Sold my loot from the 2010 Mausoleum (incl. 15^50 Scythe and 15st Spear)

Dec. 11, 2011 - The remaining, final contents of this OP are left here in case they help others PC similar items in the future.

tl;dr Final prices, completed delivery dates. pic of items 1-5, pic of items 6-11
1. max, gold-text, r10 Hooked Scythe, inherent 15^50 damage mod: Dec. 9, 2011 - 69e+2k (485-554k value with 1e at 7-8k lately.)

2. nonmax (9-32), blue-text, r10 Raven Scythe, inherent 11 under 50 damage mod: Dec. 5, 2011 - 1k

3. max, gold-text, r10 Pronged Spear, inherent 15stance damage mod: Dec. 9, 2011 - 4e+96k (124-128k value with 1e at 7-8k lately.)

4. max, purple-text, r10 Broadhead Spear, inherent 16 under 50 damage mod: Dec. 5, 2011 - 5k

5. nonmax (11-20), blue-text, r6 Tribal Spear, inherent 12^50 damage mod: Dec. 5, 2011 - 1k

6. max, gold-text, r9 Reinforced Buckler, inherent 10vBlunt & glitched 60wH handle: Dec. 10, 2011 - 44.1k

7. max, gold-text, r10 Ornate Buckler, inherent dazed reduction & glitched 58wH handle: Dec. 5, 2011 - 1k

8. max, gold-text, r13 Golden Pillar, inherent +5wE & glitched 19% HSR wrapping: Dec. 10, 2011 - 1e+97k (104-105k value with 1e at 7-8k lately.)

9. max, gold-text, r10 (fire dmg.) Shamanic Wand, inherent +4wH & glitched 10% HSR wrapping: Dec. 5, 2011 - 5k

10. max, purple-text, dyeable r12 Jeweled_chalice, inherent 8% HSR & glitched 9% HCT core: Dec. 10, 2011 - 34.65k

11. max, purple-text, r9 Idol (hand skin,) inherent+8v50 & glitched +26hp core: Dec. 5, 2011 - 1k
My sincere thanks to all the bidders, especially those who humored me so graciously in the final price decisions!

Thank you guys! For me, and for science!


Full Version All the history, explanations, context, etc. that you would expect from me.

If you care, click the button. If you don't ... why are you reading one of my posts again?

All 11 items sold here were my own drops during the hunting I did with friends in the glitched Mausoleum during Halloween 2010. I had held onto them this long because:They're mementos of, IMO, one of the most awesome things I have ever witnessed. (Please pardon the terms that follow. I mean them affectionately, honest!) There are so many users around Ventari's who come off like these crusty, grumpy, "oldschool" traders; their comments leave me the impression that most of these are players who truly enjoyed the way treasure hunting (and trading, as a consequence) used to be in GW, and they're now left hurt, jaded and/or sad with the current state of the game. The fact that so many of them still frequent GW fansites, to me, shows how amazing this game was once, still is, and still can be. This bug, once word got out, brought so many of them back to log on and go out treasure hunting, full of excitement and curiosity and having a great time! I watched in joyful awe as these grumpy old farts transformed into giddy kids on Christmas morning! It was truly amazing, and to this day I feel thankful to have been here to watch it happen live! ANet's official statements about what items are bugged and what will be done to fix them have been, at best, vague. I resisted trading any of these items with other players for money, fearful that the bug-fix we knew so few details about would come any day leaving the players left holding these items, possibly, feeling cheated. I did not want to be a part of that. However, it's been over a year now! As far as I know, there have still been only those vague statements we saw just after to a month or so after this happened and one update to "identify" (not "fix," not "remove") the items according to update notes. Frankly, I'm just beyond worrying about what ANet might do anymore. They're really weird. To me, anything really weird or funky is (or at least has the potential to be) interesting! Even though these are not the specific types of "weird and interesting" I focus on for my own junk collections, I could never just merch them. Seriously, I'd not be able to bring myself to do that. In terms of my own, treasured keepsakes of this event, these aren't nearly so valuable to me as the staffs jimbo32 gave me from his own drops. (People have asked me to sell those a few times over the past year. They're beyond price to me, and I would never trade them away unless jimbo himself asked for them back.)
So I was looking at my piles of junk and thinking I would really like the space back from those Mauso drops. I gave jimbo the option to take any he liked for his own keepsakes, but he's not nearly the junk-hoarder I am. He didn't really solve my storage pressure with what he agreed to take.

Believe it or not, I don't really care that much about fake-money in GW (plats and ectos.) As my tastes in pixels, thankfully, seem to run on the cheap side, I rarely run into situations where there's something for sale I want to buy that I can't afford. But I do like trading! Watching the gear markets, what's hot, what's not, what's oversupplied, etc. is often quite interesting. And I like to be able to offer help when nice folks who don't do much trading ask sincere PC questions. So often, for rare and/or weird stuff, we're left leaving answers like, "That's worth at least <X> I think. If you're patient and/or lucky enough to get two or more interested buyers into a bid war over it, it could be worth <Y> or even more!" I think I can guess the X number pretty well for the items I bother to follow at all. But those Y numbers often leave me in the dark!

So here were 11 great opportunities for me to find some Y numbers! Yay!

In the event anything sparked a bid war and more than one player wanted me to check with them before selling the same item for a higher offer, I figured I would offer all the interested parties a proxy-by-PM option to determine the final price. I'd ask each player to PM me their absolute max offer; whoever offered higher would win for 105% of the lower offer. I urged them to share their "secret max offers" with each other afterwards to be certain I was not abusing their trust and artificially inflating the price. Early on, one of the interested buyers requested a second-chance option built into this system, where the loser of the first round would be able to submit a new secret max if he wanted to try winning again. That struck me as defeating the purpose of a proxy-bid decision, but I did not mind if the other bidder did not mind either. So rather than a one-time-shot proxy battle, we wound up with each item giving the bidders the option to play one round or best-two-out-of-three rounds. I like to be consistent if possible, so I offered this option to the interested bidders for every item

As it turned out, there were five total items that had two buyers interested in this private proxy bidding battle. Not too surprisingly, both the 15^50 scythe and the 15stance spear were among the items settled this way. The other nine items listed here looked pretty useless stat-wise, so it was just a question of which particular weird thing(s) caught the attention of more than one collector of weirdness.
This Sell thread started Nov. 30, 2011 after this PC thread for the items in question, among others. The starting bids were my reserve prices, and I did basically make them up as I went along. The only things with starting bids higher than 5k were the 15stance spear and the 15^50 scythe. On Dec. 3, in my third bump, I announced I would be closing all the items except the "fancy" gold scythe and spear for the high bidder(s) after the weekend (Dec. 3-4 was the weekend.) Late on Dec. 4, there was some drama/complexity which has little relevance here except that at least one user may have been willing to bid more than others. However, I chose not to accept his bids. The user never asked me to check with him before selling anything, and he never posted a bid higher than the final prices stuff here sold for.
I cannot say if he'd have continued to bid higher if I had not told him I would not accept his bids and asked him to please not bid any more on my thread. Early AM on Dec. 5, (probably more like late Sunday night, US time) Luke D whispered me in game. His Guru account here was messed up somehow, and he could not post. He was interested in three of the items about to close. Later on Dec. 5, I closed all items except the gold scythe and spear to any new offers. Dimmuborgir Satan and Luke D were both interested in three of these items. The items without bids from anyone except Dimmuborgir Satan were delivered to him. On Dec. 7, I posted the "last call" bump for any more interested parties to make themselves known. On Dec. 8, I closed the last two items to any new bidders (by a note left at the top of the OP.) Like the items earlier, we then had a private auction/showdown between the interested parties for both the 15^50 Hooked Scythe and the 15stance Pronged Spear. Over the next couple days, both buyers picked up those last two items. I've been busy (and procrastinating) writing up these final notes, though.


All items are still exactly as they dropped for me during Halloween 2010. I've tested with dyes, salvage kits and overwriting mods but never completed any of the changes. Results of tests are noted in pictures and/or item lines below.

Inherent Scythes & Spears (first picture)

Each of the following scythes and spears seems to accept overwriting both the prefix and suffix mods but will not accept inscriptions at all. All five look and dye (or do not dye) exactly like their inscribable counterparts as near as I can tell.
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1. max, gold, r10 15^50 Hooked Scythe:

SOLD & Delivered, Dec. 9, 2011, to Surge goes pre for 69ecto + 2k (485-554k current market value with ecto 7-8k right now.)
Thanks again for the trade Surge!When I closed the auction to any new bidders on Dec. 8, only Surge goes pre and i dealer i had asked me to check with them before selling.

We did a private, proxy-by-PM auction at this point to decide the winner. Each player PMed me his secret, maximum offer. The winner was the guy who offered more; he won for 105% of the lower offer. (The loser had the option, if he wanted it, to do a round two/redo, but in this case, i dealer i declined to submit a new secret max after losing the first round.)

i dealer i PMed me a max offer on this scythe of 66e. Surge goes pre PMed me a max offer of 81e. So Surge won for 105% of i dealer i's offer, or 69.3e.

Surge gave me permission to publish his secret max here in case the information helps anyone searching future PC of such items. Thanks again for that, Surge!

My reserve had been the 30e starting bid. I basically just guessed that number, thinking for anything less I would just take up playing with a scythe, myself.____________________________________

2. nonmax (9-32), blue, r10 11v50 Raven Scythe:

SOLD & Delivered, Dec. 5, 2011, to Dimmuborgir Satan for his offer of the 1k reserve.
Thanks again for the trade Dimm!I picked 1k as the reserve on this. It was a really weird item, so I did not want to merch it. But it's not the kind of really weird I collect, myself, nor was it particularly functional looking. So I was happy for anyone to give me the storage slot back, basically. No one fought Dimm over this one.____________________________________

3. max, gold, r10 15stance Pronged Spear:

SOLD & Delivered, Dec. 9, 2011, to Dimmuborgir Satan for 4ecto + 96k (124-128k current market value with ecto 7-8k right now.)
Thanks again for the trade Dimm!
When I closed the auction to any new bidders on Dec. 8, only Dimmuborgir Satan and i dealer i had asked me to check with them before selling.

We did a private, proxy-by-PM auction at this point to decide the winner. Each player PMed me his secret, maximum offer. The winner was the guy who offered more; he won for 105% of the lower offer. (The loser had the option, if he wanted it, to do a round two/redo, but in this case, i dealer i declined to submit a new secret max after losing the first round.)

i dealer i PMed me a max offer on this spear of 15e. Dimmuborgir Satan PMed me a max offer of 23e. So Dimm won for 105% of i dealer i's offer, or 15.75e (Dimm asked to pay mostly in plat, so we used 1e=8k conversion and traded for 96k+4e.)

Dimm gave me permission to publish his secret max here in case the information helps anyone searching future PC of such items. Thanks again for that, Dimm!

My reserve had been the 10e starting bid. I basically just guessed that number, thinking for anything less I would just take up playing a frenzy-imba.____________________________________

4. max, purple, r10 16v50 Broadhead Spear:

SOLD & Delivered, Dec. 5, 2011, to Dimmuborgir Satan for his offer of the 5k reserve.
Thanks again for the trade Dimm!I picked 5k as the reserve on this since it was a max damage, inherent modded spear. It was a really weird item, so I did not want to merch it. But it's not the kind of really weird I collect, myself, nor was it particularly functional looking. So I was happy for anyone to give me the storage slot back, basically. No one fought Dimm over this one.____________________________________

5. nonmax (11-20), blue, r6 12^50 Tribal Spear:

SOLD & Delivered, Dec. 5, 2011, to Dimmuborgir Satan for his offer of the 1k reserve.
Thanks again for the trade Dimm!I picked 1k as the reserve on this. It was a really weird item, so I did not want to merch it. But it's not the kind of really weird I collect, myself, nor was it particularly functional looking. So I was happy for anyone to give me the storage slot back, basically. No one fought Dimm over this one.____________________________________

Suffix-modded Inherent Shields, Wands & Foci (second picture)

Each of the following has one attached suffix mod and one inherent mod. None will accept inscriptions at all. It is possible to remove the suffix mods with salvage kits, but it is impossible to overwrite/replace the existing suffix mods with anything else. (You could salvage the mod off, but it would leave you with a single-mod item for good.) All six look and dye (or do not dye) exactly like their inscribable counterparts as near as I can tell, with the noted exception of the Jeweled Chalice.
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6. max, gold, r9 Reinforced Buckler, inherent 10vBlunt & glitched 60wH handle:

SOLD & Delivered, Dec. 10, 2011, to Dimmuborgir Satan for 44.1k
Thanks again for the trade Dimm!
Dimmuborgir Satan or Luke D were those with their names in the hat when I closed this item to any new bidders. (ScarGod had posted the 5k reserve on this the day the thread opened, but never told me to check with them before selling as Dimm and Luke requested.)
Dimmuborgir Satan's posted offer was 10k. Luke D's in-game offer was 20k at a time when his forum account was messed up and refusing to let him post at all.

We did a private, proxy-by-PM auction at this point to decide the winner. Each player PMed me his secret, maximum offer. The winner was the guy who offered more; he won for 105% of the lower offer. (The loser had the option, if he wanted it, to do a round two/redo, but in this case, Luke D declined to submit a new secret max after losing the first round.)

Luke D PMed me a max offer on this shield of 42k. Dimmuborgir Satan PMed me a max offer of 25e. So Dimm won for 105% of Luke's offer, or 44.1k. Luke declined a second round chance. Upon picking up the shield, Dimm told me his round three max, had it been needed, would've been ~40e. Thanks Dimm for your permission to share this info.

My reserve had been the 5k starting bid. I basically just picked that number because it was gold and both mods were max. I did not expect nearly as much interest as we saw on this one.____________________________________

7. max, gold, r10 Ornate Buckler, inherent dazed reduction & glitched 58wH handle:

SOLD & Delivered, Dec. 5, 2011, to Dimmuborgir Satan for his offer of the 1k reserve.
Thanks again for the trade Dimm!I picked 1k as the reserve on this. It was a really weird item, so I did not want to merch it. But it's not the kind of really weird I collect, myself, nor was it particularly functional looking. So I was happy for anyone to give me the storage slot back, basically. No one fought Dimm over this one.____________________________________

8. max, gold, r13 Golden Pillar, inherent +5wE & glitched 19% HSR wrapping:

SOLD & Delivered, Dec. 10, 2011, to Luke D for 105k (97k+1e)
Thanks for the trade Luke!Dimmuborgir Satan or Luke D were those with their names in the hat when I closed this item to any new bidders.
Dimmuborgir Satan's posted offer was 5k, the reserve. Luke D's in-game offer was 50k at a time when his forum account was messed up and refusing to let him post at all.

We did a private, proxy-by-PM auction at this point to decide the winner. Each player PMed me his secret, maximum offer. The winner was the guy who offered more; he won for 105% of the lower offer. (We agreed to a system where the loser of the first round got a second chance option, and if that resulted in a new winner then the other guy got a second chance option. This was the only item that required all three rounds.)

In round one, Luke D's max was 81k which beat Dimm's max of 75k. Dimm opted for round two and submitted a new max of 100k, leaving him winner. Luke opted for round three and submitted a new max of 107k. So the final result was 105% of Dimm's highest offer, 100k.

Luke gave me permission to publish his secret max here in case the information helps anyone searching future PC of such items. Thanks again for that, Luke!

My reserve had been the 5k starting bid. I basically just picked that number because it was gold and looked moderately useful. I did not expect nearly as much interest as we saw on this one.
____________________________________

9. max, gold, r10, fire dmg. Shamanic Wand, inherent +4wH & glitched 10% HSR wrapping:

SOLD & Delivered, Dec. 5, 2011, to Dimmuborgir Satan for his offer of the 5k reserve.
Thanks again for the trade Dimm!I picked 5k as the reserve on this because it looked at least moderately more useful than the 1k reserve items. It was a really weird item, so I did not want to merch it. But it's not the kind of really weird I collect, myself, nor was it particularly functional looking. So I was happy for anyone to give me the storage slot back, basically. No one fought Dimm over this one.____________________________________

10. max, purple, r12 Jeweled_chalice, inherent 8% HSR & glitched 9% HCT core:
It will dye, but not like the dye chart shown on Wiki (which doesn't have both possibilities for this skin yet.) I made this dye chart to show the effect.

SOLD & Delivered, Dec. 10, 2011, to Dimmuborgir Satan for 34.65k
Thanks again for the trade Dimm!
Dimmuborgir Satan or Luke D were those with their names in the hat when I closed this item to any new bidders.
Dimmuborgir Satan's posted offer was 5k, the reserve. Luke D's in-game offer was 20k at a time when his forum account was messed up and refusing to let him post at all.

We did a private, proxy-by-PM auction at this point to decide the winner. Each player PMed me his secret, maximum offer. The winner was the guy who offered more; he won for 105% of the lower offer. (The loser had the option, if he wanted it, to do a round two/redo, but in this case, Luke D declined to submit a new secret max after losing the first round.)

Luke D PMed me a max offer on this shield of 33k. Dimmuborgir Satan PMed me a max offer of 40k. So Dimm won for 105% of Luke's offer, or 34.65k. Thanks again to Dimm for his permission to share his secret max after the trade was finished.

My reserve had been the 5k starting bid. I picked 1k instead of 5k just because the thing dyed, I admit it. I did not expect but wasn't as surprised when there were multiple interested bidders on this particular weirdness.____________________________________

11. max, purple, r9 Idol, (hand skin) inherent+8v50 & glitched +26hp core:

SOLD & Delivered, Dec. 5, 2011, to Dimmuborgir Satan for his offer of the 1k reserve.
Thanks again for the trade Dimm!I picked 1k as the reserve on this. It was a really weird item, so I did not want to merch it. But it's not the kind of really weird I collect, myself, nor was it particularly functional looking. So I was happy for anyone to give me the storage slot back, basically. No one fought Dimm over this one.____________________________________