Tuboo Shippers wrote:I could hug you right now. you absolute mad lad, you did the impossible!
Appreciated! It certainly felt impossible at times, especially when I learned the hard way what happens when you buy a card whose bubble is just about to pop.
PhilTech I did it through buying low, selling high, and doing my level best to never spend more than 1/100th of a card's value on it. So no more than 1.50 on a card worth 150, 11 on 1,100, so on and so forth. I also bought a good many cards that were worth 2-5 bank for around .02-.04 apiece; by keeping those around, I could occasionally jump in to someone selling them for way, way more bank than I paid and make a tidy profit. Some of them never worked and were sold or junked at a minor loss, but the ones that did made more than enough to cover the busts. I never had any huge heists, but I did extort a wee bit of protection money from a couple big players who tried to do balance transfers using cards I owned. I'd put it on sale for maybe 10% or so of what they were trying to transfer, and they'd buy it just to get me to go away. It was usually still a good deal more than the card was worth, so it all worked out. As much as puppets are the easy mode for this game, I will say that going solo has one major fringe benefit: I can't really be heisted. Sure, sometimes someone dropped in and I got soaked for the full bid I had on a card, or they got me when I was slow to take a bid away from one I missed. Which, hey, we all do it, no hard feelings. But I have no balance to transfer between accounts, because I only have the one, so I never have to worry about losing it in transit. The only person with the power to make me lose my money is me.
Thanks for the congratulations, Makasta! Not surprised someone else did it before me, though as the top spots keep getting higher and higher in value, I am not sure how many more people will be able to do it after me. The window for non-puppeteers to succeed is likely closing fast.
Also, after some good trades last night and this morning, I'm now up to #88 for the moment. That was a nice surprise.