The Lockpick Revolution Begins!

Like someone said before, it's a nice idea on paper but a few things come to my mind...

- An unstable market is fun for a part of the player base, it's like on the stock market. You buy and sell at the right time. Those players have some 100 ectos or even way more aside in the storage. Even if lockpicks would become the new best thing, it's just a small move to exchange some ectos in for lockpicks. Ectos will remain the currency of the big boys unless they get near the price of a lockpick.

- you get more than half the value from the merchant when selling ectos. Lockpicks equals a higher loss. I often don't wanne waste time buying or selling ectos from players so I certainly don't wanne waste time with lockpicks.

- ecto farmers are another part of the community. The feeling of getting an ecto drop is still unmatched. They will continue to use ecto to buy whatever even lockpicks.

- A 2 year habit of ecto use won't be changed overnight unless the price of an ecto gets really low.

- Everybody knows where ectos drop. In one place and it's possible to duo solo farm this place.

- lockpicks are pocket change compared with ectos, at least that's how I see it and I'm not even wealthy.

- When ecto prices drop, it influences everybody. With lockpicks, controlling alliances get a bonus. I don't see the pve playerbase jump in joy if pvp players would control part of the economy.

Just my thoughts.

Why not use Diamonds as currency then?

They're rare as fvck (totally kick ectos under the rug) and have no practical use.... ^_^

No...Merchant prices are fixed unless ArenaNet makes the change.

i sold a req9 crude shield inscriptable for 100k+135picklocks, buyer was a factions city owner and was kinda amused, said he will start using picklocks in his trades aswell

... o_0;;

A Crude Shield?

But they're core to all three campaigns and common as muck! ...
I know this is a bit Off Topic ... but still. I merched a Req 9 inscribable Crude Shield the other day... same as I do with all the other gold shields I get except for that Kappa Shield, which I kept because it was pretty...

crude shields common? since when? we're talking about gold crudes here. if u sold a r9 inscr one to the merchant then u trashed at least 200k

...... Then I trashed at least 200k .... *headdesk*

... The most cash I've ever had was around 600k. I now have around 140k thanks to heavy farming and merching these past few days... and I basically threw away something worth 200 platinum for around 200 gold. >_<;


But can you really blame me?
I'm not a particularly regular trader, and I've seen a LOT of crude shields... enough that they don't even catch my attention any more. My Pre-Searing character has a nice purple one (literally purple, as she dyed it with purple and silver dye)...

But yeah... I did.
I merch most of my golds.
I only decided NOT to merch the Tattooed Scimitar I got the other day because people talk about those quite a lot.

I'm not really interested in using lockpicks as a trade commodity.
- I don't belong to a group that owns a town. So I can't get them for less than 1.5K unless I find them, or buy off someone selling them for less (probably someone that got it one of those two ways).

- If you set them at 1.5K in dealing, it becomes more reasonable to me; however, either way, you're really just setting up a new economy that is balanced towards those that own towns. You can certainly argue that it is nice for the game and AB and Factions and all, but since I don't expect to get that, I'm not interested in a non-level playing field.

You kept the 15k item but sold the 200k item. GG!

Anyways, back on topic. I said in my original post that I'm pretty sure most people will continue to use ectos so my expectations on this whole Lockpick idea were never really high. Regardless I will be using Lockpicks for currency as the price will always be stable (that's the whole point of this). I don't really buy anything so I will be accepting them from sales more than anything which is fine by me. Right now I'm paying 1.5k per lockpick and I've easily bought/used 75-100 since HM came out.

I don't even know why people are talking about the merchant buy price of 750gp. Just like ecto who the hell sells lockpicks to the merchant? Not a valid point IMHO.

Worried about selling lockpicks to people I/G? I bet you could sell a stack at 1.2k within 5 minutes of spamming. Last time I checked people are happy to save money, and they are going to buy them at 1.5k if they can't find them cheaper (as most do). And you're not going to be selling 2-3 at a time-I'm sure you'll be selling 10+ at a time to "normal" people, 50+ to "middle class" people, and 250+ to "rich" people.

They aren't worth enough for high end trading you say?

250 x 1.2k = 300k
7 stacks x 300k = 2.1mil +100k = 2.2mil

When was the last time you bought/sold something for over 2 million gold? There's not much left that's worth 2mil+ (A select few HoH drops and the super rare minis are all that's left unless we're talking about priceless unconditional damage mod items and such). How often do you buy/sell one of these items? Once in a GW career maybe? I personally farm/sell a lot of items and for example I've sold one item for 1.5mil and another for 750k (I'm not a power trader/reseller). Outside of those two items I've sold maybe a handful of other items for 100k+. Unless you're a power trader I don't see how this can be an issue?

Again I don't think this is going to become a common thing but it seems more practical to me (and to those that support the idea). I've already started working on getting rid of all my other keys so I only have lockpicks in my inventory. Having a stack of lockpicks is not going to hurt me as they will eventually get used. If and when ecto hits 8-9k I'm making the change to lockpicks. The only thing left now is to find somebody that controls a factions town so I can buy a bunch for 1.2k each!

P.S. The comparison to Superior Salvage Kits was just idiotic btw. Last time I checked those don't even stack. In addition I'm not going to use 250 Superior Salvage Kits before GW2 comes out where I will easily use 250 lockpicks in the next month or two.

P.S.S. There will always be 100k+ items. Get over it.

lockpicks ...good idea i suppose. But you could trade anything anyway.
a good thing about this is theres a fixed merchant price we can deal with

This post is kinda long, but read it anyway.

lol, you people are nuts... okay, two things.

My ass was handed to me by the huge ecto drop in the last 2 weeks.. atleast a million gold lost due to ecto crash, and I still dont support the idea of lockpicks as currency.

I dont wanna have 1,000 damn lockpicks sitting around in my inventory, am I ever gonna open 1000 chests with lock picks? no.. if I need gold am I going to be able to sell lock picks to people? No.. they dont wanna 1000 lockpicks sitting around also.


Remember all thoes chinese bots who where botting gold all day? Well Suprize! They are now being used to farm ectos in the UW (yes, they are now controled) .. because it is faster to get ecto drops in the UW, then sell to merchant for 5k.. (or to people in ToA for 6k) then it is to bot gold because of the horrid drop rate of it now.

So heres what happens.

In ToA English 1.. right now.. there is .. oh about 40 to 50 Chinese players going in and out of the underworld constantly...

In Lions arch.. The rare trader is getting ectos constantly sold to him by the (Now human "Bots") .. this is what is causing the ecto market to stay at rock bottom of 7k. .. People in America, Japan, Korea, ect, then BUY ectos from the trader at 7k (Because they lack favor quite often and there is nobody standing around all day selling ectos..) .. this causes the price to go up to 7.5k. for a short time.. and a few minutes later... a once "Bot" player sells his ectos to the trader for 5.5k, to 5.0k.. This gold then goes to another accont, then is listed on a website for sale.

If you want proof, just look for yourself. you'll see what i'm talking about.

Oh no, it doesnt end there.. ya see.. When America gets favor.. all the bots who hang out in Citdel head over to Temple of Ages and start farming ectos because its the quickist way (and extremaly easy.. not much skill required) to make cash for their websites to sell.


last thing... for you people who say no item is ever ment to be more then 100k... .. thats junk.. if no item was ment to be over 100k A.net would never have had made "Panda" "Greased lightning" "Everlasting beetle tonic" ... ect...

YOU try finding one of thoes for 100k.. lol.

LoL at that guy ^

1) Ecto prices are NOT capped. If you had played the game for a while you'd know that they have been below 7k in the past.

2) You did not really "lose" money. You only lost money if you sold all your ectos in a panic. Just like all things in investing, you don't really lose or gain money until you sell. At the moment, you would have 130 ectos or 130 shares or whatever. Though their value will change, you won't "lose" or "gain" anything until you sell.

I'm curious to see if those lockpicks will work on keyless chests in Nightfall?

Ecto was at 6.5k less than a week ago.

Other than that you're pretty much on track as far as the botting is concerned.

The only thing I disagree with is the whole selling lockpicks statement. I don't think you'll have any trouble at all selling these things for 1.2-1.3k. I guess we need a holding alliance member to respond to this since there are a few people out there making profits on selling keys @ 1.25-1.3k (buying at 1.2k from the factions merchants).

I'm with the people who say lets stop over charging each other for items......seriously 100k + 100 ectos for a sword that does the same thing the crafter sword does not sound a little to much to you guys.

That being said I don't think the gouging will stop until everyone decides to stop paying the inflated prices for items.

And until that happens...has anyone ever given a thought to the Platinum Coin? Its already in the game as quest item. Just create a NPC that trades 1000 gold for One Platinum Coin and BAM!!! you have stacks for Platinum that never go up and down in value. Because its value is always set at ...everyone say it with me......1000 gold.

I'm with the people who say lets stop over charging each other for items......seriously 100k + 100 ectos for a sword that does the same thing the crafter sword does not sound a little to much to you guys?

That being said I don't think the gouging will stop until everyone decides to stop paying the inflated prices for items.

And until that happens...has anyone ever given a thought to the Platinum Coin? Its already in the game as quest item. Just create a NPC that trades 1000 gold for One Platinum Coin and BAM!!! you have stacks for Platinum that never go up and down in value. Because its value is always set at ...everyone say it with me......1000 gold.

Well im an idiot... Ill admit it.. ectos are 6.5k right now.. lol


Woops

Well now im scared.. I just sold a mini Aatex for 25e.. and now ectos are 500g less.


okay.. I take back what I said

lockpicks for the win! no more fluctional ecto prices.. or however you spell it

der..

1250g would be a good price calculation-wise... 4 lockpicks = 5 Plat. Makes the math a lot easier.

I would definitely go along with this.

As a matter of fact... I might start selling elite tomes for 10 to 12 lockpicks or so just to get people used to the idea...

You have my support guys, i like this idea much, gonna use it.

Well 5 picks = 6 plat and 250 picks = 300k @1.2k a pop.

4 picks = 5k and 250 picks = 312,500 @ 1.250k a pop.

I guess it depends on if you want easy math with small amounts or easy math with stacks?

Everybody should agree somewhere around 1.2k-1.3k, but I think this is more of a personal thing and the prices will vary from seller to seller.

Good point, need to think larger. True, trading will come down to haggling over a pick or two when all's said and done.

The only things that would really get me on this boat is if they were worth atleast 3k each (not extremely significant in my decision-making though), or if everyone had access to them for the same price. If the latter were true I would gladly pick up a few stacks, but as it stands I wont bother.