GW2: Going for 1000 gold – Addicted to BL Keys
Hello, my name is manylaughs, and I’m an addict.
It’s true. I just can’t help myself. I’ll do my story or work on zone completions or even use my gems, all to get a key to a Black Lion chest. There’s something about me. I can’t stand having all those chests in my bank – over 300 – unopened and taunting me with their mystery contents. I have to know, you know. I have to know what’s inside.
Sure, I try to cover up my addiction, rationalize it in the name of journalistic research. I’ve told you, everyone, there that what’s inside is mostly junk and not worth your gems or gold. I know that’s true, but I keep coming back for more.
The other day, ArenaNet tempted me, again. I had managed to stay away from Black Lion keys for more than a month, but they had to have a sale on Black Lion keys. They had reduced the price of BL keys to 5 keys for 360 gem – Exactly the number of keys I had left! Clearly, it was a sign from the ArenaNet gods that I had to buy those keys, right?
As I mentioned, before, I bought $50 worth of gems when I came back to Guild Wars 2 in October. When I started this quest for 1000 gold, I still had about 1600 on account. Nothing I had spent my gems on had significantly impacted my gold total. I had spent my gems on odd and ends, such as the Aetharblade Armor Skin, Kasmeer’s Staff Skin, the Collection Expander, and, of course, a few sets of Black Lion keys to feed my addiction.
Until, recently, I hadn’t gotten a single thing of value from the chests. This time I got an Unopened Endless Mystery Tonic.
We all have things in the game we think are awesome cool. Tonics aren’t one of them for me, so I decided to sell it.
This is a lesson. It’s a lesson in how stupid I can be and also to beware of the price of new products. The Unopened Endless Mystery Tonic seemed to be relatively new on the trading post. At least there were very few of them posted for sale. The first one to have gone up was posted at 250 gold, but there were several others posted by the time I posted mine and the price had gone down to about 89 gold.
I decided to match the lowest seller. That was a stupid move. The next day the price on these had dropped to 85 gold. It was clear more of these were coming onto the market. I decided to relist mine for around 82 gold. In less than an hour, someone had posted another tonic for around 75 gold. The price was coming down fast.
That was it. There was an offer to buy for 55 gold. I took it and got out.
I wasted about 10 gold in relisting fees. I had been very stupid. With so few tonics offered, I should’ve waited to see what the market would bear, what price level these tonics would finally find.
With anything new or unfamiliar, it’s usually best to wait and let the market find its level. This applies to buying and selling, though sometimes people list new items way too cheap. Once you get to know the market better, you’ll recognize this.
I converted my profit from this back into gems. I didn’t want this to impact my gold total for this 1000 gold quest, since that wouldn’t have been fair given that the gems had been bought with money. If the BL key had come from doing my story or something, that’s just normal game luck, which happens to everyone. In that case, I would have kept the profit, but it wasn’t.
What did I do with the gems I bought with the gold? I bought more Black Lion keys, of course. I told you I was an addict. (FYI, I got the usual stuff – armor canisters, gathering boosts, etc.)
My starting total for yesterday is shown below. I made a lot more runes than usual and got lucky – there’s that word, again – and got a lodestone drop that I made a Rune of the Scholar with. It’s a 3 gold gem on the trading post.
