Anyone else feel like they can't compete in the online economy anymore unless they aggressively time travel?

[Aronthaer]

I don't time travel in my animal crossing games, I haven't since I was a kid. I played new horizons at midnight the night it came out and I haven't touched the system clock. No disrespect to those who do, it's just how I prefer to play. I think the time system is intended and it works well. But lately I just can't compete in the online market anymore. I love trading online, but I always get lowballed on rare items by people who either don't care about time travel or are fortunate enough to have the money to buy two switches. Trading just keeps getting harder and harder and the economy is plummeting, I have tons of nmt that are next to worthless now. Just wanted to vent some frustration and see if anyone else is having this issue.

 

[seularin]

^^^
was tempted to tt ever since i started trading, lol
i only trade on the forum since I'm more comfortable w/it, so trading is sorta a struggle for me when most are looking for tbt - trading is my tom nook
the currency rates r all over the place rn, honestly

 

[JeffreyAC]

Agree, honestly I feel like we should only be able to sell turnips in our own town, this way the bells value would hold better, I think. And the NMT was brought down by hackers, and there's nothing we can really do there, maybe if Nintendo would offer more uses for our Nook Miles.

 

[Barney]

I don't time travel, but I managed to fill my art gallery thanks to those who do! There was no way I was going to finish it within the decade at the rate Redd was showing up...and often with 4 fakes or no new genuine pieces.

I'm happy to let people have my TBTs, as they're worthless to me other than as a currency to trade with on here. I'd much rather spend them than give away in-game items / currency.

Having said that, there's something a bit odd about seeing people selling entire sets of things that have only just been added to the game a day earlier...and usually for extortionate amounts.

I don't mind paying for things, but some of the prices people ask for are ridiculous - If it feels like someone is asking too much, I'll just pass and wait for the price to come down, or until I come across the item for myself anyway.

 

[Xeleron]

To me this issue has more to do with people "farming" than time traveling, but TTing definitely plays a role in all this. I usually TT to move buildings around, or if I haven't played in a few days, I'll go back as see what I missed in Nook's or NPCs, so it is helpful in some ways, but it can be used for some players advantage in the trading community. I've recently been thinking about selling some items for tbt but there are multiple other stores with far more mech than I have... because they "farm" so I get where you're coming from (this is just my speculation, not trying to point fingers at anyone). The game was out for like 2-3 days and some people were already selling whole entire mermaid sets...

 

[Loriii]

I have a second Switch unit and I do TT to farm DiYs and stuff to decorate and only for use in my own island. I don't make a profit out of it except for when I got Raymond through campsite method (almost everyone is probably doing that to get him on their island) to sell and gain NMTs mostly to look for my dreamies. But stuff you get like star fragments, seasonal items, etc. I keep them or I pass them in the mail to give to our friend for free. I'm not into trading since I'm too lazy to try to manage a shop or something. Might be like I'm missing an opportunity to gain, but no thanks. I'm not interested. With that being said, I could see that it's ruining the economy for people who wants to get rare stuff through fair means and also an advantage for people abusing the NPCs to farm endlessly for their own gain.

 

[mayortiffany]

No, I don't feel that way. The market is big enough at the moment that you can find someone who's willing to trade with you fairly easily. I'd argue that people who lowball or who expect really high prices are always going to exist regardless of whether they time travel, spend a lot of time playing, or have multiple Switches.

I think that there are multiple reasons why it seems so difficult to compete in the online market.

First, many people have already gotten their desired items or villagers or have racked up large amounts of Bells already - this is possible to do even if you don't go to other people's towns to sell turnips or don't dabble in turnips at all! As a result, people may value their currency less and less, and demand more and more in return. It's also possible that fewer people are trading now because many have the things they want. When you've had the chance to play for months and have likely made a nice stockpile of currency, 1 NMT isn't as big of a deal as it once was. I think that turnip trading, CJ/Flick bugs, and duplication glitches have made it easy for people to accumulate a lot of currency fast - I'm not necessarily sure if it's time travelling that's causing the economy to plummet.

As for what 'lowballing' means to people, I'd argue that it can be very subjective, especially if you're dealing with prices across multiple places to trade. In comparison with other trading sites, I'd say that our forums has some of the lowest prices out there. It's certainly frustrating to get offers that you feel are not fair. Some people might lowball because they genuinely think your offer is overpriced or inflated and are just putting an offer out there to see if you'll bite. Others know the trading value of a good but want to lowball anyways to see if you'll bite. When prices for some things are just so inflated, I'm honestly not surprised that people are lowballing.

 

[InstantNoodles]

I agree with you. I am a serial time traveller (just the way I like to play because I get bored with games relatively quickly haha) and even then I can't compete with the people who are farming Gulliver, Gullivarr, Celeste, etc. I guess as long as you play the game at a pace that you enjoy then that's all that matters

 

[mirukushake]

Not really, but I also don't participate in the online economy to make a profit. I have kept to doing almost entirely 1:1 trades (very rarely trading or buying) and I don't have a problem. I do TT for things like Redd/Gulliver/Celeste but mostly for personal use; I only occasionally get extras for trading.

 

[niko@kamogawa]

Time traveling for me keeps the economy going. Otherwise, we won't see a bustling number of goods and villagers in the market. On the other hand, it speeds up the game's eventual "death" because people can clear the content fast.

It went through a test of time anyway. We seen this happening all over again before from previous games.