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INSANE prices on GTN


Tharandil

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With the general population dropping I've seen insane price differences among the servers.

It seems the least populated servers are the victims of the most outrageous prices on the gtn.

Several direct sales on the CM have had some effect but so far I haven't seen prices drop dramatically.

 

For example: Senya's pike (platinum) goes for around 138mil on the GTN. People seem to be greedy.

 

Has anyone ever bought an item that was clearly overpriced?

So far I've only bought Shae Vizla's armor for around 48mil and thought that was already steep for a cosmetic armor.

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With the general population dropping I've seen insane price differences among the servers.

It seems the least populated servers are the victims of the most outrageous prices on the gtn.

Several direct sales on the CM have had some effect but so far I haven't seen prices drop dramatically.

 

For example: Senya's pike (platinum) goes for around 138mil on the GTN. People seem to be greedy.

 

Has anyone ever bought an item that was clearly overpriced?

So far I've only bought Shae Vizla's armor for around 48mil and thought that was already steep for a cosmetic armor.

 

Pfft, I have sold many items for exactly those extravagant and way too overpriced prices. But can you blame me? I need the credits to buy the other overpriced stuff, so it's a circle that goes round, and round, and round, and round and round :)

Edited by Ylliarus
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Nobody can control the prices on the GTN - it's a free world/economy. Prices depend on the market. I have bought some overpriced items before as well and to be honest I cant blame the people. They do as they please and frankly it's like in real life. When you go and buy an expensive thing in real life,even when you think it is expensive but you still want it,what do you say - I want it,I need it,thus I must have it! And vise versa - the sellers say about the money - I want it ,I need it,thus I will sell this at that price.
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There's already a topic devoted to this but it's more a sellers market currently.

 

I've made about 6 million from bounty contracts alone this week.

 

I'm sitting on a Tythian Lightsaber which dropped from a pack and that has gone from around 35 million to 100+ in a matter of days.

 

There are people with billions of credits who that's pocket change to. It's a free market economy, you can charge what you like and people can pay what they like,

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Nobody can control the prices on the GTN - it's a free world/economy. Prices depend on the market. I have bought some overpriced items before as well and to be honest I cant blame the people. They do as they please and frankly it's like in real life. When you go and buy an expensive thing in real life,even when you think it is expensive but you still want it,what do you say - I want it,I need it,thus I must have it! And vise versa - the sellers say about the money - I want it ,I need it,thus I will sell this at that price.

BW can, and should, keep an eye on the GTN prices if not directly control them.

 

Direct sales and pack drop rates are the main problem. The game is suffering from uncontrolled inflation, and that is something capitalism and real countries always try to control thru different laws and measures, and same should be done in the game.

 

Let's talk for example, an Overlord's Command Throne (mount). In 2015, when i aquired mine, they were going for 10 mills IIRC. Right now, on TRE they are going for 70-80+ mills, an inflation rate of 800% in 2 years. This is the result of an uncontrolled economy with insignificant drop rates for gold and platinum items, and with not enough direct sales in both amount of items and frequency of the sales.

 

The result is the ridiculous prices we see right now. They can, and they should be controlled imo, otherwise the market is controlled by the select few who are lucky enough to get the items.

 

Anyone can charge what they want, and the seller is free to buy or not. But price competition is part of the free market when a good is available, and both proper direct sales and availability of the items would keep other sellers in check.

Edited by DeVanagloris
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Why wouldn't Senya's pike cost that much? It's a desired item with a ultra rare supply.

 

I don't mind people trying to sell it for a lot of credits, but are people actually buying it?

Usually when there is more competition between sellers prices will drop (capitalism). But with the low population (for both supply and demand) on several servers, prices will go through the roof.

This is also part of the reason there are credit spammers who will try to sell credits for real life money...

 

I'm not against charging a lot of credits for desired items, but asking unrealistic prices and having to wait for several months to finally make a sale does sound crazy to me.

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There are people with billions of credits who that's pocket change to. It's a free market economy, you can charge what you like and people can pay what they like,

 

Are the billionaires still 'active' players?

Personally I think the direct sales are a step in the right direction. I mean to have the best game experience, you'll have to be a sub anyway and you'll get the monthly sub reward. After a sale prices drop a bit on the GTN thanks to the 'flooding' of cartel items.

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Let's talk for example, an Overlord's Command Throne (mount). In 2015, when i aquired mine, they were going for 10 mills IIRC. Right now, on TRE they are going for 70-80+ mills, an inflation rate of 800% in 2 years. This is the result of an uncontrolled economy with insignificant drop rates for gold and platinum items, and with not enough direct sales in both amount of items and frequency of the sales.

 

Wow, you managed to completely miss the reason that mount went up in price so much: Price is generally determined by Supply and Demand, and there is very little 'supply' of this mount right now, so prices will go up if there is any demand at all (and throne mounts always tend to have high demand).

 

You'll see this with just about every pack item: Prices tend to start out a little high (only the first people to open packs have any to sell), then it comes down a bit as more and more are put on the market, then as the packs fade in popularity, prices will rise again. As the 'supply' dwindles, prices can become rather obscene if it seems reasonable that someone might pay it.

 

Mind you, there is definitely an inflation issue in this game (Prior to this expansion, my richest characters were sitting a little under 20 million credits: My richest character is a little short of 100 million credits now, and that is just from grinding CXP), but that's true of most games (not to mention the real world).

 

EDIT:

I should probably mention this is at least somewhat intentional: Bioware doesn't create these items to please you, they create them to put dinner on the table for themselves and their families. Item rarity has always been a 'carrot' for the players to chase after, and the FTP model just means that they've been forced to use the old 'Customizable Card Game' model instead of the more traditional 'keep paying for your subscription' model. If players figure the 'rare' items will be available for direct sale, they won't buy the packs, and if the packs don't sell, there is no point to keeping the game going at all.

 

On a personal note, I generally avoid expensive items on the GTN: I grab up the cheap weapons so I can add them to my collection for possible future use and once in a blue moon I'll buy an expensive armor set before the supply dwindles and the prices start to rise (sometimes I time it right, other times not so much).

Edited by Ominovin
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Wow, you managed to completely miss the reason that mount went up in price so much: Price is generally determined by Supply and Demand, and there is very little 'supply' of this mount right now, so prices will go up if there is any demand at all (and throne mounts always tend to have high demand).

 

But i didnt miss the point, the whole point of my post was to say that there is way too short supply for the most desired items. Low droprates and slow, too limited direct sales are the main reasons why there is so short supply on some items.

 

They should definitely put more elements on direct sale, and also rotate the direct sales more often. Besides that, a higher drop rate on the rarest stuff is also needed. Both this things would contribute to a higher supply and hence force the few sellers to adjust prices and not overtake the market asking for absurd amounts of credits.

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Are the billionaires still 'active' players?

Personally I think the direct sales are a step in the right direction. I mean to have the best game experience, you'll have to be a sub anyway and you'll get the monthly sub reward. After a sale prices drop a bit on the GTN thanks to the 'flooding' of cartel items.

 

There are some people who literally do nothing else but sit at the Kiosks watching the market. Those are the billionaires.

 

How much they control the market is debatable though. On Progenitor you see a fairly reasonable average on silver and bronze. The supply/demand does get crazy on gold and above though.

 

Direct sales help but they also hinder, what happens when the sales end? Prices rocket up again.

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Are the billionaires still 'active' players?

 

Yes.. there are a good number of billionaires active in game. But even if a billionaire is inactive.... that simply means those billions are not part of the active player economy. It's as though those billions are in a bag and shoved between the mattress of their bed. Billionaires actually do stabilize a lot of the market because they rarely spend their billions and hence are soaking active credits out of the player economy. Of course, like real life billionaires, they set the prices for super rare collectables. In real life as buyers, they drive the prices of rare artwork.. and in game they drive the prices of the super rare subset of items that are gold/platinum. The net effect is less price stability in the super rare collectors market, but more stable pricing on bronze, silver, and less rare or desired gold items.

 

As for INSANE prices..... it varies... event for the item in question....and is very much dependent on three factors: 1) rarity of supply (regardless if it is a CM item or an item from a world drop in game). 2) player demand/desire. 3) The server wide credit supply.

 

Take The Anarchy weapon box that contains two super rare platinum weapons. These have gone for prices in the past of almost 200M and did sell at those prices. Then.. fresh packs drop that continue to contain said weapon box, less players need them (because they already own them)..... and with fresh supply and less demand... low and behold.. said items now sell for about 50-60M at the moment on the same server they used to regularly sell for 200M. If they remain scarce, and packs no longer drop them in the future..... prices will return to the 200M range... but I would advise against speculating with this particular item unless you can afford to wait out the prevailing prices, or don't care if you potentially lose many tens of millions of credits due to speculation not working out.

 

Take the new dyes recently released.... some of these sell on wild price swings... selling for multiple millions each one day and selling for less then a million a few days later. I buy and sell these a lot, as it is a niche I like to play (dyes) and I can tell you they do in fact sell at these wide price ranges. All of this is simply variations in supply/demand dynamics in the player economy. I can tell you that players like me actually work to stabilize the prices of items like there... buying low when we see them and later reselling... but doing so well below prevailing market.... because I only require a certain profit margin and will undercut the market accordingly.

 

Take the Wentross Boltcaster... a super rare platinum item that has dropped in prices consistently over time.... once pushing near 100M and now readily available for well under 20M. That is a lot of deflation.

 

As for Direct Sales on the CM..... that does drive down prices in the short term, but prices also return to higher market rates as the supplies dry up after the sale is done. So Direct Sale is nothing more then an additional channel for players to express their purchasing preference.

Edited by Andryah
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But i didnt miss the point, the whole point of my post was to say that there is way too short supply for the most desired items. Low droprates and slow, too limited direct sales are the main reasons why there is so short supply on some items.

 

They should definitely put more elements on direct sale, and also rotate the direct sales more often. Besides that, a higher drop rate on the rarest stuff is also needed. Both this things would contribute to a higher supply and hence force the few sellers to adjust prices and not overtake the market asking for absurd amounts of credits.

 

Can you recap to me why this should be done. What is inherently wrong with high gtn prices, why do people need to be forced to drop prices? Some items are always purposefully very rare, it is meant that only a very small portion of the player base can attain them.*

 

I'm not talking about the increase of credits in circulation though, this game has a real problem with that.

I also very much like direct sales as opposed to rng packs.

 

*For a lot of older items this is likely unintentional though and has just happened over time.

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There are some people who literally do nothing else but sit at the Kiosks watching the market. Those are the billionaires.

 

How much they control the market is debatable though. On Progenitor you see a fairly reasonable average on silver and bronze. The supply/demand does get crazy on gold and above though.

 

Of course they control the market, because every time someone offers an item for a reasonable price, they immediately buy it off, so that only their overpriced versions remain for sale. Through that they force others to also offer at too high prices. I have sold some rare items for okay prices. All of them were bought by certain players who I know are price-gougers. In those cases, I was actually expecting this and I did it on purpose, because I wanted quick credits while I know that they will need months (if at all) to sell at their prices.

 

Luckily, at least on Progenitor, these high priced items mostly don't sell. I have been tracking certain items and sellers for a long time. I'm sure you also know some of those sellers. They don't sell their items. But they don't need to anyway. My favourite seller is the one who constantly raises the price for his items. One of his items soon reaches 200 millions. I like that he didn't sell it for 80 millions, but believes that he will sell it for 200.

 

Anyway, I will NEVER buy an item for such insane prices, even if I could. I refuse to do that. No item ever is worth that many credits. No one should encourage this. I even boycott certain sellers who I know for overpricing items. Even if they have some items for reasonable prices, I will not buy them. It's easy to resist: It's just digital fluff stuff which I want, but don't need at all. That gives me perspective.

 

And if you have billions of credits piled up, you - sorry if this offends you - just don't have enough to do in your life outside of the game. Do you know the South Park episode where they play Guitar Hero and at the end reach the super highscore?

Edited by JattaGin
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My main has 14 million credits. Partly because I spend it (as in I should have more than that) and partly because I can't stand gawping at that terrible interface. I'm very far from the upper echelons of SWTOR society. You certainly aren't insulting me. I'm playing a videogame not the stock market.

 

Yes, I do spend it on crap I don't need. I am indeed aware of the people who overprice stuff.

 

I will concede it leads to bad habits from Newbie Newberton who gets a super shiny from a pack and then sees the rich kids trying to hawk goods for far more than it's worth.

 

Just as an aside I undercut by quite a lot if I don't like the item much for my own use. I mainly sell red crystals as they fly off the shelves at 50 or 60K. I'm actually half tempted to use the plat item I was lucky enough to get myself.

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I never really understood *Why some put such Insane prices on items. A lot of these listing are so far up it seems they'll never be sold. With such a small Niche of players that even have those amounts let alone want that Specific item it seems listing those arn't really for selling purposes. If I list an item on the GTN its Priced to be sold so I can use that money on something I need; not priced to sit there.
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I never really understood *Why some put such Insane prices on items. A lot of these listing are so far up it seems they'll never be sold. With such a small Niche of players that even have those amounts let alone want that Specific item it seems listing those arn't really for selling purposes. If I list an item on the GTN its Priced to be sold so I can use that money on something I need; not priced to sit there.

 

The really funny thing about it is you see the same items listed for far less (though maybe still out of reach) next to the ridiculous prices.

 

I think it's just people with a different perspective on what cheap is based on their bank accounts. Like high rollers at casinos, they just don't think of throwing 100 million on a Craps table is a significant loss.

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BW can, and should, keep an eye on the GTN prices if not directly control them.

 

Direct sales and pack drop rates are the main problem. The game is suffering from uncontrolled inflation, and that is something capitalism and real countries always try to control thru different laws and measures, and same should be done in the game.

 

Let's talk for example, an Overlord's Command Throne (mount). In 2015, when i aquired mine, they were going for 10 mills IIRC. Right now, on TRE they are going for 70-80+ mills, an inflation rate of 800% in 2 years. This is the result of an uncontrolled economy with insignificant drop rates for gold and platinum items, and with not enough direct sales in both amount of items and frequency of the sales.

 

The result is the ridiculous prices we see right now. They can, and they should be controlled imo, otherwise the market is controlled by the select few who are lucky enough to get the items.

 

Anyone can charge what they want, and the seller is free to buy or not. But price competition is part of the free market when a good is available, and both proper direct sales and availability of the items would keep other sellers in check.

 

It may have increased to 70-80 million but credit availability also increased significantly so how much comparatively has the item increased in price?

 

For example if you had to grind 20 hours for 10 million 2015 and 10 hours for 70 million now ... who cares?

 

Now if the rate you earned credits had never changed that would be a different story. Also it's worth remembering there are a variety of ways to earn credits.

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There are some people who literally do nothing else but sit at the Kiosks watching the market.

 

If there are people that do that, pardon my language (or not, idc), but that sounds incredibly boring as ****. What's the point of paying for a game only to make billions of fake credits that have zero value anywhere else, especially if they do little to nothing else. Just think, they'll have this number of credits that's represented by nothing more than colored pixels and when this game is eventually killed off completely, all of that will have been for nothing and there will be nothing to show for it.

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If there are people that do that, pardon my language (or not, idc), but that sounds incredibly boring as ****. What's the point of paying for a game only to make billions of fake credits that have zero value anywhere else, especially if they do little to nothing else. Just think, they'll have this number of credits that's represented by nothing more than colored pixels and when this game is eventually killed off completely, all of that will have been for nothing and there will be nothing to show for it.

 

Same mentality as why people play nothing but PvP or nothing but raiding. People find their niche and stick to it religiously.

 

There are people who find trainspotting interesting or even Tennis. Different strokes and all that.

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Same mentality as why people play nothing but PvP or nothing but raiding. People find their niche and stick to it religiously.

 

There are people who find trainspotting interesting or even Tennis. Different strokes and all that.

 

Or grinding heroics/dailies day in and day out for years just to make a pittance of credits that those that play the market get ...

 

Many things are boring, monotony in an MMO, it's which boring monotony you can handle that matters.

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