Grey Market Scalping a serious problem not being addressed

[Grimm_Reaper]

Ah Capitalism at its finest. In all fairness the same guy making a profit is at risk of being stuck with a large inventory despite his efforts. I'm sure with the new changes to warbond the market has slowed to maybe soured. New expectation is wait for the anniversary sale and splurge. People these days tend to be more guarded with their spending. The game needs to be delivered and people have already spent quiet a bit.

After spending close to 6k even my spending has slowed. I'm more on the fringes of waiting to see what happens. All these new ships and a questionable frame rate and lag has me just waiting till things improve. Also the seesawing of ship stats with concepts not turning out as expected is disconcerting.

The new importance of actual cash over credit has also made me wait till something I really like shows up. Problem is when I looked at the Hercules price tag I went and bought a Casio MT-G Gshock instead. Damn fine watch.

 

[Wolfy]

Ah Capitalism at its finest. In all fairness the same guy making a profit is at risk of being stuck with a large inventory despite his efforts. I'm sure with the new changes to warbond the market has slowed to maybe soured. New expectation is wait for the anniversary sale and splurge. People these days tend to be more guarded with their spending. The game needs to be delivered and people have already spent quiet a bit.

After spending close to 6k even my spending has slowed. I'm more on the fringes of waiting to see what happens. All these new ships and a questionable frame rate and lag has me just waiting till things improve. Also the seesawing of ship stats with concepts not turning out as expected is disconcerting.

The new importance of actual cash over credit has also made me wait till something I really like shows up. Problem is when I looked at the Hercules price tag I went and bought a Casio MT-G Gshock instead. Damn fine watch.

I need to pick up a Gshock for FTX's. Tired of worrying if my Tag Heuer is going to break. I've heard they are pretty great.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

I need to pick up a Gshock for FTX's. Tired of worrying if my Tag Heuer is going to break. I've heard they are pretty great.

I've got two Gshocks, my main one is a solar-charged radio controlled one which I have temporarily lost in the house somewhere, usually turns up under something heavy, my stand-in is a green Mudman with the worlds hardest to use buttons, but that is because they are moulded into the body - the Mudman has no separate button pieces to make it even more durable but beware unless you are going to be submerging it in mud the buttons may be considered over-kill for your daily needs.

 

[SpudNyk]

And I REALLY REALLY REALLY dislike how people buy at cost buybacks from ORG mates and then sell the exact same pledges 24 hours later on the grey market for profits. I don't appreciate our user base, our fellow citizens, being exploited.

This is definitely taking advantage of people’s generosity. Trouble is it’s so hard to police that though, maybe not allow buy backs that had been gifted to someone to be re-gifted would be a solution.

 

[DirectorGunner]

Case in point, new giftable idris-M:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starcitizen_trades/comments/9445f8/wts_idrism_lti_of_course_still_giftabletradable/
$4200
CIG created this scenario. No poor bastard should spend that much on an Idris-M.. but likely someone will not realizing there's a better path.

edit:
I just sent off a PM pleading my case for a new $10K (or less) pack with an idris-M like the old pack. I will advocate!

edit 2:
This one is $4500
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starcitizen_trades/comments/94aeci/wts_kiosk_ships_game_packages_etc/

 

[Sraika]

Case in point, new giftable idris-M:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starcitizen_trades/comments/9445f8/wts_idrism_lti_of_course_still_giftabletradable/
$4200
CIG created this scenario. No poor bastard should spend that much on an Idris-M.. but likely someone will not realizing there's a better path.

edit:
I just sent off a PM pleading my case for a new $10K (or less) pack with an idris-M like the old pack. I will advocate!

edit 2:
This one is $4500
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starcitizen_trades/comments/94aeci/wts_kiosk_ships_game_packages_etc/

Um, that markup is just insane lol.

 

[SpudNyk]

That’s the trouble with limited ships that are giftable.

 

[Montoya]

Case in point, new giftable idris-M:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starcitizen_trades/comments/9445f8/wts_idrism_lti_of_course_still_giftabletradable/
$4200
CIG created this scenario. No poor bastard should spend that much on an Idris-M.. but likely someone will not realizing there's a better path.

edit:
I just sent off a PM pleading my case for a new $10K (or less) pack with an idris-M like the old pack. I will advocate!

edit 2:
This one is $4500
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starcitizen_trades/comments/94aeci/wts_kiosk_ships_game_packages_etc/

What the hell is wrong with people?

Also, what is EOS?

 

[Bambooza]

What the hell is wrong with people?

More money then brains?

Maybe I am one of the few who have little issue with scalping as its just a side effect of the initial seller way under valuing their commodity. In fact scalping is no different then being a trader or buying and selling exotic cars and fine artwork. While it does suck that the raised price doesn't return back to CIG's coffers for further game development it doesn't impact the number of ships in game. And if the complaint is about the limited number and not having a chance to purchase one at the lower price then that is more a factor of luck and timing. And which many systems are built around, after all we have to look no further then Vegas to see it playing out daily.

 

[Ploeperpengel]

This is definitely taking advantage of people’s generosity. Trouble is it’s so hard to police that though, maybe not allow buy backs that had been gifted to someone to be re-gifted would be a solution.

Actually none of my packages I was gifted recently appear to be giftable. So that seems to me a restriction against grey market scalping already in place. I don't mind cause I like my ships and don't intend to resell them at higher price.

I don't know what might happen if I melt them and rebuy. But I think I don't care enough to find out.

Edit: For comparison the Herald I bought from you and the warbond I bought from CIG. I think that to be good news since you can continue selling to Org without fear of being taken advantage of. Now, the guy who was complained about to resell Org ships ... Hows that even possible?

Another edit: guess your post edit answers my question https://testsquadron.com/threads/moving-and-need-to-sell-my-account.13922/#post-264789 Doesn't seem profitable unless you scalp a lot though. Basically the only thing that seems profitable is buying warbonds and resell them once they are off the CIG store which seems totally legit to me as it is just basic merchant behavior. It doesn't affect the rareness of ships which is still totally in CIGs hands. It's just a gamble towards achieving revenue with a rare item which includes the risk of not being able to sell it because nobody (or few poeple) are crazy enough to buy at a price that's profitable. I still appreciate you guys selling at buyback price because otherwise I simply wouldn't buy at all as the prices are crazy enough for me already (considering pixelships vs. an actual real world bus taking you to a real world festival i.e.).

 

[Bruce]

As far as I understand there are currently two trends:
1. People buy RSI credits with huge ( 20%+ ) discount .. get some cheap LTI (from their own buyback for instance) using cash, buy upgrade to some expensive ship using those credits, and sell CCU-ed ship ~ RSI price tag ( LTI ship etc. )
2. People get rare ships in their buybacks and sell them one by one ( essentially buyer pays for the seller to get ship out of buyback )

Personally I have nothing against guys utilizing second way - they are risking some money and CIG gets majority of funds anyway ... but guys utilizing first way need to have some people selling at discount to get a profitable trade, so logically some of them (of not most) contribute to some not so nice rumors about the game, which is quite sad .

Speaking about Idris-M for 4K and markups ( I still remember scythe markups from the old times lol ) ... as for Idris-M - I believe "reasonable" (based on value of other jpegs) price is around 2.5K-3K for now .. but I doubt many people will be ready to sell at or below 2.5K .. so due to rarity it is still 3K-3.5K+

 

[Ploeperpengel]

As far as I understand there are currently two trends:
1. People buy RSI credits with huge ( 20%+ ) discount .. get some cheap LTI (from their own buyback for instance) using cash, buy upgrade to some expensive ship using those credits, and sell CCU-ed ship ~ RSI price tag ( LTI ship etc. )

Ah ok that's something I didn't consider given my inexperience on spending for pledges. CCU-ed ships are certainly less in demand than original ones though and selling for less on the grey market either. As there seems to be an effective limit to reselling original ships without whole accounts going along with it I think the grey market is still far from out of control. Of course there migtht be some exceptions regarding the rarest of items. But then again how is it sane paying millions for a Rembrand if you can see a pixelversion on the internet? Ok bad example artmarket is really insane. Are we close?

 

[Bruce]

artmarket is built on expectation of price increase (same as most of collectible markets) ... for majority of the ships this expectation is created by CIG as well, but is quite limited ( I doubt that anyone expects carrack to become $1K+ ship in a foreseeable future, but $450 - is another story )

 

[Ploeperpengel]

That seems to sum it up neatly for me. So what CIG created is but a secondary collectible market without expectation of huge price increases. I think that isn't bad enough to justify the salt. We might get there but probably not "in a foreseeable future" and CIG might alter their marketing strategy till then :)

 

[DirectorGunner]

I mean.. all that would need to happen imo at this point.. to alleviate this.. because let's face it.. they're almost at 200 million....
If they....

• allow ALL non hull-limited ships to be bought at will...
• and put LTI on all pre-release pledges....
• Allow gift cards to be the only way to gift a game package or ship to someone....
• Allow accounts to be permanently transferable

Benefits

• Grey market would be pretty much nulled.
• Anyone could refund out by selling / perm transferring their account.
• CIG would still make a crap ton of money

I would absolutely LOVE to see this happen... and the cost of possibly missing a hull limited sale here and there. I could always probably earn that limited hull in game.

 

[Doyzer]

Getting rid of gifting button would likely end grey market. Giving all pre-release ships LTI will make A LOT of old backers very mad. They are already mad they still sell ships with LTI.

Fraud will be very rampant if they let people sell accounts likr it is now. Too easy to sell account now and come back months later and say someone hacked your account.