An Unoffical Guide for Uplander Dummies

     I am having a blast with Upland, at least now I am. If you are new to Upland, you might understand, or you may be like I was the first week and find yourself completely lost in your Explorer. I watched the tutorial videos, which helped. Yet, there is a lot more that I wish that I had known before buying my first property. Perhaps I am an idiot, but sometimes I miss the obvious.  

     Let’s face it gamers. We all enjoy wasting a few hours on our favorite games, whether playing solo or with friends. How does playing Upland compare? The adrenaline rush of buying that first property or achieving Uplander status might not be quite as intense as your first Victory Royale, but it is satisfying in a different way. Putting together collections and earning UPX has a certain agreeable feeling that you do not get in other games. I do not get the sense that I am wasting my time like I do after an afternoon on the Xbox.

     Now is an ideal time to get involved. With recent news of expanded territories East and West, there will be buying opportunities galore. Yet, before throwing a virtual dart at the Upland map, I want to share some lessons that I wish I had learned from the very beginning.

Here is my unofficial guide for Uplander Dummies:

1. Invest in UPX. If you can afford to, buy UPX. How much is up to you, but get enough to be able to do more than drive around aimlessly in your SUV looking for treasures. The bonus UPX for starting a new account is substantial, but you will be limited in how much you can acquire, and it will take you a while of buying and selling to make any real progress. I soon realized that it was going to take too long to treasure hunt my way to Uplander status.
2. Study the collections (before you spend all of your UPX). Also, notice that you can visit different cities. You will be able to buy far more in Fresno than San Francisco. It took me a week to figure out that I could have collections in more than one city. You simply click the little globe once you go into the collections area. There you can choose your city. (I can almost hear the Upland Pros and cryptocurrency enthusiasts snickering at me now.) I wish that I had known this during the beginner challenges.
3. Put that UPX to work! Unless you are saving for a big purchase, make smart investments in property and watch your UPX rise. If you can put it into a collection, even better. Go ahead and list it for sale if you don’t want to keep it, but let it work for you while you wait for it to sell. It’s pretty cool to wake up in the morning and collect UPX your property earned for you while you slept.
4. Buy and sell. You can make far more buying and selling than you will earning passive UPX. Although forming collections is where you will earn the most passive UPX, it is also where you will spend the most UPX. I recommend buying undervalued property on streets that will not fit into a high profile collection. For instance, recently I have had success buying three properties on a random street for a low price. I make sure that I am buying at a significantly lower price than other properties nearby. Then I immediately list those properties for sale just under the price of other properties on that same street. I make sure that my mark-up is enough that I make a slim profit, but not so much that potential buyers roll their eyes and move on. New players want to fill their “Own Three Properties on the Same Street” collection. They will be looking for good deals. As long as they are paying less than other adjacent properties, it’s a win-win situation for buyer and seller.
5. Buy properties that have a larger footprint or “property size” in order to earn more UPX. Of course you have to compare apples to apples. You can get a much bigger property in Fresno than Manhattan and still not earn as much. This leads to my last suggestion.
6. Compare similar properties. One way to determine if a property is undervalued is to compare it to other properties on the same street or neighborhood. This is not a purely scientific process. For one thing, you have people hoping that some idiot like me will pay 500,000 UPX adjacent to another property selling for 50,000 UPX. The more you research, the more of a sense you will gain. Simply follow a street from one end to another, clicking on the properties marked for sale (green). You will gain a sense of the value of properties on that street and be able to make more informed decisions.

     Upland is fun, but it is more than that. I believe that one day this “game” will improve my portfolio. It is already sharpening my instincts for buying and selling in the non-virtual world. Although it may look like I am playing digital Monopoly when my wife walks by and sighs, it is so much more. I am participating in a new wave of crypto gaming. The wave is just beginning to swell. I have waxed my board and am now learning how to stand. I intend to ride this wave to new heights and have a blast along the way.