I frequent the GTN for miscelaneous items and materials, looking for bargains. One thing that I noticed is that sellers are getting more and more greedy. I realize that the prices would be lower in general if players weren't paying the prices but I try to be reasonable with my prices. Some of the prices simply are headscratchers. They indicate either a seller that is way too greedy a buyer that is daft, or both.

 

What is the most outrageous price you have seen on the GTN? The surest sign that the GTN pricing is way out of control is:

 

Thermoplast Flux selling for 2000 credits per unit when you can go to the Crew Skills Trade Vendor and purchase unlimited quantities for 400 credits anytime you want.

people make the prices... you cant do anything against idiocracy XD

Thermoplast Flux selling for 2000 credits per unit when you can go to the Crew Skills Trade Vendor and purchase unlimited quantities for 400 credits anytime you want.

 

Haha I know, I check now and then to see if anyone's selling for less than vendor price, and then my eyes bug out when I see 2 pages of stacks of items for 300+ each that sell on the vendor for 100 each. WHAT. Are they actually selling? Is this person buying stacks off the vendor and then putting them on the GTN because someone is actually BUYING them at those prices, instead of going ONE SECTION OVER on the Fleet and buying them from the vendor? What a racket!

Edited January 27, 2013 by Shaz

Glad someone else noticed this too. I've just recentlly re-subscribed. I went to the GTN and i swear i nearly had a heart attack at some of the prices (we are talking 6 to 7 figure sums on some items. no exageration). And this was for low level items around 12-13. Its greed. Some of this stuff i was looking at i used to be able to get on GTN for far more reasonable prices.

I realize this probably isn't the reason in most cases, but when I was F2P, I would buy common items that another character needed and list them at about 3-4 times market value in order to transfer money. If they sold before I got around to buying them... hey free credits.

Its always the same when a game introduces an online real life cash shop - when some people have a lot of spare cash they can put into the game then the chances of them getting the rare loot is better so they have the rare items first - then the dedicated players want this kool stuff so they get the credits to pay for the crazy priced rare item by over charging themselves. Its a vicious cycle!

As long as people continue to buy my stuff by shoving truckloads of credits in my mailbox, I will sell my stuff as high as possible. Give me one good reason not to.

While this is true and to a large extent I agree, there is definately a disconnect with a lot of the pricing, crew skill mats being a prime example, that points to a massive market inefficiency created by buyer ignorance. I can believe that a good number of crafters, not wanting to deal with the tedium of farming mats or waiting for comp missions to pruduce the needed quantities, would be willing to pay a premium for mats on the GTN if they can still work a profit into their crafted items. Side note: I always think of the premium prices mats go for (which I never pay btw) on the GTN when I read yet another post on the forums complaining that you can't make any money with crafting skill x. I have a hard time believing large numbers of such crafters are ignorant enough to pay significant premiums over vendor price for crew skill mats that can be had in any quantity with no investment of time or energy.

 

tl:dr version: The Tor playerbase seems intent on proving itself particularly foolish and uninformed buyers on average.

MMORPG economies are a form of PvP. Those with knowledge and skill win.

MMORPG economies are a form of PvP. Those with knowledge and skill win.

 

^ Pretty much this.

 

My wife and I are playing very casual right now, just leveling alts and some leveling pvp sprinkled in for flavor (no operations), and we're pulling in between 1-4 million credits a week (Btw, very little time spent doing so). I am sure there are those that are making way more than that, as we're just very casual selling what we get from leveling, and we have no issues with GTN prices.

 

The people that are doing well with the game/GTN economically should not be blamed for doing well. No it is not greed, its adapting to basic economic principles like supply and demand. There are times I may spend a quarter million credits on mats to make items for a leveling alt, sometimes much more than that, but its a small percentage of what we make weekly so it doesn't pinch.

 

Dailies are a good way to get you started with credits and they're a good way to supplement your income if you want to bring a little extra in on the side, but if you're using them as your primary money maker, you're probably going to be broke all the time and you're definitely going to have issues with the GTN.

 

And this is something that does not really fall on the devs, either. Sure, there are problems with the game and there are a few that could be worked on with the economy (not pressing) but they have been really consistent in fighting inflation in this game, better than any other MMO I have played, which is impressive.

Edited January 27, 2013 by Rezakh

I charge as much as players can afford to pay.

You call them greedy?! you're the one who wants more without working for it. If you don't like their prices on gtn, then grind stuff yourself. They're not here to equip you for whatever scraps you offer.

 

/clap

You call them greedy?! you're the one who wants more without working for it. If you don't like their prices on gtn, then grind stuff yourself. They're not here to equip you for whatever scraps you offer.

 

I actually agree with this. Especially considering most of the 'overpriced' stuff are things that are easy to get yourself. Anything that isn't easy to get is supposed to be expensive. I wanted to powerlevel biochem on an alt and saw what the cost of the basic mats were and simple flew my perfectly formed red Twi'lek butt to low level planets and got my own mats.

there's a simple reason why low level stuff is selling for as much as it currently does:

 

this game is older than a year.

 

 

 

it's got zero to do with f2p (f2p probably fastened the process a little, though)

 

 

most of the people buying these things are buying them for alts. they have lvl 50s who make their credits, they probably make a fortune with the GTN on their own, too. they can more than afford to buy overpriced stuff so their lowbie chars can always run around with better gear than is needed.

 

do they have to do that? no, of course not.

 

granted it's a little annoying for returning players or new player, but you have this 'problem' in every single MMO with a player driven economy (well, as player driven as it can be)

 

 

 

add to that the fact that the gtn doesn't have a function to see the avarage price an item sells for, and you have anarchy.

 

 

btw... as someone who's actually making money with the GTN, let me tell you - us seller have the same problem only opposite. there's some items I sell regularly, trying my darnest to keep the price 'reasonable' to have people still buy it and me not actually losing money... and then every couple of days there's a few people who decide to ruin the price again by selling 20 stacks or more for a price that would actually mean I lose credits if I undercut them.

 

what do I do? I whine about it in guild chat and working on grinding up enough credits to just 'buy out' that person. it works. they sold their stuff, I can get rid of mine, and make some extra by reselling their stuff (thanks to the 6% commision it's not much, but oh well)

 

 

 

 

oh, about selling mats

there's actually quite a large number of mats on pot5 that sell for WAY LESS than the missions to get them would cost, and I'm talking about material that can not be farmed

so one can only hope for a crit to get the expensive ones, but even those don't always sell...

Edited January 27, 2013 by amnie

IMO this isnt a ridiculous price, it is the rarest item in game after all

 

the most expensive item on gtn is the czerka-crate-o'matic

 

it turns you into a crate priced at 30000000

30 million

but it is super rare

Why is this even an issue?

Game economies are mostly dependent on players.

If you have an issue with that, maybe leveling a few alts and having all the available crew skills will eliminate any need to use the GTN. Other than that, I see no problem whatsoever. If I want to sell something that I found/made for 1 billion credits and a player is willing to pay that, how is that a problem for either of us, or more importantly, anyone else?

All about supply and demand. You have the demand, they got the supply, only question will you pay it.

 

And you think it's bad in a GAME. Boy you must really bury your head in the sand when it comes to life.

 

Supply and Demand and the all mighty $$$ rules everything. Why do you think gas prices are $3.30 average in the US. Because they can and they want to. Hell they could make it .85 cents, but would that make them money?

 

NO! Guess what, when the human factor is in control, all bets are off. Though on the Ebon Hawk, a Nhalus helmet for 5mil+, the seller, you are frankly out of your frakkin mind.

I've seen ridiculous selling prices on both sides of the spectrum. Some of the cartel speeders have been sitting on the GTN for more than a month with prices upwards of 2 million credits -- clearly more than what people are willing to pay for particular versions. But on the other hand, I've seen orange armor parts from HM FP drops for sale on the GTN for 3 thousand credits less than the seller could get from any random vendor.

 

People don't always pay attention to what they're doing.

Glad someone else noticed this too. I've just recentlly re-subscribed. I went to the GTN and i swear i nearly had a heart attack at some of the prices (we are talking 6 to 7 figure sums on some items. no exageration). And this was for low level items around 12-13. Its greed. Some of this stuff i was looking at i used to be able to get on GTN for far more reasonable prices.

 

That is the part that bothers me. I am looking for items to give my low levels, but people are selling them for prices you would see for high levels. It makes no sense, so a person would need a high level toon just to buy the items for their low levels. It does not even cost that much to have my 50 craft stuff.

Please keep in mind that simply because someone posts something with an outrageous price does not mean it will be purchased at said price. Stabbies at 300k each? Never sells. Revan's mask at 6 million credits? Never sells.

 

I never have minded GTN pricing because there is absolutely nothing on there except B/G crystals , Korrealis mounts, and rakling pets that I can't just go out and get for myself if I'm patient. And I don't want any of those three things.

That is the part that bothers me. I am looking for items to give my low levels, but people are selling them for prices you would see for high levels. It makes no sense, so a person would need a high level toon just to buy the items for their low levels. It does not even cost that much to have my 50 craft stuff.

 

actually it makes perfect sense because that is exactly what is going on. most people have high level characters now and use credits from their main to buy lowbie stuff.

Why is this even an issue?

 

It's not an issue. In this thread it's more of a discussion. It's along the lines of ...

 

"Hey guys, that GTN has some CRAZY prices! What's the craziest you've seen?"

It's not an issue. In this thread it's more of a discussion. It's along the lines of ...

 

"Hey guys, that GTN has some CRAZY prices! What's the craziest you've seen?"

 

Ok then.

I was just thrown off by the "out of control" thing, because it was never in control to begin with. I still remember the days when an exotech stim would cost around 100k.

Bloody fools - don't whine at GTN prices. Start selling those things yourself.

 

Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it.

 

Simple really. Thermoplast flux is 400 per on the vendor, and that guy who doesn't want to get off his ship to go buy it will pay 450 per at his gtn kiosk in his ship. Convenience fee. There's no profit to be made by buying it from the vendor and reselling it, but if you're farming it from missions, well then that's around 20X return on your money.

 

Get over it, it's a game, economies make themselves. Period. Don't piss in the cheerios of those who make it work for themselves.

It's not an issue. In this thread it's more of a discussion. It's along the lines of ...

 

"Hey guys, that GTN has some CRAZY prices! What's the craziest you've seen?"

 

Craziest?

 

Average selling price for Polyplast is around 800 per unit on my server. Butt monkeys selling for 200 per. Full stacks. Their fail, my gain. Buy / repost at 5% discount of going market rate = ra ping you for my profit.

 

Fools who post things at 10X the price of the next lowest one - average price of 100k per, selling for 1 million per, now that's just poor market research. Ain't gonna get your stuff sold that way.

Edited January 27, 2013 by Uber_the_Goober