No one likes a gloater. So let’s get the bragging out of the way right now: last year I turned £12 into more than 12 million Ultimate Team coins across the course of the season. Now for the part that hopefully means you’ll forgive such overpowering smugness: I’m about to tell you exactly how I did it, so you can do exactly the same in FIFA 18 – in which I'm already 13 million coins to the good. Before we start, you can get 20% off FUT points in the Amazon Prime Day sale if you act fast - see below:
- Quick! Grab 20% off FUT Points for Amazon Prime Day (now £63.99 - was £79.99)
Never buy Gold packs
The most important piece of advice to heed, above anything listed below: never, ever, ever buy Gold packs. With real money or in-game currency. Because so many are opened across the globe, at all hours of the day every day, the market is constantly saturated with Gold cards, making most of them close-to-worthless on the secondary market. Spend 7,500 coins on a standard Gold pack and you’ll be lucky to recoup half. Whereas Bronze and Silver packs guarantee you profit over the long-haul, thanks to Squad Building Challenges.
Using this method will, over time, enable you to cherry pick any player you want. I ended FIFA 17 with Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, David De Gea, Zlatan Ibrahimovic *and* those 12 million coins. And it’s all down to Squad Building Challenges.
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‘SBCs’, as they’re known among the community, see you submitting teams according to specific requirements in order to earn rewards. This, rather than spending coins, should form your path to Gold packs. Every Tuesday evening, for instance, four Marquee Matchups are made live within the SBC framework. Hundreds of thousands of FIFA addicts then hit the transfer market, seeking out the cards necessary to complete these Marquee Matchups SBCs. But if you already have these cards stashed in your club, you can complete said challenges for literally nothing, then make monster profits by selling your extra stock.
Essentially, every player card in the game will have value at some point of the year. And you should only sell these cards when that value is maximised.
That part is simple. Every Tuesday or Wednesday evening simply check the Marquee Matchup requirements, and list all players you have that match those requirements. Think beyond the clubs required, too: one recent matchup was based on Aston Villa's fixture with Fulham, and required at least 6 English players to complete. As a result, most rare silver and gold CBs from England were worth upwards of 1000 coins. With 20 of those stashed you'd have been looking at an instant 20,000-coin boost.
Similarly, an Aberdeen vs Rangers SBC earlier in the season required at least two rare Scottish Premier League players to complete. If, like me, you'd been hoarding that card type you'd have made a killing in the following week: I had more than 50 stashed in my club, all of which have sold for a minimum of 2,000 coins. A week beforehand you could have bought each for 300 coins. Throw in some silver and bronze defenders, and I made 200,000 profit in three days. That's how effective this method is.
Below it's explained in detail, and it essentially comes down to this: only ever buy Bronze packs, Silver packs, and discard in-forms, and enjoy the rewards that follow…
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Only buy Silver and Bronze packs
Never Gold. I’m repeating this because it’s critical. When you do buy Silver or Bronze packs, it's safest to go for the standard versions: 2,500 coins for Silver, 400 for Bronze. I’ll get to what you need to do with these shortly.
If you're feeling especially flush you can gamble on the premium versions of these packs: 3,750 for Silver, 750 for Bronze. These carry a much higher risk but also a higher reward: you're paying the extra money for two additional 'rare' cards. If those rare cards are players, you'll make even bigger profits; if they're kits or badges, you'll take a small hit. As a rule I switch to buying premium packs when I have 150,000 or more in the bank, then back to standard packs if my cash reserves dip below that value.
Decide if you’re going to do the league SBCs
The following leagues have SBCs where by completing one team you unlock a specific pack, and by completing all the teams you unlock a ratings-boosted player card:
- Super Lig (TUR 1)
- Liga Bancomer MX (MEX 1)
- Liga NOS (POR 1)
- Russian League (RUS 1)
- English Championship (ENG 2)
- Eredivisie (NED 1)
- Ligue 1 (FRA 1)
- Dawry Jameel (SAU 1)
- MLS (USA 1)
- Calcio A (ITA 1)
- Bundesliga (GER 1)
- Meiji Yasuda J1 (JAP 1)
- Hyundai A League (AUS 1)
- La Liga Santander (ITA 1)
- Premier League (ENG 1)
- Pro League (BEL 1)
If you decide to complete these, stash any players from that league in your club when you open packs. When you have nine-or-more players for any of those teams, buy the last couple of players needed – Futbin is an excellent resource to help you fill in gaps – at the lowest BIN price and get it completed. That’ll give you a new pack and take you a step towards the overall player reward for that league.
I recommend gradually doing all the above league SBCs – this, rather than wasting money in the store, should form your path to Gold packs and cards.
What to do when you open a Silver pack
First, look for players from the above SBC leagues. So: TUR 1, MEX 1, POR 1, RUS 1, ENG 2, NED 1, FRA 1, SAU 1, ENG 1, GER 1, ITA 1, USA 1, JAP 1, SPA 1, BEL 1, and AUS 1. If you’re planning to do the SBC for any of the above, send any player cards from that league to your club. If not, place them on the transfer list.
Players from all other leagues should be stashed in your club until a Marquee Matchup, or other new SBC, comes up that requires them.
Send all Duplicate players to the transfer list.
List Player Fitness cards (+40) for one hour at 150/200. (150 bid price, 200 buy it now.)
List shiny Squad Fitness cards (+20) for one hour at 650/850.
Send all Healing (team and player) cards to the transfer list.
List shiny Manager Contracts cards for one hour at 150/200.
Send standard Manager Contracts cards to your club. *These are the only Manager Contracts cards I ever use.*
List standard Player Contracts cards (’10/10/8’) for one hour at 150/200.
List shiny Player Contracts (’20/24/18’) for one hour at 150/200.
Place shiny Kits cards on the transfer list.
Quick sell all standard kits unless you wish to use them.
Place Player Training cards for All Attributes, Shooting and Pace on the transfer list.
Quick sell all other Player Training cards unless you wish to use them.
Quick sell all Goalkeeper Training cards unless you wish to use them.
Place managers for the big leagues – ENG 1, FRA 1, GER 1, ITA 1, SPA 1 – on the transfer list.
Quick sell all other managers unless you wish to use them.
Unless you want them, quick sell all Stadiums, Badges, and Coaches.
Now go to your transfer list and cycle through all the cards you just moved there. Click ‘compare price’ and if there are a ton of the same card on the market at 150/200, also list at 150/200.
For cards listed at higher prices than 150/200, take note of the lowest Buy It Now price available, then list yours for a Buy It Now price of 100-200 coins more. So if the cheapest price you can find Emre Mor for is 1,900 coins, list yours at a Buy It Now of 2,100, with a start price of 100-200 coins less. The card likely won’t sell at the first attempt. But it should do within 24-48 hours.
Always list cards for one hour. The key to this method is keeping your list full, and refreshed, as often as possible.
Read more: 15 tiny, brilliant things you missed in FIFA 18
What to do when you open a Bronze pack
Again, look for players from the SBC leagues: TUR 1, MEX 1, POR 1, RUS 1, ENG 2, NED 1, FRA 1, SAU 1, ENG 1, GER 1, ITA 1, USA 1, JAP 1, SPA 1, BEL 1, and AUS 1. If you’re doing those SBCs, send any player cards from that league to your club. If not, place them on the transfer list.
Players from all other leagues should be stashed in your club until a Marquee Matchup comes up that requires them, as discussed earlier.
Send all Duplicate players to the transfer list.
List Player Fitness cards (+20) for one hour at 150/200.
List shiny Squad Fitness cards for one hour at 650/850.
Send all Healing (team and player) cards to the transfer list.
Send shiny bronze Player Contracts cards (’15/6/3’) to your club. *These are the only Player Contract cards I ever use!*
Quick sell all standard Player Contracts cards, and both shiny and non-shiny Manager Contracts cards.
Quick sell all Kit cards unless you wish to use them.
Place Player Training cards marked All Attributes, Shooting and Pace on the transfer list.
Quick sell all other Player Training cards unless you wish to use them.
Quick sell all Goalkeeper Training cards unless you wish to use them.
Place managers for the big leagues – ENG 1, FRA 1, GER 1, ITA 1, SPA 1 – on the transfer list.
Quick sell all other managers unless you wish to use them.
Unless you want them, quick sell all Stadiums, Badges, and Coaches.
Now go to your transfer list and do the same as you did for silver cards on there. Many cards will only go for 150/200, but you only need to sell an average of three per pack to make a profit.
A note about packing in-form (TOTW) cards
If you pack any in-forms using the above methods and have no plans to keep them, DO NOT SELL until at least a fortnight later. While still in packs (from 6pm Wednesday to 5.59pm Wednesday the following week) they have poor resale value as everyone is offloading them at once.
Invest in discard-price Gold in-form cards
Once you pass the 100,000 coins mark, I recommended investing in 3-4 TOTW players between Sunday and Tuesday of any given week. To this, search for ‘Special’ players on the transfer market at a Buy It Now price of 9,400-10,500, then cherry pick any gold ones. (You can *always* resell these players for at least 11,500 coins, sometimes much more – or, if you suddenly need funds, quick sell them to the CPU for 9,900, meaning any losses are tiny.)
I stash these purchases in my club for 2-3 weeks, then list for at least 13,000-14,000 – sometimes more, depending on comparative prices for the same card.
Check your transfer list regularly and 're-list all' as often possible
If any Kits or Managers haven’t sold after you’ve been refreshing for 48 hours, quick sell them. For all other items, consider dropping the Buy It Now price by 50 coins after day one, 100 by day two, and so on. The exception is player cards listed at 150/200: just leave them on the transfer list at that price until they sell. Eventually, they will sell. And you should be very, very rich.
FIFA 18 is out now on PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch and PC. Need clarification on any of the above? Drop me a line on Twitter @BenjiWilson and I’ll do my best to elaborate.
