Something needs to be done about scammers

[(PSN)nmt140]

This player has been on our (PS4) trade chat for at least a week now, and apparently he's already made about five sales.

I know that overpricing items is not strictly against the guidelines, but nobody deserves to get ripped off like this.

edit: credits to "fishboy" from our clan discord for picture

[kevoisvevo]

4 minutes ago, (PS4)nmt140 said:

This player has been on our (PS4) trade chat for at least a week now, and apparently he's already made about five sales.

I know that overpricing items is not strictly against the guidelines, but nobody deserves to get ripped off like this.

edit: credits to "fishboy" from our clan discord for picture

Free market is free market. Best you can do is redirect people to warframe.market and spread awareness.

[DeMonkey]

Free market.

[Deewor]

Honestly, if someone is dumb enough to not check market prices and SMA before buying something that's massively overpriced, that's on them.

[(PSN)nmt140]

2 minutes ago, Deewor said:

Honestly, if someone is dumb enough to not check market prices and SMA before buying something that's massively overpriced, that's on them.

I don't agree. Some people, especially new players don't know these resources exist. Not all of us are used to the Trade Chat or used to checking prices online.

[Deewor]

I mean, if they're not willing to do a basic 5 second google search to check the price of an item and just throw around plat willy nilly, new player or not, again that's on them. They don't need to be extensively knowledgeable about trade chat or WF market to use critical thinking skills and check before making a purchase.

[(PSN)nmt140]

If nobody is there to scam them, they won't get scammed. At the worst case they'll pay a bit more then one usually would.

"that's on them"

Just because someone gets scammed for rushing into a buy doesn't mean the seller is completely free of fault.

[MagPrime]

The only thing that can be "done" about them is to educate potential buyers that there are cheaper options.  It's a free market at work, people see the price and agree that the item is worth it, it's not up to you to keep them from making a bad choice.

[Berzerkules]

Overpricing stuff isn't really a scam. The seller set a price and if someone is willing to pay it that's their choice. 

 

[DeMonkey]

6 minutes ago, (PS4)nmt140 said:

that's on them

I mean, isn't it though? Value is determined by the buyer, not the seller. No one is being held at gunpoint to buy at a certain price.

On the plus side, people being overcharged are still getting their money's worth, it's just in life experience rather than actual goods.

What exactly do you expect DE to do? Interfering with the free market has consequences for everyone involved.

[Xaero]

Sorry, but I can't see a new console player instantly buying tons of plat with no discounts and then sitting in trade chat waiting for someone to offer something extremely overpriced. If there are cases where it actually happens, it can only mean these players have too much money to care.

[(PSN)nmt140]

I don't expect overpriced sellers to be kicked. 

20 minutes ago, DeMonkey said:

Interfering with the free market has consequences for everyone involved.

DE already has the official market where they decide how much everything costs.

They can control the prices of the player market already by deciding which frames get vaulted/unvaulted. Which frames/weapons get nerfed. What new items get revealed. DE has already interfered in the player market in the past.

A prime example of this is when they let Baro bring Primed Chamber to lower the prices of the few copies that were left.

The Warframe trading market isn't a free market, it's an illusion of a free market.

And in the end, all the platinum in circulation just goes back to DE. They're the ones profiting from this, by selling an imaginary product for a very real price.

 

I don't expect DE to interfere overtly, but I think some sort of tool should be implemented that explains newer players to the trade chat, not just something along the lines of "Players buy and sell here Tenno". An official warning of sort, that states not all prices may be fair or just, or following norms.

Even better would be a tool that measures average market price, something that is accessible in game. 

I want DE to have a more active hand in the "free" market, not by controlling the market itself, but educating its buyers and sellers.

 

[taiiat]

so uh, where was the scam, exactly?
you used a scary looking Thread title, but then the actual Thread was... essentially blank.

4 minutes ago, (PS4)nmt140 said:

DE already has the official market where they decide how much everything costs.

correct, and the prices of things from the ingame store is a massive influence on the perceived value of Plat between Players. it's essentially the Gold to this made up zero value Currency. it anchors it to something for everyone to base their view off of.

outside of that, it's a free market. yes, it is. if you insist that it isn't, i don't think you really get what that actually is.

[DeMonkey]

7 minutes ago, (PS4)nmt140 said:

DE already has the official market where they decide how much everything costs.

An official market that doesn't sell the same items as the player market.

How much a fruit vendor wants to sell their fruit for is irrelevant to the hot dog vendor in the next stall.

9 minutes ago, (PS4)nmt140 said:

I want DE to have a more active hand in the "free" market, not by controlling the market itself, but educating its buyers and sellers

That sounds both uselessly vague and unfortunately naive. It's not DE's job to teach people common sense or life lessons. People will get ripped off in life, people will learn from it.

[Aldain]

17 minutes ago, DeMonkey said:

I mean, isn't it though? Value is determined by the buyer, not the seller. No one is being held at gunpoint to buy at a certain price.

Well there is the theory of artificial scarcity that can flip the value to the seller's side, though that doesn't apply here where supply is theoretically/actually infinite.

The only way to address this is to undersell the scammer in question, generally scam sellers will get rather irate if you undercut them and that can lead to some heated words that can...be used against them so to speak.

5 plat says that if anyone would have said "Ignis Wraith Free PM for a BP" shortly after that posting there would have been an insane amount of hateful posts from the seller in question.

Basically the way to counteract these people is to take a personal loss on things to make their scams insanely obvious, should they threaten or harass you for it, send along the logs to DE since that goes against the TOS, bing bang boom problem solved. I've had this happen to me at least twice on the Switch version, you should see how creative the hatemail gets.

A petty solution to be sure, but always a hilarious one.

[Xaero]

15 minutes ago, (PS4)nmt140 said:

DE already has the official market where they decide how much everything costs.

Not everything, but yeah, talk about scam and overpricing.

[Aldain]

1 minute ago, Xaero said:

Not everything, but yeah, talk about scam and overpricing.

DE really should just remove those, I can't imagine anyone actually buying them.

They are just...tasteless.

[Xaero]

1 minute ago, Aldain said:

DE really should just remove those, I can't imagine anyone actually buying them.

They are just...tasteless.

Yeah, and it’s much closer to the real scam than what OP mentions.

[Aldain]

Just now, Xaero said:

Yeah! And it’s much closer to the real scam than what OP mentions.

80p for Serration (even at max rank) and 50 for an Ignis Wraith BP is still worse, but it is comparable I will admit.

[(PSN)Mofojokers]

This is a silly post.... over pricing is annoying but it's a FREE MARKET. I could charge 1000 plat for a overdrive and if someone pays it then that's just silly.

 

[Xaero]

3 minutes ago, Aldain said:

80p for Serration (even at max rank) and 50 for an Ignis Wraith BP is still worse, but it is comparable I will admit.

I mean, a regular player would likely trust the developer rather than another random player.

[Aldain]

Just now, Xaero said:

I mean, a regular player would trust the developer more than another random player.

True, though not many people will often be that desperate for credits in regular play, I'd imagine that people would be more likely to spend on something like a weapon or Warframe than just credits, especially since the credit bundle is slightly buried in the Store as-is.

Buyer beware is still in effect, the only difference is in how you counteract them, the credit bundles you just inform people that they suck, people selling an infinitely producible blueprint for 50 plat, just give them away for free.

[DrivaMain]

17 minutes ago, Xaero said:

Not everything, but yeah, talk about scam and overpricing.

Noob traps. I guess they forgot that those exist. They removed mod packs, why not this too?

and let’s not forget market relic packs because it’s falling into gambling territory

[Dhrekr]

57 minutes ago, (PS4)nmt140 said:

Just because someone gets scammed for rushing into a buy doesn't mean the seller is completely free of fault.

Of course not, the seller isn't free of fault - but it is a moral fault. Selling overpriced stuff is one of the greatest tricks of capitalism, it's despitable, and it's perfectly legal.

 

Now, of course, your suggestion would work without issues if first we get rid of capitalism, though...

[(PSN)ErydisTheLucario]

1 hour ago, (PS4)nmt140 said:

This player has been on our (PS4) trade chat for at least a week now, and apparently he's already made about five sales.

I know that overpricing items is not strictly against the guidelines, but nobody deserves to get ripped off like this.

edit: credits to "fishboy" from our clan discord for picture

Free market does what free market does...besides, all that player is doing if anything is making himself look foolish. No player would buy at such insane prices, and those kinds of players get laughed at anyway. I don't see the problem personally, because he/she is making an ass of themselves.