I was searching around a little to try and figure out what my items are really worth, since none of them appear on the exchange so I don't have a comparison prices to help me decide. So I did a little searching online and came across two repeating themes that really annoyed me.
Firstly, I came across lots of EC sellers and sites infringing the STO player agreement (I added all those sites as bans on my firewall so that's one problem solved). Secondly, I came across lots of unfair bad mouthing of the STO exchange.
The Exchange in STO is very well done. Even its flaws, which are relatively minor, make for more bargains to be found for the patient searcher.
Firstly I would like to deal with:
Lies and Myths people repeat about the Exchange
- Myth: People are using the exchange as a "bank" extension.
- Lie: High Prices are caused by there being no fees on posting items to the exchange.
- Lie: The exchange was not fully completed on release.
- Myth: Changes to the way the exchange works will lead to items selling for much less.
Whilst a player does have a "fixed" number of bank slots in their inventory, they may (thank fully) hold as many items as they wish as incoming mail. Players can also mail items to themselves for storage. There is simply no need to use the exchange for storage. It is true that people use the Exchange as a bit of a trophy cabinet posting their godly items at prices they know will never sell or if they do sell they won't mind parting with the item for that much. This however is a good thing because otherwise you would never see these items at all (not you would see them cheaper like people like to fool themselves into believing).
High prices are because people want to get as much as they can for their efforts and because in some cases greed. It is true to say the following about having a fee on the exchange: It decreases ridiculously priced posts, decreases spam posts (e.g. here buy my Tribble for 1 EC), decreases the number of items posted to the exchange in general (and ultimately discourages its use in favour of a non-charged vending system. Player to player trading).
Serial has been playing since the start of the open beta, the exchange was completed and working back then and in some ways I liked it a little more (it had smaller lines per item). This myth has come about I think because there are many ways in which the exchange could be enhanced or altered. For example a feature could be added to search within the description text of an item (which would make it easier to find female bridge officers for example). However, in many ways, the difficulty of searching for exact specifics results in more chance of you getting what your looking for because it takes effort to find it and people who might buy it up just to charge you more might give up before, you, the person wanting the item gives up looking and therefore you find it at a "bargain" price.
Prices on the exchange are driven will largely by driven by four factors, actual value to other players, the perceived value of items the players own and wish to sell, greed and charity. A fee on the exchange will not affect the first two factors but might possibly change the reward return for greed perhaps encouraging people to not post "stupidly high prices" and definitely remove the trophy postings. Personally, I like to see the trophy postings even if I would never buy them. It's good to know what's out there. Secondly, if a player is greedy and wants to keep posting there items for far more than they are worth, I don't mind at all. Eventually they will get tired of reposting them every period and lower the price to something that someone might actually pay.
Strengths:
- No Fees - It does not cost money to sell so you don't become poorer by trying to sell your goods.
- Exacting Naming Convention - You can easily find the same type of product on the exchange and decide on a fair or desired price. Though in some ways this shows another weakness of the game. The cookie cutter nature of items.
- Categorisation - All the items are grouped by type making it simple to look for whatever it is you are wanting.
- Cannot search on Weapon Stats - For example if you wanted to find a better shield than you had, you would have to "learn" about the shields and try and figure out one that might be better. It would be great if you could just for example search of Shield Capacity. This is though a plus on the finding bargains front because people good items under priced but their not obvious so a dedicated exchange user can often find a great deal.
- Cannot Sort on Multiple Criteria
- Cannot filter for a price range
