Please let me start this post by saying that I am in no way shape or form an expert player, trader, or anything of the like. My posts are just my thoughts, experiences and opinions as I traverse the play to earn space and of the "metaverse" as whole.
My story and experiences are probably different from the stories and experiences of a player that has been playing Splinterlands for a few years and most likely are going to be different from a player that is just starting and from all the future players.
I will write about the things that I wish I had known when starting out. I'm not gonna speak all that much on strategy, if you are looking for that kind of info, check out 
As I mentioned in a previous post, I had been clutching desperately to each and every solitary card that came my way whilst devouring the digital content of any channel that toke the time to make a video, trying to copy their decks, their strategies, attempting in vain to copy their results. What ended up happening is that in addition to all the money that I wasted, more importantly, I wasted my time and attention. Please understand that nothing is truly wasted so long as lessons are learned, some lessons may be more costly to learn than others, but all lessons in life do come with a cost. Sorry for the existential mumbo jumbo, back to the difficulty I was having in my attempts to duplicate results, irrespective of where you fall on the spectrum of experience playing Splinterlands at the current moment, more germane to the conversation of duplicating results, would in my opinion be the date you began the journey. For me unfortunately (maybe fortunately depending on how you want to look at it) I started playing about 2 months before the Chaos Legion Packs were released, which made it a bit more difficult to accumulate cards...... that isn't exactly accurate, what I mean to say is once the new packs were available I was able to significantly increase my decks by chance (pack openings) for a very reasonable price. I mean when a person has the opportunity to pull a card worth $136 from a pack that costs $4, it gets me pumped (especially when operating on a tight budget), even before I pulled that card I was excited about Splinterlands.
However, had I not gotten involved with a solid community on a platform like Discord, I doubt I would've still been playing Splinterlands by the time Chaos Legion Packs rolled out. In my desire to get duplicate results I was seeing in videos, I started renting cards I really had no business renting, what I mean is I was wasting money on cards I didn't need or didn't really know how to use fully. As a result of overrenting and overspending, it took me longer to actually learn some semblance of strategy as I was just overpowering other low level players with brute strength of advanced cards but no real skill, and after the rental ended and then the season ended, nothing to show for it.
So, let us get into the title of this post: Should I sell or rent my Splinterlands Cards? Quick answer: Yes.....or no.......or both, and here is why. I started playing in September of 2021, just a few months prior to Chaos Legion Packs rolling out and with the exception of a 2 week break in February whilst in Rehab, I have been a daily player. So a few months with no packs (other than pricey packs on the secondary markets) and then the last month or so with available packs, spending very little money (maybe $50 a month which as I mentioned wasn't spent wisely) I had accumulated an account that was worth maybe $600 (after I pulled the GOLD FOIL GRUM) with about 48,000 or so Collection Power (CP) and maybe 300 DEC being awarded about 1.6 SPS a day. So nothing really worth mentioning to be clear. Even with rentals I was an average Bronze/Silver tier player. I have opened a total of about 130 packs which because I spent a few months trying to figure this out prior to purchasable packs, I have spent more on rentals and random cards along the way than I have on packs.
I wasn't renting or selling, just collecting......slowly acquiring cards and to be honest, becoming increasingly disenfranchised with the game and my lack of progress. Here I was, most definitely not a whale (not even a barnacle on the bottom of a whale) by any means, more resemblance with the minnow that gotten eaten by the whales. Getting very discouraged and came very close to just closing this chapter of my life as I traverse the new metaverse right. I was joining all sorts of discord groups, researching, finding projects that I couldn't afford and for what? It was a question that haunted me daily, what am I doing and why am I doing it. Do I enjoy playing the game? Yes. Is it discouraging when you rent a card and are counting on the CP for the end of season awards and the owner cancels the rental in order to raise the price 3x or more? Yes. Did I believe in the project and it's future? Yes. Did I think I was an early adopter? Did I think there was life changing wealth to be found in Splinterlands? Yes, Yes, and Yes to all of the questions! So why the darkness, the discouragement, the despair?
Because I wasn't seeing the results I wanted, that I saw others achieving, and then it hit me. I'm not seeing those results because I am not doing what they are doing because I don't have the liquidity, the budget, nor the 2 million CP. So what? So I decided to get more involved and ask more questions, ask for advice and then follow that advice. So I have to scale it back a notch or two right now. So what. Everyone that has made something in this game (and in life) had to start somewhere. Yes, some peoples starting points are significantly different than mine and yours. So why am I comparing my now to their now? My focus right now is to build my DEC holdings in order to maximize my daily SPS during the AirDrop. So my strategy is different than it will be in a few months once the AirDrop is over. But in combination of selling a few cards and renting out some others that I don't use as much, over the course of a few days I went from 1.5 SPS to 7 SPS daily, hold 20,000 DEC and have almost 70,000 CP without renting any cards (I still rent a few cards that are out of my price range at the moment), and most importantly I am once again enjoying myself as I exchange my time and attention for reward chests, NFTs, SPS, and DEC that I believe will bring me life changing wealth in the future, and as
God I am just rambling now, but I wanted to give the newer noobs a quick (or not so quick) snapshot of the beginning growing pains that they "MIGHT" encounter. But it wasn't until I understood that my situation isn't one that allows me to just sit and be a collector. I am not there yet. If you are, congratulations, I would love to hear your story of how you got there, let's share some stories. But I will be someday, but until that day is today, I must put action into building up a foundation that provides me with passive income. So thank you for going on this journey with me, I look forward to meeting you along this road of happy destiny that we are all trudging along.
Today, just for today (because all I ever truly have is now) I AM GLAD TO BE ALIVE!!!