When the drop of the rental market hit Splinterlands, it opened up a whole new path for long time users to make income off of their cards while also giving new users opportunities to rise in leagues much faster.. But at a cost.
Here I hope to share a small bit of wisdom that I have found while renting cards myself the last couple of seasons. Previously with my power level I was sitting solidly in Silver 3 while my rating would have had me at Gold 3 and begging for people to delegate me cards to get my power up come season end (don't judge, we've all done it).
With renting I was able to take myself from the silver 3 level up to Diamond 3 for three seasons in a row and Gold 2 in the latest season. These last seasons have shook things up a bit though which is why I am hoping some mistakes I made can be lessons for you.
Here are my main tools/tips for being able to rent cards in a smart way to still end up with gains. And yes gains can be made in this game without being a "whale". I have invested approximately $150 and my current Splinterlands assets value at $2,400. Which I think is a good return for seven months of investing at such a low buy in.
Tip #1 - Figure out your goals.
Before you can really get into the nitty gritty you really need to know what are your goal for this investment. Is it for quick return buy and sell, long term investment, or passive income. For me it's the passive. Deciding which goal with help decide how you are going to approach renting.
Tip #2 - Budget
As with anything to do with Money, budget the crap out of it! A couple of good catagories for your budgeting would be
-How much money are you going to put into the game
For me, I don't have a lot of capitol going in so the first column is very small. I simply add money into the game as I get extra work to add to my living budget.
-How much, on average, do you gain by playing per day
This second column is a moving one, I find this by having an a simple averaging formula on an excel sheet that I punch in the last five days worth of DEC earnings I had that day from ranked rewards, quest rewards, and renting out my cards. I don't count cards earned here, as my with my goal of earning passive income, I simply try to break even on DEC spent while earning cards to eventually rent out.
-How much DEC/SPS you are wanting to keep sitting (for SPS points/staking or other uses)
This one you have to decide for yourself using the goal that was set. If you're looking for quick return then you probably aren't leaving much in your account but are watching the market and selling at the peaks. If you're like me and going long term, you're going to be staking the majority of your SPS and trying to keep as much DEC as you can to keep your SPS airdrop points as high as possible.
-How much you are wanting to transfer out to sell
Again quick returners are going to be transferring out a lot, keeping only what's needed for renting in the account. Long termers are going to keep hoarding.
-How much can go to renting
Based on how much you have in the other categories, what is left to rent cards with.
-How much can go for buying
Again based on how much you have left, long term investors will want to eventually own their own cards so that renting is no longer needed and can eventually rent out to others.
Tip #3 - Excel Templates
Not good at making a budget? There are a lot of templates out there for budgeting that with some simple editing can work for you. It doesn't have to be Excel either. You can use Google Sheets, Numbers, or a number of other programs. The templets come with categories pre written out and include areas for income and areas for expenses. Some have other more detailed elements but if you get income and expenses down you'll be doing great. In the income section add how much money you're adding into the game and a second income for how much you make from playing. Then add the rest on the categories into your expenses area. As you add the amounts in, you should see an area where it takes your income and starts to subtract away the expenses so you can easily see what you're left with when it comes time to add in what you have to go towards renting and buying.
Tip #4 - Peakmonsters
Peakmonsters is a great website that has a number of tools to help you navigate your investment in Splinterlands. The market there has more detailed filters than the Splinterlands site which can be helpful in your renting/buying process. The feature I want to highlight for this conversation though, is under the "My Cards" tab. At the top of this page you will be given a basic run down of value of your cards including the very important number at the end which is how much you are spending in rentals a day. This is a very important number to keep an eye on! Before I found that, I was loosely keeping tabs on how much I was spending while renting. When I saw the number there I realized I was over spending on rentals and quickly canceled any rentals on cards I wasn't using often enough. (Keep in mind the "Total Value" number includes cards to are renting. Using the filters on the right side you can choose to see only cards you own or even more detailed numbers)
Bonus Season End Tip
When the season end approaches, prices begin to skyrocket as people rush to get their power up. One thing I started doing to make sure I wasn't over spending (and the reason I was only Gold 2 last season) is I figure out how much I am willing to pay per reward chest. Last season I found that the extra chests for ranking up was not worth the price beyond where I was already at. A simple way to decide value that I use is valuing rewards chests at 150 DEC per chest. I get this number simply by value of quest potions. With quest potions you get five chests for 750 DEC, or 150 DEC per chest. So if I am going to spend say, 1000 DEC to get from Gold 1 to Diamond 3, then that is worth it as I will be getting 10 more chests at 100 DEC per chest. But if I am spending 2000 DEC then I am spending 200 DEC per chest and I would be better off buying two quest potions at 1500 DEC and getting the same amount of chests.
The rental market is definitely difficult right now with prices being higher than ever but I hope these tips help keep you on the gains. And don't get discouraged if not every season you see a gain. Two seasons ago was a loss for me (another reason for keeping me at Gold 2) but readjusting myself with these principles brought me back to breaking even in amount DEC this last season while earning SPS and reward cards. Which is a win to me.
If you found value from these tips I would greatly appreciate the upvote and follow to help keep my moving towards my passive income goal! If you want to comment a post from yourself regarding Splinterlands I would love to check it out and give you an upvote back.