CB2 for sale for $USD (in General)

Is anyone else notice an above-average amount of $USD sales in CB2?

I admit to taking my CB1 proceeds and buying gear here on CB2. that's not my point, I'm not wanting to suggest, or even debate that $USD is unfair/evil/lame.

I am simply noting that a lot of people seem to be here to sell for $USD. Over the past 1-2 weeks, I am seeing a lot more sellers than buyers, suggesting that we are reaching critical mass, and should see a decline in sellers, and more people actually playing the game? Do you think some of these sellers are just flashes in a pan who will disappear as the economy settles? Or do you think there will always be a market for so many sellers for USD?

There is a large amount of stuff being sold for USD. I'm no hypocrite, I've bought for USD and tried to sell for USD as well. I think one reason for the mass of USD traffic at the moment is its easy. It's a lot harder to build up any sort of in game wealth at this stage (besides camping for rares, but that's never been easy...) and to get established, people are taking the easy route.

I don't think it's lame, if they want to put that much into the game then so be it. It's not like NW is the only way to win anyway.

I think the sellers well most likely hang around, it's always good for them to get some USD for playing a game and for the people who like wasting their money on a game, well what better game to waste it on than CB?

As a purist I find myself having 2.6Million CB2 because no one will sell rares for cb2$. Selling my CB2$ for USD to use that USD to buy rares seems ridiculous to me. I am just going to horde cash at this point and hope something I actually want gets enough votes in black market.

Personally I think CB in general has a trend shift more from players playing a game for fun to people playing to turn a profit and maybe having some fun on the way.

I am not advocating the stopage of this, it is just makes the game less fun for me.

I find it rather amusing to see professional campers selling for USD. Reality is that they can make 20 times more money working at McDonalds in the same of time they spend camping.

I think it cheapens the game a bit but no one (in the most part) is doing anything beyond the rules of CB so more power to them. Personallly, I loan or rent all rares I get.

I think there will always be a market, whether it will always be this large is up for debate. The only thing I can see having a significant impact on it is when(if ever) the ratio of $USD to $CB2 shrinks to the point where it isn't worth the time invested camping/fighting/etc. to play just for the dollars.

As it is right now, if I'm a high school kid living at home looking for some extra money and I see that a few days investment in item camping or rolling up a fb mage and fighting will net me enough $CB2 to make a noticeable return in $USD, then you bet I'd be here just to take advantage of that and not for the "game" itself. But by the same token, you can bet that if I was only getting $20 USD for the same million CB2 that I was getting $40 for last week, I'd be a flash in the pan looking for greener pastures.

I'm no economist, but I think this is a nifty real world parallel of how a market can work, complete with all the ups and downs and inflationary periods. It may put some purists off who resent the fact that anyone with a large enough wallet can leapfrog them to the top, but for every astrokid there are a lot more people like me who don't mind spending a dollar here or there to get that elusive rare, or save a weeks worth of fighting to pay blacksmith fees.

Well, I sell for USD quite a bit. Looking at my paypal account, I can tell you I've made $184.43 USD off of CB2 transactions. That's almost pure profit except for the $5 for supportership and about $21 I invested towards a future sale.

I seriously doubt the USD market will remain this large. We hit critical mass, in my opinion, about 4 or 5 days ago. The conversion rate took a huge dip and it still hasn't evened out. I expect it to even out here around the end of the month and then face a much healthier, gradual decline as the market becomes smaller and smaller.

The market is so large because it benefits both sides. Money and items are still rare enough in any quantity at this stage of the game that it takes a much more concentrated effort to get ahead (economically) than it did towards the end of CB1. The market benefits powerplayers like astrokid who are looking to pump up their NW as fast and easily as possible. It also benefits your market rats like myself who have a head for numbers and could really stand to make a few extra bucks.

However, there will never again be as many powerplayers looking to get so far ahead in NW so quickly for the market to ever resemble the state it was in a week or two ago, while there will always be the market rats looking to turn a buck. So now you have an overflow of Johnny-Come-Latelies looking to turn a trick off of CB2D after seeing the sort of income people like me made. So, higher supply with a steadily diminishing demand.

In short, no the market will never be this big again. It's already declining.

Would also like to add one thing:
"I find it rather amusing to see professional campers selling for USD. Reality is that they can make 20 times more money working at McDonalds in the same of time they spend camping.
--Jibberish"
I find it amusing that you don't see the difference. In general, it takes hundreds of times less effort, loyalty, and reliability to play CB2 than it does to work at McDonald's. A job is a commitment; you have people to answer to and people to serve. In CB2 you serve only yourself and you can play whenever the heck you like and you're MAKING MONEY OFF OF RECREATION. How can you compare that to getting arm deep in grease and dealing with irate soccermoms and ooze-fingered brats all day? More specifically, I (a professional camper selling for USD) play and more specifically camp WHILE AT WORK. I have a full time job that requires very little effort and supplies me with a high-speed internet access. I can augment my hourly income by $1-5/hour any given week depending on my successes. I'm sure YOU wouldn't scoff at going from, say, $9.75 an hour to $14.75 an hour at any particular job.

Well said Iceman. Of course, one thing that I've been privately amused about is this: how many of the regular USD merchants are going to report their earnings to their income tax authority (for the countries that have an income tax, of course).

Two things, Bubo: 1) You only need to report it if the income is in excess of $1000. 2) It won't need to be reported until filing your 2005 taxes this time next year.