Noble, but Foolish.

Well, I feel both fine and foolish for something that just happened last night.

I was on a mission with my alt, running backlogged missions in Old Ascalon, and went into town, the normal chat was on, saw someone advertising a Gold Ettin's Pauldron of Superior Healing Prayers for 700 gold. I buy it, and salvage it, I figure, it's a superior, its worth the risk of getting the rune. Well the guy whispers me and says DON'T SALVAGE IT! and I ask why. They say because it'll lose its goild quality. I had to laugh a little at this, I asked "Are you serious? The rune IN the armor is worth more than just the armor." I couldn't believe this. If I had known this person had no idea about runes I'd never have bothered, I hate feeling like I'm stealing from newbies.

Well I poof to Grendich, and explain to this poor guy about runes, then when he finds out the value of them, he starts BEGGING me to let him buy it from me again for all the gold he had. Frankly, I wasn't interested in the gold, I just figured I'd hold the rune and see if I wanted my monk to use it. Well through the entire Althea's Ashes quest I get preached to about how they just jump at the chance to help someone, and that I should do the same.

Blah blah blah, this went on through the entire mission, he made me out to be some sort of crook. Heck, just yesterday someone tried selling me a black dye for about a thousand gold, I asked if they knew how much black goes for at a trader, and they said no, I told them they should go there and look before they start selling it. They thought I might be trying to rip them off somehow, but when they saw it they thanked me for informing them.

I never cheat anyone out of anything, and I feel like a complete idiot for even believing the story. He said he'd been taken over to Divinity Coast by a group, yet he had no idea what runes were for, or much less that you get them from armors. After the entire mission of making me feel like I just ripped some little newb off, I finally just said give me my gold back and I'll give you the rune. Then they tried to help me through missions, I've already been through them about four times and knew my way through them easily so I didn't need help, at all. Nice I suppose, but this is one of those people I just want to forget.

The entire thing made me feel like some sort of con, I hate being preached to about doing the 'right' thing, when I had no intention of ripping this supposed person off. Gods know if this happened to me, which it won't, I'm not naive enough anymore, most people on this game wouldn't bother at all to even explain what a big ass I had just made of myself due to inexperience and ignorance, at least I do that much BEFORE I buy from players, because I know I wouldn't hear the end of it if I 'ripped off' one of these inexperienced newbies, like last night. If it were me in that spot, it'd probably end up with 'sell the rune, player who bought it disappears, someone points it out, feel stupid, ripped off, no one gives a damn to even give me the thing back if I give the money back' Frankly, I don't trust hardly anyone in the game, because there are too many scam artists, and if I got played then I'm the idiot, at least I got my gold back I suppose.

Anyone else ever had this problem? Or BEEN the inexperienced one to make a fallacy like this? This just sort of soured my mood overall. I feel like I was the one scammed due to being too damn nice and considerate. Oh well, I did something noble I guess, even if I was the one that got played here. Who knows.

You know the rune was worth more and you informed the new player about it and he eventually got the rune back with no penalty. There are two ways to look at it.

1. You gave this guy a break and saved him from his own ignorance and avoided being catagorized as an orifice that many of us use to rid ourselves of human waste which you would have indeed been if you had kept the rune. A nice person would have told the poor sod of his error as soon as possible and been happy having performed a good deed. Hopefully, he will be more careful about what and for how much he makes trades for in the future. You did the right thing even if you didn't like it.
2. You didn't like it! This makes me wonder if you're extremely cheap/thrifty or just an evil jack ass in hibernation. You may wish to take steps to head this off before it becomes a real problem. Just remember if you come across a good deal in the future that is genuine its because of this good deed (Karma) that you were in the right place at the right time. As an added bonus you can be happy with the trade as it will not be the result of a misunderstanding but rather two decent people willing to help each other out for a mutual gain. Something that in my opinion is difficult to find at the moment but still exists in the community, usually found in these forums.

Tut, I think all that matters is that he did the right thing in the end. Of COURSE he didn't like giving up a superior rune that he had just gotten for barely anything. The point is that he gave it up in the end.

I had started the mission with a friend and couldn't just dump it in the middle, and it mostly makes me feel a little odd about it, because part of me is untrusting that this may have just been someone trying to scam me off, I'm sure there are those types with secondary characters that take high level runes and try and scam people somehow.

I feel bad mostly because if I had known, I wouldn't have bothered, and merely told him of the error before hand, I just thought this was a really good deal from a secondary of someone who wanted to make some room, or just wanted to get rid of it because they didn't need it or want the gold that it COULD be worth.

It bothers me that I got made out to be a thief by a simple mistake. It would have been simply fine to explain they had no honest idea, and to let me finish the mission where I would then give them the rune back, however they hounded me through the entire mission and somehow thought they HAD to stay in the town and wait when they could have easily gone on a mission or two themselves as I finished. It bothers me to see people begging for mistakes they made, I gave them the rune back, with no asking for anything other than my gold back that I had paid for the armor in the first place.

Normally I have no problems with doing this sort of thing, but the way it went and the way it was somehow being reversed on me purposely stealing from them, gives me a slightly sour feeling, which I don't care for much.

If I wanted to be a true ass about it I'd have kept my mouth shut and done the vanishing act that alot of these people usally do when the seller or buyer makes some sort of mistake, however I didn't, that should show at least some bit of decentcy that I wasn't out to rip anyone off, plus I explained the fallacy and gave it back, I hadn't lost anything, or gained anything, and I basically salvaged the rune out for them, but other than the feeling like I somehow got it twisted around on me, its all good, just feeling a little stupid about the whole thing like I was some sort of crook or something.

Not a fun feeling when someone tries to pull it on you and it was a simple honest mistake. -_-;

EDIT: And um, I'm a girl, not a guy, heh heh... >.>;

I'm going to be honest and not pretend to be the "saintly goodie-goodie guy", If I saw that offer then I would have just bought it and left it at that, not going to buy and tell him coz then his gonna start hating me and etc... his selling, I bought it, I didn't con him, force him or trick him to sell and eventually he'll find out about runes and know that he made a mistake and will forget about it and live on.

I don't trick people nor mislead them, if they ask for help or information then i'll tell them but I like to seek out the best bargains I can get and whether the seller knows if he is selling too cheap isn't something I should worry about, i'm not gonna haggle and say "hey i'm not going to buy that for that much...thats TOO CHEAP" okay I think I made my point, after all you learn well from your mistakes .

FWIW, it sounds like you wanted to do the right thing for the other person.

I plead ignorance that I never really figured out after reading your posts twice whether you gave the rune back to the person or not.

1.) If you gave back the rune for the price you paid for it. *****
2.) If you sold back the rune for all his gold [but still under market price] then you made a small profit for teaching another player an important lesson of valuation, a good thing. ****1/2
3.) If you kept the rune, then at least you informed another player of a problem. Not my personal solution, but it's something nonetheles. ***

In any case, you have my respect for wanting to do the right thing for someone else.

Yes, I did give him the rune back for the price I had paid for the armor, so we could both be happy and go about it. Yeah I know i'm whining a little, I admit it, and yes I am cheap, but not so much as to rip someone off.

Just curious if anyone else has had stuff like ths happen and how they felt about it. I know I shouldn't feel awkward about it, but sometimes you can't help but just wonder...

Once or twice. I usually cant help but sell the item back to them since ignorance tends to make people feel ripped off. I feel less and less inclined to be nice when people decide to start giving me crap about my decisions though.

I would have been willing to trade the rune back for the gold I paid him all the way up to the point where he starts trying to make me out to be a crook. The more you try to make me feel guilty about it the less inclined I am to be a nice guy. Im a little stubborn and dont like to flow along with the rest of the crowd usually. Mean streak? nah, im not the greedy sort, just dont push me around or try to change me by evoking emotions and things'll usually sort out in your favor.

You know, my wife keeps saying that about herself, too. Wierd. What's that all about, anyway?

And, congratulations on doing—or trying to do—the right thing. We all—the Guru community—should set an example for the larger Guild Wars community where possible.

—Siran Dunmorgan

He should be gratefull you told him at all. The right thing is to shut up and be thankful that you wont need to repeat this mistake, not making someone who actually tried to help you feel bad. If you gave him the rune back because your a noble person, it would have been a "good" deed. You gave the rune back because he was an annoyance.
I made some cash in a MMORPG - by selling things that randomly apear in store for 1million+. When i offer something, and the person replies with "wow didnt know they are worth that much, sorry to waste your time" i usually lower the price to either free or newb-friendly. When i hear "OMG your scamming OMG i demand that you sell for 50k" --- i answer with something like: i sell the item for 50k, but in the time it takes me to meet you, i could have farmed 950k. So that makes 1m total please.
Everyone has the basic right to be left alone. NOONE has the right to demand any help from me without pointing a gun at me first

Feel bad, because you have rewarded an annoying player. If this happens again, tell him before you conclude the deal or give him the item back if he does not demand it.

There is no such thing as right and wrong. There are only actions, and consequences.

Anyone who tries to tell you different is profoundly mistaken.

Ughh...

I'd be pissed too, if I was the newbie. You explained to him that he made a newbie mistake after you bought it from him. Then you debate on rather or not to do the good thing.


Buying the rune, then informing him of his mistake, then debating on what you want to do with it, is not a good deed. Like someone else said, you only returned it because he was an annoyance to you.

:<


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Ah, my mistake on that part. Thank you for clearing that up for me.

Well, yeah—because she didn't know it was a newcomer mistake until after the sale was complete.

Initially, she probably thought he was just dumping excess runes that he'd already unlocked; that's certainly what I'd think, finding someone selling superior runes for 700 gold.

—Siran Dunmorgan

I hate buying and selling the way it is set up here, since it basically involves spamming what you have and hope someone is about. I usually end up merchanting things because I don't enjoy spending my time in game that way. So it is perfectly reasonable that someone could be using an alt to sell off runes at a deep discount just to make some profit quickly and move on with the game. Once you are convinced he was a new player learning, I would also return the rune, though anyone with an item that can hold a superior rune, I would suspect they know more about runes then they are letting on.

If they only had an auction house system, I would enjoy the buying selling aspect of the game more. Until them I will also either dump to merchants or sell quick and cheap at lower level areas.

Absolutely agree. TO try to clear stuff out you either go to district 1/2 and your message gets drowned out in a matter of seconds or you go to another district where there's 10-20 players which usually isn't a big enough group to find a buyer