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BUNT Rookie Tip of the Week: Patience is a (Pack) Virtue

Hey you guys,

Another edition of Rookie ToTW here today to explain everybody's favorite part of the app: pack opening!

Now I know it's more than tempting to jump at the chance to open some packs and test your luck but let me tell you this: it's better to hold off!

Woah, what?

I mean it, it's often better to save your coins and wait for those weekly bonuses. Focus instead on trading for coin cards and stockpiling as much as possible. Because when BUNT does pack sales, they go all out.

Pack discounts and sales are usually a weekly occurrence and can be anything from increased chances at super rares to lower odds for an insert, to half off the regular pack price. It always varies.

Now to the fun part, my recommendations when choosing packs to buy.

1. ALWAYS take advantage of Sunday Brunch and/or Cup of Joe pack sales. These are early riser packs which may mean sacrificing some sleep or waking up earlier than usual but they're worth it. These things are loaded with inserts for that week and usually fairly cheap. If you see some, buy them! 

2. Keep an eye out for specials during the week. Packs like Happy Hour (doubled super rare chances and other bonuses) are sometimes available and packs sometimes go on sale for as much as half off their regular price.

3. Some packs aren't as popular as BUNT believes they should be. As a result, Topps will begin to discontinue these packs. Despite their good value, they often don't contain the inserts you'd like. (Here's looking at you, 7th Inning Stretch). Be wary of picking these up.

4. Don't waste your coins on base packs (Hi-Five, Triple). You can just as easily trade for these cards, and while it may be tempting to buy all the packs you can afford with your weekly bonus, hold off. You'll be thankful when you can take advantage of the next big pack discount.

5. BE CAUTIOUS about chasing the newest inserts. Topps has begun to split up their inserts into their own separate packs. For instance, you could only find the Gypsy Queen insert set (when it was in circulation) in two places: a), the Gypsy Queen pack, and b), trading for it. Be careful, as these packs often have low odds of pulling your desired insert. Check the corresponding article and see what your odds are of pulling one. If they're more than 1:40, I usually don't buy them and chance my trade luck instead.

EDITOR'S RANKING:

-Starred packs are limited edition/special offer only

1. (Tie) Sunday Brunch*

1. (Tie) Happy Hour* (pack odds doubled for red and above, easiest to pull golds)

2. Twitter Pack* (must contact Topps using your Twitter name to gain access)

3. Cup of Joe*

4. Triple+ Inserts

   6% gold, 12% silver, 15% red, 20% green, 47% white

5. Instagram Pack (hit or miss)* (must contact Topps using your Instagram account name to gain access)

6. Hi Five+ Inserts

   6% gold, 12% silver, 15% red, 20% green, 47% white

7. Limited Edition low odds packs for sets (Turkey Red, Gypsy Queen, Tribute, etc.)

8. Hi-Five (can't pull anything higher than red)

   18% red, 36% green, 46% white

9. Triple (can't pull anything higher than red)

   18% red, 36% green, 46% white

Enjoy, and happy trading!

[topps-bunt]

BUNT Rookie Tip of the Week: Insert Values

Hey you guys,

This week I'm going to be giving you my personal picks for insert values to try and give you guys a leg up on the trading scale, so to speak. Shoutout to my wonderful group over at BGWACA for helping put together this list.

1. Signature Series: Everybody wants an autographed card of their favorite baseball player. Often these run at 600 production or lower.

2. Fired Up Series: Really rare, but awesome looking cards. Hard to come by since most are 400 production or lower.

3. Mystery: These are hard to come by, but if you happen upon one chances are you could get a signature for them if you play your cards right. No pun intended.

4. Turkey Red: I personally don't like the look of these cards and won't be chasing them, but due to their extremely low numbers and set reward promise, they are currently fetching a nice price as they are at the end of their production circulation.

5. Sunday Night Baseball: The value on these cards plummeted due to the high number produced in week 10 but have risen both in value and rarity. They are harder and harder to get every week. Each "set" of ten comes with a reward card. Comes out every Sunday.

6. Gypsy Queen: My personal pick for number six includes some of the lowest production numbers for inserts we've seen lately. Great looking cards and would make a great set but are hard to pull for the 3.5k a pack cost we are faced with currently. Will get a lot of trade value towards the end of the set collecting period.

7. Goin' Yard: Nice looking cards with a good set reward of Pujols. However they aren't going to be worth much now that the set reward has expired. Still hold some trade value however. Value will drop soon and the next insert (Bowman) will surpass it.

8. Bowman: Fairly rare set of cards, but the value is dropping, as above, per the award being discontinued.

9. League Leaders: These cards only hold value during the month they are active as a set. After that, despite their often low production numbers, they don't hold much value.

10. (Tie) Archive Series: Were high value when the Rod Carew reward and 7.4k coins were attached for completing the set. Rapidly dropping as a result of the award no longer being available.

10. (Tie) Golden Moments: Value is always high when a new GM is released. It drops once the coin reward is over but they're generally low numbered, 700 and below. Hank Aaron's Golden Moments card is the hardest to obtain, and with only 250 made, many consider it worth a signature.

11. (Tie) Player of the Week (POTW): Might end up offering a reward for collecting all of them, haven't seen any so far. Much in the same manner as the Golden Moment series, they only hold their value for the week they offer coin rewards and then drop off drastically (with exceptions to those that are low production). EXCEPTION: Troy Tulowitzki POTW.

12. Editor's Choice: Decent looking cards with low numbers. The set award was just released so they don't have much value now.

13. Future Is Now: Nice cards. Many still hold trade value, especially Mike Trout and Bryce Harper. Again, the set doesn't hold much value due to the lack of an attached reward.

14. Topps Illustrated: Plummeting value, UNLESS you have one of the 250 production and under cards. These can still fetch a high trade price. The rest aren't worth much as far as insert standards go.

15. Throwback Thursday: These often have a high production count and hold little value after the award for them expires due to this. Give 1,000 coins a pop when active.

16. Cannon Series: Highly sought after when the set award was active. Now they don't hold much value, again, with an exception to those produced in under 300 numbers.

17. Heritage Series: Aside from Giancarlo Stanton and Chase Utley, some series 1 of the set, this has lost tons of value, possibly due to the increased production numbers of series 2 cards.

18. Fan's Choice: Still a bit too high in value for my likes but these cards still are capable both in the points earning category and the trade category. Worth more when they are brand new to packs. Have declined thanks to the Springer award for Series 1 being given out. 

19. Saberstars: The rarer Saber cards like Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw still hold some value, but those that aren't super rare have become pretty much worthless.

20. Opening Day: Only have value in large numbers of super rares and aren't sought after much anymore. Award is long gone and therefore they don't hold a significant trade worth.

HUGE GAP IN VALUE

21. On Deck: Given to new BUNT players in 2014 (much like the new Men of Action series on Android's BUNT platform), they have over 100,000 copies and are pretty much devoid of any worth whatsoever.

22. Men of Action: On Deck cards for BUNT users on the Android platform. People still are trying to fetch high prices for them but they're not worth much now.

Enjoy, and happy trading!

[topps-bunt]

BUNT Rookie Tip of the Week: Base Cards and Trading Them

Hey you guys,

My first post on this blog should probably be a helpful one, right?

I’m here to explain to you all the normal trading values between base cards, the differences between each level of base card, and finally, the criteria looked at when trading these cards. (This is obviously more for the new players.)

Base Cards

As you’ve probably noticed, there are five levels of base cards in Topps BUNT. But the differences between them (and how to trade for the upper tiers of them) might not be so clear, other than their color.

1. Production Number

As you tap to flip the card from the picture of the player to the statistics side of the card, you probably notice a rarity and a number in parentheses down in the lower left hand corner. I’ve highlighted it in the picture below for reference. (Pardon my bad drawing skills.)

That little bar right there is super important. It states both the rarity of the card and the production number. 

Most veteran traders will only swap cards of similar production number with each other. So even if you offer five golds with a 2,000+ production number for his sold out 400 production, it probably won’t go through.

KEEP IN MIND, production numbers change nightly as cards are pulled. The number isn't solid until the "Sold Out" banner is on the front of the card. New base cards may seem rarer at first, but will eventually catch up to the other base cards.

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2. Rarity

Rarity also plays a big factor in even card trading in Topps BUNT 2014. There are five levels of base cards in BUNT, and they range in rarity as follows.

 a) White: Referred to also as “common” due to their rarity on the back of the card, these are the least rare and the easiest to pull in packs and make trades for. For example. common Derek Jeter has around 44,000 copies. As a general rule, you can trade three commons for a green or five for a red. It’s exceptionally hard to trade whites for any level higher than red and you certainly can’t buy a gold with them.

b) Green: Referrred to also as “uncommon”, these are the second lowest rarity and are very easy to pull in packs (other than common) and make trades for and with. For example, green Derek Jeter has around 20,000 copies. As you can see, the number of cards for that rarity has already gone down almost 20,000 copies for that particular card, making it more rare than white. Getting the hang of it? As a general rule, you can get three whites for a green or trade three greens for a red.

c) Red: Referred to also as “rare”, these are the middle tier of rarity and are fairly easy to pull, but not easier than green or white and are pretty easy to make trades with. For example, red Derek Jeter has around 14,000 copies. As a general rule, you can get three greens for a red or sometimes you can trade three to five reds for a silver.

d) Silver: Referred to also as “scarce”, these are the second highest tier of base card and are somewhat difficult to pull but very easy to trade with. For example, silver Derek Jeter has around 22,000 copies (this is usually lower depending on the player). As a general rule, you can get three to five reds for a silver or trade three silvers for a gold, if you find the right trader.

e) Gold: Known mainly as “super rare”, these are the highest tier of base cards in BUNT. For example, gold Derek Jeter has around 6,000 copies. This is the most you’ll probably see from a gold in BUNT, as most run around 2,000 copies. You can get pretty much whatever cards you want for a gold and people will usually swap gold for gold, especially between similar rarities or duplicates.

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3. Heat Index

I’m not going to go into so much detail about the heat index of a card as others, since many players disregard this statistic. Basically, HOT cards have higher value than WARM, COOL, or COLD.

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4. Playing Time and Points

This is a big one. Make sure you pay attention to the points earned by a particular player the last time they took the field. This applies a lot to pitchers, as nobody is going to want to trade their 400 point a start Strasburg for Matt Harvey, who has never played a 2014 game and is out for the season. If a pitcher is on the DL, the only chance you have to trade him is for another DL pitcher or give three to four of them for a low point starter.

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Hope this helped at least a little to all the rookies looking to make their first trades in BUNT! This is a great game I know you’ll enjoy, and these weekly gameplay tips might make things just a bit easier to help build your collections!

Happy trading!

JOBOTHEGOALIE

Admin, BGWACA Group, BUNT 2014