FIFA 14 Ultimate Team Coin Making Tips & Trading Methods

FIFA 14 Ultimate Team Coin Making Tips and Methods

My new set of tips for FIFA 14 and 15 - Click Here

In Ultimate Team there’s unfortunately no secret way to make a lot of coins really fast.  There’s plenty of guides out there but most of them are just general knowledge or are outdated; the transfer market moves too quickly for any kind of tricks to work for any period of time.  In order to make coins in FIFA UT and to keep your squad healthy and wealthy you need to understand the transfer market – how to maximize the coins you bring in and minimize the coins you spend. 

Here is my collection of knowledge I've gained from having highly successful clubs worth millions of coins over the last few years of FIFA Ultimate Team.  I will be constantly updating these tips whenever I have new information, or when anything changes. These tips should be able to help any player, from those very new to Ultimate Team, to experienced players looking to make their club even more profitable.

The first thing to understand is that making coins is slow and steady. The only way to get coins quickly is from buying them. If you want a quick boost of a few hundred thousand coins, check out the only site I'd trust:

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Getting Started

Helpful Tools:

There's a few tools that you're going to need to become familiar with if you're not already; the official EA sports FIFA 14 Ultimate Team web app, and unofficial Ultimate Team sites in order to look up more information on players, the market, etc.  By far the best website out there for everything FIFA related is FUThead.

Shop The Catalogue:

The first thing you should do before you start trading on Ultimate Team is to check out the catalogue.  The most important thing you’ll find in here is the ability to increase your transfer list size.  In order to buy from the catalogue, you need to level up your EA level, and earn credits to buy them.  This can be done from doing just about anything in FIFA; turning on the game, buying UT packs, winning matches, etc.   Here are the notable items that I’d recommend:

Level 11: +10 transfer list size

Level 20: +20 transfer targets size

Level 35: +10 transfer list size

Level 53: +30 transfer list size

Level 83: +20 transfer list size

Increasing your transfer list size from the FIFA 14 menu is very helpful when trading.

Other items which can be bought are extra squad slots, the ability to change your club name, and 99 match contracts.  These contracts are great for when you buy a player you plan on using for a long time, although they can also be sold for a few thousand coins in the auction house.  Until recently you were also able to unlock match coin boosts, which would award you up to 1000 coins per match you play, for 5-15 matches.  EA has discontinued this since players were able to buy unlimited amounts of these as gifts to friends, and therefore would be able to have unlimited coin boots.  It’s still unknown if these will return once the bug is fixed.

Buying & Selling

Know the price to pay:

Let’s say there’s a player you want to buy. Inexperienced players will simply search for the player on the market, get into bidding wars, and end up paying a lot more coins than they should have. When I have a player I want to buy, here is what I do:

*search for lowest BIN (buy-it-now) price of that player

*enter that BIN price as the maximum price

*watch the price that these auctions usually get bid up to, usually by adding a few to your transfer targets

Now we know the market price for this player.  We can either decide to go and buy that player through a BIN, or wait to win an auction.  Usually players can be won for cheaper on auction, but also look out for players listed with a BIN price lower than their market price.  They usually get bought within seconds though, so decide fast.

This is much better than blindly buying players without knowing its market price.  After knowing the lowest price you could BIN for, or the price you should be able to win auctions at, you’ll end up paying a lot less for your players.  After you know the price you’re willing to pay, stick with it, and don’t let yourself get into bidding wars.

Winning Auctions:

There are two common bidding techniques I use to win auctions.  One is snipe bidding, and the other is mass bidding.

Snipe bidding: Waiting just before the auction ends, trying to win the auction with one last second bid.  If you bid below 15 (may be 25 this year?) seconds, the timer will reset back up to that many seconds.  I’d always wait and bid when the timer hits 16 seconds. This simply limits the time people have to bid up the price of the auction you want to win.

Mass bidding: Involves bidding on many auctions of one player or card, hoping to win at least one of them.  Works well if you have a lot of coins available.  First, find the market price of that card, and decide a price you’d be willing to pay for that card, usually a little lower than the market price.  Then, bid on as many auctions ending soon as you can at that price.  You will get outbid on most of these auctions; do not bid of them again.  You should end up winning at least one of these eventually.  If you win more than one, you should be able to sell any extras for a small profit, if you did buy for under its average selling price.

More Buying Tips:

Look for auctions with a good starting price, with no bids.  For example, if there is a player with an average selling price of around 19-20k, I’ll get really excited if I see an auction starting at around 18k.  More often than not I can bid his starting price, and I won’t have anyone competing with me for the auction.

Always narrow your search results as much as you can.  Make use of minimum and maximum price values too.  Doing this is actually easier on the console since you can type in the name of the player.

Buy items at peak times, when there are a lot of items on the transfer market.  This will keep prices of players low.

Pay attention to the online tournaments.  When a tournament that calls for certain leagues/nations, their best players will rise quite drastically.  Similar, when these tournaments end, the prices of these players will crash.  Make use of this when buying and selling!

When buying players, always look at the number of contracts they have, as well as their fitness (if you can’t keep him on the bench for a game or two before using him).  If you see two players, one for 100 coins more but has 90 contracts compared to 2, it should be clear what the better buy is.  Always look for this.

I'll take this guy.

Buy a good, cheap substitute squad. Investing a few thousand coins in some good substitutes is much better than wasting money on consumables.  Not only will you not ever have to buy fitness cards, but you’ll be able to sell these cards once you no longer need them.  Also you’ll have good players to use in game in case of an injury or fatigue.  Try to make sure these players will fit well into your main squad, chemistry wise.  I usually substitute my full squad out for my benched squad every time my fitness drops to 80-85.  If you do this, fitness and fitness cards will never be an issue for you.

The Art of Selling:

Selling items is the main form of revenue for your squad, so you want to know how to sell well.  Unfortunately in FIFA 14, the auction house can be narrowed down much more than in previous years, so it’s a little more difficult to trade above what your card is worth.

Selling should always start with determining the market price of the player, as explained in the buying tips above.  Let’s say there’s a bunch of auctions for one player which you’re trying to sell.  You saw a few auctions end at 2200, 2100, 2400, 2300 and one BIN for 2600.  This means the market price for the player should be around 2300-2400 coins.  If I were trying to get the most value for my player, I’d start my listing at 2700, and add a buy-it-now price of 2900.  The difference between these two values is only 200 coins, so most buyers won’t wait until the auction ends; they’ll just pay the extra 200 coins.  So I was able to sell this card for 2900, almost 20% more than the average price.  You may have to list this player multiple times for it to sell, but being patient and getting a good price is much better than wasting these potential coins.

More Selling Tips:

Always remember the “EA Tax” of 5% every time you sell an item.  This means that you only ever get 95% of the price of anything you sell.  If you sold a player for 1000 coins, you’ll only get 950 coins. 

Always use the BIN feature, and keep it close to the starting price.  There is no reason to set a low starting price, other than hoping that you’ll start a bidding war for your player.  More often than not you won’t see this player bid up to the price you may want.  Instead, set a starting price which you’d be happy if it sold for, and then set a BIN price slightly higher than that.  The BIN feature also increases the odds that your item will sell.  Some buyers simply want their item now, and will overlook auctions without these.

Use 9’s, not 0’s.  In my example above I set the BIN price to 2900, rather than 3000.  This is because 2900 looks a lot cheaper than 3000, and is much more likely to sell.  Business theory on pricing tells us people are a lot more likely to buy an item when it ends in a 9, even compared to lower numbers like 8.  Make use of this.

List your items as often as you can.  If I’m out at school on my laptop, I’ll keep the web app open and try to re-set my offers every hour.  When I’m at home I can keep my console running and use one of my favourite additions to FIFA 14 Ultimate Team, the one button “re-list all” feature.  Listing auctions for an hour is the best way to bring in coins because the majority of items on the market usually only sell in the last few minutes.

If you know you won’t be able to re-list your items for a period of time, list them longer than an hour. When I go to bed I always list my auctions for 6 or 12 hours.  When you do this, you can even try to raise the prices on some of your auctions. This works because you’ll be selling during non-peak times, when there are fewer items on the market.

Know the discard price of different cards.  For example, non rare gold cards will always sell for at least 300 coins, so don’t start any auctions below 350 coins. 

Coin-Making Tips and Methods

Bronze Packs:

This method was actually awesome in FIFA 13, although this year I’ve found that bronze consumables sell a lot less often.  Also fitness cards I was able to sell for 300/350, although in FIFA 14 I’ve only been able to sell them for 200/250. I’ll still explain this method, because it still shouldn’t be overlooked.  If you ever want to fill up your trade pile, increase your club value, collect staff cards which give boosts to contracts and training, or even if you need your own cheap consumables, buying bronze packs is always a good option. A normal bronze pack costs 400 coins.  It contains 12 items, with on average finding 3-4 items which can be sold for 150/200.  If you sell four items, two for 150 and two BIN for 200, you just made an easy 300 coins.  No, this isn’t a massive amount of coins, but considering you can have a trade pile of 50/80/100 items, this can add up.  Every dozen packs or so you’ll find a rare fitness card, which can be sold between 1000-1500 coins.

A decent bronze pack, 5 items selling for 200 coins each on average. 600 coin profit for almost no work!

These are the sellable cards you’ll find in a pack:-contacts and rare contracts (rare I sell for 200/250)-fitness and rare fitness-rare staff-rare stadiums-rare healing -rare training-funny coloured ballAnd of course, certain players:-80+ pace-players from the BPL-players from highly supported clubs - Manchester, Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern, Dortmund, ect-really bad players (anything under 47/48 may sell. Woo, the lowest rated player in the game, can go for thousands)-good players (good pace with 60+ in their important stats to their position, especially with nationality matching league [Italian in Serie A/B], and also especially when rare). English and Brazilians go for the most.Listing fully filled transfer lists every hour can add up to thousands of coins throughout the day, for only a few minutes of work. 

Trading For Profit:

This method I call this ‘merchanting’, which involves buying an item, then reselling it for a profit.  This is difficult to do because it’s not easy finding items which can be bought and sold for high enough to profit on, especially after the 5% EA tax.  This year in FIFA 14 it’s even harder now that almost everything can be narrowed down to the exact card in an auction search.

I can’t tell you exactly what to do, since too many people would know the method, then it would no longer be profitable.  Find your own tricks in the market.  Maybe there’s a player which can be bought, modified in some way (position, chemistry style), and sold for a good profit.  Maybe there are certain kits or stadiums which you find to be good for trading.  Find your own tricks, and see how they work for you.

A similar method to this is called price fixing.  It involves buying out every card under a certain price on the market, and relisting them for higher.  This only works if you have the funds to keep buying up all the auctions under the price you choose, and if people are willing to pay the extra coins.

Investing:

Investing in Ultimate Team isn't easy, as over time, most players depreciate in value.  If you’re looking for a large investment, the best thing to buy is probably an in-form card.  These tend to increase in value, as there are no more of that card entering the market.  Last year I spend ~400,000 coins on IF Juan Mata, which my friends all thought was a waste.  He was a great player to use though, and he ended up being worth over 500,000 coins when I was ready to sell him.

The best investments seem to be made based on real life news.  Recently transferred players will spike in value, since no more of that one card will be entering the game through packs.  Better yet, find news of transfer talks before the transfer happens on Ultimate Team.

Big, real life FIFA games also affect the price of players.  If Barcelona will be in the Champions league final in a couple of weeks, Messi should be bought as early as possible and sold at the time of the game for a much higher price.  Performances during real life matches are also important.  If a United game is coming up, Van Persie can be bought in hopes that he’ll have a good performance.  If he plays exceptionally well during the game, expect his value to rise.  A part of the reason why he rises will be in anticipation of an in-form card being released, which will increase the value of his normal card even more.

Discard Method:

This method isn't going to make you millions but if you need a few quick coins it’s pretty handy.  Every player has a set discard price, based on its rarity and overall rating.  All of these values can be found here.  Any non-rare player over a 75 rating can be bought for 300 coins and quick sold for a profit.  Same with rare players over 75 bought at 600 coins.  An alternative to this method is buying players for their quick sell value, and then listing them slightly higher. For example, a non-rare gold card can be bought for 300 coins, and then listed at 350/400.

59^th Minute Method:

Another well known method, which involves you going all the way to the 59^th minute of listings.  You’ll be looking for anything listed that’s well below its usual price, which can be sold for a lot more.  Some players make mistakes when listing items, putting up BIN prices much lower than they’re worth.  These players are usually sold within the first few seconds of the listing so you have to be really fast, and know your prices well.  It’s not the most reliable method, but there’s a chance of making a lot more profit than most other ways of making coins. 

Happy hour:

Some of the best investments I've made have been during happy hour.  Even if you’re not buying your own packs during this happy hour, take advantage of the fact that a lot of people are buying packs.  This results in lower prices for almost EVERYTHING.  Last year there was a particular happy hour where I was able to fully fill up my consumables with rare gold contracts which I bought for 150 or 200 coins.  Don’t expect this every time, but do look for deals, and sell them in the following days when prices return to normal.

Invest in your club during this time.  If I know I’ll need any chemistry styles or modifiers in the future I’ll buy them now when they’re cheap.  I also buy staff cards during this time.  I try to get the highest contract boost for as cheap as I can, so I spend even less on consumables in the long run.

Don’t Bleed Coins on Consumables!:

I covered most of this in other parts of the guide, but this is important.  I had a friend who couldn’t even afford to keep his squad on the pitch.  He was only making a couple hundred coins per match, and had all of his players either needing contracts or becoming too tired to even move.  Here’s a few tips to avoid this:

*buy RARE contracts.  If you plan on using this player for a period of time, spend a few more coins and buy a rare contract for him.  You’ll get double the games out of that player and per game they cost a lot less to keep your player on the field.

*don’t buy fitness cards, rather, invest in a cheap but good substitute squad. Always have another squad that you can play with, putting your fatigued players on the bench.

*if you need a bronze consumable, just buy a 400 coin bronze pack.  You’ll most likely find what you need, plus other items which can be sold to break even or even profit on.

Don’t Buy Packs!:

At least, not for coins.  If you have the money to blow on FIFA points then go for it.  Every year I usually get about $15 worth of points just to start off the year with a healthy amount of coins, as players are worth a lot more right when the game comes out.  After the first few months of FIFA 14 prices drop, you’ll be extremely lucky if you actually profit on any of these packs if you spent your coins on them.  If you are going to open a pack, buy the one with the most rare cards.  The rare cards are the only chance you’ll ever have of making any significant profit.


Instead of buying FIFA points, lately I've been using MMOGA, the only site I trust to always deliver my coins right away. I get more coins this way, rather than getting 300 coin players from every pack:

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Hopefully my experience with Ultimate Team has been able to teach you something, and you'll be ready to start watching the coins flow in. Having a wealthy squad means you'll be able to get the best players, keep them in shape, and win more games. Good luck out there!