Cartel market prices are abusive

[Hiply]

It's simple:

 

Market research says that these prices are the highest prices they can set and still generate significant sales to people other than their whales.

[GalacticKegger]

Desired items being priced out of one's budget isn't abusive, it's simply priced out of one's budget. People who can afford it won't think twice about its price. Conversely, people who are (or should be) on a tight budget tend to consider high-end item pricing too high. The disparity is unavoidable.

 

Granted this is only a video game, but it's a video game with a real money cash shop that depends on real money to flourish. So if one wants to participate in cash shop purchases then budgeting real money for it becomes necessity.

 

One may always periodically buy Cartel Coins as they can afford them, so as to save them up for future purchases. This requires patience, planning and discipline. So unless there was a sudden windfall involved, that's pretty much how people who have the money got their money. Either earn more or spend less.

Edited November 11, 2015 by GalacticKegger

[MillionsKNives]

*smiles* i must admit i was beeing a little sacarstic here, because unfortunatly it is not so simple. You are a seller, and your profit has been cut down but you are not the only seller.

 

For one seller like you, there will be 50 going for profit only : they will wait a little, and come back with the same high price that they will sell. Or .... they will buy your low prices to sell them higher later. They are not in a hurry, they just make the market to be what they want.

 

When i sell something, i am the worst because its maintly about feeling, my feeling :

- if i like this item, yes : i will go check the GTN and usually i cut the higher price by over than half to put mine, hoping that someone with not much money will be happy..

- if i dont like the item, i will sell it for 1 credit (be a set of armor or anything else).

or i simply go on the fleet and give away just to make some of us happy.

 

(for the funny part i had some 1credit piece returned as well, so i just delete them when it happens).

 

My husband wants a rare drop mount from the packs, so each month using the 500cc in the hope of it but it never happened. And no we will not buy on the GTN for 20 or 40 millions, but see plenty of others do it, and the price even went up for that mount to 40millions.

 

So all my discours to say : When us players will realise the power we have or not have about that in game market, may be we will change it but for now there is too much players happy with how it is, no matter if for me it seems way to high and i dont buy, some will do.

 

So no its not so simple in fact.

 

It is that simple though. If people are willing to buy it then they will continue to list it at that price. If no one buys it then they will either lower the price or never sell it.

 

For your example of undercutting for the sake of undercutting, the question is sustainability (or in other words supply). Can you keep up with selling them that cheap? Will you make enough profit for that to be sustainable? In that case then supply is allowing costs to lower. If it's not sustainable then listing them that cheaply will just be a blip.

[ScarletBlaze]

Really??????????????????????

 

2600 CC for a single armor, that's 26 USD, and 800 CC for one stronghold decoration, that's more that one month subcrisption

 

If you are talking about the Xoxaan Armor that armor was a very rare drop when it was released last summer and you had to get each piece separtely in the packs or buy it from the GTN. Getting the whole set could cost you at least 3m if not more as rare as it was.

 

As far as the stronghold decorations some will buy considering if you buy the packs there are a lot of times you don't get stronghold decorations and for a person who likes to decorate a stronghold a guarantee they will get some sort of decoration might be something they will do.

Edited November 11, 2015 by ScarletBlaze

[Idoya]

True, but his point about the cc stuff being way too expensive still stands.

 

Too expensive for whom, exactly? I can afford it just fine.

[Loranae]

[quote=MillionsKNives;8610148......

For your example of undercutting for the sake of undercutting, the question is sustainability (or in other words supply). Can you keep up with selling them that cheap? Will you make enough profit for that to be sustainable? In that case then supply is allowing costs to lower. If it's not sustainable then listing them that cheaply will just be a blip.

 

May be i was not clear but i dont do undercutting for the pleasure to do it, i just do it because for my own perception, the prices they are sold are way to high or because when i dont like an item, i am unable to put a price on it..

 

May be i am silly but when i sell something i always think about the new comer, the one who will see us showing off our shiny outfit, but can not afford to get one at such high price.

Sur some will say its an intensive for them, they will level and buy it ... may be .... but my great pleasure is to *offer * to someone the chance to have the outfit without having to wait to be 40 or 60.

 

Sur i am not rich, i dont have credit aside and if i want to buy something, i have to plan, because i give away more than i sell. As i said i am the worst seller for sur, too sentimental ... but well this is too late for me to change, i can not help me now.

 

And on that note, i have enough talked for today on the forum i think, so have fun everyone!

[VanorDM]

May be i was not clear but i dont do undercutting for the pleasure to do it.

 

Myself I put it at a price that I think will make the item sell quickly. When I came back I was selling the orange sabers for like 50k because to be honest I didn't bother to look at the going price.. They may very well of been bought by someone wanting to relist them at the 'proper' price. If so I don't care. I got the credits no matter why the person bought them.

[SteveTheCynic]

Here ya go, I agree...one of the greediest cash shops in any game I play, and thats saying something....

It's not even close to being among the greediest. None of the stuff in the CM is required to play the game. Contrast that to games like (CENSORED) and (CENSORED) which sell stuff in the cash shop that is essential to participating in the end-game (e.g. for gearing up your character). Or like Allods Online in its early beta phase, where there was a death penalty that could only be removed with a cash-shop item.

[MasterSpatula]

Abusive is a strong word, but I'd be fine with outrageous.

[SteveTheCynic]

I do agree that some things are way overpriced. A single set of armor shouldn't be ~$20 worth of coins even if you get it with subscription grants.

I bought it with some of the thousands and thousands of coins I've had recently because dozens of people I've never met have told SWTOR that I'm their friend. :rak_03: :rak_03:

[LordArtemis]

I don't find them abusive, per say, but I do find a few of them to be excessive, while others seem a bit low compared to value.

 

I think an overall sweep of the costs is in order. Some items could use an adjustment downward due to lowered value, others a bit of a bump.

[SelinaH]

2600 coins is close to half the cost of a single Hypercrate. The set in question was previously unavailable for direct purchase, and could ONLY be acquired by getting lucky with gambling boxes (or buying it off the GTN from other players who got lucky with their packs).

 

It's extremely unlikely for most players to have received an entire Xoxaan's armor set from a single hypercrate. While it's now theoretically possible to acquire the full set from one of the Gold Armor packs, or from the Grand Nightlife pack (if any are still in circulation), the probability of receiving that particular set within one or two packs opened still seems to be quite low.

 

In other words -- while the price point may seem arbitrarily high, in context 2600 coins for the entire set can be seen as a bargain when compared to cost of purchasing and opening multiple packs or Hypercrates until you get what you want.

 

Personally, I wouldn't pay that much -- but I also have enough in-game credits to purchase what I want from the GTN.

[Maatsplume]

Of course this is an optional cosmetic item so one needs it, like expensive shoes or car rim - a luxury item.

It is interesting tho they charge more for this older set (I've had it a long while) then the brand new Thexans armor or whatever it's called.

I'd perhaps think of paying the price for Vaylin's armor as long as it looked good pink!

[VanorDM]

I don't find them abusive, per say, but I do find a few of them to be excessive

 

What is the correct price of a virtual cosmetic item? I mean I know how much I'd pay for something like that. But honestly the value of such a thing is so completely subjective that it's going to be very hard to establish what is a fair price.

 

Should virtual cosmetic items be $5 or less? Should they cost at least $10 or more? Since the price/unit to create this armor is pretty much negligible what exactly is a fair price? Because until we can establish that there's really no way to say what is or isn't excessive.

[jrwellworth]

While I am of the opinion that the price for said set is a bit high, for my tastes anyway, I do find the fact that the set is there for direct purchase to be pretty neat. They did say that they were going to make previous gambling sets available for direct purchase sometimes and they are starting to do it. I think that in and of itself bodes well. IMO some of us I think would really like to see more stuff available for direct buy rather then the packs but I also know that the packs make them booku bucks. This may be the beginning of a good compromise.

[VanorDM]

I do find the fact that the set is there for direct purchase to be pretty neat.

 

See now that makes things different. I don't know what set it is, but if it was one of the sets you can only get from a box, and hope... then this could actually be a good deal. I mean how many boxes would you have to buy on avg to score the whole set?

 

There's some sets I'd actually consider buying, even if meant buying CC directly for ~$20 if it meant just buying it rather than buying boxes and hoping. This is a case of where for me $20 is a small enough amount of money I'd have no trouble spending it, rather than spend time grinding for credits.

[Mithros]

I agree, whats that got to do with the point i was making? The idea is sound, but it won't work because people are chaotic at the best of times, most people could not organize themselves out of a wet paper bag. Not to mention only a tiny fraction of the player base will read that advice and even less take any notice of it.

 

Or it could just be that a lot of people do not think that the items are as expensive as you do and are more than willing to pay what they consider to be a fair price.

 

Maybe it's not Bioware that is "greedy" for asking the price they do, maybe you are the "greedy" one for expecting them to make less while you hoard more.

 

Yeah, you think they would lower the price so more people would buy the stuff.

I mean if more people bought things at a lower price they would make way more loot then overly pricing everything.

Because people then pick and choose their hard earned CC's and the ole mighty dollar for the really good stuff, instead of? I can buy this cause the price is so low then i also can buy this really cool armor set. Oh wow i can also get this cool *** mount too. All that stuff for 2200cc is better then just one item for 2200cc......

 

But till then, JUST DON'T BUY A THING but off the GTM..........

 

Maybe Bioware would make a little more. Maybe the person that doesn't buy this or that would do so if it was a little less expensive.

 

Maybe.

 

But if enough people are buying the items for the prices they are going for now then cutting the prices could cost them more than they would stand to gain in terms of the more casual buyer picking up a thing or two here and there.

[GalacticKegger]

As i said before, you dont -need- to pay silly prices for items you -want-

 

Vote with your wallet, its the -only- thing they pay attention to.

 

I dont like the new pack system, so i spent 0 CC on them, voting with my wallet.

 

Credits i have in overabundance, so if i want something i just buy it off the GTN if i dont like its CM price.

This. Pretty much everything sold in the CM will eventually show up on the GTN as there will always be enterprising players who use this very system to supplement (if not primarily generate) their credit income. If both the CM prices and the GTN prices are too exorbitant for now, then do without until either one drops to a more affordable level. A classic case of fantasy imitating reality. Edited November 11, 2015 by GalacticKegger

[Ramalina]

Eh, just wait 6-12 months until they put it on sale for more than 50% off.

 

If you're patient and don't spend all that many credits in game there's almost always eventually an option to get CM items for few or no CCs.

 

I think that the three 1440 CC sets I have I got on sale for between 300 and 700 CCs each.

 

In a lot of cases the models also have copies from other sources that you can get pretty close to original spec by using dye modules.

 

If you're not irrational, then a lot of CM prices are absurdly high, but it's purely opt-in absurdity and they provide less absurd options if you want them in most cases.

[Sith-Viscera]

Or it could just be that a lot of people do not think that the items are as expensive as you do and are more than willing to pay what they consider to be a fair price.

 

Maybe it's not Bioware that is "greedy" for asking the price they do, maybe you are the "greedy" one for expecting them to make less while you hoard more.

 

 

 

Maybe Bioware would make a little more. Maybe the person that doesn't buy this or that would do so if it was a little less expensive.

 

Maybe.

 

But if enough people are buying the items for the prices they are going for now then cutting the prices could cost them more than they would stand to gain in terms of the more casual buyer picking up a thing or two here and there.

 

Thats what i am saying, if people stop paying those prices. They would eventually lower them to a reasonable price and they would see just HOW MUCH more people buy it then when the price was so jacked up.

So basically we the consumer is why they keep the price jacked up because we want something now then, we do later, and willing to pay the higher price. We have no one else to blame but our selves for them fleecing us to death on those high prices.....

[Mithros]

Thats what i am saying, if people stop paying those prices. They would eventually lower them to a reasonable price and they would see just HOW MUCH more people buy it then when the price was so jacked up.

So basically we the consumer is why they keep the price jacked up because we want something now then, we do later, and willing to pay the higher price. We have no one else to blame but our selves for them fleecing us to death on those high prices.....

 

But there are plainly people that do not see the prices as unreasaonable. People that do not consider themselves to be getting fleeced.

And it doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing thing.

 

One player may think that the hypercrates, crystal packs, dye packs, and bronze and silver armor packs are fine while gold armor packs and all speeder packs are too much.

Another player may think that hypercrates and bronze and silver armor packs are too much, but they have no problem with gold pack prices and might still pick up an occasional single pack even though the per unit cost is higher than a hypercrate.

 

Every player is going to have their own line, and no other player has any right to tell them whether they are right or wrong to decide what they do.

 

I absolutely believe that each player should decide for themselves whether something is "too expensive" or not and no player should buy anything if they feel that it costs too much.

But that is a personal decision.

 

No need to come to the forums and announce to the world that you think this is too much.

How many times do you see people start threads where they are telling people that they should buy something because it's a great deal?

Plainly people are buying things. It's just some group of people think that they should be able to set the prices while having no idea what the costs are or how much money is coming from this or that.

Edited November 12, 2015 by Mithros

[WorldSmasher]

Really??????????????????????

 

2600 CC for a single armor, that's 26 USD, and 800 CC for one stronghold decoration, that's more that one month subcrisption

 

You could get it from the GTN... Wait for the item to become available for a reasonable price on the GTN... Buy the virtual item with virtual credits....

 

1,000,000 credits will always be cheaper (in real life) than 800cc (even if it feels expensive, a mil credits is really equal to zero dollars and zero cents).

[branmakmuffin]

Thats what i am saying, if people stop paying those prices. They would eventually lower them to a reasonable price and they would see just HOW MUCH more people buy it then when the price was so jacked up.

If the price were 1900, that would still be "too much" in the eyes of the complainers.

[Jadescythe]

Prices on the CM are driven by what players are willing to spend. If players are purchasing armor for 2600 CC, then what incentive does BW have for dropping the price? The only really nice thing about the CM is that players with money and less time can sell the items for in game money and those who have time and not money can earn in game credits to buy the stuff. Oh and everyone gets 600 CC free for subbing.

[Thunderstriken]

Really??????????????????????

 

2600 CC for a single armor, that's 26 USD, and 800 CC for one stronghold decoration, that's more that one month subcrisption

 

The price makes it more rare in game. Rarity is the most highly prized aspect of an item in MMORPGs. The more it costs, the less it is about the item itself and the more it becomes about the rarity created by the price. They could sell a hotdog suit for $1,000. They could probably even sell a Donald Trump wig for $1,000,000, because whoever bought it (we know who would buy it) would certainly be the only one with it.

Edited November 12, 2015 by Thunderstriken