When EA Sports introduced the Hockey Ultimate Team game mode in NHL 11, they successfully captured the warm feeling that hockey fans got collecting cards in their youth, as well as the addictive nature that comes with it.
What makes Ultimate Team even better is that those coveted collectible cards that every player obsesses over are actually used. As the HUT userbase expands, values for rare cards continue to rise to amounts that once seemed unthinkable, making the dream of actually owning one a rather unlikely prospect. Unless of course the pack luck gods are on your side (hint: they never are). Of course, that hasn't stopped some gamers from circumventing the system through online black markets that allow players to purchase in-game coins with real world money. Something that is explicitly forbidden by EA Sports. But while the black market for coins is shady and frowned upon, it does allow us to do is assign monetary values to expensive cards.
For our assessment, we decided to only use cards that included a 'Buy It Now' price.
Patrick Roy (Milestone) - Coins: 800,000 - CAD: $450
Dany Heatley (Halloween) - Coins: 1,500,000 - CAD: $844
Vladimir Tarasenko (Movember) - Coins: 3,000,000 - CAD: $1,689
Sidney Crosby (Movember) - Coins: 2,000,000 - CAD: $1,099
Pavel Bure (WC POTG) - Coins: 2,200,000 - CAD: $1,220
Patrik Laine (Christmas) - Coins: 1,300,000 - CAD: $732
So while we certainly don't encourage you to go purchase coins, you likely won't even think to after seeing how much some of the most expensive cards in the game would cost you in real world dollars.
