Friday 23 September 2011

Reins of the Spectral Tiger pricing oddity

I was perusing The Undermine Journal last night and typed in Reins of the Spectral Tiger for the hell of it. There were none available on my server but I immediately noticed something odd on the "other markets" graph. The highest price was 429,496g 73s and 16 servers had one up at exactly that price.


Looking closer at the price graph, it seems the "normal" price range is 100k to 250k with just a sprinkling of others between the "normal" ones and the 16 at 429,496g 73s.

The 16 servers are Ursin, Archimonde, Dunemaul, Runetotem, Bonechewer, Farstriders, Rexxar, Blackrock, Nesingwary, Moonrunner, Grizzly Hills, Korgath, Moon Guard, Darkspear, Frostmourne and Kel'Thuzad.


It can't be a coincidence that the 16 highest priced are all exactly the same price. No way, not a chance. Using occam's razor which states "the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one" the obvious conclusion is it's probably the same entity (person, group or company) selling them on all 16 servers. He's likely buying in them in the normal range of 100-250k and flipping them for more but I really have to wonder what someone with the resources to do that on 16 different servers does for a living. I also have to wonder if this isn't just the tip of the iceberg. What else is he doing on how many more servers where he either doesn't have that mount for sale or the server isn't monitored by TuJ?

This reminds me of a few months back when large numbers of very cheap Living Embers suddenly appeared on many different servers (including mine) all being sold by characters with the exact same name.

What do you think? Something fishy going on or not?

7 comments:

  1. I'd bet donuts to dollars it's fishy. I play on a couple of servers and I've noticed players with exact same names posting identical items at identical prices as well.

    A few months back, I kept getting whispered by a gold-spammer with the same identical name on different servers. I posted a ticket about it and went on my merry way. A few days later, same name whispers me again. I posted another ticket and ended up in a conversation with a GM about it. They stated that the gold-spammers/hackers seem to latch on to specific names and use them over and over until caught and then move on to another name. They thought it was some sort of automated software they used with compromised accounts to set-up all these level one characters. Just to check, I looked up the name and sure enough there were level ones with that name on just about every server, well over 200+.

    I would think they use a similar system for posting items on the AH as part of their gold-making and selling schemes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That price might be the TUJ price limit that it can display. I've noticed it display that price on a bunch of other mounts as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 2^32 = 4,294,967,296

    Pretty sure that's the limit for integers?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I bet if you made a character on those servers, you'd find they are actually posted for various higher amounts. That amount shown is just the highest amount TUJ can display (as explained by the previous response. Sorry to burst the conspiracy bubble ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. An even simpler explanation... You're probably right.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Its always silly that people site and explain Occam's Razor, an adage about simple explanations.

    Just giving a simple explanation itself is enough.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Occam's Razor is not an adage, it's a scientific method.

      Delete