Thank You Double XP Weekend!

[asbalana]

I am spending my weeknights planning, buying mods, and getting characters in place for the weekend to start. I have post-it notes all over my desk with my plans for different crew skills, skill builds, species (gotta unlock em all!), etc. Glad to see I am not the only one!

 

Also, if you are on my server I have definitely transferred some of my credits into your hands. Cool to see what crafters do with a changing economy.

 

LOL, I just listed some more mods on my server. Feel free to come in and browse.

 

Actually, enjoy, there is lots to do these weekends. Good to see your post.

[FlyinSpaghetti]

This is all well and good, however these items have no actual "worth". Only the buyer can assign "worth", or value, to these items. The buyer can either decide to buy the item, give it "worth", or decide not to buy it at which point the item is worthless.

 

If the buyer had no other means of obtaining the item, then we would have problem, however the game mechanics offer other ways to obtain these items.

 

Still I believe competition should be paramount rather than most crafters on a server having some form of mutual understanding to keep prices high. I've heard of and even seen on this forum (although don't ask me to dig a thread up) of people threatening to "bury" others (financially) if they don't keep their prices at a certain point.

 

It's scummy price fixing like this is the reason why Bioware are squeezing the rest of us financially with too many credit sinks and other anti-inflation tactics because some people simply have earned too much money by exploiting the GTN as much as they can but even after BW clamps down it's still only the small man that suffers.

Edited March 26, 2013 by FlyinSpaghetti

[Uvirith]

I don't know about anyone else, but I made a boatload of credits selling low-level (17 through 39) item modifications (armorings, mods, and enhancements). Everything was selling within 2-4 hours, and for $2k-$5k more than normal. I was spending so much time sending companions on gathering and crafting missions, that I didn't actually get to level my Vanguard as much as I would have liked.

Well .thank you for supplying the playerbae with lowlevel-items. I for myself love that i can just play my characters on the exp-weekends without bothering with crafting.

[asbalana]

Still I believe competition should be paramount rather than most crafters on a server having some form of mutual understanding to keep prices high. I've heard of and even seen on this forum (although don't ask me to dig a thread up) of people threatening to "bury" others (financially) if they don't keep their prices at a certain point.

 

It's scummy price fixing like this is the reason why Bioware are squeezing the rest of us financially with too many credit sinks and other anti-inflation tactics because some people simply have earned too much money by exploiting the GTN as much as they can but even after BW clamps down it's still only the small man that suffers.

 

I have received one or two in game mails from players complaining that my pricing was to low, but never a threat to bury me. I would submit that burying a well established crafter with significant credits (and there are many of them) is impossible. If my price on 18 might mods is to low and I am buried, I'll sell 20s, bury them, I sell resolve, skill and reflex, bury them, I'll sell armorings, bury them, I'll switch to enhancements, bury them at all levels, I'll go to implants, bury them, I'll sell the mats, bury them I'll sell stims, bury them, .... and so on to infinity. The threat of burying a crafter is pure nonsense. Besides to keep a crafter buried in one area for anything but a short time would require a person to continually craft and list the item at a price under what they thought was to low in the first place, bring in undercutters and destroy the pricing of the item that they were trying to elevate. Not going to happen.

 

I (and family) have crafted and sold on the gtn since day one (on two servers) and have never seen any price fixing. I have seen a few short lived price wars, but that is about it.

 

Things sell at the price players are willing to pay and at which crafters are willing to supply. If pricing is to high, people don't buy. If pricing is to low crafters don't craft.

Edited March 26, 2013 by asbalana

[sumuji]

I was having the opposite results. I was making my own artifact mods for an alt and selling the excess and undercutting everyone else. Most of them timed out on the GTN. I even saw the only other listings at like 40-50k for a mid-range purple mod and the stuff still did't sell. I would eventually just sell i for like 1/10th of the regular value just to get it out of my inventory.

 

I think most people twinking alts were doing it themsleves. I was doing that but I was also spending a good amount of money on the rare material since I was leveling too fast to keep up depending on my own crew missions. Perhaps there's where the money lies.

[SalBasss]

Still I believe competition should be paramount rather than most crafters on a server having some form of mutual understanding to keep prices high. I've heard of and even seen on this forum (although don't ask me to dig a thread up) of people threatening to "bury" others (financially) if they don't keep their prices at a certain point.

 

It's scummy price fixing like this is the reason why Bioware are squeezing the rest of us financially with too many credit sinks and other anti-inflation tactics because some people simply have earned too much money by exploiting the GTN as much as they can but even after BW clamps down it's still only the small man that suffers.

 

How does one "bury" someone else financially in this game? I'm sure there is some level of price fixing going on, but I sell tons of items daily on the GTN and I have never messaged anyone else with that threat, NOR have I gotten anything from anyone else. I have also never even spoken to competitors, even those I compete with daliy.

 

Now, it's possible that the reason for this is that I don't undercut by stupid amounts (if the lowest sale is at $37k, I'm not dropping to $33k), but still, I think your idea that there is this level of price fixing going on by "most crafters" is fairly misguided.

 

Prices go up and down all the time on the GTN. In a world where it's possible to generate $130k or so of credits in under 90 minutes, I don't think prices are particularly high on anything.

[MidichIorian]

I'm planning this for the next weekend. Meanwhile I've been buying every silly cheap underworld mission I've been able to get my hands on. It's great to find them for between 1500-3000, love people who don't look before putting stuff up on GTN.

[Kaerwolf]

Wow, and people wonder why crafting is dying.....always someone trying to rip other players off, maybe you should start selling the mods you make for what they are truely worth instead of being a greedy profiteer.

 

This is the exact opposite of what you are saying. Dying means there IS no market, what he is saying is that there in fact is a market. But, that said I still agree with you that crafting is basicly dead, you spend almost as much in resources and time crafting as you would earn by just normal game play that time and buy the mods through a vendor with comms. THe only things not selling there are the augments, pretty slim branch for a crafting system if you ask me.

Edited March 28, 2013 by Kaerwolf

[Osskask]

Wow, and people wonder why crafting is dying.....always someone trying to rip other players off, maybe you should start selling the mods you make for what they are truely worth instead of being a greedy profiteer.

 

An Item is truly worth whatever people are willing to pay for it. Troll.

[sylvantino]

the cost is too high when you are low level with no credits, it makes it impossible to buy anything. 5k for skill lvl 2 might mod..ludicrous. There must be other methods to obtaining these mods without bothering with rip off merchants.

Right now I am only level 9, have no idea which profession makes the mods, enhancements etc, any help would be appreciated

[sylvantino]

How does one "bury" someone else financially in this game? I'm sure there is some level of price fixing going on, but I sell tons of items daily on the GTN and I have never messaged anyone else with that threat, NOR have I gotten anything from anyone else. I have also never even spoken to competitors, even those I compete with daliy.

 

Now, it's possible that the reason for this is that I don't undercut by stupid amounts (if the lowest sale is at $37k, I'm not dropping to $33k), but still, I think your idea that there is this level of price fixing going on by "most crafters" is fairly misguided.

 

Prices go up and down all the time on the GTN. In a world where it's possible to generate $130k or so of credits in under 90 minutes, I don't think prices are particularly high on anything.

playing devil's advocate for a moment, where do the credit sellers get their credits from? They would need to make tremendous amounts of credits if they wanted to sell them, and the obvious and quickest way would be over inflating items on the GTN. Much like they do in practically all MMO's out there. The amount of times I have been whispered or seen credit seller advertisments in chat does not make this game immune to them doing what they do.

As I see it, the GTN is a little worthless to a new player, because not only can you not buy anything within a reasonable amount of credits, but it harms the economy in the long run, the little guy / new guy gets hurt / stung the most, because he cannot even buy things from the GTN because of the over inflated prices.

 

If the crafting is dead, you can bet that the GTN will follow it sooner than a lot of people think, it's the law of economics...over price for too long, and people stop buying, except those at the top end of the scale with the most credits, which will lead to the GTN becoming obsolete. The developers need to do something, to ensure that never happens, by making the economy and GTN fair, right now, unless I buy credits I cannot buy anthing my character needs. Healthy at the top, but drastically atrocious at the bottom.