TOPIC: The 2012 Tokens << Why the Big Increase in Sales?

hhmmm, all this talk made me think of something else.

For next year, I would foresee more 8k orders if the bonus was a PY legendary (giving up the wish ring, since that goes towards a legendary anyway). There would have to be other things given up...maybe 4k of the order except PYPs and random purps? That might also make gathering groups for 8k orders easier as well, since the person getting the legendary would be the one willing to give up a lot of tokens.

Perhaps there could be a lower PY Relic token pack as well?

Less tokens to go back and forth as well...

Just an initial thought.

quip wrote: Regarding the lesser transmutes, the power of the eldritch runestones this year may encourage or dissuade next year's purchases (ie, if you spent $25 worth towards an Eldritch runestone this year, and the in-game value is not worth it, you probably won't go for something uncertain next year).

I went for 12 Runestones at 500gp apiece... I really hope they're worthwhile. >.>

quip wrote: hhmmm, all this talk made me think of something else.

For next year, I would foresee more 8k orders if the bonus was a PY legendary (giving up the wish ring, since that goes towards a legendary anyway). There would have to be other things given up...maybe 4k of the order except PYPs and random purps? That might also make gathering groups for 8k orders easier as well, since the person getting the legendary would be the one willing to give up a lot of tokens.

Perhaps there could be a lower PY Relic token pack as well?

Less tokens to go back and forth as well...

Just an initial thought.

I don't think it would work as a 'bonus'.

But would anyone be willing to pay 8K for a Legendary, a full Onyx set, and the Staff parts, Modules, and Adventure's club buttons? Because by my rough estimate, the rest of the 8K pack should be enough to get you a Legendary (using the extra 11 PYPs and the 9 random Purps to trade of a Golden Fleece and anything you wind up short on).

quip wrote:

Mike Steele wrote: I think transmuted tokens might drive sales even higher next year, for this reason. I think there were a lot of collectors like myself, that had accumulated tokens over many years of token buying, and this year cashed in most of those excess tokens for transmuted tokens. Now, if we plan on getting even close to as many transmuted tokens next year, we'll probably have to buy significantly more tokens, because we used up all of our token reserves this year.

Agreed. My only question is with the cost of the relics (and moreso) legendaries, are they just plain going to be out of reach next year, given stockpiling of tokens over multiple years towards this year's purchases?

Regarding transmuting pushing sales, for the relic and legendary level, I think the pushing thing this year has been definition of what was required, and the possibility of achieving it. For example, regarding the artifacts, you didn't know how much would be required to get them, and may have wanted them, but been waaaaaay below where the bidding was (yes, personal experience ).

That said, for next year, IMHO, the relic and artifact tranmutes will need to balance how much you get for purchases of packs from TD directly next year given the depletion of stockpiles this year, to maximize sales related to transmutes, lest people get discouraged by one or more aspects being totally out of range (gold requirement or other trade-in requirements, such as being too short on minotaur hides in relation to what you get for pack purchases).

Regarding the lesser transmutes, the power of the eldritch runestones this year may encourage or dissuade next year's purchases (ie, if you spent $25 worth towards an Eldritch runestone this year, and the in-game value is not worth it, you probably won't go for something uncertain next year).

I really hope that the token requirements next year for Relics takes into account the shortages this year. Specifically, I hope that there are relatively few Minotaur Hide Tokens and maybe Mystic Silk tokens needed, to let those stockpiles rebuild a bit, and let something else be the limiting factor.

Raywind wrote:

quip wrote: Regarding the lesser transmutes, the power of the eldritch runestones this year may encourage or dissuade next year's purchases (ie, if you spent $25 worth towards an Eldritch runestone this year, and the in-game value is not worth it, you probably won't go for something uncertain next year).

I went for 12 Runestones at 500gp apiece... I really hope they're worthwhile. >.>

That sounds like quite a deal, since you need 250gp Eldritch dust to make one, plus another good Rare and uncommons.

Xavon wrote:

quip wrote: hhmmm, all this talk made me think of something else.

For next year, I would foresee more 8k orders if the bonus was a PY legendary (giving up the wish ring, since that goes towards a legendary anyway). There would have to be other things given up...maybe 4k of the order except PYPs and random purps? That might also make gathering groups for 8k orders easier as well, since the person getting the legendary would be the one willing to give up a lot of tokens.

Perhaps there could be a lower PY Relic token pack as well?

Less tokens to go back and forth as well...

Just an initial thought.

I don't think it would work as a 'bonus'.

But would anyone be willing to pay 8K for a Legendary, a full Onyx set, and the Staff parts, Modules, and Adventure's club buttons? Because by my rough estimate, the rest of the 8K pack should be enough to get you a Legendary (using the extra 11 PYPs and the 9 random Purps to trade of a Golden Fleece and anything you wind up short on).

Blech...I would hope the Legendaries aren't really that expensive...I can't see anyone willing to do that, given the lack of power of the current ones.

IMHO, another thing to consider is the relative lack of low bid starting price auctions on Ebay this year.

If someone wanting to start getting URs and looked at Ebay, they saw a lot of fixed prices in excess of $120. Keep in mind a lot of people in this situation aren't signed in to the forums, and don't have the gold for trading here (my own experience for my first 3 years playing included).

This year, say if you wanted a charm of synergy, if it was on Ebay for $135 or higher, it's a no-brainer to buy a $250 pack from TD, because you'd be able to use most of the rares you got with the pack as well as some uncommons and commons.

Whereas if you saw a charm of synergy for $45 on auction (not saying that's the final price), you'd probably keep checking ebay until you could get one for a price in your range and put off buying $250 of tokens just to get the PYP.

In addition, there are more people in the forum this year willing to accept cash rather than other trades. Two years ago, when I was looking for a certain UR, there was only one person willing to trade it on the forum who is also a friend from adventuring, and that was not a cash purchase. This year, I would hazard a guess that there would be multiple people who would take a cash offer for the same token.

This change also brings more people to sign into the forum, where they see other posts, are more likely to get "token fever", and end up buying increments of $250 packs.

I'd be curious to know if there has also been a higher bump in new forumites this year than last year, and if that correlates at least in part to the new people $250 or higher purchasers this year.

I also agree as previously mentioned that the lack of last year of "it didn't matter what tokens we had, we still got killed" made people feel their token purchases were much more worthwhile.

The obvious worth of tokens that was clearly made ahead of time for the underwater adventure last year also helped.

You REALLY needed those tokens, and it was clearly apparent when you signed up for the adventure and after.

Those people probably are purchasing tokens this year to be able to deal with the cold climate this year from their underwater experience last year. They also are able to clearly see that a $250 purchase is well worth it versus a lesser purchase to achieve what they need vs a cold climate.

quip wrote:
That sounds like quite a deal, since you need 250gp Eldritch dust to make one, plus another good Rare and uncommons.

What I meant was 500gp out of pocket, (250gp Dust + 250gp lack of monster bits) plus the other tokens I had in abundance. Gold is suddenly my limiting factor, due to the 40k madness of a Legendary.

I agree with the large price on Legendaries being steep. Maybe there will be reserve bars in the treasure, lol.

That would be nice. Pull out a $600 token. But it would also drive down the price of gold if there was suddenly an huge influx from treasure pulls.