So how's no one talking about this yet? Ambrosia price machination on PC EU

rei91 · March 2021

I'm one of those strange people who decided to learn aetheric cipher (for 150% ambrosia) instead of reselling it. I don't sell ambrosias constantly - only when happen to be able to buy cheap dust, so 4-8 potions at a time. Like this week.

So , here's the mail I received at friday, when prices were around 370-400k for dust and 100-130k for 1 ambrosia, they were set at this level after the patch. "Seeking for stacks and stacks of ambrosia for our trial raids, ready to buy hundreds, 120k/unit, COD, we have lots of money, we wait impatiently, etc." (You can read the whole text below, if I'll be successful in uploading the image that is) At that moment it was a good offer. It wasn't from any of my guildmates, and I know for sure that another player completely from another guild received the same mail, and another one at Saturday (with a little higher price this time, 150k/unit). I suspect A LOT more sellers received this mail too.

Saturday, at very early morning, in just a few hours prices skyrocketed from previous to 220+k for ambrosia and 800-900k for dust. Prices are still rising. (Reminder - that another player didn't react to the first mail and they urged him to sell for some bigger price - but not as much as it was already selling everywhere).

Do you see what they did there?))

(Yes, being naive and in a hurry, I didn't suspect anything and sent them little few ambrosias too via COD. They didn't claim them yet, probably letting them to chill in a nice 30-days cooldown. They took ambrosias from that other person, though)

rei91 · March 2021

Seraphayel · March 2021

Why does this sound like the African prince scam email? I’d be careful, this reeks a bit suspicious...

rei91 · March 2021

Seraphayel wrote: »

Why does this sound like the African prince scam email? I’d be careful, this reeks a bit suspicious...

Well that's what I'm talking about)) they thinned out the market and then set 2x price, in one day

Edit for typos

Nagastani · March 2021

I hear ya. Got lucky and found my cipher back in 2019. Got in on the ground floor when dust was 100k to 120k tops. Same thing for Chromium plating.

I wouldn't touch the stuff now and I sympathize with you guys.

PizzaCat82 · March 2021

When you sell in bulk you take away your ability to respond to market conditions. I don't do it unless its MORE than going rate.

Mayrael · March 2021

And this is why global AH is a bad idea. People like this would be able to create artificial lack of ambrosias and then resell them for 5 times more.

Now tracking 100+ spots 24/7 is way more difficult, with AH all you need is simple script with AH open. Undetectable.

SidraWillowsky · March 2021

I feel like something is going to need to be done about this or else the market is going to spiral out of control.

I'm not talking about this particular situation per se (though this is shady af), but the cipher and dust are both so rare that it's hard to see prices not continue to increase- where's the point at which the market will stabilize? It's not like dreugh wax, for example, where you can petty easily farm it yourself. We're talking stupid rare items in this case, and not one that you can go farm...

PizzaCat82 · March 2021

Mayrael wrote: »

And this is why global AH is a bad idea. People like this would be able to create artificial lack of ambrosias and then resell them for 5 times more.

Now tracking 100+ spots 24/7 is way more difficult, with AH all you need is simple script with AH open. Undetectable.

Its being done now, and its not "way more difficult" like you describe.

Maybe you should be more worried about those simple scripts instead of features that make the game easier.

Ghostbane · March 2021

I got about 5 of those mails on my accounts. Anyone selling a specific something on TTC, they'll mail that seller with whatever fiction shenanigans. A similar scenario happened with gold mats a while back. If you've been at it for a bit, you know exactly what these mails are.

Naturally I saw the author of those mail selling a large amount of the pots for a much large price that they intended to buy via COD. Shock. Horror.

I don't think much of the price hike has been caused by this small bunch/person though, everywhere they are being bought quite quickly. Yesterday I think I sold 30+, prices ranging from 189 - 249. The need is real.

JKorr · March 2021

rei91 wrote: »

They are doing "high-level raids" but need ambrosia for experience. For who?

I'm apparently missing something here. I get the scam part perfectly though.

Brrrofski · March 2021

This is just obvious.

Tbh, the answer to "fix it" is people don't buy it for the crazy prices.

If you read the patch notes, there's plenty of ways every patch to make money.

Realise what is going to be more sought after, buy it cheap before patch, sell for higher after patch.

People do this every patch.

Not sure anything needs to be done about it. More fool those that don't realise the value something will have after a patch tbh.

I don't do this personally as I just don't bother do it. But as soon as I saw that CP was going up, I held on to all my perfect roe, which I'll sell when patch drops on xbox.

Also, I've taken advantage of quiet world bosses/public dungeons to farm spinners/spriggan etc ready for the patch too. So I"ll have loads of good trait pieces for sale, and not have competition to farm them when everyone realises it after the patch.

It's the same with people in zone chat wtb stuff. "Wtb temp alloys for 6k". They want lazy people to just think they can make some quick cash. They'll buy them for 6k, sell for 8k.

VaranisArano · March 2021

JKorr wrote: »

rei91 wrote: »

They are doing "high-level raids" but need ambrosia for experience. For who?

I'm apparently missing something here. I get the scam part perfectly though.

For who? Well, if we take them at their word, they'd be using it for pots to farming exp now that CP 2.0 means they want to grind for more CP.

In reality, we can guess that its to sell to the many players who are willing to buy experience pots to optimize their grinding time now that CP 2.0 has launched. That's who needs the experience, and thus, is vulnerable to this sort of market manipulation.

rei91 · March 2021

laksikus wrote: »

[Quoted post was removed]

Erm... Where did you see I'm mad? As I say, I sell like 4-8 pots once in 2-3 month, when feeling like it. I'm not your big magnate with millions in bank and 100+k sales per week, just quester selling whatever I find in one low-lvl trade guild... I got the mail, got curious and send them like 10 ambrosias to see what happens. Now I'll just wait some time and get them back eventually)

Then I realized the whole situation and was curious what other players will think about it, so I posted it here. It's a massive well played scheme after all)

rumple9 · March 2021

Anniversary event in 2 weeks. Prices will collapse when dust and cyphers start dropping like rain.

rei91 · March 2021

I see not everyone realise what I was trying to say. I didn't mean to complain about some people trolling me personally. As I see it, some organized group took big amount of rare resource out of the market, and then flipped the whole market with double price in One. Day.

I think it's quite massive scheme, this is the first time I witness something like that)) and I really feel for those who were relying on ambrosia for exp gain; I personally think the price is insane and won't sell potions at such ridiculous price, it feels wrong. I personally hope it'll go down from the lack of demand.

Edit for typos

PizzaCat82 · March 2021

rumple9 wrote: »

Anniversary event in 2 weeks. Prices will collapse when dust and cyphers start dropping like rain.

Jesters in 2 weeks, then right after that Anniversary.

Mayrael · March 2021

PizzaCat82 wrote: »

Mayrael wrote: »

And this is why global AH is a bad idea. People like this would be able to create artificial lack of ambrosias and then resell them for 5 times more.

Now tracking 100+ spots 24/7 is way more difficult, with AH all you need is simple script with AH open. Undetectable.

Its being done now, and its not "way more difficult" like you describe.

Maybe you should be more worried about those simple scripts instead of features that make the game easier.

Yeah right. Because covering 100+ spots which would require said amount of accounts with let's say 3 times less PCs is not very difficult. Not to mention network issues, booting from server, providing gold for those accounts etc. etc. (You could use one or 2 accounts to move between spots but level of complexity and possiblity of being caught increases drastically cause of need of direct communication with server omitting the game client, not to mention less efficiency)

While with AH all you need is 1 account launched in background with AH opened 24/7, I did things like this 15 years ago when I was teenager with my junkyard PC. Yeah, completely the same

PizzaCat82 · March 2021

You hardly need 100 accounts to buy what ttc tells you to.

rei91 · March 2021

@VaranisArano hey it was your "in which order should I do quests" guide, which helped me experience ESO amazing story in proper order when I came here 2 years ago. Just wanted to thank you, since you showed up in my thread ^^

Contaminate · March 2021

PizzaCat82 wrote: »

Mayrael wrote: »

And this is why global AH is a bad idea. People like this would be able to create artificial lack of ambrosias and then resell them for 5 times more.

Now tracking 100+ spots 24/7 is way more difficult, with AH all you need is simple script with AH open. Undetectable.

Its being done now, and its not "way more difficult" like you describe.

Maybe you should be more worried about those simple scripts instead of features that make the game easier.

Y’all sold all your ambrosias to a suspicious emailer. That’s not price fixing being “easy”, that’s the suppliers all sharing a single braincell and doing this to themselves.

MilwaukeeScott · March 2021

I'd tell you but first I'm going to need a valid credit card # to make sure I'm communicating with an adult

Saucy_Jack · March 2021

After seeing mythical ambrosia recipes on TTC for 6-8mil, I listed two ciphers. I got a mail from someone saying they'd offer to buy both(!) for 6mil. After having a good chuckle, I deleted the mail.

GreenHere · March 2021

Saucy_Jack wrote: »

After seeing mythical ambrosia recipes on TTC for 6-8mil, I listed two ciphers. I got a mail from someone saying they'd offer to buy both(!) for 6mil. After having a good chuckle, I deleted the mail.

Whoa, good call there @Saucy_Jack ! Good thing you dodged that bullet; you wouldn't wanna sell those two ciphers to that chump for 6 mil! Not when I'm willing to offer you 5 mil! It's a bargain, act now!