Should there be a price limit on UCs?

[elissa]

Tell me why it's dumb.
I'd love for you to explain it to me.
Do you know how this economy has managed to stay afloat over the past few years?
Do you know why this is the strongest neopets forum?
Because of these 'fucking dumb set rules'

The guide was written at the start of 2013
That's almost 2 years ago now.
Either way if you bothered to read the spoiler you'd see this staring back at you

lmao i wasnt attacking your guide but it isnt accurate enough to 'set prices' of ucs on - the supply and demand changes all the time

my opinion is that a free market is a good market

nc caps/np prices got so low without a limit because there wasnt any demand for them and too many people selling
a set price now so it didnt really change demand/how popular this forum is

imo this forum and forums before this one have been so popular because of the programs anyway

[Drizzy]

If I could just stick my nose in here for a second... market issues aside, the sale of UC's is SO incredibly subjective it's ridiculous. I bought a low-ish end UC from Andrew months back, and do you KNOW how many names we went through before I found one I liked? And this is from his list of "VWN" - meaning 6L or less. But (and these are completely made up names!) Catll is NOT the same as Veera. I would definitely not pay the same price for those two (again, completely made up) names. They're both 5L, they're both capped, but they don't quite have the same "value" to me, and I'm sure a LOT of potential buyers think the same way. If you're going to regulate prices, that's gonna make it a HELL of a lot more difficult.

Yes pal, which is precisely why it states in the guide that buyer discretion is advised.
I don't expect any less and that's precisely why we have been lenient with UC sales/prices for the past two years or so, ever since I've been on here anyway.
That's also partly why I haven't updated the guide as often because it's not set in stone, it's a guide to give you an IDEA of the price - not to tell you what to sell/buy your pets for.
But it's come to the point where sellers are abusing the leniency in place, and some have already done quite a lot of damage.
What happens next is simply damage control.

lmao i wasnt attacking your guide but it isnt accurate enough to 'set prices' of ucs on

And again for the 10649th time since I posted it, it was never meant to be a set pricing rule.
I have sold for higher or lower based off the pet in question.
If I have a 4L VWN Faerie Xweetok Cvcv format I will demand upwards of $80 for it, despite my own guide saying $60
If I have a Xxxxxx format that sounds like phlegm stuck in someones throat, I will sell it for $40.
But it gets to the point where Royal Kaus, one of the rarest UC in the game starts selling for $100 where I have a problem.
It's where we ALL have a problem.
Yes the prices on the guide are slightly outdated, but not to that extent where Royal Kaus are going for $100, Faerie Draik for $80 etc.
Yes they will be updated, whether we decide to make them a rule or not but if it happens, it's in the best interest of this market and forum.

[Tablo]

Maybe it moved slow for you because you never established yourself as a seller.
And rather than sticking it out and reselling like you were meant to, you set up a gamble that pretty much undermined the value of every UC pet.
You think UC's are the only aspect of the market which has a very high supply? Oh dear lord whatever does that mean for pure/ets which is never ending?
Should we just start selling neopoints for 10c/mill?

So let's break this down, real simple for everyone.
Yes there are not enough buyers and too many sellers.
But that wasn't always the problem.
This is where you come in and fuck things up.
You buy large pet lists.
You flood the market so all the people who were buying UCs at proper prices now have, for the most part, shit UC's they DON'T want.
Those people then resell their 'gamble' at basement prices because they have no use for it.
The new people then buying those UCs don't pay the price that has become the norm for the last two years.
Set's a new trend with EVERYONE lowering their UC prices because you flooded this forums market with UCs.
High end UCs which sold sporadically for $300 are now selling for $100.
Yes they didn't sell often, but they still sold.
This in turn lowers the value of all the other UCs because why would anyone buy a Faerie Xwee for $60 when they can just grab a Faerie Draik for $100.
Think about it.

Bettser is too polite to tell you otherwise but for the most part the blame lies on you for buying large pet lists then flooding the market with ucs, and immediately fucking off the second you couldn't rub two pennys together.
Their are others who are obviously responsible but they're smart enough to not post on this thread and feign ignorance, unlike you.
So now we're probably going to have set prices for UCs and regulate them.
Thanks for ruining it for everyone.
And lol wtf does the dupe week/JS not doing a rollback have to do with UCs?

And no @(you need an account to see links), no more gambles just like there are no more auctions.
People abuse them and it affects everyone who sells on this forum.
Tablo came and did his bit, fucked the market and left. He's not selling anymore.
And now we're left to pick up the pieces.

Wow, what a bold post. Here I was thinking I was thinking I was doing something nice for the community, but it turns out, I was a villain all along.

Despite what my paypal account said, I was making HUGE profit, and was NOT struggling to even break even.

I also continued because I was rolling in money, not because I felt forced to continue not to risk disappointing someone I considered a friend.

While as you put it, the gamble may indeed have damaged the market, however you paint me as a greedy sack of shit, while I actually made very little money out of that entire ordeal. (I sold pets I bought for around 2.2g or something for 1.1 or 1.2 because I knew I needed to get out before something happened to me)

Before I even got here prices were fucked, and I really don't appreciate being painted as somebody who came here, came up with a plot to ruin everything for everyone, make a ton of money (I made very little) and fuck off.

I'm a young dude with a lot of problems that wanted to start something that strictly lasted for a few months over the summer.

I spent at least five weeks "working" 10-15 hour days, if not more checking unregs for pets. Ten to fifteen hours every single day, wake up to sleep, because I wanted to make it happen.

Im young, I had no prior experience in this market, and my intention was far from ruining it and fucking off, as you so aptly put it.

The fact of my situation is I was a kid who wanted to have a bit of fun playing the market over the summer, and continue if I could self sustain.

Unfortunately, I was starting to feel scared, wont be going into details, but THAT is why I stopped selling, THAT is why I sold all of my pets for dirt, not because evil greedy banker Tablo wasnt making enough millions, but because inexperienced Teenager Tablo was between a rock and a hard place.


And ultimately while the gambling service was about making money at its core, it made me very happy to see people get their dream pet.


Edit:

And don't you dare tell me I was rigging my gamble with your "gamble" quote because I went out of my fucking way to make sure everybody knew it was random.

When an economy is maintained based on price fixing and price moderation and monopoly would it not just be a false economy? Perhaps the blame should be placed on everybody responsible, rather than using just one guy as a scapegoat?

Also, some unlucky individuals did not get their money's worth even by your (in most cases wildly overpriced compared to what they actually sold for even before I started selling) price guide.

One unlucky individual spent over 400 dollars going for a pet that you would have sold for 200, some people got lucky and got that 100 dollar fae draik (there is absolutely no way this pet would sell for 300)

but a majority of the time people would take 3-4 rolls to get the pet they wanted, or 150-200$.

[parakeet]

If changes are being made to the guide, might I suggest using /~Za as a base for some pets? That seems to be the guide that most people use now.

The problem with that is /~Za indicates tiers and popularity, not how many UCs are out there. There are way less Hallo Wockies than Baby Kougras.

[Cheese]

The problem with that is /~Za indicates tiers and popularity, not how many UCs are out there. There are way less Hallo Wockies than Baby Kougras.

I think popularity definitely has the edge over rarity though. A lot of the rarer pets are rare because no one wanted them pre conversion and still nobody wants them now. However, a lot of popular pets are also very common so pricing them higher seems illogical.

I think Ryans guide is good for the most part. I'm very impatient though so I typically price my pets lower so they sell. But if you look at other sites, the prices are hella higher. I don't think too much of it should change because people are already buying them cheap as it is.

[Bettser]

To go back to the original post because I have no idea about who sells what really...

UCs can't and shouldn't be priced the same. An item is an item; if you buy a Ghostkerbomb from Seller A or a Ghosterkbomb from Seller B, the only difference is safety of the item. Thankfully the mods here do their best to ensure all sellers are selling safe items, unless otherwise noted. Same with NC and NP.

However, my UC Grey Cybunny and your UC Grey Cybunny are different. They have different names, different ages, and likely are different levels of "safe." There's also no way to cap it--my idea of VBN is XXCYBUNNIEXX but yours might be XXCYBUNN1E3XX_X2.

As a couple of people mentioned, this is also an issue of supply and demand. Less people are on Neo and more people are afraid of buying UCs now. Not to mention more people are quitting so they're selling off their UCs. There's an influx of UCs in the market and not as many people to buy them.
@(you need an account to see links)'s guide still lists UCs as WAY cheaper than other sites out there. And as he mentioned, before you even get to the guide you have to read/scroll past the disclaimer. Guides and rules are different. Maybe the guide needs to be updated, but I bet you sellers will want to make a fast buck and that $15 UC Baby Kougra just became $7.

The guide is based on prices for VWN pets. Other factors such as not being vwn (WN-VBN) , pc known, active, BD stats, etc would of course either cause the price to go up or down.

[Drizzy]

Despite what my paypal account said, I was making HUGE profit, and was NOT struggling to even break even.
I also continued because I was rolling in money, not because I felt forced to continue not to risk disappointing someone I considered a friend.

While as you put it, the gamble may indeed have damaged the market, however you paint me as a greedy sack of shit, while I actually made very little money out of that entire ordeal. (I sold pets I bought for around 2.2g or something for 1.1 or 1.2 because I knew I needed to get out before something happened to me)

HUHH???\
Don't make me read large as posts if you're just going to dribble and have your argument collapse on itself.

[Tablo]

HUHH???\
Don't make me read large as posts if you're just going to dribble and have your argument collapse on itself.

That was sarcasm, if I had said it aloud, It would have been clear, I was suggesting that I did not in fact make very much money for the time invested.

I'll write it black and white. I was not making money, I was struggling to break even, and I was working long days, all to avoid letting people down.

I'd like you to address the other parts of my post now that I've cleared that up.

And to clarify, I am not trying to undermine what I did, and if it was in fact mostly my fault that the market is shit now, I'm sorry for it.

If I knew things would have turned out like this, I wouldnt have done it in the first place.