I spent my sto time for a couple days, chatting with people, doing some pve queues, and messaging people who won ships, offering them 500 or 550m ec. If I got a bite, I'd turn around and post in the trading channel "anyone want to pay a space fortune for the new krenim dread?" It didn't take long to find somone. I flipped six of the ships like that and made about 540m ec in profit.
I don't think the time or effort was worth 200 dollars. I mostly just did the same stuff I do on sto, except I also sent tells to people who won ships.
It boggles my mind somone would pay 200 dollars for a 500m ec ship. Its cheaper to just buy zen and spend it on promo packs and sell them on the exchange. 50 packs at 11m each is 550m, and costs 100 dollars for the zen. It's insane.
It's so easy to make so much space money in this game if you just use your brain.
^ The Ferengi is strong with this one
Id do it exactly as you say, sell keys or Promo packs until I had 600 mil, then start asking in the trading channels for one at 550mil (up to 600mil)
Id go the flip route as well, but honestly that's too much effort for me. But smart way to go about it.
Did you keep one for yourself ? Or not worth it to you ?
Personally its a bit high for my tastes.
But if I did really want one, Id do as described above.
Though... I can see it being a monster in PvP if setup correctly, but again, still wouldn't justify the cost in my mind.
I see that a website is offering the ship for sale for $200. Someone must either be selling to these ToS violators either wittingly or unwittingly, or they have legions of bots opening up the Promotion Packs.
$200?! I don't care how awesome this ship supposedly is (don't care about it myself), it is NOT worth that!!
When a new box comes out with something really good, I often buy at least 100,000 zen the first week to buy keys and ships for resell later. I've battled customer service for years now to add a $500 or $1000 purchase amount to Zen store. When they actually come around to upping the amount, they only double what you could buy at once before. Plus, there is a 48 hour purchase cap. It is impossible to buy more than four to five hundred dollars in a 48 hour period. I made such a deal out of it that I got an email from the marketing department blabbing about fraud and a lot of other TRIBBLE. I offered to scan my Drivers License, BCBS Card, SS Card, A Bank Statement, and anything they could possibly ask for. They wouldn't even budge! Luckily, all the gamestops and super walmarts in town have a small supply on hand. I go around to each store and buy all of the PWE $20 prepaid cards they have in stock, even the ones in the back that are still in boxes.
I don't understand why you are spazzing out over $200 for a ship out-of-game transaction. You might get a cell ship for that much since it has no combat capabilities. But some people are making thousands selling the promo ships which easily makes up for the money they spent on keys to get them. Some people do have a strategy when it comes to opening boxes. They will buy thousands of keys then open them at the right time. They might spend a thousand dollars on zen, for keys, then sell the ships and end up with eight thousand dollars or more, depending on how many they sold out-of-game. I'm fairly surprised that you don't know about this already. Some of the exclusive trading channels were created just for this purpose as a means to communicate cryptically (no pun intended), and arrange deals. Of course, if you can't pass an on site credit check, one or two of the channels will not let you join. I know one channel requires you to place one billion credits into a trade window to prove you got the dough. If you can do that, then they let you in usually, unless you're a known scammer. STO is more than just an MMO. It's a digital and real world economy where some people will not allow PWE to make all of the cash because of some of the decisions management has made.
And Again, for the record: Doing out-of-game transactions is against the Terms of Service of STO, Cryptic and PWE and I am required to advise you against it.
"Being a troll myself, I classify this malcontent as a Type-2 Oblivious Troll. My reasons for coming to this conclusion are: The annoying colored text he deploys, the contradictory threads he creates, the excessive whining and foot stamping, the amusement factor of his threads, and the apparent lack of realization that he is in fact a troll, like me, and is not the heart broken, victimized, player, he sees himself as."
What he was saying is that ALL Zen on the DilEx was bought by someone for $$$.
You think so? Ok, I give up. Carry on then... lol
Pretty much that is where it comes from. Zen itself is awarded in two ways 1) by paying real money for it directly using the exchange, or 2)The stipend awarded to subscribers who paid money to have a subscription (whether monthly or lifetime).... The exchange just consists of Zen posted from those 2 sources by people who want to trade it for refined dilithium.
I'm not 'spazzing' over anything. $200 is a lot for one ship, like it or not. One can purchase entire bundles of items (Delta pack for example) for less.
$200 dollars is not a lot for one ship. Especially if it is a promo ship like the Sheshar Intel/Ops or the Annorax Dreadnought. $200 dollars can get you a lot of nice epic custom crafted gear and if you're upgrading anything, it can definitely help you when it comes to having a supply of tech upgrades and dil. You can get a lot of nice stuff and get a lot of things accomplished or upgraded with that amount of money. And yes, that would absolutely be a perfect way to get what you paid for. However, we are talking ships. And most people want some kind of OP or pretty ship to fly around in, on top of getting or upgrading the gear for the new ship. You can't put a price limit on things, digital or physical as long as someone is willing to pay X amount of money for it. Depending on how badly they need or want said object determines how much they are willing to spend. To some players, $100 is a ludicrous amount of money to "waste" on a game. Notice I said "waste," not "spend." They use the term waste because the game, to them, is not as vital, fun, or important to them and their enjoyment factor. Other games or things in life might be higher on their financial priority list. Although, someone who says the same thing, but uses "spend," instead of waste, implies that if they had a sufficient amount of surplus money to spend, that they would actually consider buying it. Those that do have a surplus or those that are not good at financial management or common sense, will agree that $200, for a good ship, is a fair price to pay.
When I've bought bugships and sheshars with credit's I made from selling store bought keys, I've usually had to spend $300 to $400 dollars on zen to get the ship during the first week of release. It's rare and far between for a promo ship box/pack to come out, so most of the time you are unable to buy those packs to sell on the exchange. When said promo packs are featuring a ship during a window of time, buying them is a wise method to making a killing. Most adequate ships are around 90 to 300 million creds. The better ships are 300 to +600 million creds. Out of every penny I've spent to get a ship there are only a handful of them that I wish I could repack and resell or get a refund because I'm disappointed or I just don't use it or like it anymore. The first one is the T6 Bugship. Yeah it was fun and it sold well, but I'm tired of flying Jem'Hadar ships and the T6 version didn't add a new looking pet for the dreadnought. The other's are bundle packs like the Oddy Cruisers, Command Ships, and Kumari Warships.
People call me and idiot all the time or believe I'm lying when I tell them how much I've spent on this game total since PWE took the reigns from Atari. I try not to rub it in on people anymore, and I still keep count in $1000 increments. It's very tempting though, especially when someone complains about $20 or $200, to tell them to spend more, then get shafted by the people you're putting the food on their tables for, with zen you buy, then come make your comments or remarks. When I hear "I dropped $2,000 on zen... (then you explain your issue)", I'll be glad to listen and try to help.
Seven years ago I would have fallen out of my chair laughing at some ridiculous fool that spent $100 on a single ship. I wouldn't have been able to comprehend why someone would do such a thing! Seven years later, people are laughing at me saying the same thing. Some understand though. If something is your hobby or it makes you really happy then go for it! Just don't go broke! If I want to spend that much and I'm satisfied, then they agree that as long as I have no buyer's regrets, or haven't put myself into a financial hole, then it was money well spent. That is why some of the people you see paying an insane amount for a single ship, do so.
My ships are my means of transportation and ego stroking when I enter my little digital domain and scheme and come up with other ways to increase profits, from my evil little lair hidden on an evil little planet from an evil little star system. And believe me when I say, I to fly the coolest and most powerful ships I can get my hands on, and I think a lot of others have the same desire. I drive in style, so I'm definitely going to fly or ride in style whenever possible. The sad truth is, after experiencing the ability to just go on a 10 hour e-bay and amazon.com shopping spree and tasting the icing on the cake, it's just about impossible to get the taste and the image of that huge cake out of your head, because I can't have it any other way anymore.
"Being a troll myself, I classify this malcontent as a Type-2 Oblivious Troll. My reasons for coming to this conclusion are: The annoying colored text he deploys, the contradictory threads he creates, the excessive whining and foot stamping, the amusement factor of his threads, and the apparent lack of realization that he is in fact a troll, like me, and is not the heart broken, victimized, player, he sees himself as."
What he was saying is that ALL Zen on the DilEx was bought by someone for $$$.
You think so? Ok, I give up. Carry on then... lol
Pretty much that is where it comes from. Zen itself is awarded in two ways 1) by paying real money for it directly using the exchange, or 2)The stipend awarded to subscribers who paid money to have a subscription (whether monthly or lifetime).... The exchange just consists of Zen posted from those 2 sources by people who want to trade it for refined dilithium.
There are always conspiracy theorists that think that Cryptic might offer its own Zen or Dilithium on the Exchange secretly. I suspect this is more the "Moon Landing is Fake" kind of conspiracy than the "NSA is spying on millions of people" kind of conspiracy.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
What he was saying is that ALL Zen on the DilEx was bought by someone for $$$.
You think so? Ok, I give up. Carry on then... lol
Pretty much that is where it comes from. Zen itself is awarded in two ways 1) by paying real money for it directly using the exchange, or 2)The stipend awarded to subscribers who paid money to have a subscription (whether monthly or lifetime).... The exchange just consists of Zen posted from those 2 sources by people who want to trade it for refined dilithium.
There are always conspiracy theorists that think that Cryptic might offer its own Zen or Dilithium on the Exchange secretly. I suspect this is more the "Moon Landing is Fake" kind of conspiracy than the "NSA is spying on millions of people" kind of conspiracy.
Maybe Cryptic does, maybe it doesn't. If I knew I couldn't tell you anyways. What I can tell you is that there are people that are connected with the company and that since a few have been laid off, they gave some very, very nice gifts to people they knew. I can also tell you that a few fleets are friends with some of the devs and get to do a lot more then beta test STF and new ships, plus they already know what's in the works for 2016. There are always rumors and conspiracies of the above flying around, and a lot of them happen to have some truth to them. That's really all I can without compromising.
"Being a troll myself, I classify this malcontent as a Type-2 Oblivious Troll. My reasons for coming to this conclusion are: The annoying colored text he deploys, the contradictory threads he creates, the excessive whining and foot stamping, the amusement factor of his threads, and the apparent lack of realization that he is in fact a troll, like me, and is not the heart broken, victimized, player, he sees himself as."
So basically, you are (aledgedly) quite wealthy and have a lot of money to spend on this game. And in view of this, you either can't, or won't, understand the viewpoint of someone who thinks that $200 IN GENERAL (regardless of in what context it is being discussed) is a lot of money.
I shall refrain from discussing this further.
No, I wouldn't say I'm quite wealthy. A cancer specialist or brain surgeon would most likely be "quite wealthy." If I had to put myself in a "class," I'd have to go with upper-middle. I do have quite a bit to spend on the game and I admit that the amount I've spent is foolish in some ways. But overall, I am quite happy with what I've gotten with that money as I can play the game and run any mission or STF without ever having to stress over healing or staying alive. Having complex macro's helps too, FYI. I could have bought another car or a boat or something that I won't really use much, but I'm on STO as often as I can because it's easier to come here then to drive an hour every day to the river and relax or go fishing.
I logically know $200 dollars can be a lot to spend on somethings, but not on others, because it doesn't "feel" or "seem" that way to me. To me it depends on what it's being spent on. Since I collect ships $200 is a steal to me. It's nothing to "spaz" over. To a sneakerhead that buys a limited edition pair of Nike Jordans every year, would consider that a steal and money well spent. I however might "spaz" over buying a pair of shoes that cost that much and don't even use them for the sport they're designed for. To me, there is no "in general," or "no matter the context," because everything is subjective and constantly changing for everyone. What is a lot to one person may be a little to another. Neither person is right or wrong. So it's like comparing apples to oranges to me.
Plus STO is more than a video game to me. To me it's an alternate reality I can escape too. I can have and do things I normally wouldn't have access or consider doing at a fraction of the price it might cost in the physical world. I wouldn't own 52 cars no matter how much money I had or spend $800,000 on a performance car I'll probably total within the next year. However, I can have 52 ships in game, and have "performance car" ship equivalents. It's also a virtual reality with other human beings in it and not just AI that are easy to fight or trick. The economy can be challenging at times and requires strategy and wits I sometimes find entertaining and enjoyable. Plus, in STO there isn't an economical crisis so buyers and sellers are always existent. It's my version of the "The Sims," in a way.
So keeping the Annorax over 500,000,000 creds and out of reach for as long as possible is essential to keeping it exclusive and hard to get. I know that seems selfish and you're probably right. But in less than a few months they will be on the exchange and what I initially paid for them will be two or three times as much as they're selling for then. I'd like to keep that money "well spent," as long as possible. So do a lot of others. That's why they are constantly being flipped or stored away till most are bought off the exchange and they because more rare than they are now. We used to use the bug ship as another form of currency. Right now the Sheshar and Annorax are the primary currency used in half-billion increments within the circles I trade bulk in. So some people only accept ships because all of their toons are at the cred cap and any creds they make are lost. They have to spend money or give it away to make room for more. Some people just give stuff away because they don't play as much anymore or they don't want creds to go to waste. I hope this helps explain why I have an apparent dissimilar view of money then you do.
"Being a troll myself, I classify this malcontent as a Type-2 Oblivious Troll. My reasons for coming to this conclusion are: The annoying colored text he deploys, the contradictory threads he creates, the excessive whining and foot stamping, the amusement factor of his threads, and the apparent lack of realization that he is in fact a troll, like me, and is not the heart broken, victimized, player, he sees himself as."
> @jim625 said: > i was hoping that this ship would be a special reward for completing a featured episode but noooooooooo cryptic decided to make it a duty officer pack promtion > > stupid devs
stop calling yourself stupid ...........now report to my office
Comments
^ The Ferengi is strong with this one
Id do it exactly as you say, sell keys or Promo packs until I had 600 mil, then start asking in the trading channels for one at 550mil (up to 600mil)
Id go the flip route as well, but honestly that's too much effort for me. But smart way to go about it.
Did you keep one for yourself ? Or not worth it to you ?
Personally its a bit high for my tastes.
But if I did really want one, Id do as described above.
Though... I can see it being a monster in PvP if setup correctly, but again, still wouldn't justify the cost in my mind.
LOL yeah that's impressive
When a new box comes out with something really good, I often buy at least 100,000 zen the first week to buy keys and ships for resell later. I've battled customer service for years now to add a $500 or $1000 purchase amount to Zen store. When they actually come around to upping the amount, they only double what you could buy at once before. Plus, there is a 48 hour purchase cap. It is impossible to buy more than four to five hundred dollars in a 48 hour period. I made such a deal out of it that I got an email from the marketing department blabbing about fraud and a lot of other TRIBBLE. I offered to scan my Drivers License, BCBS Card, SS Card, A Bank Statement, and anything they could possibly ask for. They wouldn't even budge! Luckily, all the gamestops and super walmarts in town have a small supply on hand. I go around to each store and buy all of the PWE $20 prepaid cards they have in stock, even the ones in the back that are still in boxes.
I don't understand why you are spazzing out over $200 for a ship out-of-game transaction. You might get a cell ship for that much since it has no combat capabilities. But some people are making thousands selling the promo ships which easily makes up for the money they spent on keys to get them. Some people do have a strategy when it comes to opening boxes. They will buy thousands of keys then open them at the right time. They might spend a thousand dollars on zen, for keys, then sell the ships and end up with eight thousand dollars or more, depending on how many they sold out-of-game. I'm fairly surprised that you don't know about this already. Some of the exclusive trading channels were created just for this purpose as a means to communicate cryptically (no pun intended), and arrange deals. Of course, if you can't pass an on site credit check, one or two of the channels will not let you join. I know one channel requires you to place one billion credits into a trade window to prove you got the dough. If you can do that, then they let you in usually, unless you're a known scammer. STO is more than just an MMO. It's a digital and real world economy where some people will not allow PWE to make all of the cash because of some of the decisions management has made.
And Again, for the record: Doing out-of-game transactions is against the Terms of Service of STO, Cryptic and PWE and I am required to advise you against it.
Pretty much that is where it comes from. Zen itself is awarded in two ways 1) by paying real money for it directly using the exchange, or 2)The stipend awarded to subscribers who paid money to have a subscription (whether monthly or lifetime).... The exchange just consists of Zen posted from those 2 sources by people who want to trade it for refined dilithium.
$200 dollars is not a lot for one ship. Especially if it is a promo ship like the Sheshar Intel/Ops or the Annorax Dreadnought. $200 dollars can get you a lot of nice epic custom crafted gear and if you're upgrading anything, it can definitely help you when it comes to having a supply of tech upgrades and dil. You can get a lot of nice stuff and get a lot of things accomplished or upgraded with that amount of money. And yes, that would absolutely be a perfect way to get what you paid for. However, we are talking ships. And most people want some kind of OP or pretty ship to fly around in, on top of getting or upgrading the gear for the new ship. You can't put a price limit on things, digital or physical as long as someone is willing to pay X amount of money for it. Depending on how badly they need or want said object determines how much they are willing to spend. To some players, $100 is a ludicrous amount of money to "waste" on a game. Notice I said "waste," not "spend." They use the term waste because the game, to them, is not as vital, fun, or important to them and their enjoyment factor. Other games or things in life might be higher on their financial priority list. Although, someone who says the same thing, but uses "spend," instead of waste, implies that if they had a sufficient amount of surplus money to spend, that they would actually consider buying it. Those that do have a surplus or those that are not good at financial management or common sense, will agree that $200, for a good ship, is a fair price to pay.
When I've bought bugships and sheshars with credit's I made from selling store bought keys, I've usually had to spend $300 to $400 dollars on zen to get the ship during the first week of release. It's rare and far between for a promo ship box/pack to come out, so most of the time you are unable to buy those packs to sell on the exchange. When said promo packs are featuring a ship during a window of time, buying them is a wise method to making a killing. Most adequate ships are around 90 to 300 million creds. The better ships are 300 to +600 million creds. Out of every penny I've spent to get a ship there are only a handful of them that I wish I could repack and resell or get a refund because I'm disappointed or I just don't use it or like it anymore. The first one is the T6 Bugship. Yeah it was fun and it sold well, but I'm tired of flying Jem'Hadar ships and the T6 version didn't add a new looking pet for the dreadnought. The other's are bundle packs like the Oddy Cruisers, Command Ships, and Kumari Warships.
People call me and idiot all the time or believe I'm lying when I tell them how much I've spent on this game total since PWE took the reigns from Atari. I try not to rub it in on people anymore, and I still keep count in $1000 increments. It's very tempting though, especially when someone complains about $20 or $200, to tell them to spend more, then get shafted by the people you're putting the food on their tables for, with zen you buy, then come make your comments or remarks. When I hear "I dropped $2,000 on zen... (then you explain your issue)", I'll be glad to listen and try to help.
Seven years ago I would have fallen out of my chair laughing at some ridiculous fool that spent $100 on a single ship. I wouldn't have been able to comprehend why someone would do such a thing! Seven years later, people are laughing at me saying the same thing. Some understand though. If something is your hobby or it makes you really happy then go for it! Just don't go broke! If I want to spend that much and I'm satisfied, then they agree that as long as I have no buyer's regrets, or haven't put myself into a financial hole, then it was money well spent. That is why some of the people you see paying an insane amount for a single ship, do so.
My ships are my means of transportation and ego stroking when I enter my little digital domain and scheme and come up with other ways to increase profits, from my evil little lair hidden on an evil little planet from an evil little star system. And believe me when I say, I to fly the coolest and most powerful ships I can get my hands on, and I think a lot of others have the same desire. I drive in style, so I'm definitely going to fly or ride in style whenever possible. The sad truth is, after experiencing the ability to just go on a 10 hour e-bay and amazon.com shopping spree and tasting the icing on the cake, it's just about impossible to get the taste and the image of that huge cake out of your head, because I can't have it any other way anymore.
Maybe Cryptic does, maybe it doesn't. If I knew I couldn't tell you anyways. What I can tell you is that there are people that are connected with the company and that since a few have been laid off, they gave some very, very nice gifts to people they knew. I can also tell you that a few fleets are friends with some of the devs and get to do a lot more then beta test STF and new ships, plus they already know what's in the works for 2016. There are always rumors and conspiracies of the above flying around, and a lot of them happen to have some truth to them. That's really all I can without compromising.
No, I wouldn't say I'm quite wealthy. A cancer specialist or brain surgeon would most likely be "quite wealthy." If I had to put myself in a "class," I'd have to go with upper-middle. I do have quite a bit to spend on the game and I admit that the amount I've spent is foolish in some ways. But overall, I am quite happy with what I've gotten with that money as I can play the game and run any mission or STF without ever having to stress over healing or staying alive. Having complex macro's helps too, FYI. I could have bought another car or a boat or something that I won't really use much, but I'm on STO as often as I can because it's easier to come here then to drive an hour every day to the river and relax or go fishing.
I logically know $200 dollars can be a lot to spend on somethings, but not on others, because it doesn't "feel" or "seem" that way to me. To me it depends on what it's being spent on. Since I collect ships $200 is a steal to me. It's nothing to "spaz" over. To a sneakerhead that buys a limited edition pair of Nike Jordans every year, would consider that a steal and money well spent. I however might "spaz" over buying a pair of shoes that cost that much and don't even use them for the sport they're designed for. To me, there is no "in general," or "no matter the context," because everything is subjective and constantly changing for everyone. What is a lot to one person may be a little to another. Neither person is right or wrong. So it's like comparing apples to oranges to me.
Plus STO is more than a video game to me. To me it's an alternate reality I can escape too. I can have and do things I normally wouldn't have access or consider doing at a fraction of the price it might cost in the physical world. I wouldn't own 52 cars no matter how much money I had or spend $800,000 on a performance car I'll probably total within the next year. However, I can have 52 ships in game, and have "performance car" ship equivalents. It's also a virtual reality with other human beings in it and not just AI that are easy to fight or trick. The economy can be challenging at times and requires strategy and wits I sometimes find entertaining and enjoyable. Plus, in STO there isn't an economical crisis so buyers and sellers are always existent. It's my version of the "The Sims," in a way.
So keeping the Annorax over 500,000,000 creds and out of reach for as long as possible is essential to keeping it exclusive and hard to get. I know that seems selfish and you're probably right. But in less than a few months they will be on the exchange and what I initially paid for them will be two or three times as much as they're selling for then. I'd like to keep that money "well spent," as long as possible. So do a lot of others. That's why they are constantly being flipped or stored away till most are bought off the exchange and they because more rare than they are now. We used to use the bug ship as another form of currency. Right now the Sheshar and Annorax are the primary currency used in half-billion increments within the circles I trade bulk in. So some people only accept ships because all of their toons are at the cred cap and any creds they make are lost. They have to spend money or give it away to make room for more. Some people just give stuff away because they don't play as much anymore or they don't want creds to go to waste. I hope this helps explain why I have an apparent dissimilar view of money then you do.
> i was hoping that this ship would be a special reward for completing a featured episode but noooooooooo cryptic decided to make it a duty officer pack promtion
>
> stupid devs
stop calling yourself stupid ...........now report to my office
Yes, but it takes some time. (You had to get that initial 500 millions first ....)
Ya know the drill, the rich get richer....