My rant about buying/selling villagers.

[Bioness]

Plus, I feel like you have a much better chance of finding him on a mystery island then earning enough miles to purchase hundreds of NMT.

People are trading for the NMTs. Raymond has a 1 in 805 chance (35 species x 23 cats) of appearing on a mystery island.

With 400 Island visits you have a 39.18% of finding him. You don't get a 50% chance until you use 558 tickets.

 

[AppleCat]

When I first decided I wanted Audie, I saw her going for 250-400nmt. I decided to start saving, but It would take forever if I did it without the forum. I got really lucky with RNG and got popular villagers so I got some NMT for them, and the rest was island hosting for Celeste and stuff, charged sometimes and others I just asked for tips.

I paid 70NMT for Audie today which was pretty much my entire stock, I couldn't imagine paying for Raymond. I've seen him go between 1-2k. Luckily I got him as a move-in after Tex left. Bidding in auctions can be stressful, you never know how much others have or what people want to be offered. But NMT are easier to trade than back in the day 15mil, running to and from the bank omg

 

[Twinsouls1145]

as for why people ask for NMT instead of IGB i think getting IGB is waaay too easy. once i discovered the turnip exchange discord i got around 15mil igb practically overnight. igb feels like an infinite resource to me so NMT feels like the only currency other than TBT that could possibly be useful for anything. even if i have all my dreamies there will always be people who want to use their NMT to find villagers, especially if you run a cycle town so i think NMT are at least slightly more useful than IGB.

 

[Bioness]

When I first decided I wanted Audie, I saw her going for 250-400nmt. I decided to start saving, but It would take forever if I did it without the forum. I got really lucky with RNG and got popular villagers so I got some NMT for them, and the rest was island hosting for Celeste and stuff, charged sometimes and others I just asked for tips.

I paid 70NMT for Audie today which was pretty much my entire stock, I couldn't imagine paying for Raymond. I've seen him go between 1-2k. Luckily I got him as a move-in after Tex left. Bidding in auctions can be stressful, you never know how much others have or what people want to be offered. But NMT are easier to trade than back in the day 15mil, running to and from the bank omg

Audie is different, because she is Peppy and thus more common than Raymond and Judy due to the guaranteed Peppy at the start. People started to realize that thus her price dropped.

 

[Aleigh]

If everyone stopped paying absurd amounts for villagers, people would stop asking for so much. But, that probably won't happen for a long time (if I ever does), and as long as people are willing to buy at those amounts, people are going to sell them for that much. This is why I like auctions more, since it's more the buyer's decision, though of course there will always be someone who is willing to put more in

 

[Laureline]

Yeah it’s just very discouraging for someone who doesn’t even have 20 nmt. I really want to get my dreamies, but not have to drain my nm that could be used on island things. I’m not sure why people who played new leaf and used tbt to buy/sell villagers. Are ok with selling their villagers for such high amounts.

 

[Rhuenkun]

I never considered NMTs as a negative thing, I always just saw them as an easier to carry form of currency. In game you can only carry 4.1 mil IGB in your pockets in one trip, which (at the time I did a lot of villager hunting) was 20 NMT/2 spaces in your pocket. I recall in New Leaf, when Marshal was selling for crazy amounts, people would spend hours upon hours going back and forth and dropping bells on the floor. I always just looked at NMT as convenience for currency, and its a nice and quick tip for those who open up their islands for turnips/recipes/furniture/etc. When people hoard thousands of tickets, I don’t think it has a purpose (though, they are versatile in that sense since they can be used for island hopping) more than currency.

We do run into the problem of the NMT to IGB rate deflating though (I believe NMT are down to 150k IGB?). In that sense, they’re unreliable, though I still understand the appeal And convenience to them, though.

As for insane prices for villagers, this seems nothing new to the Marshal hype we saw in New Leaf (aside from the fact there’s no new Villager amiibos yet). But the game has also been out for a month and the economy in extremely unstable now. Give it some time— people will save up more currency (whether that’s IGB or NMT in the future), the price of villagers will surely go down, and everyone who works hard will have their dreamies soon enough.

 

[usa-chan]

i swear that discord is on another level. one of my biggest problems with the nmt inflation is that even lower tier villagers get priced high. i've seen people ask for 10-15 nmt for tier 5 villagers, and i'm always so confused. like you expect people to fork over 10 nmt just for midge? (no offense to midge! loved her when she was on my island) it's really sad because it just makes it harder for people to get their dreamies on discord, even if they're not as popular.

 

[h1pst4r]

New to this board (sort of— made an account and forgot about it). I’ve been playing online on Reddit since NL, and I think the explosion of new players to the game might also be causing some volatility. I was really excited at first with all the new players and the community growing over night, but the tone’s really changed. Given I only did turnips sometimes on r/acturnips which has a strict rule on no entry fees/trip requirements, this whole greediness on Nookazon and Turnip.exchange with lavish fees is astounding to me. At the risk of sounding gatekeep-y, I really kind of miss the mid to tail end of ACNL. I migrated over here to get away from a lot of what’s going on in r/animalcrossing.

 

[Lavulin98]

It always irked me how expensive villagers are to buy! But in my case I don't really have a lot of dreamies in tier 1-2.

I snagged Zucker for free on this forum by luck, and I paid 10 NMT for Olivia from discord. ( it was 5 NMT actually but I told the seller that I would give him 5 more if he waited for me to have an empty plot and he did!)

All my other villagers I found while island hoping.

I think most people are so crazy for NMT because they still have lots of dreamies to get. I also would love Judy, but I can't afford her now and do not want to sacrifice Olivia to do the campsite trick. But if I didn't have Olivia, I would certainly do the campsite trick!

I will say that discord is not such a bad place! You just have to find the best offer! Now they even have a channel for free villagers in boxes and I saw a lot of tier 1s in there. You just have to be extra quick. but eventually you will find someone reasonable. I've had more luck giving away free villagers on discord (where even untiered villagers where claimed in minutes) compared to TBT.

If I look back on the past for my Olivia hunt, I spent around 50 tickets island hoping for her. I just wish I would have gotten her initially from someone for even 20 NMT, I would have still not wasted so many tickets. So I say to take into consideration that, that perhaps the luck is not in your favor! I've spent 100 NMT island hoping leisurely for Judy and still nothing! Soon I will her her market value in how many trips I did and it is possible to discover that I still haven't seen her on any islands!

So I say to just try to find the best deal you can get and go for it. I think it is more crushing to spend 100 tickets for your dreamie island hoping and he s not there, than to fork that amount for someone you REALLY WANT. But if you can wait a little, there will be someone eventually who will give a lower number!

 

[kylie32123]

I'm aware that NMT is the new economy, and if you wait for the new amiibos (believe me, im waiting, lol) prices will deflate. I, along with other people here i see, agree upon the fact that NMT's bring the greed out of people. Only reason why NMT's are valuable is because you have a chance to get a villager on an island lol. but even tho NMT's are the new thing, its still not fair for people to dish out thousands for a villager. I am however, glad to see im not the only person whos frustrated about this. i know one day prices will be reasonable, but it prob wont be for a while

 

[lila]

The pricing has definitely gotten way out of hand. Not just with villagers but everything (entry fees, turnip selling etc). All you can do is try to avoid engaging in it and hope it all blows over soon.

I have a lot of tier 1 villagers that I’m intending to let go. I’d rather someone who really wanted them get to have them, than be complicit in this AC economic crisis lmao.

 

[samsquared]

Oh yeah I'm not a law expert, but as far as I know isn't that illegal? Does someone here know if selling AC stuff for real money can be considered illegal? I meant it's Nintendo's property but again, I'm not on the smart side when it comes to legal stuff and business

It's not illegal because it's technically resale. You can always resell an item you purchased legitimately from the manufacturer- once someone buys an amiibo, nintendo has transferred ownership of that individual amiibo. There are laws to protect consumers from scalpers, but there are no laws (in the US, at the federal level) to prevent people from scalping. So yes, although it's probably morally wrong, it's totally legal for someone to charge you $100+ actual dollars for a marshal amiibo card.

 

[BluePing]

I completely agree! I spend 5 days to get 50 NMT and I still can’t afford my desired villagers. Spending hours on need grinding nook miles to get nothing in return due to absurd prices . The more I think about it, the more annoying I find it. People who are busy all the time can’t even get half the amount I get as I have quite a lot of time to spend on animal crossing so what on earth are they gonna do whilst lacking nmt and also lacking time. The prices are obscene and unfair and people shouldn’t have to pay these prices. I just wish the currency switched back to tbt to make it fair...

 

[Kyneria]

It's not illegal because it's technically resale. You can always resell an item you purchased legitimately from the manufacturer- once someone buys an amiibo, nintendo has transferred ownership of that individual amiibo. There are laws to protect consumers from scalpers, but there are no laws (in the US, at the federal level) to prevent people from scalping. So yes, although it's probably morally wrong, it's totally legal for someone to charge you $100+ actual dollars for a marshal amiibo card.

Oh I don't mean the amiibos, but for example the character I saw being sold, who was Audie and as such there is no possibility of an amiibo card

More like in game items for real money, I said illegal but I meant more like against their terms of service? Sorry English isn't my first language

 

[Flunkifera]

When I saw people selling villagers on discord for the first time, I was so baffled, like "omg you are selling your friends??" lmao

THIS!!! I can't really say any more.. Of course it's my own opinion but I would feel so bad getting money for my friends, even if they are just pixels.. I am happy if I can brighten someone's day by giving them a dreamie, that's enough for me tbh.

 

[samsquared]

Oh I don't mean the amiibos, but for example the character I saw being sold, who was Audie and as such there is no possibility of an amiibo card

More like in game items for real money, I said illegal but I meant more like against their terms of service? Sorry English isn't my first language

Oh you're totally fine- I think that would be way more... suspect, especially if they're like "limited time distribution" items (like eggs for example). I still don't think it's illegal persay because it is an exchange between two games that Nintendo sold. Nintendo owns the intellectual property, but not the actual physical property, or the contents therein outside of copyright so basically...
you can totally sell your villagers for actual money & not be taken to court, but that doesn't mean Nintendo won't suspend or deactivate your account if they find out you sold Raymond for $1000 dollars LOL. So like you said, it's probably against the terms of service & could totally get you banned.

 

[Sloom]

im actually really grateful that I haven't run into any issues with villager trading. I got all my dreamies now and the 2 I didn't have amiibos of (judy and sherb) were both really nice deals.

with sherb I did a 1:1 for him using marshal, and with judy an endlessly sweet soul on nookazon declined my 150 nook ticket offer and took it down to 50nmt because they felt bad. I know I've probably been very lucky, but it's nice to know not everyone is out to rip you off.

I do think I'm noticing most villagers (aside from raymond, rip raymond gang) going down quite a bit. on the peak of her hype train, audie was worth craploads but now she seems to be slowly simmering down
P.S: it feels super weird talking about villager trading, it feels like... half-animal-half-human-trafficking lol

 

[Hatcher]

Oh you're totally fine- I think that would be way more... suspect, especially if they're like "limited time distribution" items (like eggs for example). I still don't think it's illegal persay because it is an exchange between two games that Nintendo sold. Nintendo owns the intellectual property, but not the actual physical property, or the contents therein outside of copyright so basically...
you can totally sell your villagers for actual money & not be taken to court, but that doesn't mean Nintendo won't suspend or deactivate your account if they find out you sold Raymond for $1000 dollars LOL. So like you said, it's probably against the terms of service & could totally get you banned.

Yeah. "Real world trading", as it is called in other games that have a virtual economy (like WoW and Runescape), is often strictly against the game rules and can get you permanently banned. Obviously gaming companies don't like it when some schmuck playing their game is making actual money off it, which is money that they aren't getting.

That being said, I've never heard of it being a legal issue.

 

[Blueskyy]

If you have time, patience, and don’t mind time traveling, TagBackTV on YouTube has a video and Google Doc that explains how to best use the campsite to increase your odds of finding the villager you want. It took me 4 hours to find Raymond but better than searching a mystery island or battling in an auction against people that somehow have thousands of NMT. Now I have my dream villagers and I’ve been able to relax again now that I’ve gone back to playing the game a day at a time. The search seemed worth it to me. Everyone is different though.