The problem is that there is no scarcity or no cap. If the developers had said; "There WILL be a cap after 100,000 cards sold" or 5000 users we would not have seen this price drop. And as more cards are being flooded the prices will continue to drop. They might recover some when the actual game is released and good cards means good guild which means good money to be made.
But unless there is scarcity there is no incentive for prices to hold. Ive said that all along. People need to feel that they hold something unique, something valuable. And if the developers just say there is going to be no cap..well..
I just don't get why they didn't cap THESE cards, and issued new ones. It would make so much more sense. Limit the production of the first cards, so that everyone that were early got the first edition cards, unique first editions that had scarcity. Issue a new edition that was cheaper to attract more people etc.
Make no mistake - I love the concept and I do have some faith in it (I have over 2000 cards) but it's important to realize that it could fail. Except that it does not mean that games like these wont be around. There will be other games - MANY games. There will probably be tens if not hundreds of similar games running og Steem soon. Some sucky, some great. Steemmonsters is the first one and the first one rarely becomes the best one.
But also keep in mind that digital assets are reusable..which means that if Steemmonsters fail, it could theoretically be possible to use the cards in another game.
I understand the scarcity comment, completely, I really do. What I do not understand is that fact that the drop rates are at such a low percentage for the rarest cards that it is very scarce. 1/12000 cards is a gold legend. the likelihood of someone getting a rare card and buying another one and combining them I would venture to say is more probably then one being dropped out of a pack. And so I don't really buy the scarcity viewpoint just yet....I don't know it's a difficult concept to grasp for sure that is why I want to know how many Legends and seperate golds have been dropped and how many presently exist. There is a difference.
First step ist lowering the drop rates like @aggroed indicated as possibility to reward early buyers.. for Legendary from 1% to 0.2% per card. But you are right the supply increases day by day and is already quite high in comparison to current holders. As long there is no tournament there is also no greater demand for the cards. For me it's about time now.. we have simply to wait until the game is out. I think many people are simply not interested just collecting the cards, they wanna play.
Another thing is, i think there are also very impatient people or addicted booster pack buyers which don't wanna buy&hold or thought of a quick buck in days but with these prices currently a seller could have a hard time. I totally agree also with @heyimsnuffles regarding the prices for Epics and Legendary but that's also because @thomasgutierrez (the immortalized 😁) sold loads of cards and diluted the market further. Soon that will be over, it's a sell wave.
The game system is crucial for the success in my eyes. If it's a well balanced, tactical and exciting game it could be a huge success for the Steem blockchain and also Steemit, more than the Kitties or Giftomon. I see a very challenging task to balance all the elements with specific abilities, special bonuses, upcoming items and so forth.
If there is no limited supply the prices would never rise above booster packs if you look at the distribution of each rarity class in my point of view. That would be bad for both, collectors and players because i think it's much more fun to have some very rare cards to collect and also to battle for. That's the stuff legends are made of! ⚔