Welcome to MakingStarWars.net’s Star Wars Card Trader Roundup #14!

It’s been a little while since our last column. Going forward, we’re going to be focusing less on release news and more on aspects of the app that may increase your enjoyment of it – old sets and good and bad trades.  Today we have an interesting topic and a fantastic interview conducted by Mark Seyb (SWCT: GRIDDLEMARKS and @Griddlemarks on Twitter) with one of the app’s most active traders and all-around good guy.

HOARDING

Our topic this week is hoarding. One of the things that has grown organically in the Star Wars Card Trader App is character hoarding. Some people only choose to go after cards that contain their favorite character, while some people choose to hoard base cards and variants of their character, trying to get every color of their character’s rainbow. Lastly, many people just choose to hoard white base of the characters, hoping to get enough copies to turn their hoard into a Monument Card. If you’re unfamiliar with Monument Cards, essentially, when you collect 5,500 of your character by a certain date, you could trade in those 5,500 cards for a single Monument Card. The final count on the Monument Card depended on how many people hoarded that character. The more popular character would have a higher final count and typically be harder to hoard as well.

One player who has taken hoarding to a whole other level in the Star Wars Card Trader App is Mike DeRose. Mike is THE Mas Amedda collector on the app and and in real life. You shouldn’t ever bother hoarding Mas because he’s already been there and hoarded that. We asked Mike a couple questions on why he hoarded and why Mas Amedda.

Star Wars Card Trader Round Up: Thanks for answering some questions for us Mike. So…why do you hoard?

Mike DeRose: Back in June I was getting tired of chasing marathons and sets for awards. Half the time I couldn’t keep up and would have to gut my collection at deadline to make sure I didn’t miss out. Then first week of July, they introduced the Monuments. It looked like there might have been a way to play the game that wouldn’t be as frustrating. Easy trades people wanted to make. I decided a couple days into hoarding that I would make it my sole purpose in the game to build up the largest single character hoard that I could. It has been quite rewarding to have reached the numbers that I have. I feel like anybody can get awards and build sets, but to have some of the numbers on the lower count cards and some of the highest numbers on some of the base cards, it’s something I really enjoy. Even if it’s not a main character, it’s still pretty cool to see such a full and complete collection. It also helped me build a large network of traders I have become friends with many of them outside of the game.

SWCTRO: That’s fantastic. You do have an impressive hoard. So why do you hoard Mas Amedda of all characters?

DeRose: There’s the easy answer, and then the fun answer. The easy answer is nobody else was hoarding him that I could see. No competition was appealing. The fun answer is that Mas Amedda is the second most powerful person in the Empire. Don’t believe me? Read Reddit.

SWCTRO: One last question…any plans to hoard another character? And if you did…who would it be?

DeRose: Probably not. Right now I’m just setting myself up for what I’m hoping is the inevitable release of a Mas signature card. If he doesn’t get some sort of insert I will have a lot of tradebait when his low card count parallels get released. Having two to chase this time will be very painful if I don’t plan ahead.

So, as you can see, hoarding can be another way to get enjoyment out of the app. If you wish to start a hoard, our suggestion, as touched on by Mike DeRose, is to pick a character that you like who may not be one of the most popular characters, If you decide to hoard Rey or Kylo Ren, you may just be one of many hoarding that character, making it harder for you to get a lot of base cards.

WORST TRADE OF THE WEEK

Lastly, a new feature here at Star Wars Card Trader Round Up is Worst Trade of The Week, where we spotlight a horrible trade offered. The names have been removed to protect the guilty.

There’s so much wrong with this trade offer.  It’s completely insulting.  Vintage is regularly the most sought after marathon insert and widevision may very well be the second most sought after.  This trader is asking for multiple of each for one Topp’s Choice card that the other trader already had (as evidenced by the red “x1”.  Given that the trader has 567 trades under their belt, I can only assume this is a trade to try to take advantage of someone who doesn’t know what they are doing.  Please don’t be that kind of trader.

If you wish to see more bad trade offers, follow @badSWCToffers on Twitter. They are always updating with the best of the worst.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

As you can see, you just don’t have to collect sets to get enjoyment out of the app…you can also hoard your favorite character. Mike DeRose is one of the most successful hoarders in the game and he’s also a real nice guy. If you ever have questions on hoarding or strategies for hoarding, he would be more than happy to help. He can be found in the app at ALLSTARWARS and on Twitter @livetheforce. The nice thing about Star Wars Card Trader is that there are truly a lot of great people in the app willing to help. It’s become like a family for many of us and I’m sure you’ll find some great partners out there to trade and hoard with as well.