Flip Tycoon

Five items are added to the list every day. You have four chances to bid.

Buy one item. Three bidders are waiting to place their bids in turn. Accept the first bid or pass and hope the next one is better—but once you pass, that bid is gone forever.

That’s it. That’s the whole game. And it’s harder than it looks.

WHAT YOU’RE ACTUALLY READING Each product comes with a price bid, a valuation range, and a market trend (HOT, COLD, VOLATILE, or STABLE). The best offer for a HOT product usually comes last. The best offer for a COLD product usually comes first. VOLATILE means the trend is deliberately misleading you. Your job is to read the clues and decide whether the deal in front of you is the best one you can get.

What you can’t see: whether the product is real. Most are real. One in twenty is a convincingly fake product with no value whatsoever—and it will be evaluated just like a real product until you actually get your hands on it. If you want to be sure before buying, purchase an authenticity certificate.

TWELVE BUYERS, TWELVE HABITS Every buyer has a name, a face, and a pattern: the early bird who highlights the best price, the late closer who keeps you waiting, and the middleman who never surprises you in the slightest. If you trade with the same buyer often enough, you’ll figure out which one they are; if you trade with them even more, they’ll start telling you everything straight up.

A RANKING TABLE UNRELATED TO STREAKS, LEAGUES, AND VOLUME Play every day, and your streak multiplies your winnings. If you miss a day, you’ll be granted a one-time grace period. The ranking is based on profit margin per trade, not total number of trades; therefore, making five mediocre trades will never surpass a player who gets two trades right. Climb from Bronze to Diamond, competing against the same pool of players who rise and fall each week.

WEEKEND CHALLENGE Once a week, an item is specially marked. Buy it and hold onto it instead of selling it. If you still have it when the weekend begins, you’ll earn a bonus spin that no one else on the leaderboard has, plus a chance to make the leaderboard for that week.

A COLLECTION WORTH COMPLETING Every item you acquire is tracked—whether traded, stored in the vault, or discarded. A few of them are rare items worth seeking out.

No need to purchase energy refills. There’s no shortcut to earning through reading. Four spins a day, the same board visible to everyone in your league, and whatever you get is what you get.