[quote name='TechnoGoth' timestamp='1311771454' post='4841078']
I’m also not convinced of the idea of player to player sales using cash. I’m all for trades using in game items. But I’m worried that cash trades would just circulate money around players and not have it going back in the business. I probably will do something along these lines but it would be more of a card shop with a transaction fee taken from the sale price. So players could put their unwanted cards up for sale, and earn real money that way but a percentage of the sale price will be taken in fees.

I think it's so genius that it's just hard for most people to wrap their head around it. Lets look at an example:

Player A buys 1000 points from your game store for $20

Player A then buys Player B's in-game item with 200 points.

Player A now has 800 points, and Player B now has 200 points

Now, Player A might go on to spend all 800 points in other player auctions, distributing the points among several players

So now lets say the points distribution looks like this:
Player A = 0
Player B = 200
Player C = 400
Player D = 250
Player E = 150

So now all these players have points... well what good are those points? Yes, they could buy other gear from other player auctions with it... but at some point, a player will want to spend the points on cash shop goods. Effectively removing those points from the game. What happens to the points after their purchase does not really matter. It doesn't even matter if the player never spends those points for anything.

All that matters is that Player A bought 1000 points for $20. No more points were added into the system from the player auctions. They just changed hands. You aren't waiting for players to spend the points in order to earn money from them. You got the $20 the moment points were purchased.

So sure, Player C now has 400 points they didn't pay for. But Player A paid for them. Even if nobody ever spends the points, and the points just circulate in the auction house forever... Even if the points build up and there are millions of points being traded around each day... All that matters in the end is that all of those points were purchased.

You are selling digital currency for actual currency. What happens to the digital currency after that is moot. "not having it go back into the business" is not something you need to worry about. It went back into the business the moment the points were purchased.
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I'd like to add this to the above suggestion:

1) Create 2 currencies: one currency that all players can farm, and another where they must be bought with cash. (But never allow conversions between the two.)
2a) Make sure that your "packs" can be bought via both currencies.
2b) Limit your "upgrade" to only allow the first type of currency to be used when upgrading cards. The upgrade cost must be fairly (infact, make it VERY) high per upgrade. (Applies to both prestige and premium)
3) Don't allow your players to trade cards between themselves.
4) Create an "auction house" where all players can sell their cards, but only allow cash-bought currency for biddings.
5) Allow those extra content to be bought with the cash-bough currency piece-by-piece. (Something like the LOTR style of MT.)

Now for the explanation:

By limiting "upgrade purchase" to the first type of currency (lets call is Coins) you effectively allow the non-paying players to have control over the auction house. They invest time (and Coins) to upgrade their cards in exchange for the second type of currency (lets call it Cash). The paying players would have to buy X number of Cash to bid in the auction house if they want to play competitively, or if they want to save farming time and jump straight into action. How much they spend is determined by your non-paying players.

The auction house serves another purpose: to open a time-sensitive window which entice players to spend money buying Cash to bid on that ultra-super-rare-powerful card that is currently in the auction house. If they missed that opportunity, they have to spend a lot of time farming Coins to buy packs to obtain the card (if its rare) and even more time farming for more Coins to upgrade it to their desired power level. It also serves to push the players on the border into buying Cash when they see a good reason to do so (I.E. that ultra-super-rare-powerful card). [size="1"]Psst: The first tutorial you should make is how to use the auction house ;)
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Now, why only allow Cash to be used in the auction house bidding? Because then you can put a tax on the auction to siphon off a little of the Cash per transaction. The bidding player won't mind the tax as they are paying the exact amount that they bid. The receiving player won't mind because they are getting free Cash to use on some of the cool things that Cash can buy (Cause only non-paying players who farmed day-in day-out can create uber-cool cards). Now, if the receiving player decides to use the Cash to buy something, you have just given them a "preview" of the types of things only Cash currency can buy. In addition, they can now bid on the auction house. If they ever find themselves short of a few Cash points, they may be tempted to purchase a little bit of those Cash to top up what they have in order to make that bid. Its even better if there is a bidding war going on. God knows how much revenue those bidding wars can generate. (Thats the third purpose the auction house serve, eh? Heh.)


Other things to consider (For addons and extra contents part):
1) Tournaments with actual goodies (Like $1,000 worth of Cash points to the winner), but you must pay your registration fees with Cash. Make sure ALL cards can be used.
2) Creating a Guild requires Cash. (Which gives them acces to guildwars, where the top guild is given X booster packs of their choice. I say booster packs because you should never give your players large sums of Coins under any circumstances).
3) Use Cash to buy "Nifty" effects. Card specific, time-sensitive debuffs such as: Your opponent cannot use X card for 24 hours; X card is always revealed if your opponent uses it in his deck in the next 24 hours; X card is "dumbed down" (i.e. -1/-1) for 24 hours; Cleaning Service (remove all debuffs on one card); X card costs more to play for the next 24 hours, etc. etc. I'm sure you can think of more.