One of the most difficult things to comprehend even at an intermediate or advanced level is the full potential of value associated with certain plays. 

We’ve all been so conditioned to do the inane math of annual fee minus some arbitrary value of credits that Big Blog has beaten into us that reading between the lines and thinking a little bit more creatively can be tricky at times.

However, failure to think like this more often is putting a ceiling on your earning ability and is likely going to be a detriment heading into the new year. 

There’s not really a trick to shifting your mindset – it just comes with experience, some dead-play autopsies, and a whole lot of FOMO.

Since I like to do examples here, let’s do another vaguely-alluded-to autopsy. In 2024, a lot of cetaceans were enjoying a very simple loop. While not all of the pieces to do it were public, anyone who was paying to join a private group had all of the knowledge necessary to do it themselves.

However, even in these private groups, I saw countless people talk about how useless the involved card for the loop was. A lot of times, people asked why choose that card over the business card counterpart? The answer was right there in the marketing language on the card’s application page – it just wasn’t related to an elevated sign up bonus, or some new coupon book. 

Now there was a bit more nuance to it than just choosing the right card, but everything you needed to put 2 and 2 together wasn’t a closely guarded secret. You just had to think creatively, understand the tools and methods available to you, and possess the strong stomach needed to deal with moving that much money around all the time. 

Going forward, it’s likely going to require even more critical thinking. For example, any credit union card with an intriguing MS angle is going to get the DoC hug of death sooner rather than later. It’s just a natural consequence of the game having more players than ever. 

But there’s always going to be room for savvy MSers who are willing to do some probing and spend time networking with like-minded people to profit and travel well. 

It’s always wise to consider others’ opinions on things, while understanding that it’s ultimately still up to you to analyze what the value of a play is. Just because something isn’t valuable at face value doesn’t mean it isn’t, and vice versa. But you won’t know until you try. 

Шәныҳәаз!