Hear ye hear ye, I have never played a card a day in my life but Steemmonster looks cool and in FOMO 'fear of missing out', I join the game lol. I think it is not a bad time to start since it is fairly new.
The sales went crazy after it was launched. 
Steem Monsters is a collectible card game where card ownership and game results are all published and verifiable on the Steem blockchain
Every card will have a unique identifier and be recorded in a custom_json transaction on the Steem blockchain, along with the associated purchase or transfer transaction. That way card ownership can be independently checked and verified.
What's next?
I think the card will be available to trade by the perceived value of the market/people. The creator said that they will be a tournament and this time (pre sale) time is the time people start collecting card before it went live to a tournament. It said that prizes will be given to the winners. So by a perceived value, cards will have a market value in future when people start entering tournament.
Cards
Cards are defined by rarity, Common, rare, epic and legendary. Legendary cards are what people seek currently and according to 
Cards also can be leveled up if it is combined. So far we do not know how much a card worth is it is level at max, only time will tell.
meet Swamp Thing and Screaming Banshee
So far i do not have any legendary cards (sobbing) but I do have 2 epic cards. Right now I will just collect them and hold.
Anyway, it is a cool collectible card and currently it is at sale with USD2 per pack. Are you guys collecting?
Jen