28 replies to this topic

[necospes]

Just now, I was offered a "Cloud Charm" for an item on my TP that's worth about ~200k NP. I have no idea what this "Cloud Charm" is, so I look around on the TP to gauge the price (it's not found on the shop wizard). To my surprise, people are asking for 3-5m! This guy is overpaying me by over tenfold!

Of course, I am the ever skeptic, so I look up the price on JellyNeo and the item database here to find that the "Cloud Charm" is actually worth ~25k. So really, this guy is just trying to scam me.

What are some of your scam stories?

[wtfints]

Yea. neoboard says someone bought all of these and tries to inflat them.

[Scot]

I don't see any on the shop wizard and the item is r99. Someone probably bought them all and inflated the price.

Apparently that user is also offering this on other's lots too.

[Claws]

Someone offering an item for yours which is worth less isn't a scam. It's only a scam if they say "Hey this item is worth 10 Mil! Accept now since this is a one item offer!" Then you check the SW and see it there for 50K.

[Scot]

Someone offering an item for yours which is worth less isn't a scam. It's only a scam if they say "Hey this item is worth 10 Mil! Accept now since this is a one item offer!" Then you check the SW and see it there for 50K.

I don't think you understand what is going on.

Item is worth 25k.

1 person or a group of people buy them all up and put it on the TP and price them as 2.5m.

They overbid on lots worth less and hope the person checks the price on the TP.

They check the price and see that all the Cloud Charms have a 2.5m asking price and thinks it's worth 2.5m.

Their greed overcomes them and they accept a worthless item.

*They are smart enough to use a worthless but r99 item so it rarely stocks.



Doing this is freezable, btw.

Also
http://www.neopets.c...topic=147937822

[wtfints]

what if the prices doesn't comes down, or just a little.

[Shampoo]

still not a scam
if they own the entire supply of that item, it is now "worth" whatever price they set. this is how monopolies work.

[Claws]

I don't think you understand what is going on.

Item is worth 25k.

1 person or a group of people buy them all up and put it on the TP and price them as 2.5m.

They overbid on lots worth less and hope the person checks the price on the TP.

They check the price and see that all the Cloud Charms have a 2.5m asking price and thinks it's worth 2.5m.

Their greed overcomes them and they accept a worthless item.

*They are smart enough to use a worthless but r99 item so it rarely stocks.



Doing this is freezable, btw.

Also
http://www.neopets.c...topic=147937822

I'm pretty sure that would fall more under False Inflation rather than scamming.

[annddd]

Someone offering an item for yours which is worth less isn't a scam. It's only a scam if they say "Hey this item is worth 10 Mil! Accept now since this is a one item offer!" Then you check the SW and see it there for 50K.

yeah...those guys always cheat those new account and they don't know how complicated on Neopets.

[Scot]

what if the prices doesn't comes down, or just a little.

You'd be hardpressed to sell it if you got your hands on one. There is virtually no demand for this item. It's one of the easiest r99s to get so any serious collector would have it by now. And it stocks at the same frequency as TTear so I'm sure if any does restock they'll buy it up to hold their monopoly.

still not a scam
if they own the entire supply of that item, it is now "worth" whatever price they set. this is how monopolies work.

Monopolies work because they hold a key resource that is in high demand. This is neither.

I'm pretty sure that would fall more under False Inflation rather than scamming.

True, but we both know what the intention is.


Clarification: I just looked it up and it's not freezable.
http://www.neopets.c...torial&week=231

[Shampoo]

Monopolies work because they hold a key resource that is in high demand. This is neither.

demand or intrinsic value of the resource is irrelevant.

[Senrath]

demand or intrinsic value of the resource is irrelevant.

The thing is that if someone has a monopoly on something that no one wants then, well, they have a worthless monopoly.

[Hydrange]

Same happened with one of those neohome items they sell in the garden shop, they were like 6k and suddenly someone bought them all, there is not a single one on SW. I had one in my Neohome and sold it for a nice price on my shop. I didn't want to go too high or they'll think it's me who is inflating the item.

[ThreeDollarBill]

When my main was one week old I got a Halloween Paint Brush from Test Your Strength. Asked 1.65M at the TP and got offered 2 Baby PBs and 500k, so I immediately accepted. Sometime soon I put on trade each Baby PB + a bonus gourment food, asking 600k for each or an ETS item.
Suddenly, some guy offered a Silver Blumaroo Plushie for one of the PBs, saying that I could make lots of profit, and stuff. I checked at the TP, and the only Silver Blumaroo Plushie there was asking 2M. I got really tempted and, stupidly enough, accepted.
Five minutes later, I checked the TP, and the lot that was asking 2M for the plushie got down so I immediately thought "stupid me, got scammed".
Soon enough, another guy offered a Summer Usul Music Box, or something like that, for my last PB. The only lot with that item was asking 3.5M for it, but I learned my lesson and refused.
I ended up trading my PB + 400k for a complete Secret Laboratory Map set... so basically, I horribly wasted that lucky strike at Test Your Strength, since Lab Ray sets are really cheap right now =/

[Senrath]

Someone just tried this on me. Offered 3 Globe Lamps for my Aisha Transmogrification Potion. The nerve of some people.

[necospes]

still not a scam
if they own the entire supply of that item, it is now "worth" whatever price they set. this is how monopolies work.

Getting people to sell their items for worthless items seems like a scam to me. They may be able to set the price at 3m, but until someone buys at that price, 3m is not how much the item is worth.

[moopie]

Hi TNT, I have a question about inflating. Let's say that someone (just one person) bought all of an item off the Wiz and put them on the TP for more than unbuyable. Would that be okay? I know it's not if it's multiple people, but what about a single person? Thanks. ~a1m
We have said before that anyone is free to buy any quantity of an item, as long as they in no way encourage (or "hint") to others that they should help to inflate the item. While this still holds true, please tread carefully when purposefully inflating items. Are you sick of hearing about "intention" yet? Too bad! ;D Before you buy up lots of items, consider your intention. Are you simply investing, or is your mind following a more sinister course? One thing that would throw you out of any grey area into downright scamming is this scenario: You buy up all of one item and begin to sell them via the Trading Post, getting offers for more than what you paid. You're still okay at this point because you are in no way misrepresenting the item, and demand will dictate the final sale price. While we hardly encourage it, it does fall within our rules. Now say you put several of them on the Trading Post for 500k (even though no one is buying at that price) and then offer one of them for trade on a paint brush that is worth 500k. The seller of that item sees your others on the post and assumes they really are worth 500k and accepts your offer... you have officially become a scammer. There is a line (fine as it may be) between inflation for investment and inflation for the purpose of scamming. Please don't cross it.

From editorial #306

So in short, it is a scam. You should report him. (:

Edited by moopie, 16 July 2011 - 05:02 PM.

[necospes]

Hi TNT, I have a question about inflating. Let's say that someone (just one person) bought all of an item off the Wiz and put them on the TP for more than unbuyable. Would that be okay? I know it's not if it's multiple people, but what about a single person? Thanks. ~a1m
We have said before that anyone is free to buy any quantity of an item, as long as they in no way encourage (or "hint") to others that they should help to inflate the item. While this still holds true, please tread carefully when purposefully inflating items. Are you sick of hearing about "intention" yet? Too bad! ;D Before you buy up lots of items, consider your intention. Are you simply investing, or is your mind following a more sinister course? One thing that would throw you out of any grey area into downright scamming is this scenario: You buy up all of one item and begin to sell them via the Trading Post, getting offers for more than what you paid. You're still okay at this point because you are in no way misrepresenting the item, and demand will dictate the final sale price. While we hardly encourage it, it does fall within our rules. Now say you put several of them on the Trading Post for 500k (even though no one is buying at that price) and then offer one of them for trade on a paint brush that is worth 500k. The seller of that item sees your others on the post and assumes they really are worth 500k and accepts your offer... you have officially become a scammer. There is a line (fine as it may be) between inflation for investment and inflation for the purpose of scamming. Please don't cross it.

From editorial #306

So in short, it is a scam. You should report him. (:

Wow. Nice clarification! What TNT said is exactly how I feel about this situation. It may seem a little bit like inflation, but it really is just a scam.

[Shampoo]

Getting people to sell their items for worthless items seems like a scam to me. They may be able to set the price at 3m, but until someone buys at that price, 3m is not how much the item is worth.

I put worth in quotation marks because it is a poor word choice as it implies some sort of intrinsic value. In a market "worth" never comes into play, price is all that matters.
When you have the power to set price in a market, if someone wants to buy they buy at your price, regardless of the "worth".

if TNT were to intervene by freezing that person, they would be effectively removing the supply of the item from the game, which causes more damage than allowing the monopoly

[necospes]

I put worth in quotation marks because it is a poor word choice as it implies some sort of intrinsic value. In a market "worth" never comes into play, price is all that matters.
When you have the power to set price in a market, if someone wants to buy they buy at your price, regardless of the "worth".

if TNT were to intervene by freezing that person, they would be effectively removing the supply of the item from the game, which causes more damage than allowing the monopoly

Sure, they have the power to set the price to whatever they want. The problem is that no one will wittingly buy at that price. Furthermore, they make it seem like people will buy at that price by posting on the TP saying they will buy Cloud Charms at 3.5m. Their intention is clearly to trick and rip people off.

I doubt freezing that person would have any significant damage on the Neopets economy. IMO, getting rid of scammers is more important.

[talbs]

LOL @ a website full of cheaters that want people frozen because they are cleverly manipulating the system to their benefit

Not the sellers fault that people are dumb enough to accept

[moopie]

LOL @ a website full of cheaters that want people frozen because they are cleverly manipulating the system to their benefit

Not the sellers fault that people are dumb enough to accept

Most people would check the trading post and shop wizard to price check an item they don't know the price of. I don't think it's fair to label them 'dumb'. (And you're forgetting the site is mostly populated by 12 year old children.)

As a reseller, I don't tell someone that an item was worth more or less than it really is. I would buy MPs at a discounted/quicksale price, but the difference is the seller is aware that they are selling it for a lot lower than it can actually go for. That's cleverly manipulating the system to their benefit. Putting a bunch of the same items on TP a few million nps higher than what they're worth is basically saying to the seller, "buy me, I'm not worthless!" when it really is. By worthless, I'm talking about low demand.

If it means anything, I use programs but I never scam actual players out of their nps/items (CGing, FLPs, the likes). It might sound like the same thing, but I'd personally feel bad about doing the latter. ):

[Docshroomed]

LOL @ a website full of cheaters that want people frozen because they are cleverly manipulating the system to their benefit

Not the sellers fault that people are dumb enough to accept

Seconded.
People, it's Neo Fucking Pets. At least give credit to these people for doing some smart shit, most people just leech of AB and SS. Just play smart and you'll be fine.

[Chalk]

I put worth in quotation marks because it is a poor word choice as it implies some sort of intrinsic value. In a market "worth" never comes into play, price is all that matters.
When you have the power to set price in a market, if someone wants to buy they buy at your price, regardless of the "worth".

if TNT were to intervene by freezing that person, they would be effectively removing the supply of the item from the game, which causes more damage than allowing the monopoly

If there is a clear demand then couldn't TNT just increase the supply, i.e. random events/more restocking? I'm pretty sure TNT has a control on their production of a certain item.