I'll just share a few details that I wish I'd known when I started the app:

The basic mechanic of the app, in case you hadn't figured it out yet, is that there are 'base' cards, that are the filler cards in almost every pack. These come in White, Red, Blue, Yellow and Gold. Whites are virtually worthless, but you get an award for collecting them all - so start there. Same with Reds and Blues. Yellows are a rarer, and gold's are worth quite a bit more.

But none of them come close to the value of insert cards. (Well, a few golds can sometimes get you an insert card.)

SWCT has tons of inserts. You can't possibly collect them all without spending a ton of time and money - but it's not worth it anyway. Once a set of inserts has 'completed' (been published in the app and sold out) its trade value typically drops steeply. The fun is completing ongoing sets - where cards are still being released.

What you should do is pick an ongoing set from the the Transmissions feed and decide to chase it. Take note of the odds, and pick one that seems doable. If they release every day, then you won't be able to keep up as a F2P player, but you may still have fun getting some of them.

There are also 'marathons' (Vintage, Widevision, etc) which are long-running insert sets - one is released every week for (typically) 30 weeks. They are the 'premium' inserts of the app, in most cases.

Some sets are worth quite a bit more, even than vintages, because their odds are so difficult or you must do complex things to get them.

Hopefully that helps. I'd recommend you start out by picking a set you like in the Transmission feed, then opening the packs that have that card in it and slowly filling out your base set til you earn the awards for completing your Whites.

Don't trade anything for a while or spend any money on 'Master Packs' - just enjoy opening for a while til you get grounded.

Best of luck! It's addicting - and this subreddit is the best community for this app anywhere.