Alright, time for a real talk.

Saucy_Jack

So once again we're in the throes of the anniversary event. For some people, this is their first one, but the event's been going on for a couple of days now, meaning by this point, literally EVERYONE PLAYING is aware that yes, motif pages drop from the anniversary reward boxes, and yes, they're dropping in very plentiful amounts. The listings in the traders being 95% motif pages would also provide a helpful clue of this reality.

With that said, I'm going through my MM data, and I'm notice a MYRIAD of instances where people are STILL paying top-dollar prices for motifs that are dropping like flies. So for the people who pay said prices in the middle of an event in which said prices are only going to drop like a rock: can you at least explain yourselves? Like, if you want to pay those prices for a given motif page, you can mail me, and I'll spend like two minutes tops searching the traders for a cheaper one, and I'd be happy to sell it to you for full price if you're dead-set on paying full price. But to me, that doesn't make a lot of sense, and I'm trying to make sense of my sales data. So what gives?

Uvi_AUT

Same anweser as in Real Life. Its none of your business what I do with my money.

Saucy_Jack

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Same anweser as in Real Life. Its none of your business what I do with my money.

My question's directed to the people who actually want to give some insight; probably should've put that in OP.

Streega

Quite simple, my saucy friend, the flippers are selling it to themselves to drive the prices up and scam the "free to play" guests and newbies.

Wing

2 reasons for me:

-the price on some motifs wont drop a substantial amount compared to my overall value to be worth being stingy over.

-supply and demand, while yes more motifs are in the market, its widely known to buy them now to, so demand has increased, thus the value will not plummet to the effect that some think, and at the end of it all, i will have completed the motifs im looking for, while some wont because they were holding out for something that never came.

Saucy_Jack

Streega wrote: »

Quite simple, my saucy friend, the flippers are selling it to themselves to drive the prices up and scam the "free to play" guests and newbies.

I mean, maybe, but I would think the new players and free-players haven't been playing long enough to have the kind of gold onhand to pay those prices to begin with. Even if people were unethically skewing prices higher to scam newbies, they can't get blood from a stone, you know?

Uvi_AUT

Saucy_Jack wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Same anweser as in Real Life. Its none of your business what I do with my money.

My question's directed to the people who actually want to give some insight; probably should've put that in OP.

Allright, I can give you an answer.

I dont care about Eventquests and I dont care about the whole "click on a thousand NPCs just to find a Vendor that sells for one Gold less"-Minigame.
I have enough gold to buy what I want when I want, but not enough patience for running around looking for bargains in a Videogame.

Streega

Saucy_Jack wrote: »

Streega wrote: »

Quite simple, my saucy friend, the flippers are selling it to themselves to drive the prices up and scam the "free to play" guests and newbies.

I mean, maybe, but I would think the new players and free-players haven't been playing long enough to have the kind of gold onhand to pay those prices to begin with. Even if people were unethically skewing prices higher to scam newbies, they can't get blood from a stone, you know?

That is true, but when you get an average between, let's say, 10g and 10000g, it's 5k - maybe affordable enough for a less informed buyer? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edit: Or they hope for someone like Uvi_AUT. As a full-time working person I do sometimes overpay a little as well, just to save time, so no sarcasm here.

Saucy_Jack

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Allright, I can give you an answer.

I dont care about Eventquests and I dont care about the whole "click on a thousand NPCs just to find a Vendor that sells for one Gold less"-Minigame.
I have enough gold to buy what I want when I want, but not enough patience for running around looking for bargains in a Videogame.

That's fair; I'm just seeing in my MM data sales of pages for like, 300k or 400k, when a quick search on TTC shows pages of listings for like, 60k.

I mean yeah, it makes sense to pay 300k if hours of searching traders is only going to result in finding one for 285k, but I've seen a good number of sales points in my MM data where it's like "ok, people could've gotten that for 100k+ cheaper just by looking at the traders in the same city." It's those sales that I'm trying to make sense of.

Uvi_AUT

Saucy_Jack wrote: »

I mean yeah, it makes sense to pay 300k if hours of searching traders is only going to result in finding one for 285k, but I've seen a good number of sales points in my MM data where it's like "ok, people could've gotten that for 100k+ cheaper just by looking at the traders in the same city." It's those sales that I'm trying to make sense of.

Mh, I see. My guess would be some kind of Scam, like the guy before said. Like PS5s on Ebay.
Or a Glitch in that Addon of yours.

Kwoung

Saucy_Jack wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Same anweser as in Real Life. Its none of your business what I do with my money.

My question's directed to the people who actually want to give some insight; probably should've put that in OP.

I will give it a whirl then....

Historically from my experience, the motifs in this event, while dropping in great numbers, are not necessarily dropping any particular one in great numbers as the drops are pulled from the entire motif pool, not just 1-2 like most other events, which does drive the value of those into the ground. There are many available now that I have searched for myself for a long time, that have simply not been available at all and if I come across one, I will snap it up right then and there.

Also, there are WAY to many players playing the flipping game now, so grabbing one of those good deals is not as easy as you might think. Many of those flippers have very deep pockets and can afford to snap up the known rare ones and sit on them, so once again, grabbing any one you come across is a good deal, or you may entirely miss out on getting it at all like usual.

twev

Saucy_Jack wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Allright, I can give you an answer.

I dont care about Eventquests and I dont care about the whole "click on a thousand NPCs just to find a Vendor that sells for one Gold less"-Minigame.
I have enough gold to buy what I want when I want, but not enough patience for running around looking for bargains in a Videogame.

That's fair; I'm just seeing in my MM data sales of pages for like, 300k or 400k, when a quick search on TTC shows pages of listings for like, 60k.

I mean yeah, it makes sense to pay 300k if hours of searching traders is only going to result in finding one for 285k, but I've seen a good number of sales points in my MM data where it's like "ok, people could've gotten that for 100k+ cheaper just by looking at the traders in the same city." It's those sales that I'm trying to make sense of.

While TTC is nice in theory, i find what TTC lists about 4% of the time, at best.

I've tested it and found TTC listing specific items at various vendors every 4 minutes for hours at a time.

Viewsfrom6ix

Because they pay for convenience. Some people can't be bothered to go on TTC or even know about TTC.

They go to their nearest trader or big trader hub like Mournhold and buy the first one they see at a price they're willing to pay.

Firstmep

Laziness? Yes motifs drop like cupcakes,still not a guarantee you get what you want.
Also anyone is free to join in on the flipping and you just slightly undercut others and still make a big profit.

SirAndy

Firstmep wrote: »

Laziness?

^^^ this ...

If i'm looking through a guild trader inventory and i see something i don't have yet and the price isn't outrageous, i buy it.
Ain't got no time to run around for an hour trying to find something somewhere that is going to save me a few k of in-game gold.


PS: And yes, i do use TTC to give me an overall idea what stuff is listed for and the occasional search for something rare.

Kiralyn2000

SirAndy wrote: »

Ain't got no time to run around for an hour trying to find something somewhere that is going to save me a few k of in-game gold.

Sure, but if I'm actually looking for something at a trader in Grahtwood, I'll at least look at the other six traders on that street to see if they have it cheaper.

SirAndy

Kiralyn2000 wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

Ain't got no time to run around for an hour trying to find something somewhere that is going to save me a few k of in-game gold.

Sure, but if I'm actually looking for something at a trader in Grahtwood, I'll at least look at the other six traders on that street to see if they have it cheaper.

Sure, but the hubs with several traders are also not where you usually find the best deals because they are run by the guilds that have active resellers that do exactly that, run around all day grabbing cheap(ish) versions of whatever currently sells high and then relist them for more.

So realistically, if you do want to get the absolute lowest price ever, you have to scan the TTC website constantly and then rush to whatever comes up and hope you are the first.
And that just isn't appealing to me ...

anitajoneb17_ESO

Looking at the thread's title => another thread of complaints directed at ZOS
Looking at the thread's author => oh it's Saucy, it's gonna be funny
Reading the thread => it's neither. But it's an interesting question.

To add to the handful of sensible answers already provided, I would add that
- many, many people don't have a clue about how a market works and how supply and demand set the prices.
- the act of buying something is not always thought out, it is often an impulsive thing
- and there's a lot of irrationality in people whenever it comes to selling or buying behaviour anyway.

Those points, in my opinion, apply both ingame and irl.

To add to them, it's worth mentioning that knowledge of prices, supply and demand in ESO is fairly complex. I mean, it's not difficult per se, but it requires a pretty deep knowledge of the game (how is an item collected, how rare is it, how useful is it and to whom...), and even basic price information, while not hard to get, requires addons and/or the use of external websites.

Also, many people don't care at all about their ingame gold. I see guildies exchanging 100K's of gold all the time for all kinds of purposes as if they were simple tokens. Which, in fact, they are :-)

VoidCommander

I sell at the slightly lower end of the TTC recommended amount because no amount of "discounted" prices is going to significantly alter the price in just a 12 day long event. I will sell mine at standard (but still low) pricing, make gold off of it, then turn around and buy other motifs that I still need, are still valuable, but are now actually obtainable because there is a supply.

RunForTheHills

Convenience and maybe some laziness. I set a filter for normal deals and better (although prices may be dropping rapidly) and also filter on unknown motifs. I then buy all the motifs I don't know under 2k gold. Even if I could have gotten it 25% cheaper, we are only talking a maximum of 500g difference. I will buy more expensive ones if they are a better discount. I haven't spent any time looking for a specific expensive motif. However, if I did, I would use TTC to find it.

redspecter23

MM says it's worth X amount and MM would NEVER lie.

There is the logic behind the purchase.

Many people are absolutely incapable of understanding how supply and demand work. The addon does all the work for them, even though it can't possibly adjust instantly to changes like this. Players don't know/care about that.

Vlad9425

Time for real talk Cyrodiil is completely unplayable at prime time and is the worst it’s been in years and this is unacceptable.

robertthebard

Kiralyn2000 wrote: »

SirAndy wrote: »

Ain't got no time to run around for an hour trying to find something somewhere that is going to save me a few k of in-game gold.

Sure, but if I'm actually looking for something at a trader in Grahtwood, I'll at least look at the other six traders on that street to see if they have it cheaper.

Did they not do that? How do you track what they're doing? I mean, if there's an addon that's telling you exactly how I spend my time in game, and which vendors I have or haven't spoken to, it needs to go, yesterday.

BozzyTheDrummer

So for me, at least now, if I really want something and I have the gold, I’m going to buy it. To many times, and I do mean many, I’ve gone looking for an item and said to myself “I bet I’ll find it cheaper”. Only to go to every trader in each zone, one by one, and not finding the item cheaper. Then, I go back to the original trader where I found said item, only to find out it’s no longer there.

I’m over with trying to find the cheapest price on items I need/want. It takes up way too much time and I’d rather get what I need and go enjoy the rest of my day in the game.

Sylvermynx

I'll occasionally look on TTC - but generally, having had the experience that no matter what you find on TTC it's NEVER where they say it is (or as cheap), when I need something (motif or furnishing plan usually) I'll pick it up in Vivec even if it's probably more expensive. My time is worth more to me than the gold.

Saucy_Jack

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Looking at the thread's title => another thread of complaints directed at ZOS
Looking at the thread's author => oh it's Saucy, it's gonna be funny
Reading the thread => it's neither. But it's an interesting question.

And I appreciate your answer as well!

Eedat

Saucy_Jack wrote: »

Uvi_AUT wrote: »

Allright, I can give you an answer.

I dont care about Eventquests and I dont care about the whole "click on a thousand NPCs just to find a Vendor that sells for one Gold less"-Minigame.
I have enough gold to buy what I want when I want, but not enough patience for running around looking for bargains in a Videogame.

That's fair; I'm just seeing in my MM data sales of pages for like, 300k or 400k, when a quick search on TTC shows pages of listings for like, 60k.

I mean yeah, it makes sense to pay 300k if hours of searching traders is only going to result in finding one for 285k, but I've seen a good number of sales points in my MM data where it's like "ok, people could've gotten that for 100k+ cheaper just by looking at the traders in the same city." It's those sales that I'm trying to make sense of.

There are a lot of people who don't even use TTC. There are also a lot of people who prefer to buy stuff from their own guild to support each other. I mean I wouldn't pay 300k vs 60k for something to do that, but if the option is 100k from a guildie vs 75k from a random trader, I'm buying the one from my guild. There are also people who just don't care and have the disposable income to buy an item when they find it or on complete impulse. That doesn't only benefit flippers.

Also just because there is a listing for 60k on TTC doesn't mean that it's still there or a normal price. Min or max listings on TTC don't indicate an item's actual value.

Slyclone

I want it now. So I can move on to better things. Like standing around.