PorousBoat

(Note: Not enough information is known yet to go more in-depth. More will be known in the future and I will update the post accordingly.)
Hello everyone!
Looking for the forums, I see that there is no real advice on how to effectively use your resources and time when trying to acquire cards and money in this game. This is one of the most basic and important aspects of a game like BF, and thus I'll take some time to explain how it's done.
Table of contents
Introduction TradingMaking a profit by trading Using Auction HouseScouting/Hawking/Low-bidding Speculating Flipping Other ways to make a profit and what NOT to dorPvE Grinding Begging Spamming Conclusion 1. Introduction
Do you like making money? Do you enjoy making great deals? Need help gathering those bfps for that sweet new promo? Well look no further, as I walk you through some important aspects of trading and interacting with virtual economics.
When trading in games, or even in general, the purpose is hopefully to have both parties leave the trade happy with what they got. This is what trading is all about, giving away something you don't need to receive something you need. There are several ways to accomplish this, and I will try to cover most of them in this guide.
Let us begin, shall we?
2.Trading
Regular exchanging of wares is the bread and butter of any seasoned trader. It's the most common and basic form of trading which involves two parties exchanging something they value to receive something they don't value; be it money, wares or services. It has existed for as long as we could communicate and has proven to be very effective. The good thing about it is that it's simple, fast and is (hopefully) consensual most of the time.
This doesn't mean that the method is flawless though. Trading can sometimes result in one of the parties being tricked into making a trade that's profitable for the other party without their knowledge. This, of course, leads to some pretty harsh feel-bads when the poor guy finds out that trading his promo Swamp Drake for the sweet-looking Lost Grigori was a really bad idea. That feeling is something we should all work together to prevent. The key to preventing that is making sure to be able to differentiate a rip-off from a good deal. No matter how you look at it, trading a promo Swamp Drake for a Lost Grigori is a rip-off. Even if the person says that he REALLY wants that Lost Grigori. This is because 2 weeks later, when he decides that he doesn't want to play shadow-frost in PvE anymore, he'll really miss that Swamp Drake. One could argue that he would've learned a lesson and won't do it again, but why should that be necessary? If the person with the Grigori would've refused the trade and asked for him to something of equal value, everyone would be more happy in the end.
Now that we have that out of the way, we can move on to the actual process of making good deals. A good deal is achieved when both parties walk away from the trade happy and stay that way. Now you may ask "But PorousBoat, how can I make a profit off of trading while still not ripping people off?". This is a very good question, to which I happen to have an answer.
2.1 Making a profit by trading
If you've ever spent any considerable amount of time, or even any time at all in a game where trading is present, you will have seen people as well as bots (that's another disussion) spamming "WTT/S/B ITEM X FOR PRICE/ITEM X". These messages are often quite annoying, but they're there for a single reason; it's effective. These people often utilize the method of buying things in bulk and selling them of individually for a higer individual price. This method is perfectly viable and can make you a very good profit. The only problem with it is that it requires an immense amount of time.
For instance, say that you find a person selling their collection of 150 commons and uncommons for 175 bfp as a bulk price. If you then sell each of those cards for 3 bfp individually, you will make a 400 - 175 = 225 bfp profit. This was a good deal as both parties were happy and both made a profit in some way. Selling those cards can be easier said than done though, as the demand is probably pretty low. That's why you see those people and bots spamming 8 hours a day.
3. Using the AH
The other main way of making money and acquiring cards is by use of the in-game Auction House (AH for short). The AH lets a player put up a listing for a certain card for a certain price that they decide themselves. Other people can then either bid on the card, where the highest bid wins, or buyout the card, where a price is set prematurely. This price is regulated by the current value of the card based on supply and demand. You probably already know that though, so I won't explain it. Now that you understand the puprose of the AH, we can get into how we make a profit out of it.
3.1 Hawking/Scouting/Low-bidding
The simplest way to make money off of the AH is to simply browse it through and bid on cards that are very cheap relative to what they're actually worth. Say that a card is worth 100 bfp, but someone put it up at an auction for 10 bfp. If no one else bids, you just made a 100 - 10 = 90 bfp profit. This method isn't what makes you the big bucks though, as it is very unreliable and takes a lot of time and effort. I only recommend doing this if you see an offer that's too good to pass up.
3.2 Speculating
Another way to make a profit through the AH is to speculate. This method is a lot more unreliable than the others, but can make you amazing profits when pulled off correctly and takes little to no time to set up. It functions similar to flipping, which I'll get into later. Speculating involves buying a card that you speculate will rise in price for some reason in the foreseeable future. This may be due to increasing demand because of meta change or decreasing supply (a promo or such).
Buying a larger amount of that card can possibly make you a massive profit, presuming you were correct. If you weren't, you're stuck with 50 copies of Global Warming that no one wants. This makes the method very much of a risk-reward thing, where you put yourself at a great risk for the chance of making a large profit. I only recommend this method if you really know what you're doing.
3.3 Flipping
This right here is the most effective way of earning money when you know what you're doing, but takes a lot of practice to learn to do effectively. Flipping is a pretty advanced method involving abusing low supply by buying out large amounts of a card to resell them all at a slightly higher price, thus raising the value of the card artificially. For instance, say there are 50 Scavengers on the AH priced at 50 bfp with that being the lowest price. If you buy all of those and resell them for 51 bfp, you will have profited 51 x 51 - 50 x 50 = 50 bfp. This may not seem like a lot, but when done right with large amounts of cards you can net massive profits, with little to no effort. If you want to be really fancy, you can make sure the item you're flipping is on the rise in price, thus making your profit even larger by combining flipping and speculating. 
Note: All of these methods have no guarantee of netting you a profit. They require you to take some pretty great risks, and you WILL fail. Especially in the beginning. Don't let this scare you though!
4 Other ways to make a profit and what NOT to do
"But PorousBoat, are those the only ways to make a profit?" I hear you cry! No! Those are not the only ways to earn money in BF. This guide was made to walk you through the best and most effective methods of turning a profit. That does not mean that there are not other ways to go about making a psrofit in BF. Let me tell you a little about some of the alternatives, along with things you should NOT do.
4.1 rPvE Grinding
As silly as it may seem, unless there are major changes (which there very well may be), rPvE grinding was a somewhat viable way of making money through selling gold and tokens. This was extremely time consuming and ineffective though. Almost to the point where you were better off playing PvP for the gold. I highly recommend you to stay away from this method unless you have to do it for some reason.
4.2 Begging
This should go without saying, but there will be people who think this is a good idea every now and then. Please stay away from these people and don't do it yourself.
4.3 Spamming
This is also something that is very common, which is unfortunate because of how ineffective and annoying it is. People sending random trade requests/messages/offers should not be interacted with, and probably ignored as well. Don't do this, folks.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, the best ways to make a profit in BF is to utilize the methods I've gone into above. I appreciate any and all feedback you may have, as well as suggestions for points that I may have missed. I look forward to updating this thread with further content when more information is released. I thank you for taking the time to read this guide, and I hope to see some of these methods employed when the game is available!
For further reading regarding these topics, please refer to the links below:
Speculating: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/basics/12/art-of-speculation.asp
Trading: https://www.reddit.com/r/Flipping/comments/1m5jsd/i_buy_and_sell_online_for_a_living_and_am_here_to/
Flipping: http://www.moneycrashers.com/thrift-store-flipping-items-resell/ 
 

I'm not quite sure why some of you seem so keen on forcing all game modes to have a "reason" to play them. Shouldn't it always be up to the player if they want to play a certain game mode or not? Making certain rewards exclusive to certain game modes doesn't really make sense to me - If they're so boring/uninteresting/whatever (I don't really think they are, but that's the assumption), why make players slog through them for no reason? A hardcore PvE player most likely has no interest in clearing the entire campaign. Same goes for a speedrunner who literally couldn't care less about PvP.
I say we reward players for doing anything. A reward proportional to playtime more or less solves that. If a player wants to grind for 12 hours a day, they'll be rewarded for 12 hours a day. If they only want to do their dailies and a mission or two (in their game mode of choice because they're playing this game for fun), they'll get a smaller reward to reward that as well. Don't strictly associate one reward with one game mode (like it is now with upgrades, for instance).
If we want to keep players logging in and playing, forcing them to do things they find cumbersome is not a very good way to do that. Rewarding them for plaything their way is what I believe to be the best solution.
That said, the reward doesn't have to be strictly in bfp. I just used that because it's the most "universal" currency.

As the one who sparked the discussion over in the discord, I think there's another important point to be made:
There's a huge difference between "unfair" in PvP vs. "unfair" in PvE. When people play against other people, not feeling like you have the same means of winning as your opponent feels really bad. If you started a chess game with 3 fewer than your opponent because you completed fewer daily quests than them you're not going to feel very good about it. You'll feel like your loss was due to factors you couldn't control rather than skill (even if it was skill).
When I try to bring my friends who like competitive games into this game, they're really hesitant to play it because why would they invest time in this supposedly "cool and unique game" when they could just download dota or buy SC2 for 25€ (both of which are also "cool and unique") and be on equal footing with everyone else right from the get-go?
Sure, it's easy to just say "it's a TCG, man. Grind or go play something else!". Just because you enjoy the grind doesn't mean that other people necessarily have to be subjected to it. Keep in mind that only really dedicated people show their face around the forums - Go around and ask your friends. I think most of the would be more inclined to try the game if the PvP was more accessible. I say all this as someone who plays Magic: The Gathering - A game that's notoriously expensive. So many times have I wished that my entire collection (thousands of euros) would tank to 0.50€ overnight if it meant that I could bring my friends into the game without having to explain to them why spending 400€ on pieces of cardboard "...will be worth it in the end. I promise".
Of course, this isn't as extreme of a case at all. The P2W days of EA are long gone, but as it stands now we're looking at a situation where you might end up being restricted by time instead. I've been having a hard time getting my friends to play by telling them that taking a week or two (possibly more later down the line if the rumors about rewards being boosted right now are true) to even be able to compete with me and other players with good decks "...will be worth it in the end. I promise".
The difference between these two scenarios is that in the case of MtG or old EA Battleforge, they had to bring in the cash. With this project there is no commercial incentive, meaning there's no reason to "paywall" competitive play with a mundane time investment that just involves logging in for an hour to do dailies for a few weeks. The common argument is "Well what about the players who play this game for the trading? Isn't their way to play worth anything?", and while I personally have more than a few bones to pick with treating games like a stock market, I suppose that's valid. My concern is if the entire economy is entirely built around these people, leaving the lot of us who actually want to "play the damn game" getting the short end of the stick.
I don't have a clear solution in mind, I think it'd be arrogant of me to champion a single way to do it. I do however have a rough idea that with some tweaking and tinkering could end up serving as an OK compromise:
What if PvP offered you a "temporary" card pool where all cards where available exclusively for PvP use? If you wanted to use your sick promos you still can, but your deck is never limited by what cards you have or what level they are for PvP use - It's all player skill.
This still leaves progression for PvE as well. I know the feeling of whipping out your first shiny new XL unit on Bad Harvest for the first time as much as the next guy, and I would never want to take that away from any newcomers, but PvP isn't meant to serve as that sort of setting.
I don't mean for this solution to be final. There are definite flaws in it. It just serves as a suggestion to get the conversation going. I just want for everyone to be able to enjoy the unique PvP experience this game offers without having to slave through a bunch of grind for digital pieces of cardboard first.

I know that the devs focus on server stability right now and that the current implementation of player rewards is just a first try of the devs. The current rewards have created different opinions on whether the rewards should be lowered or increased. I bet everybody agrees that player progression is crucial to whether Skylords will succeed or fail in the long run.
First, I don't think the progression system should be changed right now. I want to address the key problems of Battleforge in terms of player progression for a more elaborate discussion. After all, we can only find optimal solutions if we know the exact problems. Also, keep in mind Battleforge was a first try at making an MMORTS in a time when "Free to Play" was a recent invention. EA created a system which forced players to pay for BFP and encouraged players to buy premium items to minimize the grinding.
In contrast, Skylords will be a game that is truly free to play and for the game to succeed we need a big pool of players that lasts for years to come. However, the game is built around the monetization mechanics which have attributed towards its downfall. Former developer "The Black One" once stated that "Battleforge had a good flow of new players, but only few kept playing".
We see that Battleforge had a huge entrance barrier for new people before they could enjoy the game. I think Skylords needs to make further changes to player progression so it can succeed as a free game. My goal is to analyze the current state of Skylords and highlight the still existing problems that exist because of EA's drive towards monetization.
Based on this analysis, I want to name the implications that come with a fast or lower progression rate in future releases of Skylords. I also want to propose what needs to be changed altogether to accomodate for a game that is not only "free to play" but "free to enjoy".
The divide of cooperative and competitive
When creating a reward and progression system we need to keep in mind that we have two very different styles of play: cooperative and competitive. In the last days of BF, the PVE community mostly resolved around speedruns, grinding tokens/gold for upgrades and casual rpve games. On the other hand, competitive play was mostly about 1v1 pvp and some 2v2 pvp.
In BF, PVP is mostly an optional gamemode, while pve is not. However, for a pvp deck you need (expensive) key cards for the meta and upgrades on all cards. Therefore, a pvp deck requires you to grind enough pvp to: afford expensive cards (+ charges), have enough gold to upgrade your cards and a high enough rank to upgrade your ultra-rare cards. This creates a huge entrance barrier for people who are soley interested in the pvp aspect. And for the game, we need our playerbase to be as big as possible so the game survives in the long run.
As for the cooperative scene, we have the problem that pve content is rather scarce. Even a casual player will have finished all pve campaigns within a month. Also, most people don't find rpve very engaging. While pvp players mostly want to play the game, pve players usually play for the game. You perform battleground/campaign missions or quests to improve your card stack, but to what goal? For many people BF is just another game and these people will leave the game soon after finishing the campaign.
The pve players who stay after finishing the campaign are fans who either became collectors, speedrunners or enjoy rpve. Also, competitive play and cooperative play serve two very different stimuli. Therefore, cannot expect that a bulk of pve players suddenly become pvp. Similarly, we cannot expect players with pvp to grind through pve first.
Analyzing the different needs of players
We see there are the following types of players:
Casual Players (standard campaign) Competitive Players Collectors Casual players only play the game for a limited amount of time before leaving for other games. Some will stick around and play with friends, but I don't think we can do much to convert them into permanent player. Potentially, new campaign maps could be added but seem far fetched. I think all we can do is make the other aspects of the game more alluring.
Competitive players need to have a viable deck from the moment they start the game. However, we cannot simply give everybody every card as this would compromise the extended pve aspect of the game. Somehow a solution must be found to decouple pvp from pve progression. Without decoupling, we can only make bad tradeoffs between pvp and pve players. However, I am against a hard divide between pve and pvp players and I think there are overall benefits if pvp players have to do some minimal pve grinding as well. Presumably, pvp players also start off with pve to learn the basics of the game before heading into competitive play.
Collectors are people who actively participate in the extended cooperative play such as Battlegrounds or advanced/export missions even after finishing the campaign. They stick around because they like the mechanics of cooperative play. To make these people play the game regularly, the original BF already added a "daily quest" system. Without the need of monetization we can distribute cards and BFP more freely and we can try to keep casual players with alluring rewards and make them develop a love for the trading card aspect. However, being too generous will diminish the (personal) value of each card and compromise the need for the AH, rpve and advanced/expert missions. I also think that offering a generous list of achievements with unique rewards is beneficiary.
There are also some fringe groups, which I did not add because they don't add significant numbers to the player pool. This includes speedrunners, people who like to fool around with weird decks or team-players (private play with people you know).
 
This post serves as an entry point, I will state my personal suggestions later on. Of course, I invite everybody to state their opinion and own experiences.