MUT22 - No Money Spent (Madden Ultimate Team)

[QuikSand]

...and as this post was drafted but not posted, they revealed cards being released tomorrow... including a 94 Tua. I'm in.

[QuikSand]

Recent additions:

94 Tua
94 WR Jarvis Landry (slot wizard)
92 C Ted Karrass
90 CB Byron Jones

…and I’ve been guiltily playing an out-of-position card, a 95 Harold Carmichael at CB. The novelty of a big, fast, 6’8” dude out there is kinda fun, and I loved HC back in the day.

Itchy for a new RB now, still bashing Ricky Williams with aplomb but I’d like someone more shifty. Reggie Bush, Thurman Thomas, Arian Foster, someone.

[QuikSand]

Big new program tomorrow… Campus Heroes II

For Dolphins:

93 RG Robert Hunt hooray much much needed. Boring but a major roster hole.

95 FB/TE Keith Byars… fine and useful but we literally already have this guy as a 92. Main takeaway is they’re cheap on paying for players’ rights, so they need to re-use lots of guys. It’s weak.

I think that’s all. Still feeling unsatisfied at RB, big WR, CB, MLB.

[QuikSand]

Anyway, been playing a bit most days just to keep fresh. Another high end Legend card yesterday but it’s a Limited Edition (FS Sammy Knight) and very pricey.

Tomorrow comes a 96 Tyreek Hill with 97 speed… so he’ll reclaim his role as the fastest player, and maybe I just do whatever it takes to get him.

Have around 3m in cash, with a lot tied up in super cheap 91 cards I’m hoping to either sell at a profit, or use for training to power up soon.

[QuikSand]

So right now, if you’re choosy, you can buy cards at a “training price” around 2. Meaning, frex, a 91 rated card will ALWAYS be available to QuickSell in game for 15,000 units of training. Today I can buy that player card for 30,000 coins… so even if the player/card itself has no value to be, I’m still buying the training currency at 2 coins each.

Most people in the no expect that before too long, they will announce another special offer to buy something from the store for this training currency. Usually it is some sort of a variety pack, that randomly yields a variety of different things, ranging in value from trivial to massively priced. Every time this happens, a few enterprising souls go through the trouble of expending millions in training to buy the pack 1000 times or more, detail their results, and share with the world… And eventually everybody knows what the pack is generally worth, on average.

If this comes to pass, that probably means the cost of training will reset to comply with the value of that pack, if that makes sense. (If the pack costs 6,000 training to buy, but on average you get something with a coin value sellable at, say, 25,000 coins…then buying that 91 card for 30K, quick selling for training, and buying the training pack again is a perpetual motion money maker… triggering higher demand for cards/training and eventually driving that price ratio to a balance)

My intuition is that they value will be substantially higher than two. So, it seems like it would be a wise move to just buy a bunch of cards right now, at or around this current training value of two coins, sit on them for a bit, and plan to sell them off when the market resets. This could potentially be a double your money situation, if the market moves up to four.

I have about 3 1/2 million in coins right now, basically in cash. It is tempting to just go off and spend 1,000,000 1/2 to buy random cards, to pursue the strategy. It takes a little time, and fortitude… We shall see if I have both.

[QuikSand]

New training variety pack out today… market up from 1.9 to 2.4 already. My 91 cards are inexplicably selling for 50 or so (over 3/training) so I’m tryna sell em all.

[QuikSand]

Hit 5m cash for the first time this year, pretty sure

[QuikSand]

Around 5.4m in cash. Two new 97s for the theme team. LT Armstead, very very needed… selling for 900K. LB Chubb drops tomorrow. Meh.

[QuikSand]

Planned spending spree today. Felt kinda cool, actually.

97 Daunte Culpepper will bring much more zip on our passes, will complement my offensive pivots T Hill and K Byars (who is remarkably effective, very unlike his real life self). Price dipped to 700k on legends morning, I grabbed him close to the bottom.

97 Junior Seau LTD. He’ll be in packs for a couple days then harder to find. I am not expert at the timing of how these cards price out… So I was watching the market closely after the card had been released for about 30 to 60 minutes…got gunshy and paused on a 562K, then angry that I did as the market moved up. I ended up buying three copies at 718, 630, 600. I have already sold one back at 7:40, have one locked into my starting lineup, and the third is for sale… But will be an investment otherwise.

97 LT Terron Armstead, 600K. I think this Hass to be the best left tackle in the game right now, or at least pretty close to it… A lot of people are using a theme teammate of just legend players, where he would not fit, but otherwise… This card is really really good. Endgame, caliber for my team, for sure.

95 Daunte Culpepper CB OOP. While, in general, I dislike these out of position cards and find them unreasonable… They are part of the game, and this is honestly the best cornerback available for the Dolphins theme team. Big, physical, man-to-man specialist… Got him for about 220 today while the legends were flying.

So, I blew from5 point formal and international… Down to about 2.2. I have two cards on the block that could sell for about 1 million, so in practice I sold off about 40% of my cash to upgrade several key positions. Was fun.

(Please forgive audio typos)

[QuikSand]

So, lesson learned, I guess. The market for a LTD card calms down during his two days of being available. 97 Seau now settling in around 550k. Fortunately I sold my two “investment” copies, at a decent profit… but even so I probably only just barely broke even on the day on him. May buy one copy this weekend to try to sell in a week or two after he’s out of print.

[QuikSand]

I sniped two extra 97 Seau cards for 464, 455… will hold to see if they appreciate in the next week or two. QuickSell value 350k so real risk is under 200K.

[QuikSand]

More and more 97 rated cards dropping. But set today including a 99 WR Keenan Allen and a couple 97s at CB and OLB who get all 32 team chemistries. Plus several more 95s for each conference x16. It’s fine, but this is where my Dolphins team starts to just feel like a God Squad. If I’m using these top top cards like everyone else who can afford them… what is the “theme” exactly?

So it goes. The game is a mediocre fit for my interests at its best. This is a weak patch.

[QuikSand]

At this point, they have flooded the market with cards, rated 95 and better, across multiple programs, to basically fill up everything team. For a long time, I have been fretting over my roster… A little too weak here, or there, always waiting for the next big card to drop. This year, it felt like they were a little bit late I’m having extra cards available with multiple or universal theme team chemistry is. Suddenly, that has been completely reversed… They included a fairly long list of 95 rated cards of rookies who are interesting in the upcoming combine. Since they don’t attached to any particular theme team, they decided to make all these cards available for all 32 theme teams. So, for 200 K a piece, and a little bit less in practice. If you’re willing to work through aside, you can just load up your roster with a defensive tackle, a pass rushing edge, a cornerback, a wide receiver, a halfback, a quarterback, and then some.

Basically, all the positions where I had felt a little unfulfilled… Now wholly fulfilled. And most of the roster building intrigue out the door with it.

[QuikSand]

Massive market blow up today, I happened to be online and saw weird stuff, happening, and cashed in a little bit. Some people apparently made a fortune.

It sounds like the training variety pack, Available for purchase in the store with the “training” currency was broken. It is supposed to return you, one of several different things, randomly, ranging from a low value uniform all the way up to a high value limited edition player. Apparently, for some window of time this morning, it was generating all limited, edition players, and therefore was an enormous money maker… Spend 40 or 45,000 coins to buy training, use training to buy the pack, and get a player card worth 4-5-600,000 coins.

I didn’t know what was going on, and by the time I learned what the problem was, it had been patched, in-game by EA. Funny how that works, they are ruthlessly efficient when it comes to cleaning up mistakes like this. But when it comes to making innovations and intelligent decisions in their own game design, not so much.

When I did notice was that a bunch of cards were suddenly selling for much higher than usual prices. So, I spent maybe 45 minutes just buying 94 and 95 rated cards for the usual price of around 120 to 140 K. But many of these cards were selling for 200, 250 K. Basically, all driven by people who were just buying whatever they could find to convert to training, to take advantage of the bug.

So, I managed to sell my two copies of junior seau for 680 and 780, turning a nice short term profit. And one other high value card I had purchased as an investment. At one point I had quickly gone from 1.4 million in cash to 4.0 million… Then I will spend a bunch of that down to buy up these 94 and 95 rated cards, hoping to sell them and return 50% or so on each purchase.

Crazy spell. I’ve got about 2.4m in cash, but probably about 20 of these 94/95 cards that can sell for 130-150k each.

So I am likely liquid enough to keep my Dolphins theme team maxed out through the end of the year.

[QuikSand]

So, fun twist. Yesterday’s glitch made some people rich, I get it. Apparently EA has decided to take action against people who abused the broken pack that EA put into their store.

When I saw stuff going crazy, I didn’t know what was up, but made money just selling high where I could, and buying low where I still could.

This morning my coin balance got shifted from 3.7m to… 140k. Total.

So, they fuck up. I didn’t even know what was happening. I bought and sold cards on their site. And I’m getting a penalty for having a profitable day. Cool cool.

[Chas in Cinti]

That seems... harsh

[QuikSand]

Money restored today. I put in a formal complaint, maybe that did it, or they just had second thoughts overall. Whatever.

Now lurking in search of a Jalen Ramsey card LFG

[QuikSand]

The winds have really changed here… For most of the season, it felt like they were very skimpy on throwing out cards that had eligibility from multiple different theme teams. Now, we are just drowning in them. The latest is a wave of eight 98-rated cards of players, who are in free agency this year, and all eight cards are excellent, endgame, caliber cards… With all of 32 teams chemistry possible. So Lamar, Jackson, Tony, Pollard, Jesse Bates, and five other guys… All super high level, excellent cards. And suddenly everybody’s theme team looks the same… If you’re maxing out your Panthers theme team, you were just put all eight of these guys on your team, plus a bunch of the guys from the last sequence, plus a bunch of these rookies who get all 32 teams as well. Hardly need to bother with any actual Panthers, or Jets, or Dolphins, or whatever was the original theme.

Whatevs

[QuikSand]

So, I guess I’m considering switching my operating theme team to being just “guys who actually played for the Dolphins.” I’m lucky that among the four possible Team Captains (build around players for every theme team) is FB Larry Csonka. But that would mean scrapping all these 95 rated rookies who have dramatically improved my theme team roster, by being usable on all 32 franchises.

Doing this doesn’t render my lineup weak. I’d have some guys down to around 93 in important positions… that would be a major problem against high level online opponents, but… I’m not really doing that. So, maybe that’s the way to get back to the enjoyable space of wanting/needing stuff.

So, mabe that’s it for now.

[QuikSand]

The weekly wildcard set for tomorrow has been released as blurred images to generate hype. I think I see Jaylen Waddle. Good turn, if so.

[QuikSand]

So, I have the 98 Waddle, it's great. Cool.

I'm at a weird spot here. They just released a series of 5 superior 99-rated cards of all-time greats (RB Barry Sanders, WR Randy Moss, TE Tony Gonzalez, LB Lawrence Taylor, and CB Deion Sanders) and have again, made them usable on all 32 theme teams. To "max out" my team under the simplest principle of "only guys with Dolphins chemistry" I would now be filling more than half of my roster, and most key spots, with guys who never played a down for Miami, in real life. What "theme" is this?

So... I have north of $4m in cash, and could go out and grab several Dolphins-themed players if I wanted to, but... to what end? I don't know... I don't think they realize (or care) what this crazy burst of theme-flexibility does to those of us who really enjoy exploring our selected franchise as a part of enjoying the game.

Once my team is Lamar Jackson, scrambling around like crazy, looking to dump off to Barry Sanders, or hitting Randy Moss on a deep ball ... what sort of "Dolphins experience" is that? It's just a God Squad like the guys who spend hundreds of dollars buying packs all year. Not really interested in that arms race, which I'd lose, or that vague notion of "the best you can afford" as the only limiting factor in building my roster.

[QuikSand]

Busy weekend. Found expensive sets that were “printing.” Have added 98 DE Jason Taylor and am close to 6m in cash, but lots of moving parts.

[QuikSand]

Crazy markets this week have been very profitable. Eggs gathered over the last week or two open today, a number of high-level players showed up in great supply out of nowhere, markets were shocked, there were many opportunities to profit from this. I think once the dust settles, I will probably have made three or 4 million coins, just by sneaking around in the weird marketplace.

[QuikSand]

Two new Ultimate legends today for the Dolphins theme team: WR Cris Carter and CBbTroy Vincent. Would’ve been thrilled to get them in November. Now they’re just another 98 guy I don’t really need. Poorly thought out.

[QuikSand]

over 10m in cash, a nearly complete roster, and little motivation

have enough gold to buy all the cards that help carry over and give next year a head start... the boy seems enthused to do a Chargers theme team next year

[QuikSand]

Well, the MUT23 season is basically done for me. I'm over $13m in cash, with basically nothing to do now. I have quibbles with the way they have rolled thing out this season, but maximizing my fun is very low on their list of priorities - I'm a $60 once-a-year guy and their target are the micro-transaction people who get revved up for Michael Vick or whatever and hit mom's credit card to buy packs for money. Fair's fair.

[QuikSand]

I expect that the boy and I are going to try to team up and play MUT 24 together. I wanted him to sort of do his own thing, but... he's not disciplined enough to really do that. He's 10, fwiw. So, we have agreed that we will make a Chargers theme team our main team next year, and he pledges he will help play out the challenges and so forth to help build up the team. So, if father-son bonding is a part of the plan, then this sounds good to me.

I still like having this little mental game as a side distraction. Madden is genuinely not worth the time I put into it, but if I use the MUT auction house and market as a replacement for doing sudoku or the like, then... okay.

We are both fiddling a bit with Franchise mode, which is a solid C- but the ability to play out your games with the team you build is a reasonable attraction. I am well into the "House Rules" phase there, natch. Will likely continue with that.

So... not sure if this thread is worth keeping alive, but I reckon my Madden career will continue at least another year. It's a solid "take your mind off work" outlet, when on-screen, for me, and that has its own value as well.

[QuikSand]

Fun run with an "empty cupboard, build only through the draft" Franchise team. Decided to build around a fantastic RB (heavy OL investment, much less at QB/WR), took him 1.1 in the 2025 draft while my team was awwwwwful (from the clean sweep) and we just finished a three superbowl run with WLW and two SB MVP awards for him, likely to close out his career after the 2034 season.

Building this way is fairly fun, but there are just no shortcuts, at least with my skill level - I'm good enough to build a title team, but it won't come together until at least 7-8 years in no matter what I do.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

So... not sure if this thread is worth keeping alive, but I reckon my Madden career will continue at least another year. It's a solid "take your mind off work" outlet, when on-screen, for me, and that has its own value as well.

Pretty much how I use The Show, doing NMS grinding. It's a thing to do, shuts down most of the other parts of my brain on effective days. And that's a win.

[QuikSand]

So, Madden 24 is out now. I'm stir crazy with COVID, but am sequestered away from the console.

Anyway, a very rapid reset here:

-I did buy Madden 24 after wavering a tiny bit
-I completed the stuff in M23 that yielded extra cards for M24
-The 32 rookie cards rated 84 is a total momentum ruiner for me
-The boy is a Chargers fan and wants to build a LAC theme team together

That's where we are. May keep this thread alive but my juju is deeply depleted. I really love building from the rock bottom, and instead of a team where I'm all excited to receive a new 79-rated TE who can become a second target in my putrid offense, I basically have 84 rookies for every job. Yawn.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

-The 32 rookie cards rated 84 is a total momentum ruiner for me

They did whaaaa?

That's nuts.

[QuikSand]

Okay, I have rebuilt a little interest in the game again, and for some reason want to update here - maybe a little bit about both the MUT travails, and my continued exploration of the Franchise mode, which has gotten into a pretty good groove.

[QuikSand]

MUT in Madden 24

Okay, so... the central part of "building from nothing" that I, and presumably a lot of other lower-level players, has been robbed from me this year. I think it comes down to the fact that I'm an anomaly... I'm a no-money-spent player and that typically tags me as settling for a lousy team overall, and unbothered by not being competitive and getting the very top-end cards. Most NMS players probably worked hard to gather, say, 3-5 of the big rookie cards toward the end of M23 so they could seed their team in M24 with a handful of rookie star players, but those guys are still out there trying to build up their rosters from crap elsewhere. I'm the outlier NMS person who worked hard enough to afford all 32 of the carryover players, so... I'm a victim of my own hard work.

So it goes.

Anyway, I can't manufacture any enthusiasm for building up a theme team full of 74- and 77-rated guys from the Chargers, even though my son is excited to do that together, in theory. So, instead we are just playing the "god squad" of rookies everywhere, and looking for minor advances from there.

I did notice that the bonus card I got for accumulating all the rookies, an 87 DE Aidan Hutchinson, was sellable so I put him up for 400,000 and got a sale. I now am approaching 600,000 in gold just by playing the market wisely with Team Builders cards, notoriously tedious to build, making them fairly profitable.

The best of the minor advances was when they released a 79-rated RGIII card, and mobile QBs are fun to play. The card is specifically designed so that as you accomplish things with him in your lineup, you get tokens to improve him all the way to 87, making him among the better QBs in the game and notably better than my 84 CJ Stroud. So, that's been the first "I want" moment in M24 thus far, and it has recaptured a little bit of the old spark. I like RGIII as a commentator a lot, and his runaround-with-cannon style of play is fun in the early game especially.

The 32 rookie set included only 4 OL, so I have solved that by taking my Team Captain card in the form of C Kevin Mawae, who I have now advanced to 87-rated. We still have a few other guys playing out of position (LOLBs playing at MLB, that sort of thing, where they take a downgrade to a point). But otherwise mostly 84-rated rookies everywhere else.

Roster needs, fairly minor, include: a solid true DT, a solid true MLB, and maybe an improvement over the 70-someting K/P Chargers I picked up.

Chargers we want but cannot afford: just-released 88 CB Antonion Cromartie (likely the best CB in the game for a while), 87 MLB Manti Te'o, 87 MLB Junior Seau.

[QuikSand]

Franchise in Madden 24

I have landed in a pretty good groove with this, as a clear-my-mind pasttime. It is nowhere near as deep as FOF, but the ability to play the game adds a certain polish. So, I have a career going, with these house rules:

Every year one $60m max contract for a bum (like QB3) - helps offset my advantage in contract management versus the AI teams

In free agency, can only have one offer at a time outstanding - just reduces my ability to get too much value from the FA market

In free agency, and with extensions, cannot extend past the asked-for duration - plugs a HUGE logic hole, guys will take 7-year deals priced on their current ratings... doing this with promising 25 y/o players yields way too much value

Only one trade-down during each draft, and only can accept deals offered - again, too much value here, so once per year is the limit (my only way to gain an extra 1st is to parlay a fairly early 1 into two likely later 1sts)

If I trade up in the draft, it requires a future pick from the same round as being obtained - the game makes it far too easy to deal up, so this is my firm rule and thus far i haven't seen the value in doing this (M24 has trade difficulty sliders that might solve this, I just haven't explored yet)

Only one true position switch allowed per season - again, limiting the angle-shooting value, but not to zero because I like this too much... doesn't limit DE-to-DT or C-to-G stuff that feels fairly natural, but limits WR-to-TE/RB and CB/S-to-LB that both feel unreasonably fruitful.


With that setup, I am several seasons in with the real-world Lions and have made the playoffs my last two seasons, but am not yet a serious title threat. I generally just sim the regular season, and play the "key moments" in playoff games, where my button-mashing is not a major advantage (but sometimes my clock management, etc is).

A pretty good groove. It's hard to afford a high-end QB with my $60m drag, and I either build my roster like a real world NFL team with a rookie-contract QB, or else pay for QB and end up really skimping at several less-dramatic positions.

Not bad, thus far.

[QuikSand]

Finished the trials with RG3, the game failed to give me my final sticker to boost him to 87, but I completed a set to get it, and now he's maxed-out and kinda fun.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Franchise in Madden 24

...

I generally just sim the regular season, and play the "key moments" in playoff games, where my button-mashing is not a major advantage (but sometimes my clock management, etc is).

So, this is pretty good, but is infuriating when I engineer a solid goal line stand in a playoff road game to force a FG and fall behind only 13-7, rather than 17-7 in the early 3rd Q. But then because of the "key moments" logic, I watch as suddenly the game doesn't find any role for me in my next possession, the opponent's next possession, or either of the ones after that. And I'm handed my next chance to do anything with the score 28-7 and we're at the two minute warning. Season over.

I've got like two years left with my key real life players (WR Amon Ra St. Brown, DE Aidan Hutchinson, and T Penei Sewell), and as usual, I'm likely going to fritter them away.

[QuikSand]

So, it's kinda crazy how the annual reset shocks the market. This spring, in M23, the practical price for buying a unit of "training" got down toward, and sometimes below, 1 gold. Meaning 100,000 gold could have gotten you maybe 80,000 training (to use on upgrading players, or increasingly just to buy other stuff priced in the training currency in the online store).

Right now, early in the M24 life cycle, the cheapest training costs about 73 gold. 100,000 gold might get you 1,400 training. Crazy.

I still bought some up upgrade my RG3 card's scrambling ability, but holy smokes that feels like a lot.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Vaguely related comment (which at least tells you I'm still reading this thread) ...

I'm grinding through low level stuff in MLB The Show again, conquest modes mostly. I'm something like 9 cards away from completing the Live players set, which is about where I got to last season as well (and I think similar'ish to the year before).

This late in the season the market is largely dead (damn they manage to kill The Show early every year it seems). I'm determined to grind away and quick sell enough cards to buy the last few I need.

This is only about 1% of the effort you put into it but I think maybe the point is that if I'm enjoying myself (okay, not the grind, but the potential sense of accomplishment) then with it being an NMS thing, that's really THE point.

Whether it's as utterly basic as I do it or as intricately as you do it, I do encourage people who've never tried a No Money Spent in these modes to give it a go at some point.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Vaguely related comment (which at least tells you I'm still reading this thread) ...

...

Whether it's as utterly basic as I do it or as intricately as you do it, I do encourage people who've never tried a No Money Spent in these modes to give it a go at some point.

appreciate the attention

...

and agreed, it's an interesting long term grind, i kinda like it (and right now i miss thinking about it occasionally)

[QuikSand]

Was feeling pressure to improve at a key position, WR. Bought a LTD 88 WR Brian Finneran for $472k. He’s big and pretty fast… I think he is a Madden legend much more than he ever was in the NFL.

However, the Team of the Week hero for wk 1 was Tyreek Hill, and … yikes. So fast. Like 2 pts faster than anyone else in the game. It’s a good thing for the game but bad for my Finneran card’s value. Then an 88 Megatron dropped Saturday, so Finneran isn’t even the best big target available. Ugh.

Still sniping and churning out some coin profits here and there. But it’s been sorta tedious, especially without the iPhone app yet (for a six week old game).

The boy has lost interest, too. Was a big part of my enthusiasm to have this be a cooperative thing…we’ll see.

[QuikSand]

Erred by having a lot of my worth tied up in cards (buy low, sell high, but without a functioning app and limited time to get to my console… the interval between is longer). The market has fallen, and I was positioned poorly.

I have a lot of cards that will sell back at maybe 80-90% of what I paid for them. It hurts.

[QuikSand]

Okay, put some time into coin-making, and completed the 88 Tyreek Hill set three times, each for over 50k in profit. Sold my 88 Finneran and now have 88 RB Bo Jackson, 88 MLB Mantei Teo, and 88 Tyreek Hill as focus players.

Roster needs: DT, better safety, some OL

[QuikSand]

Saturday is generally the low-market day each week, they release Legends cards, they are often among the best in the game, and people buy packs to pursue them and sell off what else they get in the packs.

I started the morning with just over 1m in cash, now have under 100K. Just a major market crash... bought up some solid Chargers to start luring the boy into play in the MUT team with me, and to improve a bit generally. Some investments. We'll see where we land longer term, but... interesting day.

[QuikSand]

Ok, market hasn’t really snapped back. Training still selling down around 35 gold each… down from 50-ish. But I’ve sold off much of what I bought on Saturday, I’m back over 800k, and now have a fully playable all-Chargers roster that my son can play in challenges. Also have an 88 FS Sean Taylor as a major improvement on the best overall team.

Doing ok. Still engaging.

[QuikSand]

Sitting in a bar. Between engagements. It happens.

Market weird. Lots of cards I’ve watched really cheap. Maybe related to announcement that new prime cards will be rated 90. Makes these 88s feel pedestrian maybe?

Tryna profit before I check out from the land of the living.

[QuikSand]

Churning all my money, second weekend in a row. Buy on Saturday, then gradually sell nearly all of it off as the week goes on.

Want to write up a proper roster review here, but I'm basically just one titanic player short of a full maxed-out Chargers roster, and am down to maybe only 4-8 of the original 84 rookie cards still being used on my roster now.

[QuikSand]

Top players in MUT are at 90. A solid tier now, a week and a half into that level.

I had filled up many Charger-less spots on my working roster with solid 88 and 89 fill ins. Have now sold some of them off in a somewhat strong Friday market.

Now Saturday should offer bargains. I have 1.8m in cash, a couple of Limited Edition players who could quick sell for 350k in a pinch, and am ready to buy up in a few key spots.

I had expected Justin Herbert to be the QB who lured me away from RG3 but… Geno Smith? Maybe?

[QuikSand]

Not a huge weekend. Now running w 90 Beast Mode and he’s fun for the time being. Built the set to get 90 QB Geno Smith, he gets the valuable “gunslinger” trait which makes him a sharper and quicker passer than RG3, but the delays is honestly not huge.

I have 30 chargers in the lineup. Medium term goal is to hit 50, where we get +2 speed, rather than the +1 now. But there are insufficient cards right now to get there. Still waffling on filling in with quality non Chargers. It’s a better team but not really fun or interesting.

[QuikSand]

Came into this weekend, after traveling, ready to do stuff. Market was up Friday evening, I sold off a lot of my non-SD valuable cards. Had planned on a Saturday crash to re-buy up.

Crash didn’t really come. Legends were unexciting, I didn’t see the waves of value like I was used to.

Anyway, curnt sit:

-2.9m in coins, plus two expensive cards for sale… if they go, maybe 3.6m

-the top cards now are rated 90. The jump to 91 is coming, likely next weekend. I see that as a likely window for a drop in the market, and I’m going to stay liquid in coins for the most part until then.

Right now, the top Charger players I’m missing are:

90 SS Derwin James
90 QB Geno Smith
90 TE Donald Parham
87 ROLB Kyle Van Noy
87 QB Tyrod Taylor

… I’ve actually had the top three of these at various times, but I’ve been playing the buy low, sell high game a bit. The Parham is one of the items that I have for sale at the moment, purchased for 400 K, trying to get back a profit.

At today’s prices, the three 90 rated cards would probably cost me 1.3 million in coins. I am hoping by waiting a week or so, to bring that price down substantially.

[QuikSand]

So, there is an interesting opportunity sitting out there… I am not sure whether to pursue it. Right now, the top cards are rated 90, meaning the component cards for many of the sets used to create the 90 rated cards are driven by 87 rated cards.

Assuming that by this weekend, the top rated cards will bump up to 91, that seems like it would make the 88 rated cards the desired commodity. Right now, 88 rated cards are mostly trading at training value… About 25 coins per unit of training, roughly as low as you can get that ratio. But 87 cards are selling at a much higher exchange rate, like 35 or so.

If I’m right, and it seems like it would be an awfully profitable move to go out and buy, say, 20 cards rated 88 right now. If I am prudent in buying them, I can probably purchase for 100 K or less, each, spending at most 2 million coins. If, when things flipped to 91 rated cards, and I am correct that 88 rated cards are now in more demand as components for the new top cards… Maybe all those 100 K investments cash out at 140 K or thereabouts.

(Please forgive audio typos)