1. Do the tax maths before anything else
EA keeps 5% of every sale, so a card has to sell for about 5.3% more than you paid just to break even. On EA's price steps it's often a little more:
| You paid | Lowest sale that doesn't lose | What you keep from it |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | 1,100 | 1,045 |
| 5,000 | 5,300 | 5,035 |
| 10,000 | 10,750 | 10,212 |
| 20,000 | 21,250 | 20,187 |
| 50,000 | 53,000 | 50,350 |
| 100,000 | 106,000 | 100,700 |
Work backwards from the sale instead and you get your max buy: the sell price × 0.95, less the profit you want. EA's price steps, and how to set a max buy.
2. Buy and sell at the right time of day
Prices drift through the day, and the pattern depends on the price band. Here's when each band was cheapest and dearest, against each card's own average for the day (UK time):
| Card price | Cheapest | Dearest | Low to high |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 5,000 | Late morning to afternoon | Overnight | Nearly 5% |
| 5,000 to 20,000 | Evening | Morning | About 2% |
| 20,000 to 100,000 | Overnight and evening | Late morning | About 2% |
| Over 100,000 | Evening | Morning | About 1% |
So for most cards over 5,000 coins, buy in the evening and list in the morning. Cheap cards run the other way: buy them in the day, sell them overnight.
Notice the sizes, though. Every swing above is smaller than EA's 5% tax, so timing won't make a flip pay on its own. It adds a percent or two to a flip that already works.
3. Don't buy a dip just because it's a dip
A card trading well under its recent level looks like a bargain. Often it isn't. We found 238 dips where a card stayed at least 10% under its three-day average for two hours in a row, and looked at its price two days later:
- Only about a third were back at their three-day level.
- About three in ten were lower still, 5% or more under where the dip started.
- About half were worth enough to sell for a profit after tax.
A price usually falls for a reason, such as a new promo, a cheaper version of the player, or an SBC that needed him finishing. Before you buy a dip, ask why it fell, and wait for the fall to stop rather than catching it on the way down. This is why FUTSplash's slow flip only buys while a dip holds, and caps the buy at today's live price.
4. Check the price yourself, every time
A price tracker shows where a card was, not where it is now. Before you set a max buy, search the card with a high Max Buy Now and lower it a step at a time until results stop: the lowest price still showing is the real price. If it's far above the card's recent level, it may be a spike that won't last.
5. Sell to the market you're in
In a falling market, price to sell quickly: every hour a card waits, it's worth less. In a rising one, you can afford to be patient. Short listings help either way. A card listed for an hour that doesn't sell is back on your transfer list an hour later, ready to reprice, instead of sitting unsold for a day.
6. Spread your coins
Don't put your whole balance into one card. If its price drops, everything drops with it. Several cards your balance can buy a few times over spread the risk, and keep you trading while one of them is slow to sell.
7. Try auctions as well as Buy Now
Buy Now listings under the market are what snipers chase, so there's plenty of competition. Auctions in their final minutes are another route: bid up to your max buy and some will end below it.
8. Keep the basics tidy
- Clear sold items and relist or move unsold ones. A full transfer list stops you listing.
- Search at a steady pace. Too many searches in a short time and EA stops answering them for a while.
- Never buy or transfer coins. It's against EA's rules and the main cause of permanent bans.
How we measured
We used hourly console prices from two public price trackers, 15 to 26 October 2026. For the time-of-day pattern we kept the 1,527 cards with at least 200 hours of prices, compared each hour's price with that card's own average over the 25 hours around it (so a card that's rising or falling all week doesn't skew it), and averaged by UK hour. Both trackers, and both halves of the period, showed the same pattern. For dips we took every card worth at least 1,000 coins, called it a dip when the price stayed at least 10% under its average of the previous three days for two hours in a row, and compared the price 48 hours later. These are averages over a short period: individual cards, and promo weeks, can behave very differently. PC prices follow their own market.
Where a bot helps
Several of these tips are what FUTSplash does on every filter: it price-checks the card live before a filter runs, skips a price that looks like a spike, sets a max buy that clears the tax and your minimum profit, spreads runs across filters that suit your balance, and lists at a level that follows the market. How to set up an FC 27 autobuyer, or see everything the sniping bot does
EA does not permit third-party automation of the Web App, and any automated trading carries a risk of restrictions on your account. Read how FUTSplash keeps your usage moderate.