What's the most you've ever overspent for a player... to complete a collection or otherwise?

[dkgo]

Originally Posted by allenciox

I paid 50k for Rollie Fingers (94) for my Energizer Bunnies to try to complete the Charlie O's A's mission, but still have a few gold cards to go before completing the mission. Those cards sometimes come up for auction but with crazily high prices that nobody will pay. For example: who's going to pay 15k for Reggie Jackson (82) which is four times its last seven-day price? Obviously, no one, so the person putting it up puts it up every 48 hours for same price over and over again.

It is best to operate as if the last 7 number is completely wrong. I have zero faith in it, it's only good for tricking inexperienced players into selling key collections pieces for far under market value.

Start tracking costs as you see them, add cards to the watchlist. 82 Jackson commonly will sell for 10K+ along with some other "rare" golds like Bando in that mission, but there are always a million mark mulders for some reason.

[mcdog512]

Originally Posted by dkgo

It is best to operate as if the last 7 number is completely wrong. I have zero faith in it, it's only good for tricking inexperienced players into selling key collections pieces for far under market value.

Start tracking costs as you see them, add cards to the watchlist. 82 Jackson commonly will sell for 10K+ along with some other "rare" golds like Bando in that mission, but there are always a million mark mulders for some reason.

Sounds as fun as a toothache. I prefer baseball to playing an ebay simulator myself but I know lots of guys have great fun with the AH.

[dkgo]

its not that hard to put the 10K reggie jackson on there to see if it gets bought or if that was just a silly seller. otherwise you are going to be waiting for a price that never comes

[bailey]

Originally Posted by dkgo

its not that hard to put the 10K reggie jackson on there to see if it gets bought or if that was just a silly seller. otherwise you are going to be waiting for a price that never comes

Speaking of silly sellers: I had a completed mission good for a regular pack, but to avoid the chance of accidentally clicking "submit" before I was ready, I put one of the cards up on the AH for a "ridiculous" price and someone bought it, silly buyer!!

[allenciox]

I guess it comes down to the people that will complete a mission at any cost versus those that are patient, to make sure they get a good return on their investment. I am more the patient type, but there will always be those who are willing to pay more just to complete the collection. Besides, my Bunnies are an FTP team that only currently has about 25k to play with and three golds still to get, so if they rush to pay 15k for each one, it would take them another two or three weeks to complete the collection anyway.

[allenciox]

One more thing in particular about that Oakland Vida Blue mission. I completed it with one of my other teams before the rest of the A's missions came out. I spent a total of 76k to complete the mission, got Vida Blue, and sold him for 175k, netting about 80k in the process (for example, I got Fingers (94) for 38k --- half of the total cost).

But now the prices have gone up on all the cards needed to complete the mission, and the prices for Vida Blue on the market have gone down --- a lot --- there are two Vida Blue (98) on AH right now for 116k and 119k BIN respectively. The mission is much harder and more expensive to complete now than it was, and the reward is significantly less valuable. So the mission is not clearly +EV in the way it used to be. Those that just buy the gold cards requirements for exorbitant prices are going to end up losing PP in the exchange.

[OMGPuppies]

Originally Posted by allenciox

One more thing in particular about that Oakland Vida Blue mission. I completed it with one of my other teams before the rest of the A's missions came out. I spent a total of 76k to complete the mission, got Vida Blue, and sold him for 175k, netting about 80k in the process (for example, I got Fingers (94) for 38k --- half of the total cost).

But now the prices have gone up on all the cards needed to complete the mission, and the prices for Vida Blue on the market have gone down --- a lot --- there are two Vida Blue (98) on AH right now for 116k and 119k BIN respectively. The mission is much harder and more expensive to complete now than it was, and the reward is significantly less valuable. So the mission is not clearly +EV in the way it used to be. Those that just buy the gold cards requirements for exorbitant prices are going to end up losing PP in the exchange.

Dang. Looks like missions aren't the way to go anymore for ftp.

[Argonaut]

A lot of missions are still great value for F2P, you just have to be patient and check it way too many times during the day. What I wouldn't give for a real market with permanent bids and asks on all cards.

I've been waiting for the right A's cards to show up for so long that I'm sitting on 85k PP. I'd like to eventually perform the Ruth Gambit with my saved PP, but I've never ever seen the 99 Ruth on the market. I think that card is a myth.

[QuantaCondor]

Originally Posted by OMGPuppies

Dang. Looks like missions aren't the way to go anymore for ftp.

Argonaut said it right, basically. It's still a good deal for FTP, but the market volume is a lot lower right now so you're not only investing PP, you're committing to lock that PP down for weeks or longer until the right pieces show up.

[dkgo]

in theory the sum of the parts will always converge close towards the value of the rewards over time.

yes if you are patient you can buy the cards for less, but the true cost of the mission is what you could sell those cards for not what you bought them for

[GlassGuyBob]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Elemental Knight doesn’t care. He can wait you out.

It's quite unfortunate that its so easy for one individual to manipulate the market. I guess that's an inherent problem with market games with a small user base. Collections just make it so easy to key in on a few cards to monopolize and price gouge on. The cards simply aren't opened at a high enough rate to counteract this problem with the rate of historic drops and the more and more cards added to the non-LIVE cards every week.

[Dogberry99]

Originally Posted by GlassGuyBob

It's quite unfortunate that its so easy for one individual to manipulate the market. I guess that's an inherent problem with market games with a small user base. Collections just make it so easy to key in on a few cards to monopolize and price gouge on. The cards simply aren't opened at a high enough rate to counteract this problem with the rate of historic drops and the more and more cards added to the non-LIVE cards every week.

It is definitely an inherent characteristic of market games with small user bases. However, calling it a problem is assigning a moral value to it that is not shared by all in the community.

We may be able to infer from the devs inaction regarding this market behavior that they do not view this as a problem and that the market in its current form is within acceptable standards. Conversely, it is possible that they have refrained from acting on this yet because they intend to make packs be the primary reward in all tournaments, significantly increasing the volume of cards in circulation and solving the "problem," should they actually consider it to be such a thing.

I suppose other solutions are possible, but as we're getting quite late in the developmental cycle of OOTPXX and PT2.0, I wouldn't expect any of them to be implemented in the current game.

[GlassGuyBob]

Originally Posted by Dogberry99

It is definitely an inherent characteristic of market games with small user bases. However, calling it a problem is assigning a moral value to it that is not shared by all in the community.

We may be able to infer from the devs inaction regarding this market behavior that they do not view this as a problem and that the market in its current form is within acceptable standards. Conversely, it is possible that they have refrained from acting on this yet because they intend to make packs be the primary reward in all tournaments, significantly increasing the volume of cards in circulation and solving the "problem," should they actually consider it to be such a thing.

I suppose other solutions are possible, but as we're getting quite late in the developmental cycle of OOTPXX and PT2.0, I wouldn't expect any of them to be implemented in the current game.

Other ways of excessive manipulation of the game system such as tanking to get into a lower league where you can farm PP is against ToS.

I'm not getting overly moral about it. It's just a recognizable issue. I don't think we can assume they don't think it's a problem just because they are yet to take action. Collections are the main cause of this issue and those are very new. They may be waiting to see if the market corrects itself or just collecting more information and opinions before acting.

Personally, this kind of thing has caused me to abandon most collections and just sell my related cards rather than pay 40K for 80 Piersall.

[Dogberry99]

Originally Posted by GlassGuyBob

Other ways of excessive manipulation of the game system such as tanking to get into a lower league where you can farm PP is against ToS.

I'm not getting overly moral about it. It's just a recognizable issue. I don't think we can assume they don't think it's a problem just because they are yet to take action. Collections are the main cause of this issue and those are very new. They may be waiting to see if the market corrects itself or just collecting more information and opinions before acting.

Personally, this kind of thing has caused me to abandon most collections and just sell my related cards rather than pay 40K for 80 Piersall.

While tanking is against the ToS, there are many legal ways to manipulate the game to maximize point production. There are numerous examples both in game and on these forums of teams being built around achievements first and foremost. Some of these teams also win, but some do not... Does anyone really think I run Rangers pitchers exclusively on my primary team because I want to win?

There is a lot of backlash to point gouging and market manipulation, such as what we see in The Official Auction House Laughs Thread. However, other threads, most notably ElementalKnight's AMA, have numerous people expressing respect and even reverence and awe for what they have been able to accomplish through market manipulation.

In this day and age, everyone demands every issue be reduced to a black and white binary, good versus evil, us versus the other. However, our reality is composed of many, many shades of gray, and this game is no different.