Ridiculous GTN Pricing & Reasoning Behind It?? lol

[CaptRogue]

So I've noticed this often enough.

But thought it might be an interesting discussion here on the forums.

 

On SS, players really can blow you away with their pricing.

 

For example:

A Ultimate Hypercrate on the GTN is going for 164mil. It costs 5400 Cartel coins.

Master's Datacron on GTN is 52mil (Datacron & equipment is 54mil). It costs 2000CC.

^So those seem reasonable somewhat.

 

BUT:

Character Rename on GTN is going for 50mil. It costs 1000 CC.

Guild Rename on GTN is going for 325mil. It costs 3000CC.

 

Seriously, what in the world?! LOLOL I know some will say supply & demand. But that's not even it here.

It's like some people don't get the CC to credit ratio.

 

What have you seen priced ridiculous like those above?

[MadDutchman]

"Everything is worth what it's purchaser will pay for it"

 

Only takes one rich, lazy player to make you a rich, lazy player.

[DzastinBiberi]

Tulak Hord's saber is 170m on DM.

 

It's 3500cc on CM, but you could also get it if you're lucky from the pack.

 

Is it logic? No it isnt, but ppl with money will probably pay for it.

[Rolodome]

CM items are all at the whim of random people, which of course means it's going to be a disaster because people have no motivation in this context to play nice and every reason to be greedy.

 

Most items operate on something of a cycle and are actually tied to mechanics and thought put into their availability and the like. CM items on the GTN are just at the whim of people choosing to spend RL money or spend CC acquired through indirect means, so it's just a free-for-all. And of course EAware doesn't care because if CM items were too easy to get through the GTN, people might be less likely to buy them in the store.

 

So it's just a crapshoot. If there's any reasoning behind it, it's greed. Greed on the part of EAware, greed or ignorance on the part of players. Of course it doesn't help that the GTN is an outdated trash compactor, in which it's nearly impossible to keep track of things like pricing history. And with rare items, if rare enough, it may not matter anyway. If the item is rare enough, one person purchasing it for 40mil may mean nothing, as it could just be that person really really wanted that particular item and happened to have saved up enough to buy it. So instead of anything sensible happening, a bunch of obscenely wealthy players undercut each other until one goes too low, then the other finally relents, or buys some of the other person's stock and sells it for more later.

 

There's probably more interaction going on between different flippers on the GTN than there is serious transactions between random players. I'm sure that's an exaggeration, but then again, maybe it isn't. Hard to say for sure.

 

At any rate, our flipper overlords are pretty much in charge when it comes down to it.

[DarkTergon]

Wether it's in game or real life, supply and demand causes prices to rise and fall. As for high prices, people pay it, so that's why they stay high. there is no cc to credits ratio, that was always a fallacy, people have been quoting that since the start. If you can't afford something, that's life. There is money to be made in this game, through hard work, grinding, playing the gtn, or whatever.

[Aeneas_Falco]

People sell things at ridiculous prices so they can buy other people's junk that is posted at ridiculous prices.

 

The GTN in a nutshell.

[Rolodome]

People sell things at ridiculous prices so they can buy other people's junk that is posted at ridiculous prices.

 

The GTN in a nutshell.

That really is a great way to put it.

[juliushorst]

The fact it's posted for this price doesn't mean anybody will buy it for this price

[Celise]

I had enough extra CC to get one of those platinium quality lightsabers recently that i know will go for more than 100m credits easy on any ordinary day and quite honestly i've never been particularly fussed with acquriing large sums of credits from grinding, it has never been any interest to me to try. besides i'm not paying parasites on the GTN that much, forget it. they can sell it for less or they can take a hike .

 

The fact it's posted for this price doesn't mean anybody will buy it for this price

 

You gotta be kidding, there will always be that one exception to the rule who will buy something like that without looking first and think it's a good idea, or because they can or simply because money is no object to them to hold back and splashing the credits around is their means to feel good.

[Tsillah]

Different products can have different markets. It's all about supply and demand. It's the CM stuff anyway. So choose to buy it yourself with CC, accept the price on the GTN or don't get it.

 

There is no fixed prices because different items are valuated differently in game, irrespective of their CC cost. That's all.

Edited August 30, 2019 by Tsillah

[Gidrea]

People are using the GTN to 1) store items, or 2) transfer large amounts of credits from credit spammers.

[Transcendent]

On SS, players really can blow you away with their pricing.

 

For example:

A Ultimate Hypercrate on the GTN is going for 164mil. It costs 5400 Cartel coins.

Master's Datacron on GTN is 52mil (Datacron & equipment is 54mil). It costs 2000CC.

^So those seem reasonable somewhat.

 

They may seem reasonable to yourself and maybe to others as well, however consider this, I used to buy Hypercrates on the GTN for ~5 million.

 

The inflation is only there due to lack of volume of the items, so like the Tulak saber on DM for 170mil? Says either players are not prepared to pay the extortionate CM prices (5400CC is a bit less the 5500CC which costs £23.99) or the item rarity means that it simply doesn't drop much out of the crates themselves.

 

In what world is a single item in the game worth nearly £24? That's the real question players should be kicking up a stink about, the terrible gouging of the players by the Cartel Market prices, which seemingly is acceptable.

[aeterno]

I think a big reason for overall credit prices being high is the fact demand for crates is in a sizeable part driven by the desire of people with a lot of credits to "invest" those credits into hypercrates they then store. Which also causes a disparity between the worth of items and the worth of packs they're actually in. Packs exchange hands notably more than they actually get opened I'd wager.

 

Reason for that is hypercrate ownership is the only way in the game to avoid your "credit assets" devalue by constant inflation and to actually in theory instead see it grow by doing nothing. Personally, when I at a certain point started playing quite a bit less, dumped everything I had into hypercrates and have a number of them in my cargo hold. On paper, when I scan what crates are listed for these days, I more than doubled my credits. Then again, turning them back into credits in a reasonable time frame might prove a bit of an issue. Regardless, the point is hypercrates are the TOR equivalent of bonds.

 

Which is why they're both relatively expensive yet in more or less constant circulation since there is always demand, which keeps prices in check. On the flip side, only once in a blue moon will someone "invest" into something exotic like a guild rename and they'll list it on GTN at something absurd as a hailmary... it will in actually never ever ever sell for that.

 

CC are another matter though and even there I'd wager the majority of CC enter the system via sub stipend as opposed to direct purchases, skewing their worth.

Edited August 30, 2019 by aeterno

[JediQuaker]

Seriously, what in the world?!

One thing you are neglecting is that - just because you see an item on the GTN for X credits, that does not mean that all of those items sell at that price. You may be seeing what's left over after the cheap ones have been bought.

 

I recently wanted to clear out some Legacy storage space, plus I had a full cargo bay tab full of stuff to sell, so I put (and am still putting) a bunch of stuff on the GTN very cheap. I wanted to get rid of it - not make lots of imaginary "money".

Among the stuff I posted for example was 2 "bronze" (common) armor sets. (I don't recall exactly which sets).

At the time there were 3 or 4 of each set on the GTN asking somewhere around 250K and up. I posted the sets at 90K (just an extra 0 on the default 9000) and they sold very quickly.

They may have been bought by GTN specialists trying to keep the price high. Who knows, but if someone had been there at the right time, they would have gotten a better price.

[Rolodome]

One thing you are neglecting is that - just because you see an item on the GTN for X credits, that does not mean that all of those items sell at that price. You may be seeing what's left over after the cheap ones have been bought.

 

I recently wanted to clear out some Legacy storage space, plus I had a full cargo bay tab full of stuff to sell, so I put (and am still putting) a bunch of stuff on the GTN very cheap. I wanted to get rid of it - not make lots of imaginary "money".

Among the stuff I posted for example was 2 "bronze" (common) armor sets. (I don't recall exactly which sets).

At the time there were 3 or 4 of each set on the GTN asking somewhere around 250K and up. I posted the sets at 90K (just an extra 0 on the default 9000) and they sold very quickly.

They may have been bought by GTN specialists trying to keep the price high. Who knows, but if someone had been there at the right time, they would have gotten a better price.

I've definitely gotten some good deals that way before, so it's not just flippers.

 

Although, if I had to guess, the majority of people snatching up those deals are probably flippers, since flippers tend to watch the GTN like a hawk and most people probably don't.

 

May depend somewhat on the item though. I can't imagine a flipper getting much out of pushing up the price on a relatively common bronze armor set. A rare gold though, that might be a totally different story.

[Transcendent]

I can't imagine a flipper getting much out of pushing up the price on a relatively common bronze armor set. A rare gold though, that might be a totally different story.

 

I used to flip mainly bronze armour sets, as well as the odd silver set. Never touched the gold ones. In volume you can make a lot of credits by doing so, but it requires lots of alts and a healthy dose of credits for the first run because you essentially squelch the market by buying all of one specific set to resell at higher prices (and keep doing so).

 

It's doable but when I came back I just sold everything off really cheap because I wanted to delete the 8 or so characters I created for storage space. Crafting is easier, plus I get to play the game when gathering mats

[Ardrossan]

I used to flip mainly bronze armour sets, as well as the odd silver set. Never touched the gold ones. In volume you can make a lot of credits by doing so, but it requires lots of alts and a healthy dose of credits for the first run because you essentially squelch the market by buying all of one specific set to resell at higher prices (and keep doing so).

 

It's doable but when I came back I just sold everything off really cheap because I wanted to delete the 8 or so characters I created for storage space. Crafting is easier, plus I get to play the game when gathering mats

 

That's a good idea, I've got a lot of that crap sitting in legacy storage that I'll probably never wear.

 

Otherwise though, I'm very disappointed about this thread. I came here because I thought the OP was going to do a new rendition of 'the GTN is a ripoff!' [that's my all-time favorite thread on this forum] and instead it's all very analytical. boo hiss.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Ardrossan

[Transcendent]

'the GTN is a ripoff!'

 

Well it is, if you pay the ridiculous prices some people post things at

[Batwer]

I have 15 toons. Everyone has 100,000 or more mats in the warehouse. I am just emptying it because I have no more space. I still look at the prices and always reduce it about 100. I'm the first in the list of what sets, I make the price extra high. If it is not bought I will reduce it by 100.

 

If the price is too high/low, you do not have to buy that stuff. Nobody is forced.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Batwer

[MazakMatsura]

Over the years, prices have been going up, and up, and up. Long time players have credits to burn because we really don't have a place to dump credits. Sure, you can drop a ton on a new shiney Stronghold when they come out, but then what do you do in the meantime? People post those huge prices, because someone out there can pull the trigger on them. Also like previously stated, credit transferring and some dubious looking behavior too. On the flip side, I agree, some things are pretty ridiculously priced, unlocks/boosts are out of the realm of affordability for prefered people.

 

I'm on Satele Shan too (Long live The Ebon Hawk) and I've been dumping armor sets, speeders and weapons on the GTN as their default price. Trying to clear out the pack explorer page, I don't give a hoot if anyone flips them, I am all out of hoots.

[Ardrossan]

They may seem reasonable to yourself and maybe to others as well, however consider this, I used to buy Hypercrates on the GTN for ~5 million.

 

The inflation is only there due to lack of volume of the items, so like the Tulak saber on DM for 170mil? Says either players are not prepared to pay the extortionate CM prices (5400CC is a bit less the 5500CC which costs £23.99) or the item rarity means that it simply doesn't drop much out of the crates themselves.

 

In what world is a single item in the game worth nearly £24? That's the real question players should be kicking up a stink about, the terrible gouging of the players by the Cartel Market prices, which seemingly is acceptable.

 

When did Togruta drop? 4.0? Well, say between 2.0 and 4.0, I was able to buy account unlocks for every species and every type of account unlock except Guild Bank, the vast majority without using escrows, which means they cost less than 350k apiece. The exceptions were Togruta and Cathar, which I used escrows for, but even those cost less than 2M. I started subbing around 5.0, and bought the rest of the account unlocks, including guild bank at that time, and they cost around 1-4M.

 

Gameplay-wise, being preferred is a lot easier now. GTN-wise, it was a lot easier to be preferred during 2.0., even with the lower credit cap.

 

Also this thread inspired me to buy a character rename token to resell on the GTN. I like to buy those outlander character tokens, but they're about 60M on the GTN now [they were a lot cheaper before too], and they cost 2000 cc on the CM but the character renames, as mentioned, cost 1000cc but sell for 50M.

[Qouivandes]

The best thing about high prices on the GTN is that I know what i dont want to buy. However, i do like getting decos, but cannot afford much so I just play with what i can afford and go from there.

[Transcendent]

When did Togruta drop? 4.0? Well, say between 2.0 and 4.0, I was able to buy account unlocks for every species and every type of account unlock except Guild Bank, the vast majority without using escrows, which means they cost less than 350k apiece.

 

I did the same during 2.0 and 3.0, bought the account unlocks from the GTN for as little as ~100k in some instances. Mind you, that was a fair amount of credits back then!

[Qori]

Also this thread inspired me to buy a character rename token to resell on the GTN. I like to buy those outlander character tokens, but they're about 60M on the GTN now [they were a lot cheaper before too], and they cost 2000 cc on the CM but the character renames, as mentioned, cost 1000cc but sell for 50M.

 

 

Posting to this 3 year old thread for context, now that Character rename on the GTN now sells for 750M CREDITS.

[illgot]

Posting to this 3 year old thread for context, now that Character rename on the GTN now sells for 750M CREDITS.

 

Before the end of the year I'm betting the general value will be more than 1 billion credits.

 

If Bioware doesn't do anything about inflation soon people won't be buying CM items that cost more than 1000 CC to resell on the GTN because even 1000 CC items will be worth more than 1 billion.

 

Bioware eliminated three credit sinks. Learning skills is automatic, no more cost, amplifiers were taken out of the game, I was rolling over 1 million credits per roll at some points, and all level 80 gear non modable so no more removing mods taking out 77k or 86k at level 80. The only real money sinks we have left are repairs which are negligible when people are walking around with billions and the 8% GTN tax.

 

The GTN tax is becoming less effective every day because so many items are worth more than 1 billion credits. That means anything beyond the 1 billion cap gets traded which completely bypasses the GTN tax.

 

I figure once inflation directly impacts their Cartel Market sales the devs will get the go ahead to fix the economy.

Edited April 29, 2022 by illgot