Jurgen Nobert Klopp said:
Haha. 3x Boss!
Si, unfortunately, in Nigeria, talented lads'll indeed get discovered & thereafter get mismanaged...

sicox86 said:
For the last 3 seasons I've kept a record of my buying and selling, and as one final pearl of persuasion, I urge all Olympians to consider this way of making money.

Each season, I make a record of players I have bought and sold within that season. So, if a player has been with me across two seasons, their name does not appear. This erases senior players I buy for a good deal in the last week of one season, and sell for a high price the first week of the next season, but it also eradicates instances where I buy a junior player for 1m and sell him for 150m 3 seasons later. Training juniors is probably the best way of making money in the game, but with the new changes coming in you'll need to find other avenues to offset the higher costs of training those junior players. My season-to-season cutoff means I am looking purely at speculating on players, and it can be quite profitable.

Of course, I'm not including the sales and losses I am going to make in the next 48 hours, as these are outside of my normal trading patterns, for obvious reasons. I don't often quit the game!

The numbers:

S15
- transfers at a profit: 82
- transfers at a loss: 2
- profit: 416m

S16
- transfers at a profit: 49
- transfers at a loss: 0
- profit: 415m

S17
- transfers at a profit: 67
- transfers at a loss: 1
- profit: 472m

TOTAL S15, S16, S17
- total transfers at a profit: 198
- total transfers at a loss: 3
- total profit: 1.303bn

Looking at these numbers, you can easily see it's worth a shot!

This includes hostiles, but we all know how useful they can be! Buying and selling this way, I found, made me more aware of the 'correct' market price of players. It made me a few friends and more enemies!

A few tips to those who wish to start out doing this, from my experience.

1) Don't bullsh*t a bullsh*tter.
I made very little of my profit trying to sell to top managers. They know the price. And even if they also know the price I'm offering is reasonable, they'll fight to get the price down as a principle. I made roughly 80% of my money selling to those with less experience in the game. Many managers at Div 4 and 5 level will pay stupid money to win a single game, especially those in a competitive PL, just outside the promotion places, or with strong rivalries elsewhere. These guys will pay 20-40%, maybe more, above market price to win a single game, and I profited from that. Buy players who appeal to those kinds of managers, rather than saving up to buy a 21/85 CDF that your target market can't afford. It may be you find yourself better at selling a certain kind of player. I was better at jumping in late on cheap auctions with long auction histories, so I quickly put the player back out on auction to get the attention of those who wanted the player.

2) Set modest resale prices
My auction starting price was usually my purchase price plus tax plus 10%, but you can make up your mind based on similar transfers and market trends. I preferred to simply flip the player as fast as possible rather than hold on to him too long. You may decide differently. I liked to build a good DP price into my transfer agreement to speed up the transfer of the player, and to cater for my impulsive market, but beware point 4.

3) Hostiles can be good
I have already explained my auction price strategy. I sold very few of my players via hostile, which may give you an idea of how much people are willing to pay, or how few of my target market went fishing around for hostile deals. I used to set the hostile price of any speculation player at his purchase price plus tax paid plus a nominal extra for myself, usually 20-40%. However, I never paid the hostile price of anyone I wasn't completely sure was undervalued, and never that of a fellow speculator. Also, if it's a player you in a position you also train, you can see this as a lower risk transfer, but also factor a likely rise in market value into his release clause.

4) Beware direct purchases / transfer agreements
Ask around this PL, there will be some instances where a player has sold on auction for a price that would not be allowed via DP/TA. Yes, you were lucky to get that 82avg RW for 9m because you bought him while the rest of the world was asleep, but if you sell him for 12m via DP/TA you will be in trouble.

5) Be patient
Just because a player has not sold in a week is not too much of a disaster. However, as a DIv 3 side buying and selling in 60-70avg players I couldn't exactly use my speculation players in league games, so I had to control how many players I wanted to trade at one time, and you will have to find the correct balance for your team based on your squad breakdown and your ambitions.

6) Do your research
If someone you recognise as a fellow speculator is PMing you negotiating a price you should consider what that means. Similarly, if someone sends you a PM asking for the player at a really low price and you can see either a) they usually pay more for that kind of player, or b) they've just sold a player for a huge amount, push them further on the price.

7) Be firm
Similarly, people will PM you saying that's all they have. Sorry. My job was never to make someone else rich, and your finances are not my concern. Be as polite as you can saying if they want to come back with the money you can talk.

8) Start small
When I started I certainly didn't have that much cash to throw around on investing in players. I was in my first season back in Div 3 after being relegated 2 seasons before. I threw a lot of the money I had on staying in the league, but found a few million and started buying a couple of cheap players. That's all you will need.

I hope my account of my experiences will be useful to some of our up and coming Olympians. Best of luck with the trading!

Edited by sicox86 22-03-2015 11:37

Jurgen Nobert Klopp said:
Did anyone see my equalizer against Fandi Ahmad Rovers?
that was SAMUEL ETO(ISH)
Hiding behind the GK to steal the ball, then blast it into the net... So it also happens on SM?