cards.

Points

Pitchers are automatically going to be more valuable because they score more points. That’s just something that wont change until the game changes. Felix and Verlander opening day cards are still valuable because of this factor.

New Hotness

Lastly, if a card is new, its going to be hot. Just like real sports cards, if you pull the new card, minus a sig, its worth considering a trade to all the people who are impatient like me. Dont sit on a card and wait for the value to increase. Most of the time it will not. As for more than normal, though – you dont want to give up a valuable new card for nothing. As for the moon and settle for the stars.

Anytime you have a digital game, you know there will be multiple elements to the gameplay. One of the best things about BUNT is that there is a tremendously active community to engage with. Even better, many of the Topps employees behind the game love to interact through all the different social media mediums that are available.

Through these outlets, its easy to keep up with happenings in the game, giveaways and other tips and tricks. Its also a good source to hear if other users are having the same questions and concerns.

Here are all the links you need to stay up to date:

• Twitter – @ToppsBUNT – main twitter handle – Lots of great info about sales, new cards and giveaways.
• Instagram – @officialtoppsbunt – pictures from upcoming sets, sales and info about the game
• YouTube –  Topps BUNT – A place where they post commercials and new tips and explanations for new users
• Facebook – Topps BUNT – More information, more giveaways, and lots of community users interacting about the game.

There are other people to follow like @toppsmike on twitter, and of course me @scuncensored, but these four outlets should give you a lot of options to stay informed on what is going on without having to miss out.