FROM 0 TO 1,000,000 COINS - PART V

225,000 – 400,000

If this is the first guide you are seeing, make sure you jump back to part one and work your way through the rest! While some of the content may not directly apply, every little bit offers advice and knowledge that may simply improve or solidify what you already know. To ensure you stay up to date with new releases and trading information too, ensure you follow both myself (@ImADuckQuackk) and FUTBIN (@FUTBIN) on Twitter!

Ok then guys, so we should be sitting comfortably on at least 225,000 coins as it stands, (well if you have been keeping on top of the various methods and repeating your Marquee Matchup investments you will most likely be closer to 300,000), but for the purpose of these guides we will assume the latter. At this point we are moving into the realms of larger money trading and a whole heap of options that were previously non-viable suddenly become an appealing option for us going forward. This episode of the guide however will attempt to keep things nice and simple still, we will be looking once again at repeat events, events that can provide a reliable source of income time after time.

Player Of The Month (POTM)

Once again, let's start with the basics. The POTM award drops every month and is based around real life footballing events. As it stands EA only create challenges for the Premier League with the winner being directly linked to the real-life winner of the award. The SBC usually consists of 2-4 parts and offers a POTM version of the players card with increased stats across the board. There is a public vote that counts for a nominal percentage of the voting, while the board come together to ultimately decide on the overall winner.

Investing in this follows a similar path to that of Marquee Matchups, it involves a lot of guess work and your safest option is to always sell on hype. This works in our favor, we have experience trading in such a manner and hence we should feel fairly comfortable making both buying and selling decisions here.

Deciding On The Possible Winner

What would define an incredible month for the average football fan, may not be exactly what the general public and judges tend to look for when deciding upon the winner. If you were to look back on previous winners of this award, you would realize the sheer lack of both defenders and goalkeepers listed. Obviously sometimes attacking players simply are more deserving, however a lot of the time goals and assists simply speak louder than clean sheets. Unless a defender or goalkeeper has an incredible month, then we should be targeting players with goals/assists to their name.

Another important factor to keep in mind is the overall performance of the team. If somebody is scoring but the team is dropping points constantly, their overall impact instantly becomes a lot less effective than a similar situation where the team is winning. Creating a shortlist after each weekly game can become incredibly helpful as it allows you to stay ahead of the market and react more effectively to change.

Predicting the Possible Challenges

This is where it becomes extremely difficult when dealing with your POTM investments as EA have a tendency to deliver unexpected challenges. In the past we have seen several concepts repeat themselves, these would often be described as the safer, more predictable investments and include: 
Players/Special cards from the same nationality as the winner
Players/Special cards from the same club as the winner.
Players/Special cards from the same league as the winner.
Players/Special cards from the same previous clubs as the winner.
Player/Special cards of the winner.

These types of investments are ones that the majority of people will immediately think of and hence if we are buying them early enough, it opens a huge window of hype in which we can sell them. We also have the option of thinking completely outside the box and attempting to guess requirements that nobody else will be looking at. The bonus of taking this approach is that profit margins will likely be incredible if you guess correctly, however we are removing the opportunity to sell on hype and also avoiding a much safer predictable investment in order to carry this out.

We also need to consider the possible rating of the player along with an estimated cost of the challenge. Now I'm not suggesting we need to know exactly how much this challenge could cost but having a guideline could massively help us shape our investments. For example; if Eden Hazard were to win, we can safely assume that the team ratings will not be 83 and lower consisting of perhaps an inform or two. Just like if Peter Crouch were to win, we aren't going to expect an 87-rated squad consisting of an 88 inform as well. Obvious factors such as these allow us to price up our investments while helping us understand where we may envisage them selling at in the future.

Selling Investments

Now we have previously touched on this subject but covering it in a little more depth can't hurt. Like with every investment we make we have two options; we either sell during the hype or we hold until the event. Now while both hold their own merits in certain situations, selling during the windows of hype is almost always the correct decision. Selling on hype removes the element of risk, we don't need to wait and see if our investments are included, we don't need to compete with everybody else panic selling if we were wrong, we simply offload for a profit and re-invest in the next venture.

So, when does it become the correct, or at least an acceptable decision to favor holding opposed to selling in the hype? If your investments still have potential to grow, however have hardly moved up until this point, holding is usually an acceptable option. Some basic math will allow you to determine your current position, ask yourself; what will this card sell for if it isn't needed and hence what is my potential loss vs what will this card sell for If needed and hence what is my potential gain? If this is a risk you are willing to take then feel free to roll those dice, however always make sure you fully understand that by doing so you are potentially throwing away any profit you worked so hard to achieve.  

League SBCs

League SBCs were a new addition to FIFA last year and one that went down extremely well with the player-base. The SBC presents individual challenges for each and every team in the league, usually requiring a full team of 11 players for each and every club. The formations and rating requirements differ between each club, as do the rewards you receive for completing each individual challenge. Upon completing each team in the league, players are rewarded with a premium card of a certain player alongside the coin rewards. When we combine the multiple pack rewards, the coin bonus and the SBC player obtained, we quickly realize why players simply love completing these types of challenges.

Preparing In Advance

Now with most investments we need to put aside time to research, time to understand the market, time to estimate when may be the cheapest period to buy and also time to consider when the best time to sell may be. Now with League SBC investments we barely need to even lift a finger, the work is practically all done for us already. We know what the requirements are going to be (11 players from each club), we know roughly what the rating will be (when pre-building the clubs it becomes fairly easy to guess), we can also prepare in advance for any random formation EA choose to throw at us (we can buy extra players to cover all angles) and finally we don't necessarily need transfer list space (we can store one of each player in the club). So, with all of these positives going in our favor, what exactly is stopping us from investing here?

Firstly, let's talk about what we should be spending. Obviously as time goes on and the bigger leagues draw closer, prices tend to start rising for those cards that are a little rarer (bronzes and silvers for positions that have fewer options). If we buy players such as these, we are simply buying other people's investments and potentially overpaying, this is what we want to be avoiding at all costs. These players may carry a higher price due to anticipation, but I can guarantee you that hardly anybody is paying attention to them in the grand scheme of things. Bidding and sniping work a treat here, if a player feels overpriced, simply bid on a large quantity, continue about your day, and then rinse and repeat this process, you will win one eventually. The same logic is applicable for gold players; however, we have the additional bonus here of the massive supply available. Bidding and sniping once again is critical if we are planning on maximizing our profit, we want to be paying as close to discard for each and every player.

Now let's discuss what exactly we should be buying during this early preparation period. Personally, I invested in leagues a while back. I built each team in a 4-4-2 formation and then bought an additional midfielder and center-back to cover almost every formation. This allowed me to complete the SBC (not advisable if we are aiming to maximize profit) and also gave me a couple of extra players that could be sold to recoup a large percentage of what I initially paid back. If you have the patience and the coins are aren't needed for a month or two, I would advise picking up one of each player available, paying around discard for each. If the challenge is released and you decide you would like to complete it, you still have a wide selection of extras available to be sold, allowing you to effectively complete the challenge for a profit. If the challenge is released and you decide it's sell time, you have a whole heap of cards available, covering all formations and rating requirements and are in a fantastic position to make a small fortune.

To give you a rough example of just how profitable investing in these can be:
Bundesliga Investment Cost: 50,000-75,000 Coins.
Bundesliga Current Cost: 340,000 Coins.
Bundesliga Bayern challenge requires 3 86 rated players at a cost of 90k. We would have unlikely invested in these.
Bundesliga Adapted Cost: 250,000 Coins.
Bundesliga Profit (Assuming we ONLY had 11 players per club): 175,000-200,000 Coins.

These calculations around a week after the challenge dropped. If we are selling the gold players earlier and the silver players a little further down the line, we could be adding a large chunk onto these numbers as well.

Select Investments

Whether you decide to complete each and every team or not, this is a viable approach that offers the possibility of profits ranging from 10-50 times your initial investment. When the Serie A SBC dropped, Benevento CB's were extinct for weeks before EA finally increased their price ranges. When the Bundesliga dropped, Frankfurt wingers instantly became extinct and still remain this way as it stands. These are the types of players we are desperately trying to find and these are the kind of investments that can make us that million overnight.

The key here is all down to research. Which teams only have X players available for X slots and are therefore required? Which teams only have silver players in X position and are hence a lot rarer than others which have golds? Which teams play in a formation that require X players to even come close to obtaining the required chemistry? Questions such as these will shape your investments and allow you to make incredible profit. For obvious reasons I will not be listing future example within this guide (as it would simply cripple the market), however you have all the tools required to find these possible gems yourself!

Selling Investments

One of the most common questions I receive revolves around when to sell investments. Now obviously depending on the actual investment, the reason it was bought and the current trend of the market, this answer can wildly differ based on each scenario. Luckily for us however, these investments commonly follow the same exact pattern.

Gold Cards: Packs are constantly opened within FUT and the majority of these packs are those that contain gold players. When a new SBC drops we have an initial influx of demand for cards, a demand that can quickly eat through supply. In this state, packs aren't being opened fast enough to catch up with demand and as supply begins to dwindle, prices start to rise. Now obviously as time goes on more and more packs are opened and the prices of these gold players begin to drop, the key selling window for these cards is during the initial hype when everybody is attempting to buy from a limited pool of supply.

Keep in mind that certain gold cards may be required to complete an SBC, these will obviously hold their value and likely rise past this initial hype period. A prime example would be Spanish players from the Bundesliga which are a must for the new advanced SBC.

Silver Cards: Silver packs are opened a lot less than both gold and bronze and hence these cards carry a much more limited supply on the market. During the initial hype we see demand increase and a large quantity of these cards are snapped off the market. The difference between these players and the gold ones mentioned above is simply the rate in which they are replenished. As time goes by, if demand continues to outweigh the rate in which these players are packed and added to the market, prices will continuously rise. This is how we get to situations like the ones mentioned above where players actually, become extinct. Holding these players for a week or two will usually see a higher return in profits.

Keep in mind that while this may be the case for plenty of silver cards, some are simply useless due to the other options available. If a position has multiple cards available to fill the spot, then demand will be split amongst the group of cards. If one of these cards is of gold rarity, your investments are likely to rise alongside the initial hype and then drop back down. It is important that you are aware of such changes and make notes upon investing/selling.

Trading After Release

Just because the SBC has been released it doesn't mean that our investing and trading potential has gone, in fact we suddenly have an unlimited supply of potential that we can tap into as and when we please. Basic trading methods such as sniping, bidding or even mass bidding work an absolute treat around league SBCs and as you gain more confident and begin to learn rough prices, your knowledge only improves along with your profits.
Test different filters, find out which players sell for a nice chunk, which teams have the rarer cards, which positions are good to mass bid on, which rarity returns a higher profit – options are unlimited!

Conclusion

If you have been following along and repeating investments as and when applicable, then you shouldn't have any issues getting up towards this 400,000-coin mark. As we come towards the end of our SBC's and repeat event investments, this is where we are going to need commitment and dedication. While we have some methods to talk about that are extremely straight forward and simple, the majority of them will require more research and a stronger understanding of the market, which we can tackle and learn together!