Now the market can be tricky. Just because we see a card listed at XXXX price it doesn't mean it sells for that so lets dig a little deeper and take a look at some of the more valuable cards listed for sale. First up the rewards card Ruler Of The Seas.

RULER OF THE SEAS LORE

The Ruler of the Seas may be as old as the seas. He is also known as the Ocean Oracle, and is said to have knowledge greater than time and space. Getting him to answer a question, however, may be one of the most difficult quests in all the Splinterlands. *LORE taken from official Splinterlands site.

The Screen shot above shows the sale of the Reward card Ruler Of Seas. It sold for $30.00 USD and was purchaed by @rentau / Sold by @shadown99. The ROS is one awesome card and worth every penny of that $30.00 USD but the real reason I choose to showcase this card first is because its currently the most expensive Rewards card that can be purchased that isn't a Gold Foil.

Guess how much the Ruler Of Seas cost when attained by its original owner. Go on give yourself a second to guess before you continue to read on. Did you guess pennies, did you guess dollars?? If so you would be wrong. For anyone who originally owned this card they attained it for free via playing the game.

Let that sink in for a second, a card that was originally won and attained for free by its original owner is now actively selling for $30 USD. Better hurry because if you want to purchase the ROS at the very low price of $30.00 USD there's only three available before the price jumps to $39 USD. Next lets look at a Legendary that recently sold that is of the ALPHA/BETA collection (GOLD DRAGON).

GOLD DRAGON LORE

There is only one living Golden Dragon, and he presides over the great Dragon Congress. His magic and armor are the greatest, and only the Hydra has put his mettle to the test. Suam Khepri, the leader of the united Gloridax, is always on the lookout for the next Gold Dragon, which prophecy says will hatch in these times. *Lore taken from official Splinterland site.

The Gold Dragon above that is showcased can be found in both the Aplha and Beta collections. The one in the screen shot that was sold for $198 USD by @redundancy4343 to @hansgans is of the BETA collection. Just like there was a reason for my first showcased card there is a reason for this particular card to have a spotlight shined on it.

That reason is it's one of the more expensive leveled cards that have very recently sold. It takes five level ones to reach level three (Eleven lvl ones to reach MAX). The one pictured above was a level three. So if we take the sale price of $198 and divide it by the number of cards it took to reach Level 3 (Five Cards) that would mean the purchaser paid $39.60 USD per BCX (Individual Card).

Looking at the Splinterlands Market I can see that one would need to pay $43 USD per Gold Dragon if purchased at single BCX level. The user hansgans managed to secure themselves a $3.40 discount per BCX by purchasing an already leveled card (total savings $17 USD).

We learn two things from this (1) if purchasing to level up then its always better to look at purchasing cards that are already leveled as they are almost always cheaper (Per BCX) to purchase this way, (2) if one is mainly an investor in this game its always better to keep most your collection as Level One cards as they will bring the most ROI when it comes time to sell. Now lets take a look at a recent Gold Foil Legendary Sale from the most current edition of Monsters (Untamed: BYZANTINE KITTY).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHOWq636CXo

The most recent series of Splinterland cards is called UNTAMED. Currently all the UNTAMED boosters are sold out but can still be purchased on secondary markets such as Hive-Engine. One of the more sought after cards in the UNTAMED collection is the Legendary Gold Foil Byzantine Kitty. Very recently one sold for $450 USD. Was this a good deal?? It may of been because currently (Just a day after the sale) the cheapeast Gold Foil Byzantine Kitty for sale is listed at $537 USD.

So as you can see these Splinterland cards that are listed from handful to hundreds of dollars are selling. The Splinterlands 24 hour sales are routinely above $10,000 USD which shows that there is demand for these cards. BUT and you knew there was going to be a BUT there are some cards that are priced very high that haven't been selling. To be fair to the spirit of this opinion piece lets take a look at one of those cards that shows this to the extreme (Gold Foil ARCHMAGE ARIUS).

ARCHMAGE ARIUS

The High Council of Archmages presides secretly over all the magical affairs of the Splinterlands. Collectively, they are wiser than the Ancient Ones, and at their pinnacle sits Archmage Arius. He is the father of the Council, the protector of all the living and the defender of the Planet. On extremely rare occasions, he appears on the Mount Mox tournament grounds, where he obliterates anyone who dares to face him in summoner’s battle.

Yikes, its going to cost someone One Million USD if they want to purchase the only Archamage Arius for sale in the Splinterlands Market. This card is by far the most rare card within the Splinterlands Univierse. There's only a total of three of these that exist and that is all there ever will be. Who's the lucky owner of this card that has it listed for the low cost of One Million USD, that person would be @goldmatters.

Will the card ever sell for the listed price of one million, with todays supply and demand of such cards; its not likely but who knows what the future will bring. A large portion of you Monster Maniacs might be future millionairs and not even know it yet. However the card does look like it has a sale history. If we take a look at the screen shot above the Market Value (Trend) portion shows a value of $2023 USD and that is the price this card last sold for which still is a decent amount of USD. So like any purchase make sure you do a little history checking on anything you intend on purchasing.