Gaia marketplace: my shit ain't free

[Zellie Crescent]

This is about the shop section of Gaia Online, people have their own shops to sell various things with gold or G cash as the currency, never using real money or items. Me being the owner of one of those shops I have to deal with people who want to buy stuff from me. I'm selling a whole bunch of stuff and outfits on the marketplace, and for the prices I'm selling them they're going FAST the only downside is people like this lady. She PMs me and asks about an item from one of my outfits and if she could have it, could I please help her out. I figure hey no problem I've taken certain prices out of outfits before to sell to people separately. I PM her back and tell her I'll do that for her since she didn't need anything but the 1 item. Almost 10 seconds later I get another PM from her asking can I help her out or not, then it hits me she wants the item for free! Oh hell no. The item she's asking for is almost 600,000 gold whereas the full 6 item outfit I'm selling I priced at 550,00, if I wanted to I could've put the full total of everything instead of less than the full price of the most expensive item. I thought about it for a minute realizing that I was new to the site once, maybe she was to and just happened to like an expensive item. I look at her profile and the amount of gold she has and see that it's almost 4,000,000. I PM her back immediately saying if she was looking to have the item for free then she's out of luck, but if she really wants it she has the chance to buy it like everyone else.

[Pixilated]

Am I understanding this correctly ... there isn't any real money involved, and she still wants something for nothing??

Wow ... that takes SC/EW to a whole new level.

[Zellie Crescent]

I know that there isn't any real money involved, but I still have people that buy stuff from me, does that still count? But yeah, she had the nerve to ask for it like that like I would just hand it over like an idiot.

[dragon_wings]

My roomie will test people in online games. She'll start a trade, offer a chunk of change, then 'accidentally' cancel the trade. Then she'll do another trade for less gold and if the person she's gifting the gold to whines that it's less then last time she'll completely cancel the trade.

I love gaia but I'm not on it as much as my roomie (I work full time, she'll unemployed). It still baffles me the EW's you'll find in games complete separate for real life.

[Mr Hero]

My roomie will test people in online games. She'll start a trade, offer a chunk of change, then 'accidentally' cancel the trade. Then she'll do another trade for less gold and if the person she's gifting the gold to whines that it's less then last time she'll completely cancel the trade.

How would one pass this test? I'd feel like I'm being scammed if I saw the person trading is offering less the second time.

[dragon_wings]

How would one pass this test? I'd feel like I'm being scammed if I saw the person trading is offering less the second time.

I can see what your saying... Idk. The way she explained it made sense but I haven't seen it in action.

[Seraph]

How would one pass this test? I'd feel like I'm being scammed if I saw the person trading is offering less the second time.

I betcha she'd offer more than originally agreed upon, to see how honest they were. If they proved to be dishonest, she'd just up and leave.

[Pixilated]

I know that there isn't any real money involved, but I still have people that buy stuff from me, does that still count? But yeah, she had the nerve to ask for it like that like I would just hand it over like an idiot.

It counts regardless of whether it's real money, Gaia gold or Monopoly money. (I took a quick gander at the Gaia site but couldn't see much as I'm not a member. )
I'm just amazed that she still wants a freebie.

[alphabeats]

How would one pass this test? I'd feel like I'm being scammed if I saw the person trading is offering less the second time.

Sounds like this is opening a trade window and offering them the money for free rather than actually trading for something they have

[bhskittykatt]

I see variations of this in Runescape all the time. We don't have player-owned shops, but people will still stand out in the market areas announcing what they have for sale. There are always people begging for money/items. Some will see someone selling something and ask if they can have it for free (or a ridiculously low price), then start calling that person names when they're denied.

[dragon_wings]

I betcha she'd offer more than originally agreed upon, to see how honest they were. If they proved to be dishonest, she'd just up and leave.

This. Sorry, I didn't clarify.

I also should have said roomie usually does this with newbies, giving them a chunk of gold randomly out of the goodness of her heart.

Eta: what bhskittykatt said. (rooomie mostly does this on runescape.)

[Lace Neil Singer]

I've had people try this on me on my Gaia shop. It annoys the hell out of me. Firstly, the reason I have a Marketplace shop is to make gold. I'm not about to give stuff away for free; it's a store, not a charity. Second, a lot of people seem to think that cuz I've been on Gaia for a few years and am fairly rich in gold, that I somehow owe it to them to give them stuff for free. Um, no. As I say in my store description, the gold I have didn't magically appear in my account, I earned it.

Another thing that irritates me is people who PM me with requests for me to give them stuff in my avatar; my Inari's Beads seem to be the most popular choice with these morons. I have it equipped cuz I like it. I'm not going to give it away or sell it. I even had a noob tell me I was a "show off" cuz I dared to equip my avatar with expensive items. Look, I bought the Inari's Beads back when it was a brand new evolving item for 15,000 gold. True, it's far more pricy now, but that's life.

The really annoying thing is that it's fairly easy to make gold on Gaia now. Not only by selling stuff on the Marketplace, but you can play Booty Grab or zOMG! and expect to make a lot of gold. On my mule account, I have a werewolf item. I've had people beg for it before; I got it for free cuz I participated in the Halloween event, as did everyone else who was in that event. If you didn't, then you can just save up and buy it. A lot of my items were gotten that way; why should it be any different for you?

[Slave to the Phone]

I have a secondlife shop. I'll often give newbies things as long as they ask nicely. The right way to ask: I'd really like this item, how do you make money here? The wrong way to ask: I'm new, someone needs to give me stuff.

[Ben_Who]

I totally believe it - people are way worse about virtual gear than real stuff. Part of it might be the Greater Internet Farkwad Theory, part of it might be the fact that it's not real merch. "I don't know why he won't trade; it's not like it's a REAL hat." Then why do you want it? "Because I neeeed it!"

Couple days ago I was doing some idiot dungeon grind in WoW when the leader noticed I was carrying a piece of tanking gear on a Mage. He gave me a torrent of abuse and tried to kick me from the party. I never figured out why it offended him so much, but as he wound down, I suggested that maybe he'd spent enough time in Azeroth and should maybe go play outside. He ragequit.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Just this moment, I had a PM from a noob who wanted me to trade my Inari's Beads. I refused; he still sent me a trade containing items which weren't even worth a quarter of what the Inari's Beads are worth. I cancelled the trade and PMed the noob saying no way. If he keeps bugging me, I'll block him.