In FIFA Ultimate Team, players will notice that the transfer market sometimes moves up and down depending on what’s happening in the game. Some of these market changes are random, but a few can be predicted if you pay attention to the yearly calendar. One of the most prominent is the dip that usually happens before and during the Team of the Season (TOTS) promo. No one likes losing coins, so how should you prepare to navigate the changing market? Let’s go over a few tips that could help you out over the coming days and weeks.
What is a market crash?
A market crash in FUT simply means that the prices for player cards will drop dramatically. This can happen for several reasons, but for the TOTS crash, it’s generally because players are opening so many more packs than usual, which leads to the market being flooded by Gold Rare players. This makes those prices go down, making it easier to pick them up.
On top of this, TOTS brings several high-rated cards into the game, which devalues the other high-rated cards. For example, if you currently have a 90 OVR FUT Captain in your club, his price will likely go down once TOTS hits because those high-rated cards are now much easier to pack. Depending on links, those older cards could rise in price temporarily, but they’ll eventually come down.
How to navigate a market crash
Now that you understand exactly what is happening and why it’s taking place, let’s look at a few tips that you’ll need to keep in mind to come out mostly unscathed.
Stay ahead of the market
TOTS voting kicks off on April 17. The promo is rumored to actually start on April 29. This gives you essentially two windows to work with. Players may start to sell off their old teams after the weekend of March 16. This could happen because players will have wrapped up Weekend League and want to get out of their tradeable teams before voting starts in anticipation of a crash.
However, there’s still time before the promo launches, so you likely don’t have to get rid of your tradeable high-rated (non-Gold Rare) players then. If you don’t want to risk it, then get out as soon as you can, but you can probably keep a team together for the next Weekend League if you want. Either way, try to clear as many tradeable players out of your club before the event to maximize your coin total and your market power.
Know the release cycle
When TOTS hits, EA will flood the game with Lightning Rounds packs. This means players will be opening packs in mass over a quick period of time. This is an excellent time to scoop up deals on high-rated Gold Rare players. You can then turn and sell these players later when new SBC content comes out that calls for them.
A special note should be made for Team of the Week cards. So often, these are required for SBCs, so we recommend picking up as many as you can when you notice they are cheap on the market. It’s tough to give an exact number, but we like to buy 83 and 84 OVR TOTW cards when they’re around 15,000 coins or below. It’s not a perfect science, but TOTW trading has made us millions of coins over the years.
Wait for deals
The rush of TOTS gets to everyone. A new player comes out from your favorite league and you want to get him right away. This is almost always a mistake. You want to wait until their price settles, ideally after everyone has finished their Weekend League games. This is because players will sell off cards in mass once they finish, driving the price down even further. Look to buy on Sunday or Monday after a TOTS team goes into packs.
Ideally, we’d recommend keeping your squad mostly untradeable through most of TOTS. There’s lots of money to be lost if you’re a budget-conscious player. That said, this is essentially the end of FUT for many, so you might as well have fun with it and try out new players when you can. If you want to stick around until FIFA 23 though, you have to play the market a bit smarter.
Consider your post-TOTS plan
We know players will drop FIFA after TOTS. It’s a six-week-long event full of massive upgrades, which means everyone ends the event with super teams. That leads to a feeling of being “finished” with FIFA until the next one comes out. If you sticking around though, there are still moves to be made.
Most importantly is to get your squad looking like you want. Toward the end of the event, players will be incredibly cheap for their price and you should have plenty of coins and fodder cards from the event to let you make purchases or complete SBCs. Outside of that, you also want to stash some extra TOTW cards as those will likely continue being important through the end of FIFA 22’s yearly cycle. Having a few ready and waiting in your club makes finishing SBCs that much easier as we move through the summer.
