Hitori's Guide for the New Trader

Hello ladies and gentlemen. I've decided that it is time this game had some general trading guidelines for newcomers. Hopefully this will help any and all newbies - and perhaps even some veterans - make the most out of their current card collection. First, however, I'll add a short introduction to this guide.

Some of you may be asking yourselves 'why should I trust THIS guy to make up the values for MY cards?' - the answer is, you shouldn't. This guide is made using my own personal values, and until we have an open trading platform with some form of currency to use we each make our own subjective values (we may continue to do so after such a platform is introduced, but then we at least have objective standards to base our subjective values upon).

Now then, on to the guide!

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Section A - Foil, Platinum & Gold Cards:

Normal Card Example:
ImageShack Link

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Platinum (A.K.A: Beta / Plat) -
Currently it is very hard for me to judge the actual worth of a Platinum border. I believe that it comes down to your perception of collection value versus play value. If you put more emphasis on play value, Platinum isn't too much of an issue and you can trade it away quite easily. If, however, you're a collector, these can be invaluable as some of them are near impossible to get (I'm looking at you 'Demon of Fear'!).
Platinum cards are a limited edition, and so far have only been available as part of a pre-order (either of the game itself by supporting it before the closed beta, or by pre-ordering boosters from an upcoming set of cards). Once you missed your chance to pre-order, you can't get a hold of them except by trading - and that's where this guide comes in.
For you collectors out there, you should probably trade whatever you want or can for a Platinum version of a Rare/Epic/Legendary (especially super Rare ones such as 'Demon of Fear', 'Paladin of the Flame Dawn' and so on). I can safely say you should treat it as worth 3-5 times more than your normal card of equal value. That, however, is not an actual value since currently I doubt they are worth more than two of the same non-Plat card. I do believe that this value will change once the game goes live (open beta / release) and more players join the community. This will make the Platinum-per-player ratio much lower and thus make them more valuable overall.
For you normal players, or 'play-value traders', I believe you should consider a Platinum to be worth twice as much as the normal card, as you should be able to find someone to trade it for 2 of that same non-Plat card very easily (and possibly even 3 without much of a hassle). This, of course, depends on the specific card and the overall trade, but as a general guideline the minimum worth I attach to Platinum borders is that of 2 non-Plat versions.

Platinum Border Card Example:
TinyPic Link[oi43.tinypic.com]

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Foil -
To me, personally, a Foil card is worth anywhere between 2-3 of the same 'normal' card. This is more true regarding Commons/Uncommons than it is for Rares+ because the chance to actually get a Rare+ Foil card is pretty damn slim. If you are a collector, these hold more value than they may hold for me (so try and learn just how Rare your specific card is - or what tier of rarity it's at - and combine it with the 3-5 value mentioned above). These are, of course, far more valuable for any collector than they are to someone seeking a play-value card. If you have a good Foil card that people need and you're not a collector I wouldn't hesitate to trade it for the value of 3-5 times the normal card, this can buy you a lot of play-value very easily if you got lucky with a nice Foil card.


Gold Border + Foil Card Example:
ImageShack Link


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Gold -
Seeing as Gold borders are as rare as Foil cards are (statistically), I would treat them the same way as Foils. Keep in mind that while a Gold border may be super rare right now, once some time passes by Platinum borders ought to become the more valuable ones and there will be no reason to consider Gold to be worth more than Platinum unless you like the color scheme gold offers better than the platinum. Again, same rules apply as Foil.

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Foil-Plat / Foil-Gold -
These should be considered extremely Rare, especially the Foil-Plat combo as these are EXTREMELY limited in quantity. Even the Commons and Uncommons that are Foil-plat should be considered with some care as there shouldn't be too many of them in the game (depending how many packs exactly have been pre-ordered from the set). I can't quite put my own values on these as they are extremely collectible and I am by no means a great collector (I just like to have some pretty cards). For the right person these are extremely valuable and should be considered to be worth at least 10 times of the regular version (and even that might be too low for some). Let me just say this right now, if you have a Foil-Plat Legendary, keep it hidden inside your mattress until you simply HAVE to trade it to get some very needed cards (CARDS!! NOT ONE!). I would probably never trade mine, at least not until an Auction House or some form of currency based trade system was introduced so I can see the objective value people place on it.

Section B - Trading Guidelines:

In this section I'll give you some general guidelines to help make trading easier, but keep in mind (again) that these are guidelines I use personally, they are not absolute by any means and should not be considered as such. I would also like to mention that depending on who you're trading with (at least now, with the relatively small community), you may wish to forsake these completely - I often find myself trading with new players and simply give them a few extra cards more than the worth of their offer because they need them and it will barely scratch the surface of my card pool. I don't say this to sound like a 'good guy', I say this because this is how I started the game as well - by getting a few very good trades from veterans - and I think this sort of thing helps develop the community and the game overall, and will come back to you once these new players become veterans and may have a few cards that you need (or they may simply pass it along themselves to the next new player they meet).

So, without further ado, to the guidelines -

1. Inter-Tier Trading:
Let me start by explaining the choice of the term 'tier' here. Each rarity category is usually divided, by the community, into 3 tiers (bottom/middle/top). The specific 'up-to-date' tier list that I made can be found on the official forums of Infinity Wars, but if you ask around everyone has their own tier-list of sorts, and many 'top tier' cards are agreed upon by most veterans to be of higher value than the rest of their rarity-peers.
I always prefer to try and trade within the tier because it's easier to easier to agree upon, but since often times this is impossible you will need to know how to judge different tiers of value and keep in mind your own play/collect value and your trade partner's values.
My general guideline is that a top tier card is worth about 1.5 x mid tier card, and 3 x bottom tier card of the same rarity. Again, this is not absolute, especially not when it comes to Legendary cards (as the top tier is way more valuable than the mid/bottom and can be said to be worth 2x mid and 4x bottom perhaps).
--NOTE: You can find my complete tier listing of cards on the official forums under the trading section!

2. Inter-Rarity Trading:
Same as with tiers, I always try and trade within the same rarity, but that's not always how things go. My general guideline is that an equal tier Legendary is worth 2-3 Epics, and 3-5 Rares (and an equal tier Epic is worth 2-3 Rares). This varies a lot, cards like 'Paladin of the Flame Dawn' could be traded at a 2 for 1 ratio with a 'Martyr Golem' (even though one is a Rare while the other is a Legendary).
You may also ask yourself the value of Uncommons and Commons, and my answer to that is - regardless of the rarity, if you need certain cards and can't get them for 'free' from a friend or a friendly person, you should trade some of your low tier Rares for the Uncommons and Commons you need. Keep in mind you may get Platinum versions which are worth more than the play-value and that alone is an added bonus. A basic guideline to these is 3x Uncommons for a low tier Rare, but these Uncommons better be relatively rare ('Xi, Who Honors the Dead' comes to mind), otherwise you can ask for 5-10 depending on who you're trading with. Commons are essentially worthless, but if you need them to play a certain deck you have in mind don't hesitate to trade your low-tier Rares for 10-15 Commons you need (don't be greedy though, no one likes greedy traders).

3. Combining Guidelines:
Since most of the time you will find yourself trading inter-tier AND inter-rarity and possible even inter-versions (Foil/Plat/Gold), you need to know how to calculate the different values. Keep in mind that the different card versions mentioned are not worth any more as far as play-value go, but they do mean a lot for collectors even if you're not one yourself.
I dare say that you can generally take the lower numbers of the ratios that I mentioned above for each trade value, let's say, a Foil is 3x normal, and a top tier Legendary is 3x top tier Rare, and combine them together. So in this example, you're trading a top Foil Legendary for top tier regular Rare. I will easily make a trade for 9-10 of top tier Rares for a Foil Legendary, but that is BEFORE considering the potential trade value these may hold later on when the game grows. This is, again, a very very personal guideline and you SHOULD make up your own guidelines. This guide should be at least somewhat useful for people who are completely new and got lucky with a nice Rare pull that may be worth more than they can imagine it does.


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To wrap this up, let me just state again that this guide is not absolute whatsoever. This is a guide to help new players that have absolutely no clue what is the value of the cards they pulled and may only gather it through friends with experience, or trust strangers to be truthful and not try and take advantage of them (you can also take a look at the trade channel in game, or forums, to come up with a general value of a card - but I want to believe this guide makes it easier).

Don't come at me later complaining that you traded your Foil-Plat Legendary for 15 top tier Rares and now it's worth 1000$ (hopefully) and your 15 Rares are only worth 150$. This may very well happen, this guide doesn't take the collector's value as the only guideline, it keeps a lot of focus on play value (while keeping in mind the fact that the cards are collectible and should be treated as such).

I hope this proves helpful for some, and at the very least does not harm anyone.