TOPIC: Should TD continue to add items to 8K auctions to help them fund?

I’ve noticed over the last month or so that TD continues to add items (Grunnel small favor scroll, props, Tokens, etc.) to help 8K auctions fund. On the one hand it’s great because it helps the auction fund, on the other hand it devalues the Tokens in the auction. One could also argue that to be fair to all 8K buyers, any Tokens added to 8K auctions should be added to all 8K orders placed.

Thoughts???

This is a non issue as far as I am concerned.

In a separate post TD stated they are raising the transmute costs to keep the costs of TG's up. Adding items to 8K auctions has the opposite effect of this. By adding items, the standard items in the 8K auction sell for less. Thus TD is devaluing Tokens that they are trying to revalue. Seems counterintuitive to me.

Rob F wrote: In a separate post TD stated they are raising the transmute costs to keep the costs of TG's up. Adding items to 8K auctions has the opposite effect of this. By adding items, the standard items in the 8K auction sell for less. Thus TD is devaluing Tokens that they are trying to revalue. Seems counterintuitive to me.

What TD is doing seems pretty logical to me. They saw that $8K auctions were having trouble funding, so their short term solution is to donate props and tokens to help fund the auctions, and their longer term solution is to increase the value of Trade Item tokens so that the $8K auctions can fund without needing those extra props and tokens.

Adding the extra items makes perfect business sense to me. It’s exactly the same as when other companies offer “free gift with purchase” offers - and the items included don’t cost TD anything.

The extra items have started appearing after the demand for auctions decreased and they stopped funding. It wasn’t a decrease in demand for the trade goods - those are still fairly stable - it’s the decrease in demand for PYP’s, Rings, and Patron rewards. As the people that were willing to spend more to get them obtained those high price items - now those who are winning them are the people that wouldn’t spend quite so much. TD is making up the shortfall in order to keep selling product. I see absolutely no harm in that. In fact quite the opposite - SMART marketing by Grunnel and the TD team.

So I guess in answer to your question - YES they should continue to do that at the end of the token selling season to spur on sales.

There is demand for the add ons, otherwise they would not be generating bids. If that helps TD close the deal between them and the collective of auctioneer and bidders on an 8K, then yes they should continue to offer them. I’m not sure the demand is there to fund auctions after a certain point in the yearly cycle. Since TD does not sell these items a la carte, and it’s all or nothing on the auctions, should TD just accept the lost revenue, and not sell any 8Ks past, say May of a year?

Rob, I think you are missing the forest for the trees. The reason TDA cares about the price of trade goods is because it wants auctions to fund to generate revenue.

So, changing policy on this, even if your argument is right (and I'm not convinced it is) would be counterproductive for them.

I think we're also missing the point that TD does this normally after patron codes drop radically in value. (And early purchase bonus incentives go)

The augments are normally of no more value than the loss value of a patron code. And when they aren't it's because someone went insane for an eye ball plushie

Overall I think this is a very positive business move from tptb

Impy wrote: I think we're also missing the point that TD does this normally after patron codes drop radically in value. (And early purchase bonus incentives go)

The augments are normally of no more value than the loss value of a patron code. And when they aren't it's because someone went insane for an eye ball plushie

Overall I think this is a very positive business move from tptb

This isn't something TD does normally though, is it? I don't recall TD doing it before this year.

Mike Steele wrote: This isn't something TD does normally though, is it? I don't recall TD doing it before this year.

I had thought I saw it last year, but I believe I was wrong on that looking back. The rest of the logic stands as augments have only occurred after Patron Pin has lost a lot of its value after the first patron run of the year.

Impy wrote:

Mike Steele wrote: This isn't something TD does normally though, is it? I don't recall TD doing it before this year.

I had thought I saw it last year, but I believe I was wrong on that looking back. The rest of the logic stands as augments have only occurred after Patron Pin has lost a lot of its value after the first patron run of the year.

Mystic Orb got added to auctions after the 2021 Patron Run. I believe this was the first occurrence of TD adding things to auctions later in the year, though I could be wrong. Prior to 2020, Patron pins didn't go for very much (~$100 as I recall) because you had to go to origins to redeem it, and the completion token was basically a rare level item. Since patron runs went virtual, the price has gone way up and funded a larger portion of the total auction funding price.

Additionally, on that interview with Trent, Jeff mentioned they have to get rid of stuff because storage is expensive. Much better for TD to add a prop as an auction item than to just throw it out. Seems like a total win there.

Endgame wrote:

Impy wrote:

Mike Steele wrote: This isn't something TD does normally though, is it? I don't recall TD doing it before this year.

I had thought I saw it last year, but I believe I was wrong on that looking back. The rest of the logic stands as augments have only occurred after Patron Pin has lost a lot of its value after the first patron run of the year.

Mystic Orb got added to auctions after the 2021 Patron Run. I believe this was the first occurrence of TD adding things to auctions later in the year, though I could be wrong. Prior to 2020, Patron pins didn't go for very much (~$100 as I recall) because you had to go to origins to redeem it, and the completion token was basically a rare level item. Since patron runs went virtual, the price has gone way up and funded a larger portion of the total auction funding price.

Additionally, on that interview with Trent, Jeff mentioned they have to get rid of stuff because storage is expensive. Much better for TD to add a prop as an auction item than to just throw it out. Seems like a total win there.

I'm 100% onboard with you in that it's MUCH better to get stuff like props into the hands of players who will enjoy them than to toss them out. Long ago, True Dungeon used to hold auctions at GENCON after the Riddle Reveal, which had the dual purpose of getting stuff like props (and special items like the Artisan tokens and Artifact tokens) to the players and sucking a bunch of GP out of circulation. I'd love to see the auctions return in some sort of format. Actually, it might be neat to have stuff like props for sale in the TD store as well, first come first served of course.