Buy Packs or Save PP (stay away from AH)

[Charlatan]

Originally Posted by pappyzan

Yeh agreed, Charlatan is a good guy.

But there's many more players in the GW2 player base than PT. I like how GW2 handles the AH, but this idea would effectively kill the AH in PT. PT player base just isn't large enough to warrant it, it's only like maybe 4000 individual players. The GW2 player base is still plenty strong nearly 7 years after release, no idea what it is now, but bound to be waaay more than PT.

I love you guys too!

Ok, I take it back. Having a much smaller playerbase does mean the listing fee idea would be a bad one. Let's all just pretend I didn't say that.

Meanwhile, some of you guys ripping all those packs please list your historical cards on the AH. But wait until I get home from work. Thanks!

[Goliathus]

Originally Posted by Charlatan

There are an awful lot of people who have the attitude of "eh, I've got the PP and I really want this card, so I'm buying it now"

Which is why I said buyer usually wins. Also, for the "AH players", high price doesn't affect them since they are both the buyer and seller. They can just spend the high profit they earned on above-market-price cards.

[Morug]

Its time to have deal on PP or packs...more promotion on cards packs and PP acquisition ...thats dont help too.

[GlassGuyBob]

People are delusional if they think the AH is overpriced. Even if some prices are slightly up, you do much better buying individual cards. The EV on packs is terrible.

The fact that the players you want are going up is almost certainly a market correction. You want to buy them too so obviously the demand is real.

[allenciox]

It is not a surprise that listing prices are going up; fewer cards are being listed on AH so the supply has dropped without a decrease in demand; so prices increase.

I think part of it is that whales bought a lot of PP in the first couple of months, which led to a lot of pack opening, and then dumping on the AH. Now the whales mostly have the cards they want, and they see no need to pump more real $ into the game --- so, in essence, the AH dries up.

Next time there a huge promotion, or when they release collections (and then, tournaments) that will prompt more spending on the game and the AH will spring back to life.

[waittilnextyear]

I get why some people become frustrated. For example, I saw a guy purchase gold Lou Boudreau for 11/12K and immediately re-list it for 14/15K last night. It's a thin profit this person is trying to make, but the Boudreau card is a good card that fits the popular defense+contact meta that many of us are using. This card has proven very useful up to and including Perfect level and so it is always in demand. One of the reasons I had my eye on it. Oh well.

But, I think the AH does a pretty nice job of setting standards for all of us. I couldn't really imagine a way to make it better (other than listing push-pull tendencies clearly for batters) without artificially modifying user behavior or making it way more complex/byzantine than it needs to be. As a F2P'er, buy low/sell high has been the lifeblood of my team. I always try to make a profit after the 10% commission although sometimes I'll turn my nose up at 100 PP here or there to expedite things. It really does come down to patience and your ability to wait or not wait to buy/sell (but just look at my forum name, I guess). I don't mind trying a higher price, waiting, trying a slightly lower price, waiting etc. Those 7-day and all-time averages are just tools, not actual sticker prices and nobody is obligated to list the cards you want for a price you dictate. As anyone will rightly explain, each card is worth what any one given user is willing to pay for it in that transaction. Whether that's a couple thousand PP above the usual or not.

The prices for some cards are going up as those cards find a bigger following/more demand. One good example is the gold Darin Erstad card that has become the regular left-fielder for my Frogs. This card was going for 3K PP a few weeks ago and is now closing in on 6K PP. It's fine by me because it's a good card that plays elite defense, has good contact, and better power against same-sided pitching. As people find these "gems" the prices are bound to go up. The trick is being an AH "hipster" and finding these before they become cool/hot and thus, expensive.

[Argonaut]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

The prices for some cards are going up as those cards find a bigger following/more demand. One good example is the gold Darin Erstad card that has become the regular left-fielder for my Frogs. This card was going for 3K PP a few weeks ago and is now closing in on 6K PP. It's fine by me because it's a good card that plays elite defense, has good contact, and better power against same-sided pitching. As people find these "gems" the prices are bound to go up. The trick is being an AH "hipster" and finding these before they become cool/hot and thus, expensive.

Haha, I'm glad I got my Erstad before you made this post. Though I paid closer to 6k than 3k I'm sure. Now the price is bound to go to 8k. He's a legitimate 5-tool player.

I do think the market is overvaluing defense a bit much, and undervaluing hitting. I'd rather have a 70-75 defender in the corner positions if he's better with the bat. But a lot of people seem to be looking for full-blue bars in every position.

We'll see how it all shakes out. I only hope for more market supply because it makes the game more fun to choose from a wide variety of players.

[<Pion>]

Originally Posted by GlassGuyBob

People are delusional if they think the AH is overpriced. Even if some prices are slightly up, you do much better buying individual cards. The EV on packs is terrible.

The fact that the players you want are going up is almost certainly a market correction. You want to buy them too so obviously the demand is real.

Don't know about others, but all of my initial comments were in comparison to what was seen in PT19. There was no widespread correction in PT19 but rather it followed a downhill trend with prices starting high and after a few weeks dropping to a low point until the day PT20 was released. At that time when the AH dried up in PT19, prices adjusted back up as there was market could withstand and support the higher price. With PT20, they started out high in a similar fashion but stayed higher longer (I believe) than what I remember in PT19 before finally starting to drop, but drop (again what it appeared to me) at a slower rate than it did in PT19. But then we currently are seeing a correction back up at this time which I don't recall ever happening to any great extent in PT19. As a result, the AH in PT20 has been a quite different animal than PT19.

I certainly would never question the demand because it is demand that many times is the direct reason behind a mostly market wide increase. It was my further speculation that this demand is driven by the possible future of collections and tourneys. So since the 2nd week of PT20, I've mentioned at various times of the possible effect of collections and tourneys on the AH.

As for whether things are overpriced, that depends on which way you look at it. There are many players that are the same players (or nearly so) as they were in PT19, and yet the PT20 price is much higher than they are in PT20. Mike Scott and Koufax '66 as well as Joe Jackson come to mind. The reason may be that their ratings are higher in PT20, when I get time I'll double-check. But players that were in the 15K to 20K range in PT19 tend to run in the 25K to 40K range in PT20 still. Maybe time will drive them back down, and maybe tourneys and collections and scarcity will keep them higher.

[HRBaker]

The AH in PT20 has a lot more variables working on it. LIVE player changes, new card releases - there's bound to be variations in prices as the player database changes.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by HRBaker

The AH in PT20 has a lot more variables working on it. LIVE player changes, new card releases - there's bound to be variations in prices as the player database changes.

This is true. Also, we never had a summer season in 19, where people are distracted and traveling and may have stepped away from actively working the AH for a while. Someone said earlier that there may be another influx of pack openings at the all-star break sale and I agree with that. Until then, it might be a seller's market.