Now I have been playing this game for more than a year now, and I think it is time for me to understand the game on top of just playing the game. I am always seeing people earning passive income through rentals and not even playing a single match. Though I don't aspire to be like that one day as I love the gameplay, I am fascinated though how they are able to do so and achieve the passive income.

If you are playing Splinterlands, it would be a no brainer to know that some of the NFTs are worth hundreds and thousands of dollars. For instance, this little baby by the name of Prince Julian

This guy right here, have 2 listings. One is listed for USD$10,000 whereas another is listed for USD$25,000. The average salary in US for 2020 is USD$56,310, meaning that just by opening this guy and selling it for the latter, you would literally have as though worked for 5-6 months of work. This is outright insane man...

Which brings the question of, is this guy even that useful in the first place?

Utility VS Value

Now with that guy, you would be able to use cards of all levels. Similarly, you would have achieved the same with a Level 10 of this guy, Kretch Tallevor.

Now there are cheaper summoners around, but I choose this guy for a fair comparison, both are Dragon Summoners and have no additional buff.

So now, a Per BCX of Kretch Tallevor right now costs USD$3.299. And we would need 46 cards to upgrade it to the highest level of Level 6, after which he would have the same effects as Prince Julian.

Total Costs = 46 X USD$3.299
= USD$151.754

This is literally a fraction of what Prince Julian costs! Some naysayers would argue that Gold Cards gives additional buff, sure.

This guy costs USD$84.

So 10 cards are required to get it to max level
Total Costs = 10 X USD$84
= USD$840

Even so, USD$840 is a mere fraction of Prince Julian, in fact upon calculation it is a mere 3.36% of Prince Julian!

Which comes to the question of Utility VS Value.

Investment

Now if someone is here for investments, then I would believe that he/she would just purchase cards that will retain the highest value and rental yield, regardless of what the card does. In this case, Team Prince Julian

Player

Now if someone is here to play the game, then I would believe that he/she would purchase the cards that aids gameplay, and with the minimal cost. In this case, Team Kretch Tallevor

Conclusion

So which comes to a point. While this is a play to earn genre, everyone ultimately strives to earn while playing. So in this case, while it is wonderful to open up rare and high value cards, the question comes in when we are tasked to make a purchase decision. Should we get one with Value, or one with Utility?

Any takes on this?

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Thank you so much
(Photos and gif I used in this post are taken from splinterlands.com for this post purpose only)