Winter Pack strategy

[Black_Assassin]

18 hours ago, Ukase said:

They will likely need to. Having nothing else to do with my inf, I intend to buy a ton of them, just for the merits. Gonna buy so many I won't even get to open them all and won't need to buy any next year. Like maybe 100 Billion worth. 

Or maybe I'll just buy all the enhancements on the AH. But that'd be a damn lot of clicking. 

 

if i had 100B i would do the same. I don't have 100B, but if i did...

[Yomo Kimyata]

33 minutes ago, Black_Assassin said:

 

if i had 100B i would do the same. I don't have 100B, but if i did...

 

All you have to do is make 5000 globals and send me 5000 requests for 20mm!

[iBot]

A little clever macro programming and the clicks could be automated.

[Black_Assassin]

4 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

All you have to do is make 5000 globals and send me 5000 requests for 20mm!

now that is a nefarious plan suitable of a monocle wearing ebil marketeer *twirls moustache*

[Ukase]

4 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

All you have to do is make 5000 globals and send me 5000 requests for 20mm!

Where do you think I got all the inf I have now? 

[0th Power]

On 11/29/2021 at 4:34 AM, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

All you have to do is make 5000 globals and send me 5000 requests for 20mm!

You might get suspicious at @0th Power4999...

[Andreah]

I'll make a bold, poorly thought out, and probably non-original suggestion to make winter packs account bound, and then put them on sale again at 10Million each.

 

For bonus points, don't tell people about the account binding. :D

[iBot]

19 hours ago, Andreah said:

I'll make a bold, poorly thought out, and probably non-original suggestion to make winter packs account bound, and then put them on sale again at 10Million each.

 

For bonus points, don't tell people about the account binding. 😄

Pure ebil... love it!

[Troo]

oopsie

 

20 hours ago, Andreah said:

account binding

 

what?!

[Andreah]

36 minutes ago, Troo said:

what?!

Okay, so how would I actually do this? There would be a few steps.

 

1.  Rename Winter Packs to Legacy Winter Packs. All of them, even in auction listings, emails, and inactive character inventories.
2.  Remove all seeded sell listings of Legacy Winter Packs.
3.  Seed in 10,000,000 buy orders for Legacy Winter Packs at 25 million each.
4.  Notify players their existing Legacy Winter Packs can no longer be bought, and should be either be opened or sold at this price within the next year.
5.  Create all-new account bound Winter Packs. These cannot be sold or traded, only opened or emailed to one's global handle.
6.  Seed in 10,000,000 sell order for these at 15 million each. (Sale price).
7.  At the conclusion of the Winter Event, reseed them at 25 million each.
8.  At the start of next year's Winter Event, remove the Legacy Winter Packs.

 

The point of this would be that player listed Winter Packs would no longer overlap and interfere with or be-interfered by the seeded ones. They would still give most players opportunity to get discounted winter pack drops during annual sales, and even to use this for money making by opening and selling the drops, but not purely from buying and relisting packs in mass numbers.

 

However, it's probably too much bother to be worth it, and the Coefficient of Ebility is fairly low and unsatisfying to the truly villainous among us.

[Jacke]

Kind of complicated by this.

 

[Greycat]

On 12/1/2021 at 11:25 AM, Andreah said:

However, it's probably too much bother to be worth it, and the Coefficient of Ebility is fairly low and unsatisfying to the truly villainous among us.

 

Not looking at it from a market standpoint, but from a "fun" standpoint... making these (or an alternate these) account bound would be horrible. While I pick up (and open!) quite a few, I also love dropping them on people at costume contests, middle of MSRs (or as part of a dropship bounty) and the like... which means they'd have to be tradeable.

[Andreah]

48 minutes ago, Greycat said:

Not looking at it from a market standpoint, but from a "fun" standpoint... making these (or an alternate these) account bound would be horrible. While I pick up (and open!) quite a few, I also love dropping them on people at costume contests, middle of MSRs (or as part of a dropship bounty) and the like... which means they'd have to be tradeable.

They're also more valuable as gifts when they're not on sale.

[Greycat]

3 hours ago, Andreah said:

They're also more valuable as gifts when they're not on sale.

 

I've yet to have anyone complain about getting one, on sale or off. There are still plenty of folks who don't even realize they exist.

[Andreah]

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

There are still plenty of folks who don't even realize they exist

True. I've explained in-game chats several times what they are, how they work, and where to buy them, for all three kinds of packs.

[Ukase]

On 12/1/2021 at 11:25 AM, Andreah said:

Okay, so how would I actually do this? There would be a few steps.

 

1.  Rename Winter Packs to Legacy Winter Packs. All of them, even in auction listings, emails, and inactive character inventories.
2.  Remove all seeded sell listings of Legacy Winter Packs.
3.  Seed in 10,000,000 buy orders for Legacy Winter Packs at 25 million each.
4.  Notify players their existing Legacy Winter Packs can no longer be bought, and should be either be opened or sold at this price within the next year.
5.  Create all-new account bound Winter Packs. These cannot be sold or traded, only opened or emailed to one's global handle.
6.  Seed in 10,000,000 sell order for these at 15 million each. (Sale price).
7.  At the conclusion of the Winter Event, reseed them at 25 million each.
8.  At the start of next year's Winter Event, remove the Legacy Winter Packs.

 

The point of this would be that player listed Winter Packs would no longer overlap and interfere with or be-interfered by the seeded ones. They would still give most players opportunity to get discounted winter pack drops during annual sales, and even to use this for money making by opening and selling the drops, but not purely from buying and relisting packs in mass numbers.

 

However, it's probably too much bother to be worth it, and the Coefficient of Ebility is fairly low and unsatisfying to the truly villainous among us.

I like the way you think, at least in this regard. 

Perhaps, they could be persuaded to simply not allow the packs to be relisted at all? If such a thing is possible. You buy 'em, you open 'em and resell the parts like a proper marketing genius, as opposed to the ...well, lazier marketing geniuses. Or give 'em away. That's not unheard of either. 

The idea is for them to be an inf sink, really. Not a money maker, right? Remember the reasoning behind the noXP, 2xinf removal; the bottom line between those who farmed and those who didn't was supposedly getting larger, not smaller.
Citation below: 

 

 

Now, what I find super interesting is there must be some internal tracking to determine the influence between those who farm, and those who don't. (or it could be a fair assumption, just comparing the inf earned from running missions for an hour, and then farming for that same hour. ) Either way, given that's a concern of theirs, it makes sense if they can prevent them from being relisted, or better yet, to be relisted for the same price you bought it for, if that's possible. You know, in case someone makes 1000 mistakes, lol. 
 

[Hardship]

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

The idea is for them to be an inf sink, really. Not a money maker, right? Remember the reasoning behind the noXP, 2xinf removal; the bottom line between those who farmed and those who didn't was supposedly getting larger, not smaller.

 

For the market as a whole, they are an influence sink, even when on sale.  It takes out 10M (or 15M) influence for each one you buy.

 

When one is purchased on the AH it just transfers influence that already exists (and take a cut in the form of a fee). No net gain in this case.  Minus X from the buyer, plus X (minus the fee) to the seller.

 

Both are influence sinks.

 

[Ukase]

What I am wanting is something like...say the Experienced power that we get in packs. Let us buy that - the inf is spent, and nothing replenishes it - it's vaporized. It doesn't improve my character's abilities to do anything, other than get rid of debt and possibly get XP 50% faster. (which I like)

The packs aren't really inf sinks. They're inf generators. When you buy them, either they make you influence by selling the stuff within, or they save you inf by using what's in them - brain storm ideas, catalysts, converters, etc. 

I do get what you're saying - it's a wash - one spends, the other gets it, less 10% fee. But, I would prefer they be used as intended - bought cheaply, and used. Not reposted. Granted, all that clicking gets tedious. And it's a smart, efficient way to get some easy inf, if you're patient. 

Probably a moot point. For whatever reason, word is - they may not ever go on sale again. 

[nihilii]

On 12/3/2021 at 5:39 AM, Ukase said:

The packs aren't really inf sinks. They're inf generators. When you buy them, either they make you influence by selling the stuff within, or they save you inf by using what's in them - brain storm ideas, catalysts, converters, etc. 

They really are influence sinks. Increasing the supply of catalysts or converters doesn't matter, because you don't buy catalysts or converters for influence at the vendor. At worst you could argue it transfers the influence sink from buying catalysts/converters from another player to buying a super pack, and/or that the increased supply results in a proportional decrease in prices for a net neutral influence sink (but this would assume a level of price elasticity I'm not sure is present, I think there's significant inertia to CoH prices).

The only thing that can generate inf is defeating enemies or selling items to vendors. With a Super Pack, inf is destroyed when you buy it, and inf is destroyed again if you flip it. For the economy as a whole it's actually better for a Pack to be flipped than simply bought at the standard price: ( 10% of 10M + 10% of ~20M ) > 10% of 25M

[Ukase]

Hmm...I hadn't actually thought about it like that. Thanks. I sit corrected. 

[dopeninja]

I had to go back and fix all my bids. I have had about 40B sitting in bids on the market since May or so. Life got stupid so I couldn't really play, then again most of the time I played the market more than anything else when I was on.

[Dazl]

Well I for one will be glad to see this sale come to an end. Part of my marketing strategy is the Winter IO's and this sale screws up the winter market for a few months.

Edited December 6, 2021 by Dazl

[Vanden]

The 10 Winter packs I had listed for 24,999,995 inf finally sold! Really came down to the wire, huh.

[Ukase]

I noticed just yesterday that the few hundred of player listed packs had finally sold, and the seeded ones had dropped to a couple hundred below the 10M available. (quantity, not price)

Now, as the patch goes on, I am wondering if the packs will go on sale. I was thinking they'd be "hot-fixed" over the weekend, not actually getting patched in. But, we'll soon see. I have literally billions in bids in place already. 

On one account, I plan to sink all the available inf into these packs - just to keep them in inventory, unopened, as a store of value, as my email is full of 999.999.999 stacks. Of course, perhaps smarter money would have just stashed them in bids of 10M or 14M on the AH. Still, I think every 15M pack on average will be worth over 30M, easily, in the long run. A tedious run, but profitable. 

 

[Without_Pause]

I dump currency into builds versus currency sitting around, so I consolidated currency from my main and a couple 50s I have been playing and bought 39. Might just wait for the market to go back to normal and resell them later on.