Curse

saphir · Sep 01, 2006, 07:05 PM // 19:05

oh, and if you're in the market for a diamond or any other colored gemstone, the best place on the net to do research and pick the brain of the experts are the forums at pricescope.com =)

lg5000 · Sep 01, 2006, 10:38 PM // 22:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arturo02

"The idea of created and natural stones is an interesting concept. I think people like me, who've grown up to appreciate pure cotton/wool/silk fabrics over the 'chemical' (man-made) fabrics which tend to burn.. wait.. melt at great rate and in general don't 'breath', will always view a created stone as inferior to the natural one because of that."

While I agree on the natural aspect, polyester is a much better material to make clothing from as far as breathability and durability when compared to cotton. Too bad you need oil to make it, and as you said, it burns faster. That part intrigues me, I never thought about flammability when it comes to clothing choices. But i'm not a smoker, and that's the only thing I can think of as a reason why someone would think that way.

Unless you like to run into burning buildings and try to save people hehe.

The flamability thing was taught many times in our textiles classes at school, and re-inforced during any sort of classses/lectures about babies (I'm a mother of 2 btw and don't smoke).

I am glad I was taught this though, because in Jan 2003 (middle of summer in Australia) I got to find out first hand that I hadn't forgotten my lessons, and while we had a huge firestorm (Canberra firestorm, 18/01/03) head towards our front door, I dressed two young kids in long-sleeved cotton clothing (was wearing cotton myself by accident that day) before leaving the house. By the time they got into the car, the flames were jumping the road and our lawn was starting to catch fire. Ok, they didn't get synged or anything, not sure how it would have worked out if they hadn't worn cotton though.

Pic of our second car, about 30-60 mins after we left I didn't take the pic, so unsure what time it was taken, all I know is that this particular scene was shown to the rest of Australia at every possible occasion.

Oh wow.. way to get off topic here.. sorry about that.

Akhilleus · Sep 02, 2006, 04:14 AM // 04:14

shadow, as a guild we never altered the price of ecto...that was me individually. because i knew i could. i needed to buy quite a few, and to shave off a few mil gold from the price, i kept the market price of ecto down by 1-1.5k for just under 2 weeks. (for the reccord, it cost me appx 1.3million to keep the ecto price down, and i saved myself about 2.2-2.4mil, over several thousand ecto...wasnt really worth it considering the effort involved)
as for the monstrous eyes thing, it wasnt about "spreading rumors" i invested in several stacks of almost every craft material, and when people asked me what i though would go up in value i told them "monstrous eyes, claws, fangs" there was nothing malicious about it.
as for "holding" top notch items; yes, i do this...but seeing as how i RARELY sell a collection piece, its a moot point. i collect my items for the sake of collecting them, i buy a whole different kind of item for reinvestment.
a player of extremely substantial means can manipulate a part of the market temporarily, but its just that; temporarily. and the profit they would make or the money they would save pales next to what they could be making from trading instead, unless you plan out ahead what needs to be done. but, no 1 player could possibly hope to compete on a regular basis with a market-base of 2million+ players...thats just simply not possible.
in the past ive shared many of my ideas with many people, most of whom have made a considerable chunk of change off it it...most of whom were guildies. i have never done anything malicious, with an intent of enriching myself at the cost of others...thats just not in my personality.

for the reccord, its not that people are dumping rares, its just that the very high-end items tend to switch hands every once in a while when the previous owner needs some money. many people confuse this with an increase in their droprates...which is more often than not an inaccurate assumption.

shadowfell · Sep 02, 2006, 07:00 PM // 19:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akhilleus

shadow, as a guild we never altered the price of ecto...that was me individually. because i knew i could. i needed to buy quite a few, and to shave off a few mil gold from the price, i kept the market price of ecto down by 1-1.5k for just under 2 weeks. (for the reccord, it cost me appx 1.3million to keep the ecto price down, and i saved myself about 2.2-2.4mil, over several thousand ecto...wasnt really worth it considering the effort involved)
as for the monstrous eyes thing, it wasnt about "spreading rumors" i invested in several stacks of almost every craft material, and when people asked me what i though would go up in value i told them "monstrous eyes, claws, fangs" there was nothing malicious about it.
as for "holding" top notch items; yes, i do this...but seeing as how i RARELY sell a collection piece, its a moot point. i collect my items for the sake of collecting them, i buy a whole different kind of item for reinvestment.
a player of extremely substantial means can manipulate a part of the market temporarily, but its just that; temporarily. and the profit they would make or the money they would save pales next to what they could be making from trading instead, unless you plan out ahead what needs to be done. but, no 1 player could possibly hope to compete on a regular basis with a market-base of 2million+ players...thats just simply not possible.
in the past ive shared many of my ideas with many people, most of whom have made a considerable chunk of change off it it...most of whom were guildies. i have never done anything malicious, with an intent of enriching myself at the cost of others...thats just not in my personality.

for the reccord, its not that people are dumping rares, its just that the very high-end items tend to switch hands every once in a while when the previous owner needs some money. many people confuse this with an increase in their droprates...which is more often than not an inaccurate assumption.

I'm not even talking about 'that' guild.. The monsterous parts happened pre- 'that guild' and the ecto manipulation happened in 'that guild' we all did it. Whether you were aware of what we were doing, who knows. Everyone else would admit to it too. However, for the bulk of the activity, it was all pre factions.

As for rare skins.. You think I would have gotten that much for the shadow, had I admitted I had not one, but two?

Retribution X · Sep 02, 2006, 07:50 PM // 19:50

oh. yeah, I've got lots of perfs in wanted skins. Inc a perfect dwarven or 2...

barbie the princess · Dec 08, 2006, 10:04 AM // 10:04

The best way I think to counter these rare material buying guilds is to only buy materials when you need them and not for investment or as storing units. If you are at 1000p I suggest you use it up on weapons and armor :P

If these guilds do make money I think they deserve to, I mean afterall they are risking the chance that no one else would buy that kinda material based on a rumor.

If you lose money coz u are investing in a material that u do not know about the rareity or the usage, I think that is ur own fault

You shud be able to make a good judgement about the price of a material based on its drop rate, the ease of farming it and demand. Ectos is not going to be cheap coz the drop rate of these things are low (1-2 per run for me) whereas shards, sometimes I get up to 4 per run

hope this helps

Grizmor · Dec 08, 2006, 10:12 AM // 10:12

The reason I quit this game the first time around was because everyone was playing TRADE WARS and not GUILD WARS. Got really old real fast. I could see endless amount of people constantly lowballing the price of items when buying then turning around one minute later to try and sell it high. Do people have nothing better to do. So much exploiting of the ignorant.

You guys think you are cool playing TRADE WARS? Why don't you go try this shit on Wall street with some real money. Then we can see if you truly understand the principles of a free market.

Gli · Dec 08, 2006, 10:45 AM // 10:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grizmor

The reason I quit this game the first time around was because everyone was playing TRADE WARS and not GUILD WARS. Got really old real fast. I could see endless amount of people constantly lowballing the price of items when buying then turning around one minute later to try and sell it high. Do people have nothing better to do. So much exploiting of the ignorant.

I love those people and hope they'll always be around. Thanks to them I can always move something I just picked up in less than a minute, so I can go back and play. I rather make a bit less gold and go back to playing than to spend time spamming the trade channel.

*Darcy* · Dec 08, 2006, 11:22 AM // 11:22

One way in which prices for "rare" items are fixed is just through posted sell prices and price checks.

Most PC forums are run by player merchants (past and present) who give out "it's rare, 100k+xxectos" and off goes the happy owner to demand that price. In-game, it's the same thing. A player watches the "sell" posts or asks for a pc and starts posting his "rare" for that price. If he offers it for less to get a quick sale, a merchant will snap it up to make money on the resale.

Is this bad or unethical? No. It retains the thrill of finding a rare item. Just think how much more exciting getting a Scar Eater drop was when they were going for 60-80k.

And who wants to spend the gold for 2,000 high-end chest keys so you can get "salvage" goods. You need at least the chance of getting a 100k+ item.

foo · Dec 08, 2006, 01:06 PM // 13:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by seut

Spiritwood Planks

Spiritwood can be crafted out of common materials, and as such, will never pass 200g at the traders. (==100g to sell, which is around the crafting expense).

Lavindathar · Dec 08, 2006, 01:35 PM // 13:35

Just like to say, one of the best debates I've seen on here. Good OP

*Darcy* · Dec 08, 2006, 02:32 PM // 14:32

And keep in mind that we are talking about "vanity" items, just like diamonds. Neither the "rares", nor the ectos and shards are required to play the game fully.

Even in real life, vanity items cost more. My Chevy Malibu has all the features I like and was bought for $28k. But if I wanted to impress other people, I could have bought a Hummer for several years income.

Would it get me anywhere faster? No.
Does it run better? No.
But wait, it makes people turn and look. Bingo! That is the purpose of a vanity item and if that is what you want, you will pay for it.

freekedoutfish · Dec 08, 2006, 03:18 PM // 15:18

It isn't just that we never see them getting traded.

We never see them drop either.

So they definitely are rare drops. If they werent, then we would obviously have them drop for us alot more.

I cant say ive ever had a truly rare drop myself in over a year of playing.

This compared to about 6 black dye drops, 10 silver dye drops and several gold item drops and the odd green.

The drop rate on them is alot less then that of other items.

fatmouse · Dec 08, 2006, 03:42 PM // 15:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gli

I love those people and hope they'll always be around. Thanks to them I can always move something I just picked up in less than a minute, so I can go back and play. I rather make a bit less gold and go back to playing than to spend time spamming the trade channel.

"Powertrading" as a means to get rich is just a myth started to make it easier to sell things.

Gli · Dec 08, 2006, 04:26 PM // 16:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatmouse

"Powertrading" as a means to get rich is just a myth started to make it easier to sell things.

Really? I couldn't care less if they're making money off it, but I know I've seen it happen countless times, people buying stuff off me cheap and spamming it for a steep mark-up.

The Addict · Dec 08, 2006, 05:05 PM // 17:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grizmor

The reason I quit this game the first time around was because everyone was playing TRADE WARS and not GUILD WARS. Got really old real fast. I could see endless amount of people constantly lowballing the price of items when buying then turning around one minute later to try and sell it high. Do people have nothing better to do. So much exploiting of the ignorant.

You guys think you are cool playing TRADE WARS? Why don't you go try this shit on Wall street with some real money. Then we can see if you truly understand the principles of a free market.

Erm ignorant? I remember this one time, Note: I never try to rip anyone off or need to, this is gold ,its not like im going to starve if i dont have 20k in storage :S. But just so you see this happened to me once in LA dis 1.

guy: W.T.S GOOD GOLD SWORD
me: can i see ?
guy: shows sword* and says 15k
me: (the sword had a +30hp which was worth about 60-70k at that time) so i told him, dude that sword is worth nothing (it was a 14^vs hexed spatha or something) salvage the +30hp mod its worth bout 60k easy.
guy: lol shut up noob, wtf salvage, im no gonna salvage the sword, u wanna buy 15k or not??
me: trust me , salvage the +30hp mod and sell it for 60k,
guy: how do i salvage ??
me: I lend you my expert salvage kit, *lends*
guy: nah i aint gonna do it, u tryin to fool me, do u think im stupid ? (-_-)
me: dude just do it trust me, your sword isnt worth anything,
guy: no , u trying to make me destroy the sword so u can laugh at me, im not dumb
me: ok then, give me salvage kit back please
guy: no lol, buy my sword and i give u
me: ( ok fine , i tried to explain) ok , i buy for 12k
guy: deal, *Trades*

I salvage the +30hp , and then tell him look, this is what is said, its worth 60k...

Moral of the story,

Its not ripping off the ignorant, its not anyones fault that they dont know what they have or are trading, as you can see I did try to explain to him that the +30hp mod was worth a lot and he could have salvaged it.

sorry for the long post lol and this is totally off-topic but im quite bored

The Herbalizer · Dec 08, 2006, 05:15 PM // 17:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grizmor

The reason I quit this game the first time around was because everyone was playing TRADE WARS and not GUILD WARS. Got really old real fast. I could see endless amount of people constantly lowballing the price of items when buying then turning around one minute later to try and sell it high. Do people have nothing better to do. So much exploiting of the ignorant.

You guys think you are cool playing TRADE WARS? Why don't you go try this shit on Wall street with some real money. Then we can see if you truly understand the principles of a free market.

Um... LOL. Guild Wars is not Trade Wars. If you quit over such a small problem then I am sure you must never have liked Guild Wars that much in the first place.

Anyway, I already dabble with real money and have made several thousand pounds from selling various shares and other investments. I played Guild Wars in my spare time and got rich in that too.

I owned everything I wanted in Guild Wars so am playing World of Warcraft now so I can work to own rare items in that too. Believe it or not rich people dont spend 24/7 on Guild Wars.

Buying low and selling high is not illegal and is not exploiting people. I have since a very young age bought items way under their real value and could sell them for much much more whether it be action figures or jewellery.

O and yeah I do think im really cool playing "Trade Wars" as um I own like virtually everything I want and have done everything I want in Guild Wars while only playing casually. And on top of that im making real $$$ so yeah life is sweet.

Lucifer PVP · Dec 08, 2006, 07:42 PM // 19:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowfell

I will speak from experience.. coming first hand from a rich guild. We manipulated the price of ecto. Often by several plat. Same with gems, and monsterous parts.

Sorry to admit it, but we spread rumours about monsterous parts only after we had bought dozens upon dozens of stacks of for example, eyeballs.. at about 90g per unit. (22,500 per stack), and then once the word was spread that parts might be used in chapter 2.. the prices per unit increased to a peak of 4.2p per eye. (granting us a profit of 1,027,500) Mind you, this is just one stack of eyes. We each had several =D

Rare skins have been hoarded as well, after all, it makes more sense to slowly slag one 15^50 dwarven axe off into the market at a time, knowing full well you have a couple more stuck behind in your storage, but no one else does. This adds to the panic of 'having to have it", thus raising the price. This used to be the case, as this was before the drop increase. Now it is almost pointless to try and keep something for value, because it depreciates daily and people are starting to catch on. Well, except for a few, who seem stuck in chapter 1.

But, for the most part, people are suddenly dumping their rares into the market, knowing that this is happening, so this attributes to the steady recent decline in 'rare' skins, and I mean what used to be truly rare. (with exception to tribal axes and the old sickles)

But yes, to sum it up. It can be compared, not so far as the reality of diamonds and the truth behind 'blood diamonds' but so far as commodity, market demand, fair market value and trading, yes.

Just want to say thanks for helping with that .. i did the same thing about a year and a 1/2 ago .. made like a million on eyes and claws when factions came out.

... Monster items were so nice because the price use to be the same as the value so you couldn't lose money only gain.

Lucifer PVP · Dec 08, 2006, 07:43 PM // 19:43

woops clicked submit twice .. please delete