GTN Scams

[AshurDarksoul]

I may piss a few people off with this post. I've thought it odd lately when looking through the GTN. On my server there used to be a toon/person that would sell companion gifts relatively cheaply. By this, I mean (s)he would sell them under what you could buy them on the companion gift vendor's prices. Rank 5 blues, a good bit lower. Rank 5 purples, a slight bit lower. This player has disappeared lately. Now, there are lots of sellers of companion gifts, but their prices seem to be taking advantage of either people that have more credits that they know what to do with (whales) or people that are unaware that they can buy these gifts cheaper in the fleet vendors.

 

Luna <Companion Gifts Vendor>- Carrick Station,

Galactic Trade Market section of the <Republic's> Fleet (-4590, -4872)

-Blue Rank 5 Gifts - 5000cr.

-Purple Rank 5 Gifts- 10000cr.

 

Kaiza <Companion Gifts Vendor>- Vaiken Spacedock,

Galactic Trade Market section of the <Empire's> Fleet (4589, 4862)

Blue Rank 5 Gifts - 5000cr.

-Purple Rank 5 Gifts- 10000cr.

 

The only real hassle seems to be that these vendors only allow you to purchase each gift singly with a confirmation box popup....every purchase. Perhaps people are willing to pay 50-200%+ to avoid this hassle?

 

The Rank 6 Gold companion gifts seem reasonable, many less than the known vendor price 250K per gift?

 

Anyway, just a thing ive noticed.

Ashur

[Setokai]

you can actually purchase multiple items from the vendor by pressing shift+right click to bring up a box that goes up to 9999

[AshurDarksoul]

Wow, never knew that! Most appreciated m8!

 

-Ashur

[ZorakMalor]

If there is an auction house/trade network in a game, you can be sure to see folks posting items for absurd prices in hopes of catching the "unaware" and bilking them for their credits.

 

Heck on my server there is someone selling deco's you can get from the fleet/your personal vendor for a mark up of 10X what the vendor sells them. So instead of paying 2500 for Rishi Crates or Baskets... they're hoping a sucker comes along and buys it for 25000 credits. If folks would hover their pointer over the deco itself, they'd notice it tells you the source to a degree. You just have to find said source, which if you own a Stronghold, you did the quest at somepoint and got that Merchant vendor.

[CaptainKurota]

There are some types of gifts that I was unable to find on the fleet such as delicacies and maintenance. These gifts I do have to buy on the GTN in order to level my droid and creature companions. Although, based on the prices of other gifts, they are pretty cheap, going between 2000-3000 credits each.

[SteveTheCynic]

I wouldn't call it a scam, mind. It's *rude* and *mean* to pitch items like this, and exploits people's lack of knowledge, but there's no dishonesty *as such* involved.

[Vercundus]

How is this a scam? Buying any item from one source and selling it for more credits is good business. As long as there are customers there will be good businesses. Laziness and ignorance have a price. No one is forced to buy anything like this.

 

A scam would be intentionally leading a buyer to buy from you on GTN. But no one on GTN knows who will be the buyer, therefore, it's clean.

 

And I absolutely support punishing those who do not know they can buy in bulk from vendors.

Edited June 13, 2017 by Vercundus

[Yezzan]

it's not a scam

[JediQuaker]

It's not technically, a scam, but it is basically dishonest.

[Dragondog]

It's not technically, a scam, but it is basically dishonest.

 

In what way?

 

Stores do the same in the real world. They buy it for less in one place and sell it for more in their own store.

Edited June 13, 2017 by Dragondog

[dr_mike]

They buy it for less in one place and sell it for more in their own store.

 

Or you learned this in your Tradewars 2002 days.

 

One of things I used to do was buy stacks of the basic decorations off of Felusia Stato, the basic decorations vendors, mark them up and resell them. For example, a 100 item stack of Basic Metal Chairs, which normally go for 250 each, I would sell for 99k. We have someone on Shadowlands who sells stuff like the Hanging moss for 100k each.

 

edit: And no, shift click while buying is not a skill known by anyone. We've even had suggestions made here on the forums to add such a feature previously by those who weren't previously aware of it.

Edited June 13, 2017 by dr_mike

[Yezzan]

In what way?

 

Stores do the same in the real world. They buy it for less in one place and sell it for more in their own store.

 

It's not the same thing. Stores buy from retailers or manufactures and they incur freight costs and other costs, on acquisition, which have to be absorbed in to the purchase price, then they add their mark-up. In most cases the end-user does not have easy access to the manufacturer or retailer and even if they did, they would not have access to bulk discounts.

 

While in our case, the vendors are on the Fleet and so is the GTN. So, it's unethical for someone to buy the stuff off the vendor and sell it more expensively on the GTN. I always assumed that they got these mats from sending companions on missions....now I know.

Edited June 14, 2017 by Yezzan

[Vercundus]

Why is it unethical??? No one is forced nor tricked into buying.

 

Is it unethical because someone knows something, and someone else doesn't? In economics that is called arbitrage opportunity.

[Yezzan]

Why is it unethical??? No one is forced nor tricked into buying.

 

Is it unethical because someone knows something, and someone else doesn't? In economics that is called arbitrage opportunity.

 

It's not dishonest. It's not a scam. But, if you cannot see how it's unethical then something is wrong with your perception (for want of a better word).

[Vercundus]

I just gave you a real world definition of the exact same process. Instead of giving moral lessons where there is no place for them, try to educate stupid / ignorant / lazy buyers...

[JattaGin]

I think you have to differentiate between scam and... well, maybe I want to call it stupidity, even though it's not really the right term for it.

 

On The Progenitor most items on the GTN which you can also get from a vendor are more expensive. However, the question is whether these items can also be acquired through other methods, for example crates or crafting.

 

Purple gifts are often listed for 25.000 or more. It's the same with crafting supplements. For example Brocart Filaments cost 150 credits at the vendor and on the GTN 600 credits or more.

 

But gifts can be acquired for free (Alliance crates, random drops) and supplements can be crafted. In both cases, it is well possible that the sellers simply have no clue that they are overpricing. They simply act stupid and wonder why they don't sell their stuffz. (Some surely know what they are doing though.)

 

Another case is stuff which you can only get from vendors and then these items are sold more expensively on the GTN. Some speeders from ingame vendors come to mind. That I consider a scam. I fell once for it when the game was still quite new and when 40.000 credits were still a lot. Ever since I pay attention to items and prices.

 

I recently bought a deco which costs, if I recall correctly, 500 credits at a vendor, for 4.000 credits from the GTN. The reason was that I was too lazy to re-log to an imp alt to get that imp-side-only deco as I was playing on my rep main. This obviously was a scam (although just oh-so-slightly), because that deco was bought for 500 and then relisted more expensively. That guy or gal knew what he or she was doing. I decided to take it, because in that moment, the saved relogging time was worth the 3.500 credits to me. And well, this small amount... during the time the seller posted the deco on the GTN, I probably earned ten times as much doing nothing.

 

Either way, I think that it is always stupid to list items on the GTN for a price that is higher than the vendor-price. If I get e. g. purple gifts that I don't need from a crate, I put them up for sale for e. g. 9.000 credits. I will sell it and someone saved 1.000 credits. Fair deal, win-win, both are happy.

Edited June 14, 2017 by JattaGin

[AshurDarksoul]

Gotta love moral relativity these days.....

[SteveTheCynic]

Stores buy from retailers or manufactures

In general, no.

 

In general, stores *ARE* retailers, and they buy from WHOLESALERS or directly from manufacturers.

[JediQuaker]

Why is it unethical???

Is it unethical because someone knows something, and someone else doesn't? In economics that is called arbitrage opportunity.

It's unethical to know something that someone else doesn't AND try to profit off their lack of knowledge.

For example, the ethical thing to do in this case would be to tell someone they can buy the item from a vendor (or to sell it for less than the vendor price). The unethical thing is to rub your greedy little hands together and say (to yourself) "I can make (fake) money off this sucker".

What would Jesus do?

 

(Lol - I find that Jesus bit funny because I'm an atheist, but it just came to me. )

 

P.S. In the long run it's only a game and play money, so it doesn't really matter. However - "search your feelings, Luke"

Edited June 14, 2017 by JediQuaker

[SteveTheCynic]

The unethical thing is to rub your greedy little hands together and say (to yourself) "I can make (fake) money off this sucker".

Like listing Augment Kits or Augment Kit components that aren't the toppest MK in the game on the GTN, since they have effectively no meaningful value.

 

PSA: If you're at a level where you can't use MK-10s, you don't need augments. Really, you don't. If you can use MK-10 augments and you feel the need for more power than you can get without augments, you should be using MK-10s anyway, so you need MK-10 kits. Therefore MK-9 and below *kits* have no value.

[Adric_the_Red]

PSA: If you're at a level where you can't use MK-10s, you don't need augments. Really, you don't. If you can use MK-10 augments and you feel the need for more power than you can get without augments, you should be using MK-10s anyway, so you need MK-10 kits. Therefore MK-9 and below *kits* have no value.

Do you need them? No. Can you gain an advantage by using them? Yes. The advantage may be small, even tiny, but more power is more power (speaking in a general sense, here, not just about that specific stat).

 

Therefore, they do have value. And it's up to the buyer to determine if that advantage gained is worth the price of the "kits" (or augments).

Edited June 14, 2017 by Adric_the_Red

[Vercundus]

Can we close down this debate?

 

It is totally pointless. We determined that it is not scam and that is what OP is all about. Morality is a relative term. Considering the seller's toon might be DS toon, complicates things. It is up to players to learn the rules of the game. If they don't and they don't ask, they deserve to pay higher price.

[Dragondog]

It's not the same thing. Stores buy from retailers or manufactures and they incur freight costs and other costs, on acquisition, which have to be absorbed in to the purchase price, then they add their mark-up. In most cases the end-user does not have easy access to the manufacturer or retailer and even if they did, they would not have access to bulk discounts.

 

While in our case, the vendors are on the Fleet and so is the GTN. So, it's unethical for someone to buy the stuff off the vendor and sell it more expensively on the GTN. I always assumed that they got these mats from sending companions on missions....now I know.

 

There still is a cost. In time. Time invested to find these things out. Time to move them from one place to another. The time saved by the buyer who doesn't have to go get it elsewhere It is up to the seller to determine what a fair mark up for his time and the buyers convenience is.

[Mzuta]

you can actually purchase multiple items from the vendor by pressing shift+right click to bring up a box that goes up to 9999

 

can this be used for deleting items from your cargo bay as well?

[Setokai]

can this be used for deleting items from your cargo bay as well?

 

Yes you can use this technique for making stacks for storage as well