FIFA 23 FUT Hero pack at 25k: How it affected transfers, current card prices, and more

EA Sports made potentially the biggest mistake in the history of FUT when they accidentally released a tradable Hero pack in the FIFA 23 Ultimate Team Store that cost just 25,000 coins.

This was clearly an error as the developers were swift to make amendments as they removed the pack from the store minutes after it was released at 6 pm UK time.

Despite their quick action, a large number of players were able to take advantage of this blunder by opening the Hero pack, claiming their FUT 23 Hero item, and selling the contents on the transfer market.

This debacle led to one of the biggest days of market movement since the beginning of FIFA 23, with massive price fluctuations occurring all over the place.

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The tradable FUT Hero pack for 25k coins had the FIFA 23 transfer market in absolute shambles

The massive influx of FUT Hero cards was bound to tank the market in a ridiculous manner. These special items are some of the most overpowered and desirable cards in the game, and with players being able to obtain a tradable one for a low price of just 25,000 coins, the repercussions on the market were inevitable.

How the FIFA 23 transfer market was affected by the Hero pack

Although the Hero pack was only available in the FIFA 23 Store for a few minutes, a large number of fans were able to take advantage of EA's blunder and sell their pack-pulled cards on the transfer market. This led to all Hero versions being mass-listed, with gamers undercutting each other to ensure that their cards got sold.

The demand for these items was unable to keep up with the tremendous supply and massive undercuts, and prices plummeted for all Hero cards in the game. It was a rather shocking revelation for the community, as every footballer was affected by this, from high-value candidates like Yaya Toure and David Ginola, to low-tier ones like Mario Gomez.

The brief window of panic selling caused almost irreparable damage to the transfer market. Before this debacle, Yaya Toure was available on PlayStation and Xbox for a price of 1.8 million FUT coins. However, during this selling phase, his price went as low as 700,000 coins. Once the market stabilized after the panic, he rebounded a little back to 1.2 million coins, but it's nowhere near his original selling price.

This was the case with the majority of other Hero items as well. Despite prices rebounding for most of these special versions, the market for these high-value cards is much lower than it was before this mistake from EA.

The ripple effect of this blunder also carried over to other areas of the FIFA 23 transfer market. The short time frame where the items were being panic-sold affected the price of gold meta cards as well, with footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe taking significant hits. These items have also rebounded since this rather unfortunate event.

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What does this mean for the FIFA 23 community?

Fans of the series are divided in their opinion regarding this issue. While some believe that the mistake was beneficial as it allowed them to make coins for free, those who missed out on the pack feel rather hard done by, as this gave the early-birds an unfair advantage.

While many were despondent that they missed out on the opportunity, others were rather angry at EA Sports for allowing only certain gamers to take advantage of the situation and ruin the market.

The reaction of the community can be encapsulated by this tweet from streamer Nick28t, who believed that the mistake was positive for fans before realizing the consequences of such an error.

YouTuber Danny Aarons saw the funny side to the situation, and took to Twitter to be his usual self and joke about this lack of oversight.

This fan in particular summarized the plethora of mistakes made by EA within the first few weeks of FIFA 23 being released.

FUT traders had an absolute field day in the FIFA 23 transfer market, as they were able to invest in Hero items for cheap during the panic and sell at a much higher price later.

Overall, this was a rather eventful and peculiar time in FIFA 23, and it will be interesting to see how EA Sports approaches the issue.