Always get a chuckle from the wretched capitalist excess

[Ty Cobb]

Seriously? Yasmani Grandal for 99K??? Giolito for 80K? Marcus Semien for a million?

Wow...I know a sucker is born every minute, but a bunch of the listings out there are insane today! One of y'all has a serious sticky key problem...

[Will_L]

I like to put my 40's on sale with the bid minimum of 5 and a buy now in the hundreds of thousands for a few hours.

[justpatrick]

Originally Posted by Ty Cobb

Seriously? Yasmani Grandal for 99K??? Giolito for 80K? Marcus Semien for a million?

Wow...I know a sucker is born every minute, but a bunch of the listings out there are insane today! One of y'all has a serious sticky key problem...

They might be hiding players on the AH so they can tank. Of course I have no way of knowing if it´s true, but it has been done. And of course, those guys aren´t going to be what you would call a key to your pennant run.

[Stevie Jay]

Originally Posted by justpatrick

They might be hiding players on the AH so they can tank. Of course I have no way of knowing if it´s true, but it has been done. And of course, those guys aren´t going to be what you would call a key to your pennant run.

This is a possibility.... I'm seeing about 90% of auctions priced well over market value. Not sure why but they can't be closing many of them can they?

[justpatrick]

Originally Posted by Stevie Jay

This is a possibility.... I'm seeing about 90% of auctions priced well over market value. Not sure why but they can't be closing many of them can they?

The ones that look really suspicious are the mid-level diamonds suddenly listed for hundreds of thousands more than their worth and with a long auction time. I wonder if anyone moderates the AH for that sort of thing,

[chiefilliniwek]

Whatever their game is, its stupid and OOTP should keep its eyes open for bad actors. There is a learning curve in PT and taking advantage of someone that is just starting out is wrong.

[Will_L]

Here's a good one: a 69 overall.
Rookie Sensation, SS Angel Berroa, KC, 2003: 100,000 Starting bid, 100,000,000 Buy it now. with 1d 13h left.

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by chiefilliniwek

Whatever their game is, its stupid and OOTP should keep its eyes open for bad actors. There is a learning curve in PT and taking advantage of someone that is just starting out is wrong.

Honestly I think this is less about finding suckers and more about finding "creative" ways to keep from being reported for tanking, or, possibly, a means of laundering PP from one account to another. Is there an option to report from the AH? If not, there should be.

[benderguy1]

Originally Posted by justpatrick

They might be hiding players on the AH so they can tank. Of course I have no way of knowing if it´s true, but it has been done. And of course, those guys aren´t going to be what you would call a key to your pennant run.

I'm pretty new to PT, so I apologize in advance if this is a dumb question -- what is the benefit of tanking? Why couldn't you just leave them on your inactive roster and do the same thing?

[MaroonAlberich]

Originally Posted by benderguy1

I'm pretty new to PT, so I apologize in advance if this is a dumb question -- what is the benefit of tanking? Why couldn't you just leave them on your inactive roster and do the same thing?

Because if they're on the inactive roster, people can see that you're deliberately playing subpar players in an attempt to get moved down a league or two. Putting them on the AH makes it a little more difficult, especially if the PT team doesn't keep an eye on that sort of thing in some manner. (I have no clue if they do or not; I'd like to think so, but that they stay quiet about it to make it a more effective way to catch tankers.)

[benderguy1]

Originally Posted by MaroonAlberich

Because if they're on the inactive roster, people can see that you're deliberately playing subpar players in an attempt to get moved down a league or two. Putting them on the AH makes it a little more difficult, especially if the PT team doesn't keep an eye on that sort of thing in some manner. (I have no clue if they do or not; I'd like to think so, but that they stay quiet about it to make it a more effective way to catch tankers.)

But what is the benefit of tanking? Just to stay down at a lower level and earn more PP by blowing out teams? I mean, you can make some good points that way, but not the type that will get you the cards that are going for ridiculous amounts on the AH like Jackie Robinson, Maddux, Clemens, Gibson etc.

[MaroonAlberich]

Originally Posted by benderguy1

But what is the benefit of tanking? Just to stay down at a lower level and earn more PP by blowing out teams? I mean, you can make some good points that way, but not the type that will get you the cards that are going for ridiculous amounts on the AH like Jackie Robinson, Maddux, Clemens, Gibson etc.

Some people just feel the need to dominate, no matter how they do it. (Psychologists might suggest overcompensation for some other well, shortcomings, but I'm not a psychologist.) But if you look at one of the more discussed tankers lately (NC Dinos), this is a team that doesn't go past Iron, if I recall. So yeah, they're beating up Stone, but then feel that they can't progress any further, even after racking up their PPs. So really, you're right: What exactly are they accomplishing?

[Syd Thrift]

If they get away with it for long enough eventually they use their ill gotten gains to rocket up into the Diamond leagues.

[dkgo]

Originally Posted by benderguy1

But what is the benefit of tanking? Just to stay down at a lower level and earn more PP by blowing out teams? I mean, you can make some good points that way, but not the type that will get you the cards that are going for ridiculous amounts on the AH like Jackie Robinson, Maddux, Clemens, Gibson etc.

You underestimate the benefit. It can be 200K+ PP per season in the low leagues. Usually once a season in perfect leagues I get a 35 run snowball game win for 20K points, someone with a diamond/perfect team in the lowest level will have several of those. Even in relegating years you can keep great offensive players and earn points with them.

A smart player is then investing those 200K into the auction house to flip cards and turn it into 300K. Every season at the bottom is like a fresh $100 bill used to seed PPs.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by dkgo

Usually once a season in perfect leagues I get a 35 run snowball game win for 20K points

Once each season?

[dkgo]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Once each season?

In PT20. There is almost always that one silly game where your opponent starts throwing position players and you score 20 runs in the last three innings and have two pages worth of achievements.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by dkgo

In PT20. There is almost always that one silly game where your opponent starts throwing position players and you score 20 runs in the last three innings and have two pages worth of achievements.

I have 55 playoff seasons in PT20, but I don't remember getting 20K points in a game 55 times. Maybe 6-8?

[benderguy1]

Originally Posted by dkgo

You underestimate the benefit. It can be 200K+ PP per season in the low leagues. Usually once a season in perfect leagues I get a 35 run snowball game win for 20K points, someone with a diamond/perfect team in the lowest level will have several of those. Even in relegating years you can keep great offensive players and earn points with them.

A smart player is then investing those 200K into the auction house to flip cards and turn it into 300K. Every season at the bottom is like a fresh $100 bill used to seed PPs.

Wow -- I've hit the 20+ run plateau a few times, I think 25 was my highest. I didn't realize there was such a huge reward for scoring 35.

Off-topic story of my journey so far:

Although my team has 9 seasons under its belt in PT, I've only been paying attention for the last three weeks.I opened my starter packs, put my team in place and forgot about it. I was lucky enough to make the playoffs in 3 of the 6 seasons I wasn't touching it. When I picked up the game and started playing, I was back in the Stone League for the 2nd time. Our first experience there in 2024, my team went 55-107 and we were buried in the Rookie League until they finally had a good playoff run and got promoted.

Since taking over the team, I spent two weeks in Stone making the playoffs both weeks (losing the WC game and losing in the Sub-League Series) and was promoted this week to Iron. My team is very good for the Iron level as I took the lump sum of accumulated points when I wasn't paying attention and bought Diamond and Historical Packs a few weeks ago when they were available. In hindsight, I probably should have taken the points and invested in the players that I really wanted. I pulled a bunch of golds but my biggest pull was a Negro Leagues Dick Lundy (85). I made a go of it in Stone with my couple of Diamonds, a lot of golds and a couple of Bronze (I got a great year out of Roger Cedeno 69 as a lead-off hitter). Eventually, I flipped for Lundy card for 27,000 and immediately used the points to improve my pitching.

I pulled Diamonds (Strasburg, Dick Bartell and Jack Flaherty) and I pulled one perfect (Acuna Jr) out of a regular pack last week. But completing the missions really helped me get a better overall lineup (at least for this level). Mostly I've been taking what I've earned in the AH and looking for deals on the players that I want. My biggest purchase was a Live Perfect deGrom that I got a good deal on (I'm a Mets fan, I had to have him).

As much as I'd love to start completing some of the Live division missions, the cost of Bronze and Silver cards needed to complete some teams is ridiculous right now (the name game missions have not helped that). I'm closest on the AL Central and AL East with three teams completed in each, but I'm not over-paying for pedestrian Yankee cards. I'm pretty close to finishing the White Sox and just need to complete the Twins after that. Without a doubt, the two missions that I completed that helped me the most were the D'Backs (Randy Johnson) and Astros (Jeff Bagwell). It appears 99.9% certain that I'll be heading to Bronze next week.

Thanks for listening...