GTN Pricing Out of Control

[Jeweledleah]

when starting out, to be honest, I never relaly bought stuff oof GTN, other then possibly occasional cheap mod (and those ARE cheap on GTN at lower levels. heck, I've been buying crystal upgrades for my leveling alts for like 1k per lvl 38 crystal.

 

what current GTN does though is allow lowbies to supplement their income by selling whatever they gather and can't or don't want to use. especialy when it comes to low level materials, that are all over the starting world. something that high level character might not be interested in spending time on and would rather just buy off GTN.

 

in general SWTOR is set up in such a way that if all you do is quest, quest rewards alone will both keep you reasonably geared until lvl 50 through quest rewards (at which point, you are given 2 sets of starter gear) as well as give you just enough credits to buy any skills you might need, including piloting AND even crew skill leveling, provided you farm as you level. and now that you can get cartel market mounts for ridiculously cheap of GTN, starting out is even cheaper.

 

GTN really is extra. its bonus.

[FreePrometheus]

^ 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.

 

I agree, for the most part. yes, it is a normal economy in the sense of supply and demand. People are only reacting, as they should to current economic conditions.

 

But... There are those of us, particularly on RP servers, that dont really do many, if any, dailies. This means i, and others, must rely on other income. This is often through the sale of low level items, and mats. I dont expect (as stated above) to pay high sums for items of low level. And some of these things are only of green quality. I am happy to buy a green item for a few thousand if i know it is going to last me a good long while. I used to be able to buy orange items for a good price, even if i had to save up a bit. But that orange item would probably last me most of the game, and beyond. I would simply keep upgrading its various specs (which cost me very little as i mainly used commendations). Perhaps i am not keeping up with the times. I dont know... But as a roleplayer, not a PVE'er i dont expect to be forced to do the latter just to get my character equipped. And i dont always buy for functionality as a roleplayer. (for roleplaying reasons)

 

My point is, that while i understand economies in the long run, our economy has become dog eat dog to the extent that, unless you are doing every daily you can lay your hands on, or farming constantly. You are doomed.

 

I am also of the opinion that some of this pricing is only meant to con new F2P guys out of their credits. And whether it works or not, it doesnt make it right.

[NLxAROSA]

long story

 

That's nice and all, but there's a huge flaw in your story: most items are extremely cheap on the GTN and it's extremely easy for lowbies to get good stuff off the GTN for little money. Prices are NOT artificially high, especially the low level stuff/non rare stuff. The rare stuff: yeah that's expensive and with good reason!

 

How can it be that people are complaining that GTN prices are too high when at the same time crafters are complaining they can't make a profit off their stuff? Someone is wrong, and it's not the crafters.

Edited January 28, 2013 by NLxAROSA

[sumuser]

Now, noobs are expecting to buy purples. They don't have a right to those items for a price they can afford. Purples are for alts, plain and simple.

 

PERFECTLY SAID.

 

I have zero motivation to make anything a first time 50 can afford because it isn't worth my time. If i can make more money running dailies in said time VS the profit I'm making from what i sell, why craft? Its not like the crafting system in this game is any fun.

 

My main is an armormech and i sell blue and purple armormech wares on the GTN for players wanting optimized pieces without paying premium prices buying blue/purple armor/mods/enhancements from the GTN. And for those peeps who want a complete set (or near complete set) of armor shells, i can do that as well (or you can spend significant time buying the suit piece by piece, randomly, off the GTN).

 

I dont cater to "bargain hunters". I look for people who want to have a full optimized suit for their alt(s) and/or companions, have plenty of credits, and are willing to pay for connivence. I know for a fact many players have many millions of credits (many have tens of millions and more). Paying 200k - 600k for a updated armor is nothing to them... But to noobs and super casual players, it seems like a lot.

[Rubytyr]

Jedi Covenant prices are insane atm, going rate on almost everything is 50k and up. (gear + mods regardless of level, don't really look at Trade skill mats as I can forage what I need usually)

 

Basically it looks like there's a spike since the cartel gems became sellable - GTN people are raising prices to gouge the new-found creds pouring in (at least thats my guess)

[Omisri]

a few months after launch (around end of feb 2012) i could pretty much gear out my pre-50 on less than 30k. If i were to do the same between level 40 - 49 nowadays it would cost me over 300k.

 

Alot has to do with appearence items since the bind to chest color came into play. there is even alot of level 10 - 20 gear that people post for 100 - 200k + just because you can re-mod it.

 

There are alot of greedy sellers. When cartel crystals could be sold on the gtn i put all of mine on for 100k each because i wanted them gone. within 5 mins all had been bought and listed again for 500k, 2 for 1mill. They didnt sell and i gave out a hard 'lol' but, seriously?

[DarthTHC]

The fun thing about a free-market(ish) is that the prices will level out to what people are willing to pay.

 

If you list your items too low, that's great for other sellers! They'll snap that s... up and repost it at 200%, 300%, even 1200% profit.

 

If you can't afford stuff on the GTN, learn how to play it. Get some crafting skills. Buy some credits (not the bad way - I mean buy some Cartel items and post them on the GTN). Learn to recognize underpriced postings and buy-repost them.

 

It's not that hard.

 

Notice I didn't say anywhere to grind dailies. You shouldn't have to do that.

[Spoletta]

Just one thing to remember.

Free players have more credits than we had during our first leveling for 2 reasons:

 

1) They only have 1 crew skills to max. 99% of the times it's a gathering skills that makes them creds with the same price bloating that we are discussing here. (400 creds for 1 low grade metal is common).

 

2) They pay everything 25% more but also take 25% more time to lvl. This means that at a given lvl they will have 25% more spare money than a sub player.

[Coldin]

Just one thing to remember.

Free players have more credits than we had during our first leveling for 2 reasons:

 

1) They only have 1 crew skills to max. 99% of the times it's a gathering skills that makes them creds with the same price bloating that we are discussing here. (400 creds for 1 low grade metal is common).

 

2) They pay everything 25% more but also take 25% more time to lvl. This means that at a given lvl they will have 25% more spare money than a sub player.

 

Sort of?

 

25% more time to level doesn't really mean they get 25% more cash. A death can mean heading all the way back to the med center, and a long run back with no more fighting along the way. Quests tend to have the most credits and xp together, but only heroics are repeatable. Plus rewards themselves are limited, which might mean the player isn't picking up credit or lootboxes either.

 

There's also the whole Credit Cap, which keeps F2P from earning more than 250k credits at a time. That usually means they're saving up solely for skill training (which also costs more credits), rather than saving up for expensive items on the GTN.

[Spoletta]

Hmm yeah 25% may be a bit optimistic, still they should have more creds, simply cause they need more quests to lvl up. There are many more quests than needed for a sub lvl.

 

Edit: They also don't have rested xp, which means even more quest rewards between lvls.

Edited January 28, 2013 by Spoletta

[Draaconis]

I think my favorite is the White Saber crystals. They sell for 1 1/2 to 2 mill a pop because they are rare for no reason. It's an F'n vanity item people! There is no reason for vanity items to sell for this much.

[Heezdedjim]

1) They only have 1 crew skills to max. 99% of the times it's a gathering skills that makes them creds with the same price bloating that we are discussing here. (400 creds for 1 low grade metal is common).

This is why I always tell first-time, brand new players to go with three gathering skills on their very first toon. If you take archaeology, scavenging, and bionanalysis, you will never lack for credits, never have to grind credits to make credits, and never waste tons of materials and time on the silly RNG reverse engineering grind. If you just gather every node you run across in game as you do the planet quests, then the skills will level up for free, and all the mats you sell are profit, because you spent no credits and very little added time to get them. Compared to anything else you can do, this is the simplest, least annoying, and most profitable single thing a brand new player can do to make plenty of money fast while simply playing the game.

 

The reason mats sell for what they do is simple; their value is equal to the time + annoyance of getting them. Another way of putting it is that the average income for spending an hour farming mats will work out to be about the same as the opportunity cost of doing whatever else the average player can easily do in game to make credits.

 

If you spend a few hours or a few days farming up and selling a few craploads of mats, you'll find that on average you can make about the same amount of money doing this as you could, for example, by spending the same time running dailies. If the average income per hour for farming gets too high compared with anything else you can do, then people stop doing whatever else and start farming, until competition goes up and income falls. If farming becomes too poor, then people quit and prices go up.

 

The reason that all mats sell for about the same prices regardless of grade or "level" is because, whether the time is spent by someone harvesting on planets or running crew missions, it is almost exactly the same amount of time + annoyance to get a given X quantity of lower level mats as it is to get higher level ones.

 

If anything, the premium on lower level mats should be (and is) higher, because fewer people hang around in node-rich low level zones farming, and the missions require a lot more cycling of the mission dispatcher to keep them running continuously. It's actually less productive to farm lower level mats with missions, in terms of time spent messing with the crafting UI, because they take a lot more work to keep the missions going. With higher level mats you can keep a bunch of toons on farm and only have to relog them once every 30 to 50 minutes; or you can tend your companions only once or twice an hour while you're doing other things, if you have only one character. But with the lower level ones you have to relog continuously between toons to keep them all running, or sit there mindlessly dispatching every two minutes if you're only running one.

 

This explains why pretty much all mats on the GTN go for somewhere between 500 and 2,000 credits per unit consistently, with an average price around 1,000 credits a unit, except for a few that have super high average mission yields and very low usage in any patterns that anyone ever wants to make (that's right, Silica, I'm looking at you).

Edited January 28, 2013 by Heezdedjim

[AdmiralOnasi]

If people are willing to pay for it, why not list it for a mountain of credits?

[Rafaman]

Just to add to those who think GTN is working just fine, there are some great deals to be had too if you are patient.

 

Look, I'm not sure how it started or why, but really you don't need to be buying your gear from GTN. Not at all. Get your orange gear from questing, your mods, armoring and enhancements from planet quest and commendations. Fill empty slots with greens you find while questin and ...you are set with close to level gear without spending many creds at all.

 

Therefore GTN, for me, is just for spending the extra creds which is a whole bunch. Prices dictate the luxury and rare items as it should be.

[Jack_Deth]

I think my favorite is the White Saber crystals. They sell for 1 1/2 to 2 mill a pop because they are rare for no reason. It's an F'n vanity item people! There is no reason for vanity items to sell for this much.

 

Supply and demand.

[Galbatorrix]

I was selling some level 11 orange moddable Agent jacket on the GTN for 275K. Someone actually mailed me to bash how ridiculous the cost was. What they don't realize is, I've sold that same Jacket any where from 150-350K at times. So, while some people think that certain items are over prices, others will see said item, look at their millions of credits and go "Sure, why not?".

 

 

I've made over 10 Million buying and selling on the GTN. I think I know what I'm doing.

Edited January 28, 2013 by Galbatorrix

[Tiibbyy]

It is the same way in pretty much any MMO. And that goes for any MMO with or without a RL cash shop. You will find sometimes often mundane things for outrageous prices because there is always someone out there who might buy it.

 

Think of, a Stock Market. If there is some demand for the item, then there will be someone selling it. Some ppl find this to be a fun part of the game for them, to play the market and see how much they can make or whatnot. And it really is just one more aspect of the game. The economies tend to vary among servers, and times of day or night. If your looking for bargains, don't buy the first thing you see. It might pop up again later for a cheaper price, sometimes at the AuctionHouse/Galactic Market players try to out bid each other.

 

If your not a market player and looking to just sell your junk really quick, then try pricing your stuff on the lower end. The market players will probably snap it up - maybe even send you a flaming email about how you're a dumb nub and ruining "their" market. And then will re-post all stuff for much more inflated prices. lol, that's how it works ^.^

Edited January 28, 2013 by Tiibbyy
spelling, grammar

[Spoletta]

Always have a wide range of products and you'll never have problems with guys crashing markets. By the time a market crashes another one will have healed back.

[Jeweledleah]

I think my favorite is the White Saber crystals. They sell for 1 1/2 to 2 mill a pop because they are rare for no reason. It's an F'n vanity item people! There is no reason for vanity items to sell for this much.

 

actually - its quite the opposite.

 

rare vanity items ALWAYS sell for highest prices. because they are not necessary, but they are wanted.

and well.. there's this whole rare thing

 

its the same in real life.

[GalaxyStrong]

I don't really see a lot of price gouging on the GTN and most stuff you can get by grinding FP's and Heroic's if you think its a rip-off on the GTN.

 

Vanity Item are STATUS SYMBOLS. It's like buying a BMW or Corvette. You dont buy them because you need them you buy them because you want them and you have alot of money to burn. It shows that you worked hard in this game and now your rewarding yourself with an item that people will notice (envy) and complement you on.

 

Examples : Rare Color Crystal's, Rare Weapons, Rare Armor, Rare Mounts.

 

If you don't have the credits then don't even look at that stuff because all thats gonna do is make you jealous and pissed off.

 

I had a guy yesterday try to get me to sell him a Supreme Inquisitor Robe for 150k. When I refused he got all angry and started telling me that no one buys that stuff from the GTN for 950k. I explained to him that I already sold one earlier that week for 1.2 million and that I know how much it's worth. He gave up and I posted the armor on the GTN for 950k and had sold it by the time I woke up this morning.

 

It is what is.

[Rezakh]

I agree, for the most part. yes, it is a normal economy in the sense of supply and demand. People are only reacting, as they should to current economic conditions.

 

But... There are those of us, particularly on RP servers, that dont really do many, if any, dailies. This means i, and others, must rely on other income. This is often through the sale of low level items, and mats. I dont expect (as stated above) to pay high sums for items of low level. And some of these things are only of green quality. I am happy to buy a green item for a few thousand if i know it is going to last me a good long while. I used to be able to buy orange items for a good price, even if i had to save up a bit. But that orange item would probably last me most of the game, and beyond. I would simply keep upgrading its various specs (which cost me very little as i mainly used commendations). Perhaps i am not keeping up with the times. I dont know... But as a roleplayer, not a PVE'er i dont expect to be forced to do the latter just to get my character equipped. And i dont always buy for functionality as a roleplayer. (for roleplaying reasons)

 

My point is, that while i understand economies in the long run, our economy has become dog eat dog to the extent that, unless you are doing every daily you can lay your hands on, or farming constantly. You are doomed.

 

I am also of the opinion that some of this pricing is only meant to con new F2P guys out of their credits. And whether it works or not, it doesnt make it right.

 

I think we may have had a slight miscommunication on one thing, dailies, and I will admit, I did not make my point as clear as I should have. Sorry for that.

 

I am not saying that dailies are a good way to sustain income. First of all, burn out factor. Dailies take a ridiculous amount of time to complete for the amount of credits awarded. That time tends to go by slower and slower the more you do dailies because it gets mundane.

 

Second, for someone that likes the RP element of the MMORPG myself, I find that making money off the goods that I find while leveling alts (amongst other things) is far more fun and more efficient. If you need to use dailies to get started, OK, but I was saying that if you're someone having to do dailies in the long term for money, you're really missing out on much greater earning potential.

 

Third, doing dailies really does break the immersion for me, which I would imagine you could relate to based on your response. I have a hard time describing it, but there's something about it that really does suck you right out of the RP elements in this game so my wife and I generally stay away from them. We do them on occasion, if we're bored or just want to arbitrarily go blow something up. And I admit, she has more fun with them than I do.

 

I just wanted to clarify those points.

 

Also, concerning your suspicions concerning conning F2Pers out of credits, that's certainly not my objective. I price according to what I am seeing move on the market. Honestly, F2Pers being a target market does not really make sense considering their credit ceilings are incredibly low (low six firgures, as I recall). So they're really not in a position to make massive purchases on a regular basis which, for me if I were actually wanting to target a particular consumer group, means not a reliable source for sustained revenue. But, again, I do not do this, so whether or not that's the case, I really do not know. These are just my thoughts in response to yours.

Edited January 28, 2013 by Rezakh

[Jrea]

You have to remember, the GTN is an open market and players are only going to sell item for what others will pay. The problems start when some players try make a fortune buy just running between the mailbox and GTN. Reselling and price fixing is not good for an open market.

 

I found it was a a lot better before they increased the number of available of slots and reduced the deposit cost for Subscribers. The Deposit use to be around 10%, so if you wanted to sell an item for 5 Million you would need to deposit 50K. Players would have to keep stacks high and the costs low.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Jrea

[Shrikestalker]

This thread was four months old. Why you necro it, lol?

[Superman_AZ]

This thread was four months old. Why you necro it, lol?

This was my thought exactly. This person seems to enjoy necro threads and has an aversion to making a new thread relevant to the topic. This is his 2nd necro thread.

[Themanthatisi]

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

 

Yep!!! I buy and sell between 1-4 million a week... and i have inventories to keep the money rolling in. I will keep prices at fair market value, even if the prices are inflated way over what they were 3 months ago.

 

Also, you can blame much of this inflation on the CM, since you can buy with real money, items, to sell in game for game money, this is the obvious result... and it will continue to become one since its creating millionaires out of "thin air".

Edited May 31, 2013 by Themanthatisi