What do you mean by the "old ways"? Seems to me the crown store works the same as it always did, but what changed is the rules for who can "gift" crowns and therefore there are less sellers. Additionally, the fraudulent crown sellers who were obtaining crowns without paying legitimate prices for them are reduced, hopefully to zero. If it's hard to find crown sellers now, that tells me maybe the fraud was alot greater than anybody suspected.

Aislinna wrote: »

What do you mean by the "old ways"? Seems to me the crown store works the same as it always did, but what changed is the rules for who can "gift" crowns and therefore there are less sellers. Additionally, the fraudulent crown sellers who were obtaining crowns without paying legitimate prices for them are reduced, hopefully to zero. If it's hard to find crown sellers now, that tells me maybe the fraud was alot greater than anybody suspected.

That may be plausible but “old ways” is much more different then now given more people are restricted from selling crowns even if they did nothing wrong so theirs is quite a difference. I have never sold a crown in my life and I can’t even sell them. I’m okay with that given I don’t sell I only buy but my point is when I say old ways I mean if there will be a way they allow everyone to sell again hole still blocking out the fraudulent

Cameron991 wrote: »

I finally was able to get ahold of a seller for one item after a month and the rate is so much higher than it used to be that It’s pretty much pointless to try and buy crowns from sellers unless you are very rich do we think it will be changed back to the old ways or somewhat similar? If not I’m sure it’s the end of the crown store, or at least for me unfortunately

No.

Crowns cost real money, and gold in-game is lines of code with zero real value.

I was utterly shocked at the "conversion rate" when it was 200:1. 2000:1 maybe for somebody who has a lot of disposable income. And with how little you can get in-game now for that gold, 10,000:1 or higher at a minimum.

I live in real life better than most, but I don't have that kind of disposable income that I can freely spend like that.

In my opinion, asking a question like this is selfish.

I expect that the conversation rates will remain high, not only because fraudulent sources have hopefully been taken off the market, but also because newer players will not be able to sell Crowns (I know there was always a waiting period). That is the one point that I sold Crowns, when I was starting out and didn’t yet have the knowledge to make gold much gold and there were many things I wanted. Then too, as others have pointed out, there has been significant inflation in game, and significant irl inflation may also mean many have less disposable income.

Trier_Sero wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

No.

Crowns cost real money, and gold in-game is lines of code with zero real value.

I was utterly shocked at the "conversion rate" when it was 200:1. 2000:1 maybe for somebody who has a lot of disposable income. And with how little you can get in-game now for that gold, 10,000:1 or higher at a minimum.

I live in real life better than most, but I don't have that kind of disposable income that I can freely spend like that.

In my opinion, asking a question like this is selfish.

Making that gold takes a lot of time and effort. I have to spend at least 1,5 hour each day doing crafting dailies on 20 characters and additional 2-3 hours on weekend to gather all the surveys. Plus I had to invest lots of time and effort, and even some real money to get all 20 characters leveled to be able to do all crafting dailies.

So no. It's not selfish at all. Current exchange rates are outrageously high. There is no point in buying crowns with those rates.

i make on avg 500k+ a week just selling on guild stores, i hate doing daily crafting writs and never do them lol

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Trier_Sero wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

No.

Crowns cost real money, and gold in-game is lines of code with zero real value.

I was utterly shocked at the "conversion rate" when it was 200:1. 2000:1 maybe for somebody who has a lot of disposable income. And with how little you can get in-game now for that gold, 10,000:1 or higher at a minimum.

I live in real life better than most, but I don't have that kind of disposable income that I can freely spend like that.

In my opinion, asking a question like this is selfish.

Making that gold takes a lot of time and effort. I have to spend at least 1,5 hour each day doing crafting dailies on 20 characters and additional 2-3 hours on weekend to gather all the surveys. Plus I had to invest lots of time and effort, and even some real money to get all 20 characters leveled to be able to do all crafting dailies.

So no. It's not selfish at all. Current exchange rates are outrageously high. There is no point in buying crowns with those rates.

i make on avg 500k+ a week just selling on guild stores, i hate doing daily crafting writs and never do them lol

But the point is, I believe, that surely you must spend time doing something to make money — if not crafting or gathering, then flipping, or doing content to collect motifs, gear, or other things to sell. Maybe it is an activity you would do anyway — that is the best way IMO.

i dont really enjoy flipping either lol

i do frequently get drops i dont need, like if i was running a dungeon or trial, many of those motifs i dont need anymore so i usually sell them

ive also gotten lucky with rare drops i dont need (i did one of those portal events in IC and got a full aldmeri motif book which i sold for like 5 mil)

i also sell a lot of mats, because i have way more than i ever need, getting most of which from just deconning while im running content

but yeah overall i just run whatever i feel like doing that day (which lately has been endless archive nonstop lol)

LunaFlora wrote: »

players decide what amount of gold they want as compensation for gifting you an item so that can always change.

This. The in-game market for crowns is a supply-and-demand relationship. Also, whatever was happening that led to shutting down the "gifting" may have increased the supply of crown store items being sold for gold which would have lowered the value of such trading.

In other words, players may be experiencing a new normal that is more realistic. If this is the case more players will likely be willing to sell crowns which will lower the price some but not to what the game saw early this year. d

Speculation of course but it is logical that the old trading exploit lowered the value of crowns.

The rate right now is very high because we've had a long time without gifting, and the demand escalated. Usually the exchange rate drops a little after there's been a crown sale, because there's a higher influx of crowns in the game.

tmbrinks wrote: »

Cameron991 wrote: »

I finally was able to get ahold of a seller for one item after a month and the rate is so much higher than it used to be that It’s pretty much pointless to try and buy crowns from sellers unless you are very rich do we think it will be changed back to the old ways or somewhat similar? If not I’m sure it’s the end of the crown store, or at least for me unfortunately

No.

Crowns cost real money, and gold in-game is lines of code with zero real value.

I was utterly shocked at the "conversion rate" when it was 200:1. 2000:1 maybe for somebody who has a lot of disposable income. And with how little you can get in-game now for that gold, 10,000:1 or higher at a minimum.

I live in real life better than most, but I don't have that kind of disposable income that I can freely spend like that.

In my opinion, asking a question like this is selfish.

Cool if you don't have disposable income then don't sell crowns. I think that paying for than about 800:1 is ridiculous. Take it from a person who farms all the time to make all of their gold. Farming in this game will always have diminishing returns for furnishing plans. You just get less of them the more of them you have gotten of a specific type. Those are the big money. The other money in farming was mostly mats and those have (thankfully) gone down in price. Also everyone and their grandmother is farming for mats to sell and plenty are just trying to get some to use because they cannot afford to buy mats. Every market devalues over time. All of this put together with ever-increasing crown prices would literally just lead to a whale economic class and everyone else being poor and in crap gear unless they had the disposable income to sell crowns. Lower crown prices are good for everyone.

I just started playing again after 18 months off and decided to do a fresh start. My wife hasn't played in many years but still has nearly 85k crowns. While she can login and mail me some stuff to give me a boost, she can't do crown gifting. I guess that's due to not being logged in for so long. I guess we can see if putting in a ticket would work but ZOS is pretty vague, understandably, about the reasons gifting is disabled.

On PC-EU I am seeing prices for crowns still rising in Zone Chat.

Before gifting was disabled the price was generally below 2000:1 but above 1500:1.

Over the past few weeks it has been slowly climbing, anyone asking for rates under 2000:1 seems to get pretty much laughed at, recent days I've seen buyers willing to pay 3000:1 which tbh shocked me!

Maybe a crown sale would even out the prices, I never sell my crowns but have on occasion brought some furnishing packs from a friend.

Unfortunately our well known dodgy seller is also back and appears bolder than ever!! I am seeing the adverts multiple times per day, rather than just the once in the evening..... he/she/they must be raking it in to get so bold!! ☹

DarthCuddlefluff wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

Cameron991 wrote: »

I finally was able to get ahold of a seller for one item after a month and the rate is so much higher than it used to be that It’s pretty much pointless to try and buy crowns from sellers unless you are very rich do we think it will be changed back to the old ways or somewhat similar? If not I’m sure it’s the end of the crown store, or at least for me unfortunately

No.

Crowns cost real money, and gold in-game is lines of code with zero real value.

I was utterly shocked at the "conversion rate" when it was 200:1. 2000:1 maybe for somebody who has a lot of disposable income. And with how little you can get in-game now for that gold, 10,000:1 or higher at a minimum.

I live in real life better than most, but I don't have that kind of disposable income that I can freely spend like that.

In my opinion, asking a question like this is selfish.

Cool if you don't have disposable income then don't sell crowns. I think that paying for than about 800:1 is ridiculous.

Take it from a person who farms all the time to make all of their gold. Farming in this game will always have diminishing returns for furnishing plans. You just get less of them the more of them you have gotten of a specific type. Those are the big money. The other money in farming was mostly mats and those have (thankfully) gone down in price. Also everyone and their grandmother is farming for mats to sell and plenty are just trying to get some to use because they cannot afford to buy mats. Every market devalues over time. All of this put together with ever-increasing crown prices would literally just lead to a whale economic class and everyone else being poor and in crap gear unless they had the disposable income to sell crowns. Lower crown prices are good for everyone.

The same can be said if one does not have disposable in-game gold then do not buy crowns for gold.

People who choose to sell crowns have every right to choose what price they are willing to sell them for just as those who are buying crowns have every right to choose how much they are willing to pay. For each, if they find someone willing to agree to their price they will have a sale. Otherwise, each gets to hold onto their gold/crowns.

It is fair.