There are four groups of players who trade in lockbox keys:
Group A: Buy lockbox keys for ZEN to open lockboxes.
Group B: Buy lockbox keys for ZEN to sell for Energy Credits.
Group C: Buy lockbox keys for Energy Credits to open lockboxes.
Group D: Buy lockbox keys for Energy Credits to sell them at a higher price of Energy Credits.
This is what happens if lockbox keys are made account or character bound:
Group B and Group D disappear.
Group C will never become as large as Group B was, because not everyone in Group C will afford to spend real cash for ZEN to buy lockbox keys. Therefore, the sale of ZEN for real cash will decrease because of the loss of Group B.
What you might assume will happen is that the demand for ZEN on the Dilithium exchange will rise, because members of Group C will try to use an alternative way to buy lockbox keys without buying ZEN for real cash. But don't forget that Group C will also want to use Dilithum for other things like fleet projects and fleet store and reputation reward purchases. Many of Group C will be left out in the cold, unable to afford ZEN for real cash to buy lockbox keys, and limited to 8k dilithium per day to spend on fleet projects, rewards, and ZEN on the exchange.
Also, some members of Group B who bought ZEN with Dilithum in order to buy lockbox keys to sell for Energy Credits, will have no reason to buy ZEN anymore because they can no longer convert ZEN into Energy Credits. This means the people who buy ZEN with real cash to sell for dilithium will lose some of their customers, and the value of ZEN will decrease. This means the sales of ZEN for real cash will decrease even more.
I love how all the Ferengi are getting their undies in a wad because some people are smart enough to sell their stuff at a reasonable price that gets them an instant sale. It makes me warm inside.
I got some prime real estate I can sell to you for a reasonable price, it'll sell pretty fast, and it'll also devalue every house in a 5 block radius, too. All the neighbors will love you for buying it for so cheap, and me selling it for so cheap.
This "market rigging" you speak of is just smart players taking advantage of impatience players.
Sure I have made enough EC to control and change the market prices on keys to make a profit.
And the player controlled market is one of the funnest parts of the game.
The way it is now is best for cryptic and the players that know how to use it. The only people that dont like it are the one's that are broke and want something for nothing.
I am approaching a billion EC on my main toon and the bulk of it is from buying cheap keys from impatience players and reselling them for profit.
Its not cheating or greifing to see 100 keys listed for under 1.2 million, buying all of them and reselling them the next day for 1.4/1.5 mil.
Or to take 100 keys and list them for cheap to make other players undercut your prices to sell thiers first, then buy them all up and resell for the orginal price. Thats simple math and economics. I do this everyday and always try to keep the cheap keys off the market and to keep the price fixed at around 1.4 to 1.5 mil per Key. Like the OP suggested keys need to be at a certian price to hold there value.
I'm just waiting for the next lockbox's to come out. Whenever there is a new one I am sure to bring in several hundred mil in the first few days. Players are always asking how to make lots of EC and the EC is out there for the taking if you know how to do it.
I've made 44 mil in the past 15 hours buying cheap keys and selling at higher prices.
Please, everyone knows the market rigging is smarter players taking advantage of greedy players.
How do you figure, when the "greedy players" are walking away with anywhere from 30%-50% more EC than you did, why? Because we bought your keys because of how ignorant you are, and resold for a higher profit.
Slightly off topic, but recently I had someone get annoyed with me and tried to guilt me into selling a Jem'Hadar Dreadnought for 10 million EC and 5 Mirror Ships! Apparently, people want everything for nothing in this day and age. I agree with the OP, for those of us who do use money to purchase keys, etc... its nuts to go below value.
Considering a dread costs anywhere from $65-$300 give or take if it was lock box keys or lobi that bought it. I would have told the player to jump into a pit of TRIBBLE.
The joke there is that it's a mutually beneficial arrangement. By pricing an object to move I am buying extra time and convenience. Sure, I could price my keys higher and they will move eventually, but I don't want that headache. Where as you are spending time in order to make more money. Maybe it's because you want the headache from price tracking and speculating, or maybe it's because it's not a headache to you.
No matter the reason, if you want to scrape out an extra .4 million energy credits per key, I'm happy to let you do it in exchange for getting my EC's right now.
Running my spreadsheets, I pull out 1.4 million per minute buying and selling cheap keys at higher prices.
Everyday I come home from work, every key I bought at low price, is sold at the higher price, and rinse-repeat. Most people by no more than 50 at a time, usually. if not less per time, meaning their supplies are heavily limited. Meaning I own their purchases. I have players who private message me, and mail me for deals/offers on their lock box keys, which I purchase from them and post the exchange, because I was the ONLY player they ever had buy every key they ever posted, as they were posting it.
I have 390 lock box keys in my bank, all I ever sell on the exchange is lockbox keys I never had to pay a dime for. When I run low, I occasionally buy my own lock box keys to make dramatic increases.
Overall, it's called exponential increase, look up the algebraic formulas. It's a complete monopoly in the game.
The OP wants players to sell for higher the way he gets to sell his.
benovide:
Players just buying cheaper keys, and reselling them at higher prices.
Anyone who buys keys at the exchange at all is inexperienced, unless they buy for less than 500k. I just go to the source and buy from C-Store rather than fill your bank at my expense.
strorus:
How can you refine 15-20K a day, there is a 8K daily cap + 1k every two day from the Veteran DOff assignment.
By dil grinding on both free Fed and KDF toons and at least one alt.
benovide:
Isn't the whole point of the exchange to say "TRIBBLE you" to everyone?
As pointed out by another respondent, Price fixing is what players like you and the OP do to maintain your own higher incomes. You have no idea how that greed can ruin a game, make markets stagnant and ruin the game experience for many players, unless you are subject to it and experience it first hand like I have in many other MMO's. Maybe when I reach maxed bank on both my chars I'll teach a few of you that lesson by making those precious keys of yours impossible to buy on the exchange even for you, and watch how many of you will complain.
benovide:
Considering a dread costs anywhere from $65-$300 give or take if it was lock box keys or lobi that bought it. I would have told the player to jump into a pit of TRIBBLE.
And by your own words you display your arrogance and egotism. With all your money, you'll never have enough. You should change your name to Borgia as benovide looks too good for such blackhearted sentiments. It is your kind who has no respect for what a new player has to go through before reaching the ability to get those advanced ships without spending that kind of money. You paid for it and got it easy, they wait and grind like I have for months, sometimes years and patiently endure while watching everyone else pass them by. It is them I tip my hat to for their relentless determination to succeed. They earned it in game the hard way. I don't blame them one bit if any choose to try exchanging a little dignity for a quicker reprieve from the grind.
My parents are living in a small East Texas town and a guy with a similiar mindset to the OP is wrecking the real estate market over there.
5 years ago one lot in this little town would sell for maybe $700-$900.
In comes this guy (who we will call "Monopoly") and he starts buying up all these lots and pressuring some of the older people to sell to him (it is a historic town, less than 2000 residents).
Now lots are priced at between $2500 - $3000 each.
Is it because somehow this town became a hotspot, and people are flocking in from all over?
No, it is because this guy who owns most of the lots now has decided that this is the price he wants them to be worth because it ups the value of his portfolio and makes him look richer on paper.
Are the lots selling at this price?
Yes, but very few.
In the process he has alienated alot of the townsfolk and gained a reputation as a schemer and a crook.
Is he well within his rights to do this?
Yes he is. (unfortunately)
Same with this.
Rather than let market dictate what they are worth, the OP is trying to tell everyone what they should pay.
He sees keys for less than he thinks they should be worth and he gobbles them up so they don't affect the value he has set for his keys.
The big difference between the OP and Monopoly is that there is a finite amount of land in the town. So at some point he will have bought most of it and he can set the price at whatever he wants (whether it sells or not).
The OP can buy up all the keys he wants, but like Doritos PE will just make more.
They are NOT a finite resource.
At some point, people will catch on to the price fixing, and stop buying them for the higher price, waiting for someone to post them for less.
Which means at some point the OP is going to be stuck with a lot of keys that he can't sell for what he thinks they are worth.
I generally look to see what the lowest price is, then give my keys a price which is lower than the current, by about 5-10%.
I have found if you post items up that don't make it to the very first page in terms of price, you will NEVER sell it. Would I like to get 1.8 million each for my keys? Sure, but if everyone else is selling at 1.325, I'd never sell a key ever by setting the price at 1.8.
This is a fact of life. Competition is natural in economics, and if you aren't willing to compete, then you won't survive.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
Not everyone is motivated by greed, which is why Master Keys sometime sell for less than 1.8 million energy credits. You are free to sell any Master Keys (as well as other items) for whatever price you wish to, but please not dictate to others (including myself) what we should sell in-game items for on the exchange.
My parents are living in a small East Texas town and a guy with a similiar mindset to the OP is wrecking the real estate market over there.
5 years ago one lot in this little town would sell for maybe $700-$900.
In comes this guy (who we will call "Monopoly") and he starts buying up all these lots and pressuring some of the older people to sell to him (it is a historic town, less than 2000 residents).
Now lots are priced at between $2500 - $3000 each.
Is it because somehow this town became a hotspot, and people are flocking in from all over?
No, it is because this guy who owns most of the lots now has decided that this is the price he wants them to be worth because it ups the value of his portfolio and makes him look richer on paper.
Are the lots selling at this price?
Yes, but very few.
In the process he has alienated alot of the townsfolk and gained a reputation as a schemer and a crook.
Is he well within his rights to do this?
Yes he is. (unfortunately)
Same with this.
Rather than let market dictate what they are worth, the OP is trying to tell everyone what they should pay.
He sees keys for less than he thinks they should be worth and he gobbles them up so they don't affect the value he has set for his keys.
The big difference between the OP and Monopoly is that there is a finite amount of land in the town. So at some point he will have bought most of it and he can set the price at whatever he wants (whether it sells or not).
The OP can buy up all the keys he wants, but like Doritos PE will just make more.
They are NOT a finite resource.
At some point, people will catch on to the price fixing, and stop buying them for the higher price, waiting for someone to post them for less.
Which means at some point the OP is going to be stuck with a lot of keys that he can't sell for what he thinks they are worth.
I believe the traditional response is to Get your government to "eminent Domain" the lot at $1 a plot and resettle the land
See this is called "Market enforcement"
With a little bit of a clamp down we could remove the speculators entirely and then maybe we could get a decent economy going.
or sell keys directly from a vendor and make them untradable at ten days notice
Very few F2P players will start actually putting money into the game, meanwhile a very large amount of players who put money into the game to convert into EC through reselling Zen content will no longer be buying anything in the C-Store at all.
You seem to think that either ; A ) Everybody is a pay player, or B ) That F2P players will suddenly start spending real money. Neither is true. A majority of F2P players will either just struggle through or flat out leave to another game. Cryptic's financial model actually needs the players who do not buy pay content, because pay customers actually buy and resell pay content to them. That probably account for a majority of Cryptic's income from this game.
If you buy cheap items and resell ; you are called greedy.
If you sell cheap ; people complain about getting undercut.
Either way people complain that you are ruining the economy and ruining the game for others.
The fact is both types of sellers support each other. The people who undercut get their loot purchased by the resellers. Overall the economy evens out. Resellers cannot fully dictate a price in an economy this big. I played in Magic the Gathering ; Tactics since it launched and that game has been consistently struggling since day one, and thus has a small player base. This makes gouging the economy very easy. People actually can dictate prices there, and it does hurt people. It is more like the small town.
It is extremely easy to make money in this game. I have been playing about a month and a half and between two characters I make 16,000 Dil a day and a few million EC without even trying to play the market. That is just playing the game, not trying to be greedy.
Some of the content I will want soon will start being a little more expensive, so I will start reselling Keys and such. I do not feel in any way shape or form this will hurt the economy or hurt poorer players. The economy in this game is actually designed in the favor of f2p players. I spent months trying to help new players in Magic to balance out the messed up broken economy there, people complaining on STO have no idea what they are talking about. You have a free house, get moved into a bigger house that is reasonably comparable to what the rich live in based on the time you have played, and get free furniture to go in your house that is so nice even the rich have the same stuff in their mansions.
and your opinion is great. but people also like supporting a game, especially those that want to see improvements. if people havent been spending a lot of money on this game, we wouldn't be getting a bunch of new content in may.
if someone has the spare cash to spend a lot of money on a game every month, more power to them.
I've made 44 mil in the past 15 hours buying cheap keys and selling at higher prices.
So what is the point of this post again? Why are you complaining about how people sell their keys for such a 'low' price? Sounds like you making a profit on them. What's your point?
_____________________
Come join the 44th Fleet.
startrek.44thfleet.com[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
So what is the point of this post again? Why are you complaining about how people sell their keys for such a 'low' price? Sounds like you making a profit on them. What's your point?
Really this all comes off as more of a bragging thread.
So what is the point of this post again? Why are you complaining about how people sell their keys for such a 'low' price? Sounds like you making a profit on them. What's your point?
wants to make sure he gets his TAX bill (for 28 million EC )
So what is the point of this post again? Why are you complaining about how people sell their keys for such a 'low' price? Sounds like you making a profit on them. What's your point?
Well his real point is that for every 44 million he "makes" he has to tie up probably hundreds of millions or more in inventory to keep the price artificially inflated.
In other words, he wants the community to do his work for him, so he doesn't have to constantly check the exchange and buy out these cheap keys to keep the gravy train rolling.
I remember in WoW, there was a potion (I think "Free Action") whose recipe was only available from a single vendor, and it took 24 hours to replenish once it was purchased.
I spent months making sure to be there every day to buy that recipe and destroy it, and I also bought up any stray cheap potions on the auction house, so that I could keep the price artificially high. I made tons of gold for awhile, but eventually enough people got the recipe (either by being there when I was and being quicker, or being there when the server was reset and I was at work) and it became problematic to buy up all the stray potions and resell them at a higher price. Eventually, I stopped trying when my bank filled up with stacks of unsold potions.
At some point, more people can make potions than there are people who need potions, and then you're screwed.
Right now, there's nothing that people need from the lockboxes, so key prices should be going down gradually. At some point guys like this are going to be stuck with a bank full of keys that they can't resell at a profit (until a new lockbox comes along, at least).
and I also bought up any stray cheap potions on the auction house, so that I could keep the price artificially high.
Nothing to be done about that, but in this day and age using the AH to bypass the "intended" gold per hour gains of actually playing the game usually just leads to developers nerfing the gold you can make while actually playing the game.
It's not the real world, and none of the tremendous advantages of capitalism are needed. I'd rather not see AH-flippers coddled at the expense of gameplay, but that's what developers do, especially as games trend toward F2P.
"Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society." - Aristotle
After reading all these responses OP you must have come to the inevitable conclusion that people are.... "difficult" especially in MMOs.
The primary culprits are those who must "win the Exchange." They do this by massively underbidding whatever is currently posted so as to get their stuff sold first while unintentionally upsetting the market.
Good Exchange etiquette would be to post at the current rate. This will get your stuff sold fast enough and also disguise it so those with a lesser dose of this malady will assume those are their posts and leave them be.
The primary culprits are those who must "win the Exchange." They do this by massively underbidding whatever is currently posted so as to get their stuff sold first while unintentionally upsetting the market.
I doubt someone who is posting something for significantly less than the current market rate is also going to be supplying it at that price at a rate sufficient to upset the market.
Actually, if they can adequately supply the market at that reduced price, then it's a sign that the market was overpriced in the first place. No surprise that the flippers would come out and cry foul, because their racket is, temporarily at least, being interrupted.
I'm surprised flippers aren't grateful for people who prefer taking 60% value today instead of potentially more tomorrow (if it sells); isn't that exactly who supplies you with all your "easy money?"
"Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society." - Aristotle
How do you figure, when the "greedy players" are walking away with anywhere from 30%-50% more EC than you did, why? Because we bought your keys because of how ignorant you are, and resold for a higher profit.
Your use of the word "ignorant" here seems to indicate a lack of ability to grasp a perspective that's different from yours. You should work on that because it shows a small mind and lack of intellect.
As for the point you've raised, you can resell for a higher profit eventually. Meanwhile, as I explained to the person I was having this conversation with, I have received my EC's and spent my EC's on the ship/device/Boff/Doff or other thing that I wanted.
You can now continue to try to earn your 30-50% more EC than I did, meanwhile I, as the smarter player, will be playing with the awesome new toy and will be leaving the mind numbing tedium of spread sheets to my real job.
Running my spreadsheets, I pull out 1.4 million per minute buying and selling cheap keys at higher prices.
Everyday I come home from work,
Are you sure you're home from work? Because it seems like, as soon as you get home from work, you log into your game, check your 'exponentially increasing auctions' and then log all of it on your spreadsheets.
I have 390 lock box keys in my bank, all I ever sell on the exchange is lockbox keys I never had to pay a dime for. When I run low, I occasionally buy my own lock box keys to make dramatic increases.
At 20 sells a day, plus time to log it in your spreadsheet, you have already spent far too much of your leisure time doing homework. When a game requires that much homework, I start spending my money on a funner game.
My parents are living in a small East Texas town and a guy with a similiar mindset to the OP is wrecking the real estate market over there.
5 years ago one lot in this little town would sell for maybe $700-$900.
In comes this guy (who we will call "Monopoly") and he starts buying up all these lots and pressuring some of the older people to sell to him (it is a historic town, less than 2000 residents).
Now lots are priced at between $2500 - $3000 each.
Is it because somehow this town became a hotspot, and people are flocking in from all over?
No, it is because this guy who owns most of the lots now has decided that this is the price he wants them to be worth because it ups the value of his portfolio and makes him look richer on paper.
Are the lots selling at this price?
Yes, but very few.
In the process he has alienated alot of the townsfolk and gained a reputation as a schemer and a crook.
Is he well within his rights to do this?
Yes he is. (unfortunately)
Same with this.
Rather than let market dictate what they are worth, the OP is trying to tell everyone what they should pay.
He sees keys for less than he thinks they should be worth and he gobbles them up so they don't affect the value he has set for his keys.
The big difference between the OP and Monopoly is that there is a finite amount of land in the town. So at some point he will have bought most of it and he can set the price at whatever he wants (whether it sells or not).
The OP can buy up all the keys he wants, but like Doritos PE will just make more.
They are NOT a finite resource.
At some point, people will catch on to the price fixing, and stop buying them for the higher price, waiting for someone to post them for less.
Which means at some point the OP is going to be stuck with a lot of keys that he can't sell for what he thinks they are worth.
Your use of the word "ignorant" here seems to indicate a lack of ability to grasp a perspective that's different from yours. You should work on that because it shows a small mind and lack of intellect.
As for the point you've raised, you can resell for a higher profit eventually. Meanwhile, as I explained to the person I was having this conversation with, I have received my EC's and spent my EC's on the ship/device/Boff/Doff or other thing that I wanted.
You can now continue to try to earn your 30-50% more EC than I did, meanwhile I, as the smarter player, will be playing with the awesome new toy and will be leaving the mind numbing tedium of spread sheets to my real job.
Are you sure you're home from work? Because it seems like, as soon as you get home from work, you log into your game, check your 'exponentially increasing auctions' and then log all of it on your spreadsheets.
At 20 sells a day, plus time to log it in your spreadsheet, you have already spent far too much of your leisure time doing homework. When a game requires that much homework, I start spending my money on a funner game.
Doesn't take any longer than 10 minutes to set a full spreadsheet, with 2 minutes of maintenance per day. Not much effort at all.
So what is the point of this post again? Why are you complaining about how people sell their keys for such a 'low' price? Sounds like you making a profit on them. What's your point?
Because it's 44 mil another player could have had, overall, when people sell for lower, it devalues the rest.
Because it's 44 mil another player could have had, overall, when people sell for lower, it devalues the rest.
Those people who sell for lower are getting less than they could have if they sold it for the prices you suggest. And that's their problem, not yours - they are the ones losing out on money, not you.
stardestroyer001, Admiral, Explorers Fury PvE/PvP Fleet | Retired PvP Player
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9 My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
Ran this through the Universal Translator, and got:
"Hey, everybody, stop ruining my scheme to run the price of these keys up to astronomical levels by selling them for a price people want to pay! What are you, free-market fans or something? How dare you try to undercut my cartel?"
Comments
There are four groups of players who trade in lockbox keys:
Group A: Buy lockbox keys for ZEN to open lockboxes.
Group B: Buy lockbox keys for ZEN to sell for Energy Credits.
Group C: Buy lockbox keys for Energy Credits to open lockboxes.
Group D: Buy lockbox keys for Energy Credits to sell them at a higher price of Energy Credits.
This is what happens if lockbox keys are made account or character bound:
Group B and Group D disappear.
Group C will never become as large as Group B was, because not everyone in Group C will afford to spend real cash for ZEN to buy lockbox keys. Therefore, the sale of ZEN for real cash will decrease because of the loss of Group B.
What you might assume will happen is that the demand for ZEN on the Dilithium exchange will rise, because members of Group C will try to use an alternative way to buy lockbox keys without buying ZEN for real cash. But don't forget that Group C will also want to use Dilithum for other things like fleet projects and fleet store and reputation reward purchases. Many of Group C will be left out in the cold, unable to afford ZEN for real cash to buy lockbox keys, and limited to 8k dilithium per day to spend on fleet projects, rewards, and ZEN on the exchange.
Also, some members of Group B who bought ZEN with Dilithum in order to buy lockbox keys to sell for Energy Credits, will have no reason to buy ZEN anymore because they can no longer convert ZEN into Energy Credits. This means the people who buy ZEN with real cash to sell for dilithium will lose some of their customers, and the value of ZEN will decrease. This means the sales of ZEN for real cash will decrease even more.
I got some prime real estate I can sell to you for a reasonable price, it'll sell pretty fast, and it'll also devalue every house in a 5 block radius, too. All the neighbors will love you for buying it for so cheap, and me selling it for so cheap.
I've made 44 mil in the past 15 hours buying cheap keys and selling at higher prices.
How do you figure, when the "greedy players" are walking away with anywhere from 30%-50% more EC than you did, why? Because we bought your keys because of how ignorant you are, and resold for a higher profit.
Considering a dread costs anywhere from $65-$300 give or take if it was lock box keys or lobi that bought it. I would have told the player to jump into a pit of TRIBBLE.
Running my spreadsheets, I pull out 1.4 million per minute buying and selling cheap keys at higher prices.
Everyday I come home from work, every key I bought at low price, is sold at the higher price, and rinse-repeat. Most people by no more than 50 at a time, usually. if not less per time, meaning their supplies are heavily limited. Meaning I own their purchases. I have players who private message me, and mail me for deals/offers on their lock box keys, which I purchase from them and post the exchange, because I was the ONLY player they ever had buy every key they ever posted, as they were posting it.
I have 390 lock box keys in my bank, all I ever sell on the exchange is lockbox keys I never had to pay a dime for. When I run low, I occasionally buy my own lock box keys to make dramatic increases.
Overall, it's called exponential increase, look up the algebraic formulas. It's a complete monopoly in the game.
Anyone who buys keys at the exchange at all is inexperienced, unless they buy for less than 500k. I just go to the source and buy from C-Store rather than fill your bank at my expense.
By dil grinding on both free Fed and KDF toons and at least one alt.
As pointed out by another respondent, Price fixing is what players like you and the OP do to maintain your own higher incomes. You have no idea how that greed can ruin a game, make markets stagnant and ruin the game experience for many players, unless you are subject to it and experience it first hand like I have in many other MMO's. Maybe when I reach maxed bank on both my chars I'll teach a few of you that lesson by making those precious keys of yours impossible to buy on the exchange even for you, and watch how many of you will complain.
And by your own words you display your arrogance and egotism. With all your money, you'll never have enough. You should change your name to Borgia as benovide looks too good for such blackhearted sentiments. It is your kind who has no respect for what a new player has to go through before reaching the ability to get those advanced ships without spending that kind of money. You paid for it and got it easy, they wait and grind like I have for months, sometimes years and patiently endure while watching everyone else pass them by. It is them I tip my hat to for their relentless determination to succeed. They earned it in game the hard way. I don't blame them one bit if any choose to try exchanging a little dignity for a quicker reprieve from the grind.
So you make 300,000 a day and block 2 characters from generating dilithium? Doesn't sound all that profitable...
Even doing it on 20 characters is still just 3,000,000. And none of them will generate dilithium that day.
I am not sure using a full day's worth of dilithium convertion on 2 characters is worth a mere 300 k.
I mean how much EC can you create in 24 hours? Potentially limitless.
5 years ago one lot in this little town would sell for maybe $700-$900.
In comes this guy (who we will call "Monopoly") and he starts buying up all these lots and pressuring some of the older people to sell to him (it is a historic town, less than 2000 residents).
Now lots are priced at between $2500 - $3000 each.
Is it because somehow this town became a hotspot, and people are flocking in from all over?
No, it is because this guy who owns most of the lots now has decided that this is the price he wants them to be worth because it ups the value of his portfolio and makes him look richer on paper.
Are the lots selling at this price?
Yes, but very few.
In the process he has alienated alot of the townsfolk and gained a reputation as a schemer and a crook.
Is he well within his rights to do this?
Yes he is. (unfortunately)
Same with this.
Rather than let market dictate what they are worth, the OP is trying to tell everyone what they should pay.
He sees keys for less than he thinks they should be worth and he gobbles them up so they don't affect the value he has set for his keys.
The big difference between the OP and Monopoly is that there is a finite amount of land in the town. So at some point he will have bought most of it and he can set the price at whatever he wants (whether it sells or not).
The OP can buy up all the keys he wants, but like Doritos PE will just make more.
They are NOT a finite resource.
At some point, people will catch on to the price fixing, and stop buying them for the higher price, waiting for someone to post them for less.
Which means at some point the OP is going to be stuck with a lot of keys that he can't sell for what he thinks they are worth.
I have found if you post items up that don't make it to the very first page in terms of price, you will NEVER sell it. Would I like to get 1.8 million each for my keys? Sure, but if everyone else is selling at 1.325, I'd never sell a key ever by setting the price at 1.8.
This is a fact of life. Competition is natural in economics, and if you aren't willing to compete, then you won't survive.
"You shoot him, I shoot you, I leave both your bodies here and go out for a late night snack.
I'm thinking maybe pancakes." ~ John Casey
I believe the traditional response is to Get your government to "eminent Domain" the lot at $1 a plot and resettle the land
Very few F2P players will start actually putting money into the game, meanwhile a very large amount of players who put money into the game to convert into EC through reselling Zen content will no longer be buying anything in the C-Store at all.
You seem to think that either ; A ) Everybody is a pay player, or B ) That F2P players will suddenly start spending real money. Neither is true. A majority of F2P players will either just struggle through or flat out leave to another game. Cryptic's financial model actually needs the players who do not buy pay content, because pay customers actually buy and resell pay content to them. That probably account for a majority of Cryptic's income from this game.
Make ANYTHING bought on the Exchange bind to account
If you sell cheap ; people complain about getting undercut.
Either way people complain that you are ruining the economy and ruining the game for others.
The fact is both types of sellers support each other. The people who undercut get their loot purchased by the resellers. Overall the economy evens out. Resellers cannot fully dictate a price in an economy this big. I played in Magic the Gathering ; Tactics since it launched and that game has been consistently struggling since day one, and thus has a small player base. This makes gouging the economy very easy. People actually can dictate prices there, and it does hurt people. It is more like the small town.
It is extremely easy to make money in this game. I have been playing about a month and a half and between two characters I make 16,000 Dil a day and a few million EC without even trying to play the market. That is just playing the game, not trying to be greedy.
Some of the content I will want soon will start being a little more expensive, so I will start reselling Keys and such. I do not feel in any way shape or form this will hurt the economy or hurt poorer players. The economy in this game is actually designed in the favor of f2p players. I spent months trying to help new players in Magic to balance out the messed up broken economy there, people complaining on STO have no idea what they are talking about. You have a free house, get moved into a bigger house that is reasonably comparable to what the rich live in based on the time you have played, and get free furniture to go in your house that is so nice even the rich have the same stuff in their mansions.
good point.
So what is the point of this post again? Why are you complaining about how people sell their keys for such a 'low' price? Sounds like you making a profit on them. What's your point?
Come join the 44th Fleet.
startrek.44thfleet.com[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Really this all comes off as more of a bragging thread.
wants to make sure he gets his TAX bill (for 28 million EC )
Well his real point is that for every 44 million he "makes" he has to tie up probably hundreds of millions or more in inventory to keep the price artificially inflated.
In other words, he wants the community to do his work for him, so he doesn't have to constantly check the exchange and buy out these cheap keys to keep the gravy train rolling.
I remember in WoW, there was a potion (I think "Free Action") whose recipe was only available from a single vendor, and it took 24 hours to replenish once it was purchased.
I spent months making sure to be there every day to buy that recipe and destroy it, and I also bought up any stray cheap potions on the auction house, so that I could keep the price artificially high. I made tons of gold for awhile, but eventually enough people got the recipe (either by being there when I was and being quicker, or being there when the server was reset and I was at work) and it became problematic to buy up all the stray potions and resell them at a higher price. Eventually, I stopped trying when my bank filled up with stacks of unsold potions.
At some point, more people can make potions than there are people who need potions, and then you're screwed.
Right now, there's nothing that people need from the lockboxes, so key prices should be going down gradually. At some point guys like this are going to be stuck with a bank full of keys that they can't resell at a profit (until a new lockbox comes along, at least).
Sounds like griefing to me. Are you the same type of person who takes your max level character and camps starter zones in an open world PvP game?
Nothing to be done about that, but in this day and age using the AH to bypass the "intended" gold per hour gains of actually playing the game usually just leads to developers nerfing the gold you can make while actually playing the game.
It's not the real world, and none of the tremendous advantages of capitalism are needed. I'd rather not see AH-flippers coddled at the expense of gameplay, but that's what developers do, especially as games trend toward F2P.
The primary culprits are those who must "win the Exchange." They do this by massively underbidding whatever is currently posted so as to get their stuff sold first while unintentionally upsetting the market.
Good Exchange etiquette would be to post at the current rate. This will get your stuff sold fast enough and also disguise it so those with a lesser dose of this malady will assume those are their posts and leave them be.
Actually, if they can adequately supply the market at that reduced price, then it's a sign that the market was overpriced in the first place. No surprise that the flippers would come out and cry foul, because their racket is, temporarily at least, being interrupted.
I'm surprised flippers aren't grateful for people who prefer taking 60% value today instead of potentially more tomorrow (if it sells); isn't that exactly who supplies you with all your "easy money?"
Your use of the word "ignorant" here seems to indicate a lack of ability to grasp a perspective that's different from yours. You should work on that because it shows a small mind and lack of intellect.
As for the point you've raised, you can resell for a higher profit eventually. Meanwhile, as I explained to the person I was having this conversation with, I have received my EC's and spent my EC's on the ship/device/Boff/Doff or other thing that I wanted.
You can now continue to try to earn your 30-50% more EC than I did, meanwhile I, as the smarter player, will be playing with the awesome new toy and will be leaving the mind numbing tedium of spread sheets to my real job.
Are you sure you're home from work? Because it seems like, as soon as you get home from work, you log into your game, check your 'exponentially increasing auctions' and then log all of it on your spreadsheets.
At 20 sells a day, plus time to log it in your spreadsheet, you have already spent far too much of your leisure time doing homework. When a game requires that much homework, I start spending my money on a funner game.
to cripple the spiv element
On the money.
Doesn't take any longer than 10 minutes to set a full spreadsheet, with 2 minutes of maintenance per day. Not much effort at all.
Because it's 44 mil another player could have had, overall, when people sell for lower, it devalues the rest.
Those people who sell for lower are getting less than they could have if they sold it for the prices you suggest. And that's their problem, not yours - they are the ones losing out on money, not you.
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9
My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
"Hey, everybody, stop ruining my scheme to run the price of these keys up to astronomical levels by selling them for a price people want to pay! What are you, free-market fans or something? How dare you try to undercut my cartel?"