atomicstorm
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With the sudden rise of alts and even ubers creating fake sales recently, I feel the need to create a guide noting the differences, some lessons learned over the years, and help prevent players from being taken advantage of scrupulous players hiding behind faux names or fake sales or offers.
Vipers
Vipers are resellers that low-ball by a significant margin with the intent to rip-off players for higher gains. These include players (alts usually) who engage in the following activities:
Fake Sales
Vipers through alts and even some known ubers are and have inflated and deflated certain item prices through fake sales. These fake sales are intended to force players to panic or FOMO to reach the target price that the viper is seeking.
Some examples:
Resellers
Entropia Universe largely has a stagnant economy. The way the auction house, shops, and chat channels are designed, creates a stagnant economy unless there is serious, usually seasonal demand for specific consumables. Resellers act as liquidity providers and market movers to keep the flow of the economy moving. They allow players to sell items and new players to sell their loot to keep playing. Resellers are also the main driving force behind stabilizing of item prices. Some exceptions to this are those who corner markets, see vipers.
The expectations of a reseller are not to give a player market value for loot or items. There must be reward for the increased risk and time expenditure for reselling. The greater the risk, specifically in items, the bigger the reward required.
Players do not have to sell to resellers if they do not like the price they offer. That's market functions. If you sell your loot to a reseller, then you accept that the value they offered was acceptable.
Example of a reseller:
An active, thriving economy needs less resellers to keep the market moving. [Mindark take note]
Misleading Sales Threads
When putting a gun or item for sale, they will often list comparisons, dps/dpp, and other information to show the potential buyer why they should buy the item. It is important to know that these threads are intended to trigger a FOMO response from you. Some things to look out for:
High BO Auction Orders
High BO auction orders for meaningless items are usually not intended to steal peds from players mis-clicking. As most players sort descending on BO price to see HQ items listed for sale, this is an often used tactic to list an item for sale at a good SB that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Final notes
Vipers
Vipers are resellers that low-ball by a significant margin with the intent to rip-off players for higher gains. These include players (alts usually) who engage in the following activities:
- Place orders to take advantage of player mis-clicks and the poor order system design.
- Low ball items at a significant margin
- 50k item and offering 25k. Prices are subjective and may not necessarily be the current market.
- Putting high value tags on meaningless items in auction or in P2P to mislead newer players
- 100k for a 5k sword or similar price of a Christmas 2021 ring that matches a similar order for Christmas 2022, which is in high demand.
- Notably down-valuing items of value to create panic sales, including but not limited to not even having the item to begin with (more on this below, see fake sales)
- You will see this individual mention some kind of event and then pound the drum that the price is going to fall because X and Y. Entropia Universe is heavily influenced by emotional market measures like FOMO and FUD and Vipers will take advantage of this.
- Notably over hyping items of value to create FOMO.
- There is a difference between advertising the item for sale and its pros and cons and another to use overly emotional phrases and misleading characteristics like ultra rare, unique, etc when they are not. A good example is a well known scammer years ago tried to sell Terra Amp BPs for 300K stating they were ultra rare despite also having duplicate copies.
- Players who have a history or pattern of not holding up to their word. Examples include loaning of an item for X peds for 15 days only to not return it when the viper could sell the item for more ped.
- Players who corner markets, ergo exploiting resource cap design of the game, to maximize profits
Fake Sales
Vipers through alts and even some known ubers are and have inflated and deflated certain item prices through fake sales. These fake sales are intended to force players to panic or FOMO to reach the target price that the viper is seeking.
Some examples:
- Uber says they have offer for X peds (let's say 200K) for item but will not disclose a name (red flag 1), has it for several days (red flag 2), and the offer is not far off from the BO (red flag 3). [Yes, this has happened]
- Blind offers are a coin flip as to whether they are legit. You should treat them as fake and not bid against phantom people. That's what the auction house is for. Stick to what you want to pay and be done with it. Blind offers/fake offers are used very regularly to manipulate you into paying more.
- Above blind offer is listed for several days. Most offers are an offer and are only good for 24 hours. Most people do not leave an offer for multiple days, especially when the SB/BO is fake. If there are no clear terms within the thread or out of game auction, then you should assume the offer is void already. Many players will treat the offer they received as an offer they could leverage for a higher payout.
- Alts stating they have sold an item that they never had. Recently (in the last couple days) a few players exposed an alt selling one of the new TWEN blades that they did not have and was not the correct tier. Every item has a foot print, their TIR. A limited set of items means it is easy to know who has what, including also following said items [perhaps even unique ones], between their main and their alts, wives, friends, or harem. The intent of this alt was to trigger a panic sale. This scenario happens frequently.
Resellers
Entropia Universe largely has a stagnant economy. The way the auction house, shops, and chat channels are designed, creates a stagnant economy unless there is serious, usually seasonal demand for specific consumables. Resellers act as liquidity providers and market movers to keep the flow of the economy moving. They allow players to sell items and new players to sell their loot to keep playing. Resellers are also the main driving force behind stabilizing of item prices. Some exceptions to this are those who corner markets, see vipers.
The expectations of a reseller are not to give a player market value for loot or items. There must be reward for the increased risk and time expenditure for reselling. The greater the risk, specifically in items, the bigger the reward required.
Players do not have to sell to resellers if they do not like the price they offer. That's market functions. If you sell your loot to a reseller, then you accept that the value they offered was acceptable.
Example of a reseller:
- Price of TWEN token is 0.92, reseller offers 0.8 or 0.85.
- Player wants to sell X gun 50,000 peds, reseller offers 42,000 PED.
- Reseller buys ores and enmatter on a different planet for approximately > 80% of market, resells for profit on a different planet.
An active, thriving economy needs less resellers to keep the market moving. [Mindark take note]
Misleading Sales Threads
When putting a gun or item for sale, they will often list comparisons, dps/dpp, and other information to show the potential buyer why they should buy the item. It is important to know that these threads are intended to trigger a FOMO response from you. Some things to look out for:
- Player specific results from using the item.
- Player gets 99%+ from using the item. Ask to see the data, verify its authenticity. If they won't do it, assume the claim is fake or misleading. Also know that you may or may not get the same results because RNG or other factors.
- Player pulls 5 rare items in a year with it. This is a potential, but not necessarily something you will get because wave is wave. This should not play into your purchase. While truthful and not necessarily misleading, it should be noted that you likely will not have the same results. Understand why 5 rare items were pulled is more important than the tool to do it.
- Item comparisons using max buffs and pills creating an impossible scenario. There have been threads with max buffs from full pills (with 50-100ped/hr of MU burn), max sights, and scopes so that you feel like buying this item will make you more powerful than it will. Adding markup items to the mix means you must adjust DPP and other variables accordingly. Perform a comparison yourself on entropiawiki using pills you normally would run, which may include your current ring set, a candy cane or X pill, and any sight/scopes that you currently have.
High BO Auction Orders
High BO auction orders for meaningless items are usually not intended to steal peds from players mis-clicking. As most players sort descending on BO price to see HQ items listed for sale, this is an often used tactic to list an item for sale at a good SB that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Final notes
- Always verify, verify, and verify.
- Stick to your game plan. Never overextend to get something you want. (maybe something I should heed myself).
- Avoid selling something on a payment plan. There are in-game banks for a reason. You are not a bank.
- Find a trusted source that has nothing to gain on item sales to help you stay grounded.
- Players should not keep large amounts of ped on their card and place in storage if they are prone mis-clicks, mistakes, or drunken game play.
- Players who are taking offers for now are often hoping you will over-offer. While it possible they don't know the market price, it is unlikely that they do not know the value of an item they have in their possession. It is very likely they already have a price to-go (sale price).
- When loaning anything of value, always collateralize.
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s that do nothing useful or stand near the auctioneer 24/7.
