Do you guys think trading cards for games that are not as common as tf2 (ie portal 2, hl2) will stay the same price, increase, or decrease?

If all the trading cards are used up, then the value will increase. However, if more games are bought, they will decrease(but also might stay the same as the cards are used up)

So what do you think the value of cards will be in the long run?

11 years ago*

Comment has been collapsed.

Decrease.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I agree. Unless they release a series 2.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Economics says that the price of a card should eventually reach roughly (price of game) divided (number of cards).

Then again, economics also says that I should be earning a decent chunk of cash a month based on my education level, but in reality I'm sitting here in just pants and eating melted cheese and pretzels.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

You're lying, you weren't eating anything, admit it.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I would more guess that he was lying about actually wearing pants rather than eating hahaha

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I prefer to think of him wearing pants made of melted cheese and pretzels.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Sigh.

And I thought I could be anonymous on the internet

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Economics doesn't say either of those things

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

In the long run, the marginal selling price of a good in a perfectly competitive market is equal to its long run average cost. So yes, yes it does.

And earnings is a function of education multiplied by Dorito's crumbs to the inverse of coffee...dammit, what have I spilled on my bloody notes this time?

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

That's making two assumptions
1) The Steam market is perfectly competitive. This might be true but I doubt it's perfectly competitive.
2) The average cost of a card is the same as (price of game)/(number of card drops). I think this is the key flaw. You're assuming the game itself has no value.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I don't see how the steam market could be anything but perfectly competitive - anyone can buy the games, all data relating to market prices are easily accessible and anyone can sell the cards.

I'll concede the second point - I've assumed that the games wouldn't be purchased in the future for any other reason than to get cards (ie: a user creates a new account for the sole reason of buying a game he already owns to get the card drops).
I do think this assumption holds to some extent for the more unpopular games provided they don't go on sale.

The reason I think the prices will go up is simply because the cards are used up far quicker than they are dropped.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I think the Steam market is probably close to perfectly competitive but since trades happen outside the market through trades and bots some of that perfect knowledge is lost.

I also think that card prices will rise over time for the same reason that you do. It's also worth noting that the current cards are marked as "Series 1" implying that they may be discontinued and new series may be created. This could obviously increase their price more. At that point the price of the card would probably have nothing to do with the game and could in theory be worth more than the game itself.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

They'll drop, they've been dropping ever since the beta. The prices, that is.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Where are today new trading cards ?????

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Increase, since a player can only get 50% of the cards there aren't enough cards on the total of the people to get full card sets so they will probably increase and give the current state a week or two since the newbies joined when the beta ended and give hella-cheap prices, give it time.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Booster packs.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Rare.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Not anymore when all the massive TF2 item farms start dropping them too, nope.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Doesn't work that way. Booster packs don't drop at a set rate. The drops are controlled depending on the saturation of the market. If there are too few of a particular set on the market then booster drops increase. If there are too many of a set on the market then booster drops will decrease or even stop altogether. Item farms will not increase the overall supply in the long run.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

A) How do you know it's the case and not simply random like TF2 hat drops? Also, if it really stops dropping when there are too many sets on the market, prices will fall too like I said in my first post. B) My point was, 'idlefarm' accounts exist to generate stuff for sale. While normal player might use booster or fail to do anything with it, these will end up on the market somehow increasing total supply.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

A. Because Valve employees have stated on the forums that booster drop rates were controlled based on the market. B. He who controls the supply controls the price. If the price drops below a certain point supply is cut off until the price increases. No amount of idle accounts will make a damned bit of difference once that happens.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

A: rare B: Still it's only 3 cards doesn't build a whole set.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Trine 2? :P 3 cards + game drops > whole set, actually.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I think the cards with the 6 total is 2 cards, not sure though. PLUS as I said there's no 100% chance of you getting the exact cards you need and that makes you to trade them and they are running low.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Even if only 2 cards, Trine 2 actually has 5 cards total, and 3 are in initial game drops...

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

0,01

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Except for a few exceptions, most card set prices have stayed fairly stable since the beta ended. A few have even gone up. There will probably be a slight dip during and just after the summer sale but then it will even out again.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Trading cards will never be more expensive than the cost of the game divided by the number of card drops the game has. Because if you pay more than that for a card, you are a complete moron. Because you can just buy the game again on a different account and get more cards. This does not apply to foil cards of course.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Pay close attention to Jagged Alliance: BiA cards. Those might just increase in price.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

The same happened to Zombie Driver cards. 30eurocents at first, 50-70 now.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

For everyone saying that the price of cards will NEVER go above the price of the game divided by drops, you're not taking reality into account at all. The major thing here is that you can get duplicates if you just make a new account and rebuy the game, and the reason people buy cards is to craft badges, which need one of each unique card.

Granted, cards still won't go that high for a number of reasons, but people really need to stop breaking out their fake economics degrees here.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

a duplicate is not a problem at all, you can always sell it and buy for the same amount of money the one you need.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Not true. You're forgetting about the 15 percent transaction fee, and the fact that cards from the same game can have different values. Strike Suit Infinity, for example, has cards ranging from 85 cents to 1.12 dollars at the time of this writing.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Okay, and what if you happen to have 2 of the more expensive ones? :) You'll even be in plus. The 15% fee isn't really a big deal. You may lose/gain more just becuase of constant price fluctuations.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Yes, but what if you get two of the cheaper ones? The whole point here is that you bought the game again because the cards went over the 'ideal' price, but people are forgetting about hundreds of other factors, such as convenience. I know for a fact that if cards went over their 'max' price, I'd just buy the cards instead of rebuying the game thanks to the sheer convenience, security, and effort saving.

I'm arguing that the 'max' price being the price of the game divided by drops is an incredibly poorly thought out concept that doesn't make sense when you take the real world into account.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

If by rebuying the game you'd save only a couple of cents it wouldn't be worth the hassle. But I'm pretty sure many people would go for it if the savings were, say, 30-50cents. BTW some of them would not only do that for that little gain, but also for a good cause of supporting developers.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I guarantee you that enough people will think it's enough of a gamble that they'll buy the cards on the market for over the value. Even if it goes a buck or two for the full collection over, I would gladly pay the difference to save the hassle of making a new account, activating it, idling there, and hoping that I don't get duplicates. Of course, they won't go that high for a number of other reasons that I don't care to get into, but the 'max' price thing is a pretty fundamentally flawed argument when you try and apply it to the real world.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

What about card swap pages? 0% fee...

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Again, time and effort, not to mention the fact that the vast majority don't offer 1:1 trades. If not using a bot, you first have to find someone who wants your card, and then you have to hope that they want your card, too. If you're using a bot, you have to find one that has the prices and stock you want, and they usually have hour-ish queue times. Again, I'd gladly pay a buck or two on the market to avoid all that hassle.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I traded 20 cards so far to complete sets, took me maybe 30 min and 4 Outpost offers...

It will take longer than that for a complete noob, but anyone who ever traded TF2 items usually knows where to look.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

No, there are some fees in the steam market.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

decrease when it will be public.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I thought I still had 1 or 2 days

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

yeah, where have you been?
Honestly, i don't think the prices changed that much, some games went down a little while others went up a little.

The Prices have changed a lot since the beginning of the trading card beta.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

sold them all in the beta. Bought them back and saved like 40 cents for each card

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Unpopular game cards might increase, popular will definitely decrease, that's how I see it

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

All these cards are worth $0 in my opinion. I'd never pay for them, or accept them as a form of currency. :P

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Hey, could I buy that DOTA 2 invite off you? I'll give you 10 trading cards! What's that? You won't accept them? Oh well. :|

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I dunno, I got a few games with just trading the cards.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

not sure if cards are rare or i am lucky i got 2 cs go cards and played less than 2 hrs to get them

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

The same. But why don't you ask Steam's economist.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

the value will decrease a bit more in next months, them will increase again but slowly

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Somebody's got to figure a way to set up a Steam trading cards futures market and get rich.

11 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

There's always a market decline, they'll drop accordingly to if the game is bundled, on sale or it lowers price.

10 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Closed 10 years ago by pacifist.