Preview Packs
Hey guys,
I wanted to take some time and provide my thoughts on preview packs so far! What an interesting change from EA. They clearly wanted to release this a few months prior to Fifa 22 for data collection IMO. I'm really intrigued to see how they carry this into Fifa 22.
I personally feel right now that the current approach assists users too much and will have a negative impact on sales for EA. There is absolutely nothing stopping you from previewing packs on 7 different accounts, which could be really profitable over the course of the year.
Also, to be clear, I do recommend using as many accounts as possible for these preview packs. If EA let you, why not? Obviously, to some extent, having the coins necessary to purchase on all accounts could become the issue.
These are things I've noticed in the current state:
1. Supply
Preview packs are bringing a massive supply to top end cards. These include not only current promo cards like Felix, Firmino, Rebic, but also top Icons.
If you look at some top icons they’ve dropped significantly during this preview period With previews, anyone who sees icons in packs will open them, so it dramatically increases the supply. This also makes bidding at these times extremely efficient. Similar to Lightning Rounds (or actually LR) there will be too much supply in a short period. You can even look to bid on high rated fodder as that’s what will entice people to open packs.
2. Substitute Cards/Day Trading
This is something to be aware of in the future, but with new promo players getting crazy supply it hurts alternate cards in similar leagues and positions. This was best seen with Chilwell Path to Glory. He came out around Day 1 at ~130K. This brought TOTS Shaw from 220 to 95K and What If Reguilon from 170 to 85K. New cheap card in a needed position really diminishes the value of other similar players as seen above.
3. Buy Windows
Buy times have been pushed to later time due to heavy supply. This is more significant on PS than Xbox. Promo cards over the weekend hit a low point closer to 10 PM UK which is later than it ever has been.
From there, they rise into even the early morning as the rarity continued to increase. It just takes a lot longer to clear through the supply. You hit a good mix of listings stopping as EU sleeps and cards getting bought.
4. Sniping
Sniping meta cards, low rated promo cards (Paredes/Rebic) and SBC fodder is amazing at this time. Big undercuts and similar to bidding, but I know some prefer sniping.