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Buying Amiibo cards individually vs. in packs?

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lunarinterlude

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Not sure if this is the right forum, but anyways: I was thinking about buying some amiibo cards, but I'm struggling as to whether or not I should buy them individually (on Etsy) to get certain villagers I like or ones that I know are popular, or to buy them in packs and just hope for the best.

What do you guys think? Is the duplicate rate in packs really high? Are the more popular villagers uncommon?
 
i've gotten 4 packs so far, and only have 2 duplicates- i might just be lucky though!

i think that if you're buying them for your town (as in, who you want to move in) and you've got a specific villager (or villagers) that you want, buy them individually- that way you aren't wasting money buying pack after pack trying to find, for example, ruby.

if you're buying because you maybe want to start a cycling town, then you should buy packs because people request a wide range of villagers and its good to have as many as possible!

either way, it's entirely up to you and i wish you luck in your amiibo card search! (because i know that pain too hehe)
 
if you're looking for specific villagers, buy them individually

if not, buy them in packs
 
If you're only looking for a couple, it would probably be better to buy them individually. However, if you're looking to get all of the cards it would be better to buy the packs. The amount of duplicates you get just depends on the pack. Some are lucky than others. Like the other day I bought several packs and I only got a few duplicates, but then a few days later I bought more and I got tons. So it really just depends.

I have no idea if the more popular villagers are harder to find. I think you have the same rate of finding a popular villager as an unpopular one, but I'm not sure. I've found several of the more popular villagers, and I've gotten several duplicates of a couple of them.
 
If you want to have an array of villagers, then get the packs. I find duplicates pretty rarely and I impulsively buy card packs (bless u Toys R Us). I also have a lot of popular villagers. I find that with each pack there is at least one really good villager among them. For an idea: last time I bought a single Series 1 pack and got Octavian and Fauna in it. I remember getting Stitches in another pack that day (it was a good haul now that I ponder it).

I usually only buy packs and I feel I get good pulls for what I pay for, but that's me. I like collecting the amiibo, mind you.

The only card I bought individually was Etoile when the Sanrio came out. She was fifteen bucks alone, and I can't find her anymore online. Buying individually may be pricier, but it might be worth it if you only want a few good picks.
 
I never bought amiibo cards individually. I always bought packs and traded on here! I completed the entire collection in a month doing that c:
 
I'd say in my opinion it's worth it to buy the packs, up to a point. As you get the packs and the amount of cards you have increases, so does the chance of you getting duplicates later on as the pool of new cards gets smaller and smaller. I think it's more profitable to get the packs until you get around 80-85% of the cards, and then the amount of new cards left is so small that you're better off buying the last few individually, at least if you aren't the type to sell your duplicates/trade them with friends.
 
Honestly I never thought about trading! That's probably a good idea too. If you buy the packs and get villagers you don't want you could always trade them.

I probably won't buy individually myself. Etoile was an exception. xD However, I may consider trading out duplicates and others I don't really need. I feel trading might be a great middle ground.
 
A big problem with the card series are that the amount of special cards is so small (17 per series I think?) and you're guaranteed to get one in every pack - it kinda negates their "specialness" aside from the fact that they're shiny since by the time you've collected all the cards you're definitely gonna have tons of them.
 
Last edited:
doodle said:
I impulsively buy card packs (bless u Toys R Us).
Click to expand...

I had to quote this because yes.

I've bought dozens of packs from each series. There were some villagers I was trying to find but I also just wanted to collect a bunch of the cards. I lucked out a few times but I do get duplicates pretty often *cough Pietro 4 times* so once I had a good chunk from the series I just ordered the individual cards I wanted off eBay.

I hear that it's a matter of luck. I don't think the tier system is real, pretty sure you're equally as likely to get each villager. I've randomly found Marshal twice.
 
Thanks for the responses everyone! I think I'm gonna go with buying packs :) My next questions are these: one, are RV Amiibo cards still available? Amazon has them but for ridiculous prices. Secondly, where do you all buy card packs? I'll definitely check Toys R Us, but it seems like most stores don't have them, even online.
 
I have several cards - I haven't really started actively collecting them yet but am planning on starting that towards the end of this year/early next year ((it was my first time experiencing the Steam summer sale and I may have gone a little overboard so I can't start now lol)). I haven't got any duplicates but then I'm not likely to due to the fact that I've only opened like 3-4 packs and one of those was the Sanrio pack that has all the cards in that everyone seems to want (it was one per customer on the Nintendo site back when I bought it! not that you'd need more than one though...).

The tier system isn't a thing in the cards. It was just made as a pricing guideline based on the popularity of villagers being traded in online communities like this one. The special shiny cards could be considered "uncommon" since you only get 1 a pack but as I mentioned earlier they have so little variety that by the time you've bought at least 50 packs to get all the cards in a series you'll have them all plus duplicates so they really aren't rare at all.

- - - Post Merge - - -

You can buy cards on the Nintendo site right? Or is that not for all the countries?
 
If it's just for ones you like than buy them online or try to trade on the trading boards.

If you want the whole collection it might be hard to get them now. I got mine when they were just for Happy Home Designer. Bought some packs and than traded my extra cards here. I never had a problem with any traders here. All cards arrived in perfect condition. Back than the stores didn't have a problem carrying them. Last summer they wanted them gone off the shelf because no one was buying them. Took up space and people were stealing them. A lot of stores moved to online only.

With the Welcome Amiibo Cards if you get a box that hasn't been opened you'll get the complete set plus 10 bonus cards. Those can be handy for making trades for Series 1 to 4. You could ask for more than one card for one of those.

Check online and you may still be able to buy a complete set of Series 1, 2 3, and 4.
 
totakek said:
You can buy cards on the Nintendo site right? Or is that not for all the countries?
Click to expand...


Do you mean from the site directly? Because when I go to buy them, it just redirects me to other retailers (i.e. Amazon, Walmart, etc). I'm in the US if that matters.
 
lunarinterlude said:
are RV Amiibo cards still available? Amazon has them but for ridiculous prices. Secondly, where do you all buy card packs? I'll definitely check Toys R Us, but it seems like most stores don't have them, even online.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about the RV amiibo cards personally, but the last time I got cards they definitely had them at Toys R Us
 
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