A FIFA Trader’s Diary

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In this new episode, “A FIFA Trader’s Diary”, the author reports what would happen if a trader decided to keep a diary with his daily negotiations.

A FIFA Trader’s Diary

What would happen if a trader decided to keep a diary with his daily negotiations?

Thursday, September 26th

6:30 am

I woke up by the sound of the neighbours dog barking to death before the alarm even went off, so I decided to use those extra 10 minutes to get up and turn on my pc monitor. I always leave my computer on and the web app open so I don’t have to waste time waiting for it to initiate, I just press F5 and voilà! The day couldn’t have kicked-off better (except for the dog thing). Two Turan, two Pepe and one David Luiz in one night! At first I thought it was just the monitor light blurring my eyes and confusing me, since I was still half asleep and I kept mistyping the letters on the keyboard, but it really happened. It was a great start, but I almost missed the bus because with the coins I had earned I spent some time looking for other players to bid at a good price. I had to run like Usain Bolt so I wouldn’t miss the bus, but it was worth it.

8:30am

I arrived at the company where I work and took the time to relist all of my players. I usually set 1 hour auctions for these cheaper players. I still have a few of those bronzes that you get from gift packs stuck in my transfer list, they just won’t let go even for 150 coins, but I still refuse to quick sell them. Someone desperate will show up. I’m patient.

10:00am

I figured I’d check a few websites since it was coffee break. According to Futwiz, Turan was going for 1106 coins, well, I still managed to sell him for 1700, so I must have been doing it right. Just to make sure I went to futbin and this was actually the average, but the graphics showed there were still a lot of people buying him for 2k. They must be my suppliers 🙂
On our way back, three friends and I started talking about selling, buying, how much profit I managed with this or that player, contracts and other related things. Something quite usual for us, but I did laugh when the 12th floor guy asked if we invested on the Stock Exchange, you know, according to the chat we were having. He seemed a bit disappointed when we explained the whole thing. Deep down people still associate games with kid’s stuff. His loss….

11:45am

Before heading to lunch I realised Pepe’s price had fallen quite a bit, I bought all that I could for 2,000 coins, and only after spending all my coins, of course, I told my mates about the bargain. They’re my mates but they don’t pay for my lunch

12:25pm

Back from lunch I did some research and found that there is no information about my FIFA Points that are still on FIFA 14 being transferred. It’s still not even possible to buy any. EA is testing my patience, I’d voodoo them up if they were a person, but since they’re not, all I can do is wait. Anxiety will kill me some time…

6:00pm

Once again I missed the time. I can’t always relist my players on the right time. Some were only going to expire at 6:15pm, I can’t just head home without leaving their auction on point, it’s almost an OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) that I have. I’m willing to miss the bus but not the deal.

7:30pm

Today I’ve got a birthday party to attend. I’m a bit worried because it’s gonna take about two hours for me get out of there. Two hours!! The guy isn’t even that big friend of mine, but I just can’t refuse cake. Trade or cake? The doubt is consuming me…

9:00pm

I didn’t go to the birthday party, I decided to buy candy on the groceries store and come straight back home. I think I’m starting to get a bit anti-social, I promise I’ll give the guy a visit on the weekend (I’ll see).

9:15pm

I opened the web app and something interesting happened. Actually this happens quite often but it still gets me surprised every time. I bought Samuel for 800 coins and auctioned him with 1500 start price, then after a minute someone got him with buy now while there were several others with 1k of current price, and the weird part is there were buy now prices at 1400. The guy didn’t even care to filter his price, he just saw it and bought. This is why I love non-trader players, they always fill my pockets.

9:45pm

I don’t get enough of these posts “Win 20k FIFA 14 coins just by signing up!”. You just need to give them your login/password so that they can “address you the coins”. They even claim it’s “safe” and that “no other information will be requested”. Wow, how can people fall for that? It’s sad that some actually do. Below there’s always somebody showing interest. What can you do if people don’t investigate? I did get tempted, but of course I didn’t click it…

10:30pm

I built my first decent team with a few good players, ready to go for a few matches. I try not to get attached, after all they’re all going back on auction. If someone pays what I demand they’ll leave, if not we’ll still play some games together.

11:00pm

My friend Tiago contacted me saying he sold the IF Samuel Eto’ he got from a pack. I told him he should invest the money on a few players indicated by me and then sell those for an X price. He couldn’t resist so he decided to spend everything on packs. Result, with the 30k he got from selling Eto’ all that he managed to get back by opening packs was 15k. He invented a coin-reducing technique. Interesting for people that want to lose money but don’t know how they should :p

1:15am

I need to go to sleep, started messing up. I just listed one Turan with 150 coins start price and no buy now. If I get unlucky I’ll lose money on this. It doesn’t matter how much, I don’t like losing 50 coins, and in this case I’ll lose the opportunity to win some, since I could sell him for about 1700 coins. Enough for today, I’ll go to sleep before I mess up on anything else.

1:30am

Grabbed the cellphone, just taking one last little look to see if there was any buy now…

I’m out…