I used to do enhancements for money...

**ZynneTeva** · 03-22-2009, 02:52 PM

However, it no longer seems to be cost effective.

It disappoints me to see that buying gold from a gold-seller-spammer person is now the cheapest way to obtain money artificially, and its really irritating that someone who breaks the rules and buys gold in this fashion can obtain gold cheaper and faster than I can doing enhancements.

Scamers and lowballers aside, here is a break down:

-I've found that it takes on average 25 tries to enhance something from 0 to +9. Using this figure as an estimate, thats about 2.5 "sets" of eyes required per item. For simplicities sake, im going to assume my customer is doing two items, which is 5 "sets" of eyes.

-We are also going to assume that I purchase SC in bulk at its cheapest rate of 100 USD for 70,000 SC. Using this figure, we're going to say that 700 SC = 1 USD.

-We are going to assume that I use gold eyes as well, since translated, it means "15% less chance of having to use another blue and red eye in the event of a fail". It's important to note, that gold eyes were not implemented in the game as a way to save in game reagents.

-We are not assuming any costs of elrue's, lix's, and xir's.
-We are not accounting for the lack of 1 blue eye for a 0 to +1 enhancement.

1 set of T1 eyes:

585 (gold)
545 (blue)
625 (red)
1786
x5 (5 sets for two items)
8930

8930
/700 (700SC per 1 USD)
~13 USD.

For 13 USD, you can buy aprox 5g from an online seller.

There is no way I could charge (and get business) enhancing T1 items for 2.5g a pop (remember, we did two items, not just one). No on in their right mind would pay that much, and, to make matters worse, no one would even buy a T1 item for that much even if its already at +9.

It gets much better at T4. Here are the T4 numbers:

3,755 (gold)
3,145 (blue)
3,945 (red)
10,845
x5
54,255
[u]/700[u/]
~76 USD

This is much better. 75 USD buys you about 30g, which makes it about 15g a piece. This is definitely do-able, and chargeable in game.

The only downside to this, is that you must commit 75 real life dollars to enhance two T4 items.

Just for kicks, it will cost you about 225 USD to enhance a set of 6 items to +9.

This is quite ridiculous.

So, for now, until "eye" prices become realistic in price, I have suspended all enhancement services to the public.

Whoever has purchased from me over time thank you for your business.

-See you all in game.

Lone_Wolf · 03-22-2009, 03:00 PM

might remove link in siggy then :P

Also who sais the goldspammers dont scamm ya?

**ZynneTeva** · 03-22-2009, 03:13 PM

Originally Posted by Lone_Wolf

might remove link in siggy then :P

Also who sais the goldspammers dont scamm ya?

These companies make their bread and butter selling virtual currency (illegally) for all types of games. They are also in such great a number that shutting one down only means that 10 more will open up in its place.

They also filter money vigorously through multiple accounts, so that banning the origin (farming) account is hard to do, but possible, and takes tremendous amounts of time.

Believe me when I say that they're more scared of you scamming them with a Paypal charge back than you are of them not delivering. USD are worth so much money, that they dont want to risk scamming in the hopes that you're a repeat customer.

What you really have to worry about is Outspark tracking currency to your character, and then your account being banned because its associated with the illegal activity.

**Ralath** · 03-22-2009, 05:03 PM

....

Are you an economist? ^_~

**Triumph** · 03-22-2009, 05:11 PM

You don't have to be an economist to deduce his conclusions.

There is fierce competition among gold sellers to attract customers, so your risk of getting scammed is small.

Yay for math. I know Ralath loves math.

**ZynneTeva** · 03-22-2009, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by Ralath

....

Are you an economist? ^_~

No. But, I did do my masters thesis on a subject heavily related to e-commerce but more specifically, trading of currency for virtual property and its sociological effect, growth, and methodology.

I actually did an interview with one of the largest and most successful v-prop retailers!

He didnt reveal his trade secrets, I had to get those from gold farmers themselves. All of the "good stuff" came from small organizations (5-20) man workforces heavily based out of china.

Although to us, it seems like farming gold for a living is a giant waste of time, but let me tell you, they can turn a good sized USD based profit like you wouldnt believe.

It's actually projected that the v-prop trade will be an billion dollar industry by 2010 (this was back in 2000). Who knows?

**Hessah** · 03-22-2009, 11:44 PM

I thought "generally" the most "profitable" tier to enhance would be Tier 3... but even so, yeah I don't enhance for myself anymore it just cost waaaaaay too much...

And.. regarding this assumption:

Quote:

-We are also going to assume that I purchase SC in bulk at its cheapest rate of 100 USD for 70,000 SC. Using this figure, we're going to say that 700 SC = 1 USD.

It's actually the same CS : USD rate no matter how much you buy... you don't get more CS by charging more.. it's 700 SC = 1 USD whether you charge $5 or $100.

That sounds like an interesting thesis that you did XD

I know we use to get bot farmers, and I assume that's where they get their gold to sell... but I hvnt seen those bots for a while and.. so they use real people to farm the gold so it's not just some blind program KSing people?

**Ralath** · 03-23-2009, 01:08 AM

Originally Posted by Triumph

You don't have to be an economist to deduce his conclusions.

I was making a joke about economists and assumptions.

EdwardWarlock · 03-23-2009, 04:13 AM

Originally Posted by Hessah

I thought "generally" the most "profitable" tier to enhance would be Tier 3... but even so, yeah I don't enhance for myself anymore it just cost waaaaaay too much...

And.. regarding this assumption:

It's actually the same CS : USD rate no matter how much you buy... you don't get more CS by charging more.. it's 700 SC = 1 USD whether you charge $5 or $100.

That sounds like an interesting thesis that you did XD

I know we use to get bot farmers, and I assume that's where they get their gold to sell... but I hvnt seen those bots for a while and.. so they use real people to farm the gold so it's not just some blind program KSing people?

This is true. I did the math on this as well, to see if there's was a bonus to buying more SC at higher levels than being cheap. That's a big negative, so I only charge what I need to survive.