Hey, hello whats up guys its Jamey (aka the Fut Economist). Im an Econ major who loves talking about markets. I dont claim to know anything special but at least for me, applying what Im learning in University helps me better understand why the FUT market behaves the way it does.
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Todays Method
Today I thought I would share my take on the Maintenance Break trading method. This technique has been around for while, but I think there are ways to optimize it that many overlook.

*Quick Note: If you are more of a visual person, I highly recommend checking out my video here ( [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] . Plus Im doing a 10k giveaway/I announce the winner of the last two giveaways at the end of the video
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Background
If you are like me, when you see maintenance break announcements on EAs twitter, you get excited

That is because we know that during maintenance, the market servers go down. This, in turn, means that the FUT market goes down, and any remaining cards that are going through the trade block and expire during the down period, will go for the price that they are bidded on when the market went down.

*As a side note any trader worth his salt should be following @EASPORTSFIFA for their announcements like this and special offers such as web app gifts*

The opportunity to make profit here are clear. And the dream, of course, is to get a Messi or Ronaldo on a really cheap bid. However, many people use this method, meaning that competition for cheap bids is really high. This means that the opportunities to get good bids on players is lower as they come across the trade block.

With this in mind, Ive come up with two methods to best take advantage of maintenance breaks;
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Method #1: Where is the Market Inefficient?
If youve been reading my posts/watching my videos, you will know that I love finding where the market is inefficient. This is because the deviations from the proper BINs are the highest here. This method is no different, we want to find where the market is inefficient, but this time the rules are a bit different
In past trading methods I pointed out that certain brands of players in certain sectors of the market are the most inefficient. However, since there will be soooo many people that will be trying to get bids in before the market goes down, it will be rare that you will find any good deals on player cards. That is why I recommend mass bidding on the following types of cards in my experience they had the least amount of competition;

Rare Squad Fitnesses *Hint: Try the silver and bronze ones*
Rare/Desirable Kits ( [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] )
Rare/Desirable Badges ( [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] )
Rare/Desirable Stadiums ( [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] )
Check out Centurylink Field
Silver cards going for 1-5k (Check [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] for prices)
Bronze cards going for 1-5k (Check [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] for prices)
Rare/Desirable position change cards ( [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] )
Non-Shadow/Hunter Chemistry Styles ( [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] )
Note: If it looks like someone beat you to the cards that you wanted to bid on, dont get in bidding wars, move on to the next market sector!
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Bid Sniping
Yes, you read that correctly, bid sniping. Its a bit strange but this how you make the big bucks. As you get closer and closer to the maintenance break start you will want to take some risks.

You should find some higher valued players maybe ranging from 10-50k depending on your budget and then set their max Bid to something very low, or least where you can make profit. They do something similar to the 59th min BIN sniping method, and constantly refresh the search until you find a player set on a low initial bid, and make a bid.

The idea here, is that we are trying to get lucky, and get a really low bid on a player that was listed up by a player that did not know that the maintenance break was coming.

I got some silly low bids using this method during the Oct. 26th break. My best one was a Oscar for 6k when he was going for 17k. Not bad eh?
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Final Notes
Remember that a lot of people know about this method now, so creative thinking is key.
Make sure you are following EAs Twitter
Dont be that goofball thats lists his/her players before a maintenance break
This method works best when you have a lot of coins to make bids with

Dont get into bidding wars, time is of the essence with this method

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Thanks!
If youve made it this far, I want to thank you for taking the time to read this post/watch the video! It means a lot

I love making these guides for you all, but I especially love answering questions and talking to you, so follow me on twitter or message me here or whatever you guys do.

Again, if you are more of a visual person, and want to see examples of me doing these methods on the web app, then check out my video here ( [ Register or Signin to view external links. ] .

Thanks again for all the support. You guys are the best

Jamey (aka the Fut Economist)

P.S. Congrats to YouTube user Aarkrista Dahal and YouTube user Aaron Elstein you are the winners of the two giveaways from my last trading methods. Look for a message in your YouTube inbox for details on claiming your prize!