Should the new marketer be concerned?

[Ukase]

I can only say it's anecdotal, but I'm noticing that sales have slowed down a bit, particularly during the week. 

Myself, I've made my billions, and currently have NO characters with any open bids, or items for sale in the AH. Why? Well, I don't want to make any more characters just to hold inf, and have run out of room in my emails across all four accounts. 

I even stooped to buy converters to keep my farmers and flippers topped off. Paid less than 70k, too. Now they're all maxed out at 10k converters, poised to strike should the mood strike me. 

My more active marketing character had a bit of a lull in sales, it took a full week for 300 IOs to sell, contrasting with a couple of days. 
This is in part due to some competition, as someone deemed that my list price was too high, and they undercut me by 700k. 
I struggled with this. I have the resources to simply buy them all and relist them at what I deem to be the proper price, but that seems like a bad move. For starters, it fuels this upstart player with more influence to make more IOs and continue to undercut me. Secondly, it isn't the best thing for the community to have a higher price to pay. 

So, once those IOs sold, I simply stopped. It feels weird. And what's bugging me is it's not taking as long to level a character up, because I'm not crafting, converting, selling. Just plucking what I need from my base as I need it, or buying "now" what I don't have already made, or buying a substitute IO and using my merits to get converters to change the substitute IO into what I actually want. 

So, I have to wonder about any new player who seeks to market. I think there's still a way to eke out half a billion, if they have an understanding on how the market works, and if they know what to craft and what to list. But, I don't think they can do this in a day anymore, at least, not consistently. Possibly on the weekends. 

Maybe I'm wrong. I hope so. It could be fewer players, or maybe the players we have are now finally figuring out how to get what they want without paying my evil prices. 

[iBot]

Honestly I'm kinda surprised it has taken this long to get to this point.  For my inf I'd say there are a few factors at play here:

1. We haven't had a huge influx of new or returning players in quite a few months.  I base this mostly on recruiting.  A year or so ago we'd get 3 or 4 recruits a week asking about the SG.  Now maybe one a month if that. 
2. A good percentage of the player base is no longer outfitting new toons from the AH but rather stripping IOs off of unused toons or just, as you mentioned, using what they already have in their base.
3. More players now understand the path to getting the IOs they want and that isn't always the AH.  Effectively using merits and converters eliminates the need for buying that specific IO on the AH anymore.  Even getting the special ATO or WO is easier using the packs.

Personally I don't worry about the "new player" experience.  Would someone struggle to make billions with just the AH now as compared to a year ago?  Probably.  But going by my own experience I can say that it is entirely doable to just play the game and have enough inf for whatever builds you want.  It takes a little longer, but the end result is the same.  So just because the market isn't quite what it once was isn't a major concern.  It certainly has the potential to get there again if there were to be a sudden influx of new or returning players if/when the legal stuff ever gets sorted out.  For now I'd say enjoy your retirement 👍

[PeregrineFalcon]

Also, a LOT of people are taking a break from CoH and playing:

1. End of Dragons, which recently released.
2. Legacy of the Sith, which recently released.
3. Endwalker, which recently released.

[Without_Pause]

Honestly, once I get the final crafting badge for 2,000 inventions I am thinking of semi-retiring from the market.

 

1. I will have 3+ billion sitting once done.

2. While I opened 100 Winter packs, I have the vast majority of it as I only slotted two sets.

3. I have 14 level 50s. Many of whom I want to play and a number of them have full builds already done. One character has two.

4. It is taking me more and more energy to roll a new character.

5. Builds I do tend to be reasonable in pricing. I just made changes to a planned build which means 10 less purples.

 

This means by the sheer playing of my level 50s, crafting, and selling as needed, pretty much any build which needs IOs will have it without even touching the 3 billion. I counted out the converters I need for the badge. Merits go to other things now as drops will cover any number of converters I need. Granted, Merits more than covered converters already. I was just hell bent on using Merits for converters. I have a character sitting with 1k+ in Merits. Not sure how much of the pace of things have slowed down. I drop 10 stacks(100 bids) for recipes at a time and over the next days or how long they get filled, crafted, converted, and relisted. I'll get the badge soon enough and then it just using it as actually needed.

 

The best thing for the market is new power sets. New power sets mean new characters and Pages. Pages bring people.

[lemming]

Not sure.  I did play around with self outfitting a char recently as they leveled and managed to make a few hundred million easily enough, so I think it's still feasible for new players.   There's a definite flux to the market in that prices rise over the weekend.  Salvage & inspiration sales seem to indicate that fairly well.  When I notice my large inspirations selling for more than usual, selling enhancements tend to go for more as well.

 

I also don't tend to buy much via the market for the rest of my characters and tend to pass unused items to ones I'm currently outfitting.  Only stripped sets off of existing characters in the early days.

[Andreah]

There's definitely a lot more purchase volume over weekends.

[tidge]

There are a handful of niches that look like folks are flipping to drive up prices; folks can sell into those niches.

[Bionic_Flea]

Seems to me that the new marketer should be happy he/she doesn't have to compete with Ukase.

 

Enjoy your retirement, old man!

 

*scurries off to fill Ukase's niches*

[Andreah]

6 hours ago, tidge said:

There are a handful of niches that look like folks are flipping to drive up prices; folks can sell into those niches.

... and out-price the flippers. Fun all around!

[macskull]

On 3/29/2022 at 6:58 AM, Ukase said:

I can only say it's anecdotal, but I'm noticing that sales have slowed down a bit, particularly during the week.

At present I only have a small number of data points so there's actual data but not a lot - Saturday evening player count right now is down about 10% from what I was seeing in December, a couple weeks after page 3 was released.

 

On 3/29/2022 at 10:16 AM, Without_Pause said:

The best thing for the market is new power sets. New power sets mean new characters and Pages. Pages bring people.

This is true, but the spike in population lasts for maybe a month.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Well...

 

On the plus side there are still lots of opportunities for marketers.

 

On the down side, user demand is waning daily, so unless you are selling to marketers, it's difficult to maintain certain benchmarks.

 

I think it is still possible to make a billion inf profit from zero in 24 hours, but you'd really need to know what you are doing, and you'd have to do it on a weekend.  My days of raking in 2bn a day for an hour's work are long behind me.  But at the end of the day, all you need to know is how converters work.

[Ironblade]

On 3/29/2022 at 9:58 AM, Ukase said:

So, I have to wonder about any new player who seeks to market. I think there's still a way to eke out half a billion, if they have an understanding on how the market works, and if they know what to craft and what to list. But, I don't think they can do this in a day anymore, at least, not consistently. Possibly on the weekends.

Eh, no reason to get it done in a day.  My Ironblade on Reunion is using the market to self-fund his build.  I've bought all the low level stuff and his purples and HO's will cost about 330 million.  I've been buying trash recipes, crafting them and then converting in category to anything that will sell for 1 million or better.  I log in every few days and make about 20 million each time.  He's only level 33 and he's at about 160 million inf now.  He will easily hit the 330 million mark long before level 47 so . . .  good enough.  🙂

[UltraAlt]

On 3/29/2022 at 9:58 AM, Ukase said:

Maybe I'm wrong. I hope so. It could be fewer players, or maybe the players we have are now finally figuring out how to get what they want without paying my evil prices. 

1 hour ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

On the plus side there are still lots of opportunities for marketers.

 

[Troo]

On 3/29/2022 at 6:58 AM, Ukase said:

I've made my billions, and currently have NO characters with any open bids, or items for sale in the AH. Why? Well, I don't want to make any more characters just to hold inf, and have run out of room in my emails across all four accounts. 

 

you could try..

[Ukase]

So, I've just been playing a new-ish alt for about a week, and instead of letting the inf stack up, I've just been giving it away in small amounts to random teammates. I was a bit surprised to hear these folks "saving up" for this enhancement or that one. It's a place I guess I used to be at, but I don't remember ever really struggling for inf. In any event, there are a dozen or so more players who should have a team teleport if the chose to get one, with a little extra for whatever they felt like. 

All I've been doing is crafting and converting my drops and giving away the profits. Seems kind of silly, but I guess there are still a fair number of players who've just never gotten around to learning how to make inf the easy, but occasionally tedious way. 

[Andreah]

I often watch for subtle clues in team or general that folks are struggling to get basic things. I then send them a modest few millions and also offer to help them spend it wisely and how to earn more on their own. Sometimes people take me up on it, and become able to fund their fun on their own. A couple even become billionaire later on. It's not hard. Although it would be harder if everyone were doing it. :D

[Solvernia]

On 3/29/2022 at 9:58 AM, Ukase said:

Myself, I've made my billions, and currently have NO characters with any open bids, or items for sale in the AH. Why? Well, I don't want to make any more characters just to hold inf, and have run out of room in my emails across all four accounts. 

I even stooped to buy converters to keep my farmers and flippers topped off. Paid less than 70k, too. Now they're all maxed out at 10k converters, poised to strike should the mood strike me. 

 

Wow, can I have some inf?

Edited April 1, 2022 by Solvernia

[Ukase]

Of course you may. How much you want? 

 

 

 

 

 

Note the date. It is April 1st!

[Without_Pause]

I was on a team today doing missions in Atlas and both other players mentioned having under 500 on them. I was on a newer character myself, and I just email enhancements as needed, so they were poor as well. At some point I should toss come currency around on my guys so they can help other players out. Granted, I should toss some currency on guys just to get some of the TP options opened. I delete guys too often so I feel like they have to earn that.

[Monty Haull]

Something similar happened to me.  I gave a set of Winter IOs and Ragnarok.  I have so many Purples in my base that I'll never use.  

 

When I get tired or disappointed in a build I pretend it's Thor and I am Odin.  I deem the character unworthy and strip them of their power.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Rugor

[Ironblade]

On 3/31/2022 at 10:33 PM, Ukase said:

I was a bit surprised to hear these folks "saving up" for this enhancement or that one. It's a place I guess I used to be at, but I don't remember ever really struggling for inf.

It's a pretty big gap between having to plan how you spend your inf and having more than you can ever spend.  And while it may not be a difficult transition to make in terms of funds if you apply yourself, it can be a huge step in terms of mindset.

 

Back in the day, on Infinity, I was duoing with a friend because they wanted to hit 50 that night.  It was going to be their first 50 on Infinity and the first 50 in their SG.  We played, they dinged 50, then started talking about their inf situation.  They explained that most of their characters (and money) were on Virtue so they planned to move about half their available funds to this character for their final build.

 

I asked them how much that was going to be and they said they had about 100 million on Virtue so they would move about 50 million over for this character.  I opened a trade window and offered them 100 million inf.  They hesitated and asked, "Are you sure?"  I explained that 100 million was 5% of what I had just on that character.

 

From my viewpoint, that was an excellent use of that inf.  The recipient was excited to be able to do a better build then they had expected and would have some left over for their next character.  If I had kept it, it would just have been gathering dust in the Scrooge McDuck vault.

[Andreah]

20 hours ago, Ironblade said:

From my viewpoint, that was an excellent use of that inf.  The recipient was excited to be able to do a better build then they had expected and would have some left over for their next character.  If I had kept it, it would just have been gathering dust in the Scrooge McDuck vault.

Sometimes it's a hard decision for me, whether and how much I gift to a specific person. I'll give almost anyone, say, ten million, at the drop of a hat, and provided I think they actually don't have enough. They may be ecstatic for getting it, but they'll soon discover it doesn't go very far unless it's rationed out carefully. Some people require that sense of needing more to motivate to play, and I would not want to gift them so much they would not feel that motivation any more. 

[GrumpyMonk]

On 3/31/2022 at 8:33 PM, Ukase said:

So, I've just been playing a new-ish alt for about a week, and instead of letting the inf stack up, I've just been giving it away in small amounts to random teammates. I was a bit surprised to hear these folks "saving up" for this enhancement or that one. It's a place I guess I used to be at, but I don't remember ever really struggling for inf. In any event, there are a dozen or so more players who should have a team teleport if the chose to get one, with a little extra for whatever they felt like. 

All I've been doing is crafting and converting my drops and giving away the profits. Seems kind of silly, but I guess there are still a fair number of players who've just never gotten around to learning how to make inf the easy, but occasionally tedious way. 

That's all I've ever done.  I can get a room io'd out this way by the time I reach 50, if not fully Purpled out.

[Golden Azrael]

On 4/2/2022 at 4:25 AM, Ukase said:

Of course you may. How much you want? 

 

 

 

 

 

Note the date. It is April 1st!

 

A billion is always nice. 🙂

 

Good initial post.  Thought provoking.

 

I think when the next patch drops (and it should drop like a truck) it will bring players back and the market will go into over drive again.

 

We've got a 'growing base' of players who've probably reached a plateau of knowledge to do 'enough' to get what they want done.

 

Azrael.