HonestlySarcastc here replacing this weeks Budget Club article with a Buyers and Sellers Guide to understanding Spot Gloss economic values. I’ve seen a lot of things said in the Marketplace by Buyers, Sellers, the Lukers, etc about price and quite frankly….

So i’ll start off by introducing the fact that I was the guy who posted the first Spot Gloss First Order Stormtrooper and caused part of the $500 card issue and that I can be found in the Facebook Marketplace infrequently but post items depicting the Luke mat for 1st place at Gencon in case what I’m saying sounds familiar. I also incorrectly called it “Spot Glass” and also caused that shit fest where it should be “Spot Gloss”, who knew i was so instrumental in causing mass confusion. I’ll start off by saying that $500 is crazy talk for these, but so is $50 and we’re going to do some analysis of the Galactic Qualifier event so that we can try to educate everybody and hopefully make things smoother for the Buyers, Sellers, and Lurkers. I’m trying something a bit different for those that don’t wish to read “flowery words” and just want raw data and you can think of bolded items as a TLDR (too long didn’t read).

The Event

The event is a Double Elimination event, which means that once you get two losses you are removed from the event then awarded tickets based on the number of wins you had. The entry cost for the Galactic Qualifier event is $20. Entry gets you 1Lightsaber Pull OR Flank (extended art promos) and if you pre-register then you were able to buy a Thrawn or Hera Playmat for $20. Entry for the convention was $20 per day if a 3-day pass, or $25 one time, but i’ll use the full 3 day badge price in calculations.

GC Event ticket disbursement based on Wins:

0 – Wins: 2 tickets

1 – Win: 4 tickets

2 -Wins: 6 tickets

3 – Wins: 8 tickets

4 – Wins: 12 tickets (Big step up here, because this nets you a Spot Gloss card)

5/6 – Wins: 16 Tickets and a 6-0 gets a reserved seat at Worlds

Prize Wall: (My biased opinion)

1 Ticket: Poop Pre-release Aurebesh card, Rend, Wookie Warrior, Death trooper etc

2/4Tickets: Quarter Kit Promos : 2 – the entry promo, 4- the prize promo

3 Tickets: Lightsaber Pull or Flank

8 Tickets: Battlefield Spot Gloss

12 Tickets: Character Spot Gloss

24 Tickets: Thrawn or Hera Mat (Yea, this is ridiculous since you could get for $20 from pre-register)

32 Tickets: 2 Player Mat: Obi / Maul (Probably no one getting it because efficiency meant 5-1 on TWO days, F That)

Participants eliminated rate

End of Round 1 No eliminations:(50% 0-1, 50% 1-0)

Round 2 -1/4th entry eliminated: 0 wins (25% 0-2e, 50% 1-1(25% from each split), 25% 2-0)

Round 3 – 1/4th entry eliminated: 1 win (25% 1-2e, 25% 2-1, 12.5% 2-1, 12.5% 3-0)



The fractions start getting wonkier here, but FIRST, let me take a SELFIE!:



(This was the Round 4 Pairings at the top tables (3-0’s) on Day 3. The face Bobo makes is a trip!

Round 4 – 3/16ths entry eliminated: 2 wins (18.75% 2-2e, 25% 3-1 (18.75 + 6.25), 6.25% 4-0)

Round 5 – 1/8th entry eliminated: 3 wins (12.5% 3-2, 15.67% 4-1 (12.5 + 3.12), 3.125% 5-0)

Minor break to clear up some fractions for those where the percentages are getting crazy. 15.67% is 5/32nd and 3.12 is 1/32nd so out of a 64 player event 10 of them are 4-1 and 2 are 5-0.

Round 6 – 5/64th (7.8125%) end at 4-2, 6/64 (9.375%) end at 5-1, and 1/64 (1.5625%) ends as 6-0.

Galactic Qualifiers were allegedly supposed to be capped at 64 people, but we averaged somewhere between 80-110 at the PAX Unplugged event. The event at Adepticon is already sold out is what I’m being told and that one was capped at 64, but people are hoping that more tickets open up. For the sake of easier math, we’ll use 64 participants, but i left the percentages in tact in case you’d like to do the math for a variable number of participants.

Tickets Received in a 64 Player GC:

16 People – 2 Tickets – 2 Rounds = 90 Minutes ea

16 People – 4 Tickets – 3 Rounds = 135 Minutes ea

12 People – 6 Tickets – 4 Rounds = 180 Minutes ea

8 People – 8 Tickets – 5 Rounds = 225 Minutes ea

5 People – 12 Tickets – 6 Rounds = 270 Minutes ea

7 People – 16 Tickets – 6 Rounds = 270 Minutes ea

Time Spent per Round will be 45 Minutes: 35 for the round which always had someone go to time, and 10 minute buffer for getting pairings situated, people seated, and announcements.

Total People: 64 (Obviously lol)

Total Tickets Given out: 404 per Galactic Qualifier

Math: 32 + 64 + 72 + 64 + 60 + 112 = 404

Total Spot Gloss Characters based on just tickets from a GC = 33 (with 8 tickets left over)

Total Amount Spent in Entry Fees: $1280 (64 * 20)

Theoretical Price of a Spot Gloss solely based on Entry spent: $39 ($38.78)

Theoretical Price of a Spot Gloss based on Entry to event AND convention: $78 (77.56)

Average # of Tickets received per Person at the event: 6.3125

Total Amount of time spent playing as a collective group: 180 Hours

Math:1440 + 2160 + 2160 + 1800 + 1350 + 1890 = 10800 Minutes = 180 Hours

Federal Minimum Wage: $7.25

Minimum Pay if this was work: $1305

Total # of Spot Glass Characters from the 3 events if maximized and capped at 64 players: 101



Adding the cost of the event, the cost of the convention, and presumed pay using just the federal minimum wage, would equate to $3865 worth of entry fees/ con fees / base pay per galactic qualifier with 64 players. When we take that amount and divide it by the number of spot gloss characters capable of being received per event we end up with $117.12 as the value per spot gloss. Most of us are grown adults and our career paths dictate that our pay at work is a value that is much higher than minimum wage (which is $11 an hour in the state of Massachusetts where I reside). Items are only worth what people will pay for them, but at bare minimum, the COST of a spot gloss card is $117, which oddly enough lines up with that $10 per ticket (some were 15/20) that they were being traded / sold to each other for at the convention. After that is profit margins, shipping costs / Paypal or Ebay fees, etc. I omit any sort of travel / hotel / food expense since that is few and far between and whilst it can be easily be rationalized that would be one’s own choice.

We’ll quickly go over the 8 man pods to help out a bit and put things into perspective as well.

Cost: $10

Players: 8

Total Tickets Distributed: 14

Tickets based on Record: 0-1 Win = 1 tickets, 2 Win = 2 tickets, 3 Win = 4 tickets

Placements: 1x 3W, 3x 2W, 3x 1W, 1x 0W.

Math: 4 + 6 + 3 + 1 = 14 tickets

Time Spent at 40 minutes per round: 960 Minute = 16 hours

Average Tickets Per Player = 1.75

Pay based on Minimum Wage = $116

Total Event Cost = $80

Spot Gloss per Event = 1.1667

Spot Gloss Cost based on wage + entry excluding convention cost: $168

Spot Gloss Cost based on entry only: $69 (68.57)

As you can see, grinding the 8 man pods isn’t as efficient as the Galactic Qualifier, but you take what you can get.

I can’t fathom any sort of math on the mats because $20 vs 24 tickets for Thrawn or Hera is blasphemous, but I had traded mats for 8 tickets which should put them in the $80 range based on per ticket pricing, but 2/3rds value of a spot gloss based on the trade efficiency towards a spot gloss, but then it’s double value on a spot gloss based on actually turning in tickets. TLDR, trying to determine Playmat value is dumb, and I’m not going to do it.

For the sake of all that is holy, please don’t try to bring up the Quarter Kit promo’s or launch promo’s into the equation. The shittiest of prizes is always available for those with leftover tickets, the only questionable one is the Lightsaber Pull / Flank which currently have no other method of receiving besides entry to the Galactic Qualifier for FREE, but it is a 3 ticket trade in that happens to also be 1/4 of the way towards a spot gloss.

For those that were curious how I did at the events, I went 5-1 in each of the 3 events (2 Prize splits as a 5-0 because I already have a Worlds seat and it would just prevent someone from getting their ticket if I won) and left with a stack of stuff because i was wheeling and dealing a lot. Whelp, I’m all mathed out for now and I hope that this was helpful to you. Please leave comments / feedback since the small things tend to keep us motivated and going. Hyperloop OUT!

~HonestlySarcastc

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