Digital collection = no clutter! But for a price... – Star Wars Card Trader by Topps Review

Update (8/16) - unfortunately SWCT had gotten a bit too demanding of players. Unless you are willing to spend a lot of time and turning over personal information to multiple companies for free credits, it's incredibly difficult to do any set collecting in this game without investing actual money - potentially $5-$20/month or more. The daily credit freebies are the same but the "Expansion" sets in many cases doubled in cost. Don't get me wrong: much of the Expansion set looks great, but does not merit "charging" players twice as many credits for the privilege of playing, chasing, and collecting. "Fans Choice" has become a joke. Previously you were able to vote and receive a common character card for free, with the highest voted one becoming the FC card and those who chose it receiving it. Now you have to "buy in" to the tune of 15k credits PER CARD for the "nacho" version; the highest voted gets a "ranch" version given to those who chose it. Some weeks have up to six cards. There's an illusion of rarity where there is none since many players feel the design is ugly, plus the same character image is used. Many fans can't "afford" to participate. Rarity of many chase sets is now hidden by making the card count area white. CC text is also white, thus you have no way of gauging the actual rarity of said card, making valuing sets and trades more difficult on the player. Many traders have gotten greedier for this and other reasons, often demanding multiple cards in return for something not particularly rare or exclusive. There are also chase sets that have been all but forgotten about for months with no awards or updates. Topps needs to reduce pack costs, increase daily payouts, and make earning free credits less of a personal ID-demanding grind. Note as of this writing there's a promotion to give away a card set just for completing free offers, with those doing the most offers getting "rarer" cards, which suggests offers aren't being utilized the way Topps wants. Players shouldn't have to spend more time completing offers than collecting and trading. ////////////////////////////// (original review from Spring 2016) I picked up this app as a way to look at cool Star Wars pics but I'm a collector from way back, so quickly got into trying to finish sets and find chase cards! If you can be patient you WILL luck out and pull some neat inserts a couple times a week - after 2-3 weeks of building daily credits I felt like a had a good buffer to pick up more/bigger packs. App rarely has loading issues and recent update makes searching and sorting for trades way easier. One downside is if you're not "paying to play" earning free credits is not consistent. I never qualify for surveys and a lot of the offers feels pretty sketchy - I'm not comfortable giving real info to multiple 3rd parties for samples. Now, that's just me and if I did have the money some of the paid offers (spend $20+ at some site and get a LOT of credits) are legit. So earning credits is annoying but it's not a big deal when with patience you can trade with folks. Finally: I REALLY appreciate Topps letting us message every single image. Can use for phone backgrounds, send to friends, etc. Also the latest series 3 has awesome action shots and good photos of even the bit actors, it really "honors" them and the series well, great job on those photos!
Review by Nurse Igor on Star Wars Card Trader by Topps.