Camper

My impression of the general market consensus was that purples would drop rapidly in price because all the people would be playing their level 50s instead of killing monkeys. Turns out we were right.

I bought the Science one.

The best and least destructive way to lower prices would be for the devs to increase the drops rates. You wouldn't have to mess with the market that way.

I'm not sure it's really worth doing though.

Another_Fan is very, very certain he's right about everything. It's one of his strongest character traits. I've never seen him admit any doubt about anything, let alone admit to being wrong.

I make a specific point of going to get a book or something. Otherwise I'll start killing myself for fun or running around like a maniac. It's just that boring.

I think his point about looking at a picture of a starving child to remind yourself of what real trauma looks like before getting all upset about things is well taken. It wouldn't hurt a lot of us to have a picture like that in mind once and awhile.

It's actually connected to Thanksgiving. Remembering to give thanks for things now and again is a good way to deal with life's little frustrations and disappointments. It's a mindset I wish I could remember to connect with more often.

Happy Thanksgiving folks. This year, I'm thankful that this forum is filled with so many great people. Compared to some other game forums on the internet it's quite nice.

Another white knight, riding in to defend the mythical "casual player". If you've seen one, you've seen them all. Funny how these paladins of the market and protectors of the weak are never actually "casual players" themselves. They just feel the need to roll out the "casual player" strawman to make their (highly predictable) points.

I am a heavy user of stamina and have it on almost every one of my characters, so I suspect that over time I will respec all of them. The good news is that I don't see any huge reason to hurry in most cases, because the characters are fine the way they are. I will probably do something like one or two respecs a week, since that's about all I can tolerate.

I'm starting to get it now, I think. Another_Fan sees manipulation everywhere, apparently. I just don't see it that way at all. I'm not sure either of us has the time, energy or ability to convince one another of each other's position.

I'm just not predisposed to see conspiracies when I can envision another explination.

I'm having a little bit of trouble understanding what Another_Fan's point is, beyond disliking what he/she perceives to be the groupthink of the market regulars.

Correct if I'm wrong here, but are you saying that people can and do work common salvage for profit on a regular basis? Or is there some other point I am missing? Besides the anti-"market regulars" content of the posts, which I can very clearly see.

Personally, I've never asserted that cornering of common salvage doesn't happen. Of course it happens. I tried it myself. What I have asserted is:

1) It's not a good way to generate profits. The effort to reward ratio is completely out of wack. I can make a lot more money flipping purples recipies with a lot less effort.

2) It's hard to make any money cornering something like common salvage. Under normal circumstances the incoming supply is just coming in too fast for make it practical to corner common salvage for long.

3) People ascribe all kind of normal market activity, price moves and shortages to the action of people playing the market, but in my opinion most of the time it's just the normal action of the market. The market isn't nearly as nefarious as some people make it out to be.

4) Traditional flipping (as opposed to cornering) doesn't do much to change prices one way or another. I've flipped all kinds of stuff, never tried to drive up prices except as an experiment, and never felt any need to drive up prices to make money. I make all my money by buying near the bottom price and listing just below the top price.

One of the reasons I like Thanksgiving is that it's not a giant hype-fest that revolves around shopping. It's mostly about family, eating and giving thanks, at least ideally. It's just not as interesting to make an event out of as Halloween, Christmas or Valentine's Day. Which is a good thing, I think.

The new market is certainly way better than the old red market was. I never understood what Posi was talking about, so I can't help you with that question.

Part of the low supply issue with salvage is that the ToT mobs don't drop salvage, so things are a little weird right now. That obviously doesn't explain whatever's going on with Ceramic Armor, but it could explain some other shortages.

Alkirin strikes me as one of those people who should try flipping a few items him or herself in order to see how it really works.

I've never successfully made any money by attempting to manipulate or drive up the price of an item, and I have tried to do it a few times as an experiment.

I have, however, made a ton of money by buying at slightly above the bottom price for an item and listing at slightly below the top price. This is so easy to do that there's no reason to try to manipulate prices except as an experiment.

I have a Freebird +Stealth and shadowfall on a /dark corrupter, and it does in fact make you invisible. It also works with the stealth power in storm (who's name escapes me at the moment).