Over the past couple of weeks I've had a lot of free time (laid off from work, coping) to play this game. As I continue to get my ass kicked by everyone besides the CPU, I've found some solace in the auction house and aim to share some easy insights into how to make coin as efficiently as possible. I don't think the binder stats include items in the AH / strategy items, so here is my coin breakdown for reference:

  • 5M free coin
  • 8M in AH (value based on mutgg prices, PC)
  • 10M in binder, not including my lineup ("")

General insights:

  1.  Buy cards on the weekend - Sunday is best. Wait until the promotions for the week have ran for at least a few days. Classic supply / demand principle
    • EA uses training packs / fire sales / coin pack sales which increases the number of cards available > increases coin flow
    • People are online during the weekend which obviously increases coin distribution
  2. The first few hours of a promotion (release of new collector series players, Flashbacks, etc.) is highway robbery
    • Leverage mutgg reveals to see the program requirements to build sets.
    • Ideal to get in front of the promo as soon as possible by buying the set requirements in advance
      • Ex - set requirements for the 86 flashbacks require 5, 82-85 overalls. Just checking out the Price Dashboard you can see that 5ish days after the Flashback promo release you can build an 86 overall for 11K (2.5Kx5 for regular 83s), and then roll that set card into the 89 set for 56K (11Kx3 Flashback 89s and 6.5Kx2 regular 86 overalls). If we track the Gilmore price linked above, the card was selling for an average 73K on day of Flashback release. That's 9K profit per set. Just stupid.

Short-term tip:

I posted sometime last week about the price of Epic strategy items, and since then the community has pointed to how many of these cards continue to be sold for a lot of coins. Clearly this is subjective, so I did a super simple analysis on the profitability of building Epic sets via the 9.5k strategy pack found in the EA Store. Happy to share the data if requested, but TLDR:

  • Building an Epic card results in 10K profit on average (50K to build, 65K to sell). The price per strategy item from the EA Store doesn't change, but the sales price of the Epics collectively vary by 20%. This isn't a bad thing - again keep in mind this is PC

Amateur predictions based on the last 2-3 weeks:

  • With the Super Bowl approaching one would think that the usual contenders' players - past & present - will make up the majority of cards released in the promo. Respective team affinities should be worth selling during the first week
  • Another Flashback release on 1/28. Get ahead of the market and buy cards now for the set requirements prior to release. If you're a bum like me you have time to sell in the couple hours after the 1:30ET release. Do the math on how much you will make based on the profit target above

I recall in a separate thread someone claiming that they could make 200K / hour if they "wanted to". Was dubious of this claim until I started selling the Epic cards and following the promotions. I can comfortably say 100K / hour is achievable, but do keep in mind it is boring as hell. 

Of course there are other variables to consider (overall increases, Legendary strategy availability, EA market pump), but I think that the examples and tips I provided can be dissected into general principles for making money in this game.  

Selfishly I'd love for the community to provide tried and tested tips / insights into building wealth in the game. Here are some questions I have, to start:

  1. When can we expect 90-91 overalls to increase in price? Not sure if it's because the Playoff promotion has been so bad or what, but it is baffling to me that the 91 overalls in this promo are selling for like 10-14% less than all other 91s. Totally makes sense to me to buy and hold the Playoff 91s for now, but I definitely could be wrong..
  2. What other variables have you found led to abrupt market shifts?
  3. Doubt anyone knows this but worth asking - how does mutgg receive auction data from the game? Does EA actually provide the data (not concerned about the digital logistics but more so the availability). 

Thanks all