Gaia marketplace: my shit ain't free

[Caffienated_Caramel]

oh god I haven't been there in YEARS and I still get a news letter. I got really old rare stuff and unopened letters still last I checked.

I remember dealing with idiots when I did free giveaways.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Unless it's like Second Life where you can turn your $Lindens into real money.

Not like that on Gaia; in fact, if you try to swap gold for real money you could end up hit with the banstick. O.o

[Syriilord]

Oh god. The stories I've heard over the years.

The worst I encountered (in terms of currency/item begging, not the worst overall) was when I started my first Warlock character on WoW back in the vanilla days (pre-expansions). I had another warlock a level lower than me follow me around for three hours begging me to give him a gold (which I didn't have) and some soul shards (which can't be traded away from the warlock who creates them).


My worst experience overall probably involved the in-game stalker I had for a few days during the first expansion...

[Enjis]

In City of Heroes, I have a character who often got handed influence (the currency there) just for being pretty! Older characters would just run by, give me stuff, and say 'Nice costume!' and run off again!
My hubby still laughs about it!
And my oh my, the whiners and scammers there were on Neopets when I used to play! It was really pathetic how much effort people would put into scamming kids out of pixels!

[manybellsdown]

Oh god. The stories I've heard over the years.

The worst I encountered (in terms of currency/item begging, not the worst overall) was when I started my first Warlock character on WoW back in the vanilla days (pre-expansions). I had another warlock a level lower than me follow me around for three hours begging me to give him a gold (which I didn't have) and some soul shards (which can't be traded away from the warlock who creates them).


My worst experience overall probably involved the in-game stalker I had for a few days during the first expansion...

I had a dude like that once. I was leveling fishing in a low area and he started pestering me for gold. Then he went on with "ur a noob, u suck, u haveno life" etc, etc. Eventually, my replies pissed him off so much that he ended up blocking me. Haha. I win.

[Zellie Crescent]

It's funny that he would tell you that you have no life. Please tell me you told him to look in the mirror the next time he says that. I seriously don't understand why they need to stalk people for freebies instead of posting on their profile that they're too lazy to do any work, and just beg for stuff.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Exactly. Got another letter from someone asking for a fortune egg for a ridiculously low amount, which I was selling on the Marketplace. -.- Sorry, but no.

[Brojekk]

It happens in World of Warcraft alot too.....high level players...many of them which are in guilds begging for a handfull of gold. At that level it's so easy to make handfulls of gold each day just by doing quests and selling stuff you find. And since they're in guilds, they can get money from there without bothering trade chat.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Exactly. Got another letter from someone asking for a fortune egg for a ridiculously low amount, which I was selling on the Marketplace. -.- Sorry, but no.

The next time that happens reply back that you are willing to accept their offer, your version of which has some 0s added to the end to make it more than you were asking for the item, which they apparently left off when typing their offer. Think of negotiating like Aahz, who increases the asking price with each round of negotiations. Similar to how Jester negotiates beer prices.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I usually ignore them, unless they're persistant; then I put them on my ignore list, like I did with the idiot who wanted me to trade my Inari's Beads and sent me a trade full of crap. XD He didn't take kindly to me cancelling the trade.

Wish people would get it into their thick heads that if I equip something on my avatar, it's something I like a lot and want to keep. I mean, I understand why people like Inari's Beads; it's a kitsune themed evolving item that finished with a ton of poses.

However, I like it for much the same reasons and get this, I want to keep it.

[SongsOfDragons]

I have a couple of Inari's Beads too. Some of the evolving items are lovely, though I remember a long time ago when all the effort went into the Donation Items...ahh the old DIs.

[manybellsdown]

I usually ignore them, unless they're persistant; then I put them on my ignore list, like I did with the idiot who wanted me to trade my Inari's Beads and sent me a trade full of crap. XD He didn't take kindly to me cancelling the trade.

Ergh I HATE that. Especially when they try to trade you items the game gives new players FOR FREE and they're baffled when you don't want them.

I play a pirate game where one of the high-end items is a little parrot, monkey, or octopus that sits on your avatar's shoulder. A couple years ago, I won an octopus in a game writing contest. When I wear it, I have people open a trade window (without a word to me, mind you) and start putting crates and other worthless furniture items in. My response now is to just click my "accept" without putting anything in my trade slots - after all if you just start shoving items at me without a word, I'm going to assume it's a gift, right? Then they find their keyboard and say "4 octo". Yeah, you're about 2 million coins short there, buddy.

[EyeTeaGuy]

My my my.......great stories.

I play World of Warcraft, probably a BIT too much......but it is a great stress relief.

I have all of my high level characters on the same side and the same server, and each of them has one of the production professions, save for engineering - can't make money off of that SOB. Most of the time I just use each toon to create items for others - armor, equipment, gems, enchantments, glyphs, etc.

But sometimes I look and say holy heck, I have so much stuff, I won't use it - to the Auction House!

Rarely do I put up a good item where I DON'T get a "hey, can you cancel the auction and sell it to me for X", where X is usually no more than half of what I've put it up for.

The answer is NO. I like building up my gold pile before an expansion hits, dangnabarammafrummit!

I've had people that I don't know whisper me "hey, can you lend me 4K gold for my epic flying cost".........first, I don't know you. Second, you kinda have to be level 70 to get that, and you are level..hmmm. 26.

If they don't shut up - I open a trade window with them, put the gold in (even more - say 10K), and then just go make a sandwich - without hitting the "trade" button that both parties have to hit. The record is keeping a twit on the hook for 20 minutes.

[ApolloSZ]

I've been lucky. The servers I've been on when playing Minecraft online, I've gotten along well with the other players. They've spontaneously given me diamond tools** so in return i've used those to help them terraform and build as best as I can (without knowing the plans its a bit hard lol), or given other items in return.

** - Background for non-MCers, diamond tools are harder to make (gotta find Diamond first), and last the longest/work the quickest.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Ergh I HATE that. Especially when they try to trade you items the game gives new players FOR FREE and they're baffled when you don't want them.

XD Definitely; or in Gaia's case, sponsorship items which were picked up for free or event items. -.- True, not all of them are bad (I've got two Halloween items equipped on my avatar right now) but still doesn't mean I want them in a trade for something I want to keep.

I know I've touched on this before, but I really can not stand begging. If you want gold, then get off your fat arse and work for it. Play Booty Grab, or zOMG! for it. Honestly, my computer lags a bit and I still manage to play both those games. I've picked up a crapload of gold and orbs by playing Hiveworld in zOMG! over and over again. Same goes for Shallow Seas. Just grab a crew and get down to it to get oodles of gold.

If you're crap at the game, then just head to the Aquarium forum, click on the bump threads that state that they contain tanks with dolphins, Enkis, Airsharks or other high end fish and Booty Grab for an hour or so. Even someone like me, who gets bored with playing Booty Grab after twenty minutes, can still pick up several thousand gold by doing that. Much better than pissing off everyone else by begging.

Also, I may be rich and have been on there for years, but guess what; I don't owe you anything.