Collection Missions General Discussion

[PocketsAintFull]

I've been opening more packs since collections came out. I don’t know if the maths is that much better, but it’s added more fun for me - who knows what random collections may start building up with cards I pull?

[Charlatan]

My frustration level is rising as I've tried to complete some historical collections. I've been looking to complete one for a couple of weeks, and I guess it's partially my fault it's not done - that is, if you consider the fact that I don't want to pay 20k PP for a card I'll never use. And it hit me - if this were physical baseball cards and I wanted to complete my favorite team, I'd just buy more packs. But with historical collections, the odds of getting a historical card - never mind one that you're actually collecting - are so low that it's not worth buying packs. So we're sort of between a rock and a hard place: not enough cards in circulation to provide a good market, and not enough incentive to buy packs to make the market healthier.

Would this problem be addressed by some sort of pack with guaranteed historical cards? I'm thinking that would help (though the details would have to be fleshed out). Without some way to get an influx of historical cards into the economy, these collections are gonna be impossible to complete!

[Ty Cobb]

Originally Posted by Thornbreaker

I keep checking the Braves missions. Only to keep finding that the irons are still 800+ PP if not a sizzling 2k+

As I have a Braves team, and the Live mission finished already, it would be nice to be able to finish a couple more without breaking my bank.

I'm hoping the demand for said collections drops off and things return to being somewhat more reasonable in AH costs.

The locking of cards once a mission is completed is strangling the supply of certain cards. Greedy ****s ask outrageous prices counting on your desperation. It's predatory, and it's economics. It'll drive people to buy packs again, instead of simply haunting the AH looking for an existing card.

I'd say it's all a short term hiccup for us players during part of a normal and healthy business model. When we all start buying packs again, the supply will change and prices will have to respond. My tawdry little group grabbed packs this week. There was a HEALTHY reward, topped off by one of us scoring a Walter Johnson. Between us we got less than 50 packs—pretty good return.

Still think silvers are WAY to infrequent, but that's anecdotal.

[dkgo]

if the cards didn't lock with the mission then all of the rewards are basically free

[Thornbreaker]

Originally Posted by Ty Cobb

The locking of cards once a mission is completed is strangling the supply of certain cards. Greedy ****s ask outrageous prices counting on your desperation. It's predatory, and it's economics. It'll drive people to buy packs again, instead of simply haunting the AH looking for an existing card.

I'd say it's all a short term hiccup for us players during part of a normal and healthy business model. When we all start buying packs again, the supply will change and prices will have to respond. My tawdry little group grabbed packs this week. There was a HEALTHY reward, topped off by one of us scoring a Walter Johnson. Between us we got less than 50 packs—pretty good return.

Still think silvers are WAY to infrequent, but that's anecdotal.

Yeah, its understandable, but entirely frustrating

My guess is until the "recent average" goes down, people will just keep listing them.

What's really a shame is I don't have a huge catalog of non Braves to do the same on the AH to bankroll my own missions.

[Charlatan]

This is a story about happiness and fulfillment!

My Senators theme team completed the two Senators related missions, but as it turns out there are four more missions rewards I can use. Two of those missions are live collections, and given that this team has barely ripped any packs it was way more cost effective to purchase the rewards directly. That left two historical missions.

I had a pleasant happy Friday evening as I was able to complete one of those historical missions. I'd been stuck for about two weeks trying to get one last card for the St Louis Browns mission. The 84 OVR Judnich card is often the highest rated card people get for the mission; as a result it's listing for around 15k PP now. However, I instead wanted the 93 OVR Harlond Clift card - since he played with the Senators this is a card I can actually use on my team. And I card I'm considering actually using for reals! Someone put the Clift card on sale Friday evening and I purchased it posthaste (interestingly enough, since that card goes up for sale so rarely, it must have been showing a pre-collection pricepoint for the AH, so the card ended up being cheaper than the Judnich card to boot!).

A funny thing about the Browns mission is that there are four Browns players who had stints with the Senators (which means they are eligible to play for my theme team): Courtney, Cullenbine, Newsom, and Clift. Plus the Sisler reward of course. The Senators theme team only has 4 eligible catchers and three of them are low silvers (Courtney being one of them) so I'm using him vs RHP this year. The Senators also have very little pitching (and almost no relief pitching) so Newsom is serving as my long reliever. And Clift is a potential 3B/UT guy who I'm giving a shot this season. Sisler is, of course, starting at 1B this year for me (I moved Sievers to LF).

Now it's back to watching for the two last cards I need for that one remaining mission. Luckily, I can use one of them on my team, so another pleasant coincidence. And once I finish that "all" I'll have to do is save up money to purchase the remaining players I want on the team. That's a lot more direct (but a lot less fun) than completing missions though.

[PocketsAintFull]

Starting with 1/15 (out of 36) required, I'm trying the 'Putting The Ball In Play' mission for the Diamond Pack. Managed to get up to 8/15 for about 1500 or so, but now the players start costing more

That being said, they're all really good cards for when tournaments come around anyway, heh

(Edit: now trying to combine with 'Chicago White Sox: Fox And Apraricio', which rewards a Diamond Pack and an SE Nellie Fox card that works with the first mission. Now quite sure I'm just throwing my saved PP against the collection wall, but at least I can sell all these again if I reach a dead end )

[PocketsAintFull]

Originally Posted by PocketsAintFull

Starting with 1/15 (out of 36) required, I'm trying the 'Putting The Ball In Play' mission for the Diamond Pack. Managed to get up to 8/15 for about 1500 or so, but now the players start costing more

That being said, they're all really good cards for when tournaments come around anyway, heh

(Edit: now trying to combine with 'Chicago White Sox: Fox And Apraricio', which rewards a Diamond Pack and an SE Nellie Fox card that works with the first mission. Now quite sure I'm just throwing my saved PP against the collection wall, but at least I can sell all these again if I reach a dead end )

Yeah, that escalated way too quickly, I'm out

[gemini615]

Originally Posted by PocketsAintFull

Yeah, that escalated way too quickly, I'm out

Ha! If the prize is anything more than a standard pack, I don't even bother to look at this point

[OMGPuppies]

Originally Posted by Charlatan

This is a story about happiness and fulfillment!

My Senators theme team completed the two Senators related missions, but as it turns out there are four more missions rewards I can use. Two of those missions are live collections, and given that this team has barely ripped any packs it was way more cost effective to purchase the rewards directly. That left two historical missions.

I had a pleasant happy Friday evening as I was able to complete one of those historical missions. I'd been stuck for about two weeks trying to get one last card for the St Louis Browns mission. The 84 OVR Judnich card is often the highest rated card people get for the mission; as a result it's listing for around 15k PP now. However, I instead wanted the 93 OVR Harlond Clift card - since he played with the Senators this is a card I can actually use on my team. And I card I'm considering actually using for reals! Someone put the Clift card on sale Friday evening and I purchased it posthaste (interestingly enough, since that card goes up for sale so rarely, it must have been showing a pre-collection pricepoint for the AH, so the card ended up being cheaper than the Judnich card to boot!).

A funny thing about the Browns mission is that there are four Browns players who had stints with the Senators (which means they are eligible to play for my theme team): Courtney, Cullenbine, Newsom, and Clift. Plus the Sisler reward of course. The Senators theme team only has 4 eligible catchers and three of them are low silvers (Courtney being one of them) so I'm using him vs RHP this year. The Senators also have very little pitching (and almost no relief pitching) so Newsom is serving as my long reliever. And Clift is a potential 3B/UT guy who I'm giving a shot this season. Sisler is, of course, starting at 1B this year for me (I moved Sievers to LF).

Now it's back to watching for the two last cards I need for that one remaining mission. Luckily, I can use one of them on my team, so another pleasant coincidence. And once I finish that "all" I'll have to do is save up money to purchase the remaining players I want on the team. That's a lot more direct (but a lot less fun) than completing missions though.

How much is the Clift card? He playable? I intentionally avoided using Sisler as part of the collection, so I could sell him.

[Dogberry99]

Originally Posted by OMGPuppies

How much is the Clift card? He playable? I intentionally avoided using Sisler as part of the collection, so I could sell him.

Decent card, but nothing special, iirc, which is not what you hope for with a diamond. Nice enough defense, but probably a bit too much of a "3 True Outcomes" player for most people's tastes. He's my utility infielder on my Browns/Senators/Expos theme team. He may be moved to my reserves though when I update my theme soon to any team that later moved.

[Charlatan]

Originally Posted by OMGPuppies

How much is the Clift card? He playable? I intentionally avoided using Sisler as part of the collection, so I could sell him.

Good question. I was (am) worried that he won't hit worth a lick at higher levels since his CON rating is so low. Here's the results so far:

Last year in Bronze I had him playing full time vs LHP at 2B and playing 3B 80% of the time vs RHP. It was his first year so I left him in to see how he'd do. He generated a 0.8 WAR. It was a disappointing season - not much average, not much OBP, not much power.

This year we were promoted to Silver. I scaled back his time at 3B and started the season using my 90 Harrah more. But he has been hitting the snot outta the ball so he's back to where he was last year (as far as usage goes). Right now through 50 games he's leading the team with a 2.1 WAR.

His ceiling on my Senators team is 3B vs RHP or perhaps a utility guy. My infield is Sisler-Cecil Travis-Cronin-Harrah so he's not breaking into the starting lineup elsewhere. The choice will boil down to whether I want Clift as the better hitter or <unnamed utility guy> as the better fielder.

[PocketsAintFull]

Started tracking some missions on my Milwaukee Northern Alliance team where the rewards fit the theme.

- 2019 All-Star collection, 8/25 (/64), reward 96 Gary Carter
- Future Legends 6/40 (/50), reward 100 Griffey Jr
- Live Toronto, 35/47, reward 2 players and a diamond pack

I think the first two might last the rest of OOTP 20, trying to pick up cheaper pieces here and there (which I won't be adding up, either). The one for a SE James Paxton (Canadian Pitchers) doesn't seem worth it, the card goes for around 4k (?!) on the AH and isn't that great anyway

On my Walsall team, only 1 player away from the Live Orioles completion And 39/44 on the Live White Sox.

Anyway, some missions to stay interested in (though none as cool as the Negro League one, which forms a good part of my Birmingham side )

[PocketsAintFull]

Woo! Live Orioles complete!

(naturally the Gold pack gave a live 81 Will Harris, but nevermind )

[BigRed75]

Haha - I've got an Orioles theme team and I didn't even try to do the Live Orioles collection. I just bought the Markakis card outright!

Kudos to you, though, good sir.

[PocketsAintFull]

Originally Posted by BigRed75

Haha - I've got an Orioles theme team and I didn't even try to do the Live Orioles collection. I just bought the Markakis card outright!

Kudos to you, though, good sir.

It was fun picking up all the cheap bits. Which was basically all of it, heh

[Charlatan]

My collections team has stalled out a bit on completing the live missions. It feels like for most teams I need 2-3 cards: one really expensive one and two scrubs who only are offered on the AH for 2k PP each.

Completing historical missions is so much more difficult, mostly because it's a hassle to identify which cards are in which missions. I've got a second monitor to the side and I STILL find it a PITA to complete historical missions - got to check the mission list, note what cards you need, switch back to the game, search for some of the players, determine if they're overpriced (narrator: they are), decide if you're going to buy or not, and make the decision to buy or pass.

And then you do it for the next mission!

While it's easy to work on the live collection missions, I don't have the patience/endurance to work on more than two or three collection missions at the same time.

[PocketsAintFull]

Originally Posted by Charlatan

My collections team has stalled out a bit on completing the live missions. It feels like for most teams I need 2-3 cards: one really expensive one and two scrubs who only are offered on the AH for 2k PP each.

Completing historical missions is so much more difficult, mostly because it's a hassle to identify which cards are in which missions. I've got a second monitor to the side and I STILL find it a PITA to complete historical missions - got to check the mission list, note what cards you need, switch back to the game, search for some of the players, determine if they're overpriced (narrator: they are), decide if you're going to buy or not, and make the decision to buy or pass.

And then you do it for the next mission!

While it's easy to work on the live collection missions, I don't have the patience/endurance to work on more than two or three collection missions at the same time.

Yeah I’m aiming for 1 or 2 missions at a time.

Btw I’m sure you know, but just in case - on the collection missions screen, if you click a players name it will take you direct to the AH to search for that player. Then you can go back and forth etc.

[Charlatan]

Originally Posted by PocketsAintFull

Yeah I’m aiming for 1 or 2 missions at a time.

Btw I’m sure you know, but just in case - on the collection missions screen, if you click a players name it will take you direct to the AH to search for that player. Then you can go back and forth etc.

Yeah, I know that, thanks. But I would rather search for ALL the cards I need for a mission rather than go one-by-one, given the long time to switch contexts back and forth between the auction house and the collections mission screen.

[BigRed75]

Pete Gray finally showed up in the AH! It was a race between him and Harlond Clift who would show up first. I was actually hoping for Clift because then I could justify the price because I would be essentially getting four Diamonds (Clift, Sisler, Grich, Palmer) for the price of one. Plus a Gold Pack.

Anyway, it was Pete Gray who showed up first so now the Orioles/Browns collection is complete. And I pulled two gold cards (albeit both live and no Orioles) in the pack. So now I can save up my PP for upgrades. And Adieny Rutschman