Collection Missions General Discussion

[QuantaCondor]

Originally Posted by pappyzan

TLDR: collections can be profitable

Was slow to jump on the collections train, but here's what I've completed over the past month, including total mission costs and what the resulting set of cards sold for. Collections listed in order of completion. Cards were sold unless specifically noted that cards were kept. All PP listed as profit includes the 10% AH fee.

Hit Parade
Cost: 77,349PP
Card: Ichiro Suzuki
Profit: None, kept card

Leftys and Righties
Cost: 11,502PP
Card: Lefty Gomez
Profit: 15,497PP

St.Louis Browns: The St. Louis Years
Cost: 24,133PP
Card: George Sisler
Profit: 13,666PP

LIVE Philadelphia
Cost: 12,804PP
Card: Lenny Dykstra
Profit: 7,760PP

Charlie O's Oakland A's
Cost: 76,590PP
Card: Vida Blue
Profit: None, kept card

BRAVES COLLECTION
Cost: 61,770PP
Primary Card: John Smoltz
Profit: None, kept Smoltz card (sold all other cards from this collection)

SEATTLE COLLECTION
Cost: 69,601PP
Primary Card: Kazuhiro Sasaki
Profit: -11,102PP
Should have made about a 12K profit here, but accidentally quick-sold the Mike Schooler card.

CHICAGO WHITE SOX COLLECTION
Cost: 44,062PP
Primary Card: Ed Walsh
Profit: None, kept Walsh card (sold all other cards from this collection)

LIVE Detroit
Cost: 2,738PP
Card: Harry Heilmann
Profit: 4,731PP

LIVE Oakland
Cost: 18,665PP
Card: Eddie Plank
Profit: 6,084PP

WASHINGTON SENATORS/MINNESOTA TWINS COLLECTION
Cost: 55,065PP
Primary Card: Johan Santana
Profit: 34,017PP

Total spent for Ichiro, Blue, Smoltz and Walsh (cards that were kept): 259,771PP
Total profit on all other collections: 70,653PP (should be just over 90k but accidentally quick-sold Schooler card...)

Theoretically could clear an additional 810k PP (900 * 10% AH fee) if Ichiro, Blue, Smoltz and Walsh were sold.
So, 810,000 - 259,771 + 70,653 = 620,882PP would be TOTAL PROFIT if ALL CARDS were sold.

So, these collections have the opportunity to be pretty profitable for those who do them.

You're telling me that, over the course of the last month, you found reasonable deals on 91 Hank, 89 Faber, the two Appling Diamonds, all the Twins silvers, all the Ichiro cards, all the other White Sox, Seattle, Charlie O, Braves, etc. diamonds and golds? All those? How frequently did you monitor the AH?

[waittilnextyear]

Originally Posted by QuantaCondor

You're telling me that, over the course of the last month, you found reasonable deals on 91 Hank, 89 Faber, the two Appling Diamonds, all the Twins silvers, all the Ichiro cards, all the other White Sox, Seattle, Charlie O, Braves, etc. diamonds and golds? All those? How frequently did you monitor the AH?

He could have already had some of the cards from packs and so forth. I don't think the implication is he bought every single card for every single mission listed. That's probably just what was needed to fill things in to completion.

[QuantaCondor]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

He could have already had some of the cards from packs and so forth. I don't think the implication is he bought every single card for every single mission listed. That's probably just what was needed to fill things in to completion.

I mean, if you already had a lot of the hard stuff, it's a little dishonest to claim it was doable in a month or that those were your profit margins.

[waittilnextyear]

Originally Posted by QuantaCondor

I mean, if you already had a lot of the hard stuff, it's a little dishonest to claim it was doable in a month or that those were your profit margins.

You might be taking it a bit too seriously.

[dkgo]

Originally Posted by QuantaCondor

You're telling me that, over the course of the last month, you found reasonable deals on 91 Hank, 89 Faber, the two Appling Diamonds, all the Twins silvers, all the Ichiro cards, all the other White Sox, Seattle, Charlie O, Braves, etc. diamonds and golds? All those? How frequently did you monitor the AH?

I started from nothing and did all of those except for the Charlie O A's over the past month too. I got each of the diamond bottlenecks for the White Sox, Braves, and Rangers for near their all-time average around 12K. I basically had the AH up and refreshing every time I was doing something on my computer with a search query that looked for every key card at once. Hours upon hours.

I agree it is misleading to count "profit" while including cards you already packed or even great deals. What you really need to look at is the opportunity cost. You could sell that 91 Aaron for 40K so the Smoltz is really costing you 36K from that piece.

[pappyzan]

Originally Posted by QuantaCondor

You're telling me that, over the course of the last month, you found reasonable deals on 91 Hank, 89 Faber, the two Appling Diamonds, all the Twins silvers, all the Ichiro cards, all the other White Sox, Seattle, Charlie O, Braves, etc. diamonds and golds? All those? How frequently did you monitor the AH?

Yep, hadn't finished any collections prior to these other than some smaller ones that awarded a pack here and there. Started with none of the major silvers/golds/diamonds needed for any of these collections, like dkgo I refreshed the AH with a custom query when I thought about it. Personal laptop is behind me in the office at work, takes all of 30 seconds to turn around and refresh the AH and go about my day.

It gets to the point where it's almost an addiction of sorts to finish once started, so I was checking the AH pretty religiously. Will probably complete some of the other collections if they're profitable, but not over the next couple of weeks as I'm kinda worn out from it.

Found 96 Baker on AH at a reasonable price of 17k, so no need for Hank 91. Just last week got 88 Faber for 14k, Appling for 20k, Rigney for 37k. Last collection finished was the Twins, yes it had a ton of silvers but I don't recall it being terribly difficult to complete; same goes for Ichiro.

[pappyzan]

Originally Posted by QuantaCondor

I mean, if you already had a lot of the hard stuff, it's a little dishonest to claim it was doable in a month or that those were your profit margins.

Nothing dishonest about any of it. Before starting the initial collection (Ichiro), I didn't think it was worth the time/effort, but once Ichiro collection was complete it was clear that some of these collections can be worth it. My post wasn't intended to be a 'look at me, I'm so great' post; it's to show these collections can provide a good deal of PP and great cards, and can be done quicker than many might think on top of that.

The idea was for it to be a helpful post, to show that guys can easily improve their teams through specific collections by either keeping reward cards or selling them for PP. Nothing is fabricated nor will it be from my account.

[Maxfire5]

Originally Posted by pappyzan

Nothing dishonest about any of it. Before starting the initial collection (Ichiro), I didn't think it was worth the time/effort, but once Ichiro collection was complete it was clear that some of these collections can be worth it. My post wasn't intended to be a 'look at me, I'm so great' post; it's to show these collections can provide a good deal of PP and great cards, and can be done quicker than many might think on top of that.

The idea was for it to be a helpful post, to show that guys can easily improve their teams through specific collections by either keeping reward cards or selling them for PP. Nothing is fabricated nor will it be from my account.

If nothing else, it shows the value that can be had by putting some effort in. For me, lefty Gomez, Sisler, Garber, Plank, and Dykstra have saved me 85k or so over their last 7 prices. For a F2P player, that's massive. If I wanted to sell them, then I'd have 85k more in the bank than when I started the missions.

For me, I wanted to use those guys so I kept them. Just like the two other missions I'm working on. I'll keep both of those guys. But there are others where I do it just to sell and generate some PP.

Not to mention, acquiring a couple of the cards for the collection itself are useful to my team, like Lefty O'Doul.

[Orcin]

I have yet to complete a mission because I don't want all of those useless cards locked to my collection. Am I silly?

[dkgo]

Nope. Please stay away and dont try to buy the cards I am looking for

[Argonaut]

I'm pretty silly because I require all the cards I lock to be in mint condition, even if I never activate them again. So although I could get a good deal on a mission piece, if it has stats it's going back on the AH.

By the way I also make sure all players on my team have appropriate jersey numbers from their career. Though perhaps that's a more normal OCD? Or not?

[CrazyWR]

What do you do when 2 people have the same jersey number?

[QuantaCondor]

Originally Posted by pappyzan

Nothing dishonest about any of it. Before starting the initial collection (Ichiro), I didn't think it was worth the time/effort, but once Ichiro collection was complete it was clear that some of these collections can be worth it. My post wasn't intended to be a 'look at me, I'm so great' post; it's to show these collections can provide a good deal of PP and great cards, and can be done quicker than many might think on top of that.

The idea was for it to be a helpful post, to show that guys can easily improve their teams through specific collections by either keeping reward cards or selling them for PP. Nothing is fabricated nor will it be from my account.

I am just impressed this is possible. I mean, I think anyone who really stopped to look at collections could have seen their profitability, but to turn it all around in such a short time is pretty impressive.

[Argonaut]

Originally Posted by CrazyWR

What do you do when 2 people have the same jersey number?

I look on BBREF page to see if they had any other numbers during their career. Usually this works to solve conflicts.

I can think of only one case where it didn't. Mike Trout and Vladdy Daddy both only wore #27 in their career. So I gave Vladdy Daddy #72.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Argonaut

I'm pretty silly because I require all the cards I lock to be in mint condition, even if I never activate them again. So although I could get a good deal on a mission piece, if it has stats it's going back on the AH.

By the way I also make sure all players on my team have appropriate jersey numbers from their career. Though perhaps that's a more normal OCD? Or not?

I think you really need help.

[Maxfire5]

Originally Posted by Orcin

I have yet to complete a mission because I don't want all of those useless cards locked to my collection. Am I silly?

If I say yes, then you won't start looking for the cards I'm looking for.

However, if I give you my honest answer, I'd say that collections are a way for F2P to *grind* for lack of a better term and make up the ground against some of the P2P players. Obviously P2P can do it too, but for me, I track the costs of all the cards I'm looking for relative to the reward and go for it if the value is there. Just use a spreadsheet that sums up the costs of buying all the cards versus just buying the card on the AH.

It's good value, it just requires effort. Keeping the cards in your collection while locked and never used also may help on other collections!

[QuantaCondor]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

You might be taking it a bit too seriously.

On the contrary; to complete a slate of collections like this, you'd have to monitor the AH dozens of times a day, every day, for weeks. I think I might not be taking it seriously enough. If anything, it's more a statement of "hey these cards are there if you're willing to put in the time and watch the AH like a hawk".

[BigRed75]

I don't care about previous stats. But I do care about uniform numbers. And Baseball Reference is my friend, too.

[dkgo]

Originally Posted by Maxfire5

If I say yes, then you won't start looking for the cards I'm looking for.

However, if I give you my honest answer, I'd say that collections are a way for F2P to *grind* for lack of a better term and make up the ground against some of the P2P players. Obviously P2P can do it too, but for me, I track the costs of all the cards I'm looking for relative to the reward and go for it if the value is there. Just use a spreadsheet that sums up the costs of buying all the cards versus just buying the card on the AH.

It's good value, it just requires effort. Keeping the cards in your collection while locked and never used also may help on other collections!

Thats exactly how I see it too. I initially dismissed the missions as being overpriced and not worth it but was definitely wrong. They have kept me more engaged trying to finish them off and often I find I complete ones I wasnt even trying too.

[Maxfire5]

Originally Posted by dkgo

Thats exactly how I see it too. I initially dismissed the missions as being overpriced and not worth it but was definitely wrong. They have kept me more engaged trying to finish them off and often I find I complete ones I wasnt even trying too.

Exactly. I dismissed them initially too. As someone else said above, it's addicting. Completing the missions provides a benefit to my team, it's economical and it's addicting. All good things!