# Trading Policy Update



## dizzy bone (Apr 8, 2020)

After much deliberation, we have decided it is time to lift the ban on Royal Crowns and other exorbitant transactions. Our intention when making the original rule was to find a way to regulate the economy on the forums so that trading is fair for everyone, especially those who do not have the means to pay such high prices. While lifting this ban may seem unfair to those who cannot keep up with the inflation or current prices, it has come to a point where the prices have stabilised and it is no longer possible for us to regulate what may have been duped or what may have been earned through time travelling or trading. Although trading may be a legitimate way to earn bells/NMT/and other goods, we still stand by our early decisions made in the first week of the game’s release and will not be reversing any warnings or infractions given for trades of exorbitant pricing. We understand the criticism we have received for our decisions but we believe that this was a precaution we needed to take until Nintendo patched the known duplication glitch. It was never our intention to allow the forums to promote prices and trades that only a select few can afford.

Although we will no longer monitor the way a user decides to price their goods, please be aware that explicitly selling a hacked item such as an item that is unreleased or obtainable only through save editing and exploits is still prohibited on the forums. Additionally, do not interfere with someone else’s trading thread, including policing prices, advertising a competing deal, or criticising someone else’s proposed offer. This includes posting a better offer in an auction after the winning bidder has already been determined by the seller.  

Feel free to contact us in Contact the Staff if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you.


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## Nerd House (Apr 8, 2020)

dizzy bone said:


> It was never our intention to allow the forums to promote prices and trades that only a select few can afford.



Look at recent sales with Nook Miles Tickets and the NMT Rant Thread.


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## Jeremy (Apr 8, 2020)

Alaros said:


> Look at recent sales with Nook Miles Tickets and the NMT Rant Thread.


It's actually impossible to control this, which is the reason for the update. Let's say the current market price for Raymond is 500 NMT, but we think that's too much for a regular player to earn. We then have to decide what the max amount of NMT to be used in a single transaction should be. How is this amount even determined? Let's say we somehow come to the agreement that it should be 50 tickets. Then everything will either be set at exactly 50 tickets or moves to PMs or off the site completely. Additionally, tons of people will contact us about how we're punishing them for playing the game legitimately. Our original policy helped slow down the effects of duping, but it was easier to do something like that then when the game had only been out for a week. It's not possible for us to control prices and we can't change the circumstances of the game. Only Nintendo will be able to address this.


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## Nerd House (Apr 8, 2020)

Jeremy said:


> It's actually impossible to control this, which is the reason for the update. Let's say the current market price for Raymond is 500 NMT, but we think that's too much for a regular player to earn. We then have to decide what the max amount of NMT to be used in a single transaction should be. How is this amount even determined? Let's say we somehow come to the agreement that it should be 50 tickets. Then everything will either be set at exactly 50 tickets or moves to PMs or off the site completely. Additionally, tons of people will contact us about how we're punishing them for playing the game legitimately. Our original policy helped slow down the effects of duping, but it was easier to do something like that then when the game had only been out for a week. It's not possible for us to control prices and we can't change the circumstances of the game. Only Nintendo will be able to address this.



Thanks for the clarification. Just wanted to see if you were aware of the mounting tension of recent price trends.
Honestly it's a lose-lose situation no matter what you do or don't do. People are gonna pay what they want to pay and it's gonna be near impossible to regulate anything, so I get that you don't even want to try. I agree that it's best to do things in a way to KEEP people here on the forum, so I dont blame you there.

Personally, I don't do too much trading, especially not for villagers since I have no attachment to any of them whatsoever, but I can see how the average user here would be discouraged just from looking at pricing trends. Maybe it'll level out over time, maybe it won't. We'll see.


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## Jacob (Apr 8, 2020)

Thanks for the update, I can imagine this is a difficult time for moderating


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## Antonio (Apr 8, 2020)

I still don't know how nook miles became a form of currency.


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## Khaelis (Apr 8, 2020)

Soooo.. basically, the economy for this game is completely ruined now.... Lovely.


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## Paperboy012305 (Apr 8, 2020)

I really find it how dumb people are using Nook miles as the most coveted item in the game. Its disgusting. In my opinion.


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## LambdaDelta (Apr 8, 2020)

Jeremy said:


> It's actually impossible to control this, which is the reason for the update. Let's say the current market price for Raymond is 500 NMT, but we think that's too much for a regular player to earn. We then have to decide what the max amount of NMT to be used in a single transaction should be. How is this amount even determined? Let's say we somehow come to the agreement that it should be 50 tickets. Then everything will either be set at exactly 50 tickets or moves to PMs or off the site completely. Additionally, tons of people will contact us about how we're punishing them for playing the game legitimately. Our original policy helped slow down the effects of duping, but it was easier to do something like that then when the game had only been out for a week. It's not possible for us to control prices and we can't change the circumstances of the game. Only Nintendo will be able to address this.


just want to be sure, you're aware of homebrew hacks to spawn infinite items and another duplication method already being around too, right? both of which can have nmt be used as the target "item"

not gonna say that anyone here is guilty of these or that your decision on the matter is wrong, since there's really no happy solution here. but since the topical focus is largely about one of the duplication glitches causing the recent transactions limit while not very much addressing anything else in the same vein...

that said, I do agree it's gone far past the point of being unregulatable and thus only a blanket ban or generally hands-off approach would suffice anymore, both with their ups and downs. so I do at least understand the logic, even if I'm not entirely on board about. not gonna try to convince otherwise either though, since my personal feelings aside, the big thing I was hoping for was an acknowledgment of this situation and decision+explanation around, which you've given. so regardless of the outcome (be it the nmt section becomes a hackers market of sorts, the nmt value craters as a result of overinflation+people finishing their towns and starting to desire other things more, stays as-is with minimal change, or whatever else) I'm at least satisfied enough to not press on further about, barring freak circumstances happening. which I don't see


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## Cory (Apr 8, 2020)

Paperboy012305 said:


> Its disgusting. In my opinion.


Seems a bit extreme?


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## seliph (Apr 8, 2020)

Khaelis said:


> Soooo.. basically, the economy for this game is completely ruined now.... Lovely.


it was ruined the moment someone started duping, which is basically when the game was released


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## Khaelis (Apr 8, 2020)

Cory said:


> Seems a bit extreme?



It isn't an unreasonable feeling to be experience right now. I'm honestly a little disgusted too -- dupe abusers and hackers genuinely ruined our economy and staff basically gave up trying to enforce it. 

Granted I do understand their take on it, and I respect their choices in the end.. but a lot of us are going to feel like this right now. We lost a battle we had no control of or chance of winning.


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## Paperboy012305 (Apr 8, 2020)

Cory said:


> Seems a bit extreme?


Perhaps I been a bit harsh on it? Maybe they should lower the amount of nook miles instead of 500+.

	Post automatically merged: Apr 8, 2020

Well, I'm just glad I got Raymond as a forced move in so I wouldn't have to deal with this nook mile thing in person *shrugs*


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## LambdaDelta (Apr 8, 2020)

seliph said:


> it was ruined the moment someone started duping, which is basically when the game was released


you mean the moment the game was hacked. so basically before release

people were already deep diving into the meat and breaking past all the encryptions by then, so it's little surprise they already figured out infinite item spawns and such

if anything, the duplication method acted as a wonderful way to mask this (as if it ever needed to be, but still), as it'd be much more casually known information


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## Chris (Apr 8, 2020)

Khaelis said:


> It isn't an unreasonable feeling to be experience right now. I'm honestly a little disgusted too -- dupe abusers and hackers genuinely ruined our economy and staff basically gave up trying to enforce it.
> 
> Granted I do understand their take on it, and I respect their choices in the end.. but a lot of us are going to feel like this right now. We lost a battle we had no control of or chance of winning.


If there was something we could do about it then, trust us, we would do it. We don't like this either. To the best of my knowledge all ten of us are playing the game without exploits or time travelling - so we understand how frustrated the people who are playing this game straight are feeling. I personally can't afford to trade on TBT right now either. As a team we have spent a lot of hours discussing various ways we can approach the situation to make it fairer for everyone. However, we have realised that ultimately there is nothing we can do that will truly make any difference. The people who want to sell at exorbitant prices will still continue to do so - they will just get sneakier about it. And innocent people would get punished in the meantime if we tried to crack down any further on it. Nintendo are the only ones with the power to take action that will truly change the economy. It is regrettably out of our hands.


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## MasterM64 (Apr 8, 2020)

Khaelis said:


> Soooo.. basically, the economy for this game is completely ruined now.... Lovely.



TBT currency being available again should put the economy in check due to its stability compared to the in-game currencies.


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## Alolan_Apples (Apr 8, 2020)

Jeremy said:


> It's actually impossible to control this, which is the reason for the update. Let's say the current market price for Raymond is 500 NMT, but we think that's too much for a regular player to earn. We then have to decide what the max amount of NMT to be used in a single transaction should be. How is this amount even determined? Let's say we somehow come to the agreement that it should be 50 tickets. Then everything will either be set at exactly 50 tickets or moves to PMs or off the site completely. Additionally, tons of people will contact us about how we're punishing them for playing the game legitimately. Our original policy helped slow down the effects of duping, but it was easier to do something like that then when the game had only been out for a week. It's not possible for us to control prices and we can't change the circumstances of the game. Only Nintendo will be able to address this.



Joseph McCarthy was right all along. How much you price something is up to the buyer and the seller, not the ones in charge. Jealousy is the problem, not ridiculous prices.



MasterM64 said:


> TBT currency being available again should put the economy in check due to its stability compared to the in-game currencies.



I agree here. I am hoping for lower exchange rates with TBT, but this isn’t the case because of how people still value collectibles.


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## Khaelis (Apr 8, 2020)

Vrisnem said:


> If there was something we could do about it then, trust us, we would do it. We don't like this either. To the best of my knowledge all ten of us are playing the game without exploits or time travelling - so we understand how frustrated the people who are playing this game straight are feeling. I personally can't afford to trade on TBT right now either. As a team we have spent a lot of hours discussing various ways we can approach the situation to make it fairer for everyone. However, we have realised that ultimately there is nothing we can do that will truly make any difference. The people who want to sell at exorbitant prices will still continue to do so - they will just get sneakier about it. And innocent people would get punished in the meantime if we tried to crack down any further on it. Nintendo are the only ones with the power to take action that will truly change the economy. It is regrettably out of our hands.



I've no doubt in my mind you guys wouldn't, but its still honestly disappointing that duping/hacks ending up winning out in the end.


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## tacoinvader (Apr 8, 2020)

Well, this is a bit unfortunate. I understand the reasons behind the decision and I fully respect it, but this means that any villager being pawned off is going to either be 1) inevitably sold at an insane price that isn’t feasible without hacking or _way too much work for anyone’s comfort-level_, or 2) bought up for a _feasible_ price by anyone—but that “anyone” could even people with enough NMT to get them through an apocalypse and buy virtually anything they want in the whole market (since NMT == bells, too)—and heaven forbid they start scooping cheaper stuff up just to sell them back somewhere for more. I’m worried about an (in a figure of speech) “upper-class, lower-class” imbalance.

Again, though. I get it. I respect it. To some extent, I agree with it—there’s honestly not much you can do in a situation like this. I just know that unless I throw myself into that ditch (which honestly feels like could steal any experiences the game has to offer—so, not really worth the trade-off, I don’t think), I’m gonna have to find my dreamies/furniture/etc another way... or hope TBT comes back soon. :^)


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## Mieiki (Apr 8, 2020)

MasterM64 said:


> TBT currency being available again should put the economy in check due to its stability compared to the in-game currencies.


Yes. The TBT system will hopefully calm things down.

Back when I used to cycle villagers on New Leaf, I based all my prices on the official popularity guide/tiers list. Before all this NMT thing exploded I was 100% sure that we HAD to respect those guidelines... I'm extremely surprised that it's not the case anymore? Or it never was? Correct me if I'm wrong.


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## Katelyn (Apr 8, 2020)

Antonio said:


> I still don't know how nook miles became a form of currency.



For real, I personally find them completely useless lol


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## Sholee (Apr 8, 2020)

Mieiki said:


> Yes. The TBT system will hopefully calm things down.
> 
> Back when I used to cycle villagers on New Leaf, I based all my prices on the official popularity guide/tiers list. Before all this NMT thing exploded I was 100% sure that we HAD to respect those guidelines... I'm extremely surprised that it's not the case anymore? Or it never was? Correct me if I'm wrong.



I cycled villagers in NL way in the beginning before the welcome amiibo update, it was a long grind and I sold tier 1 villagers for 2,000-5,000 forum bells.  Looking back, people are probably thinking those were outrageous prices to be paying for Marshal or Julian. But it dropped from that price to basically 50-100. It wasn't really a guideline but with so many people cycling and so many people giving villagers away for free, you can't really charge more than that.

I don't think having the forum currency back will fix anything, there was already a rate in place in which 100 tbt = 1mil IGB = 4 NMT. People will just trade currency for whichever currency is the trend.


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## V94 (Apr 8, 2020)

(this is a joke, i’m happy about this stance lol)


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## John Wick (Apr 8, 2020)

Wouldn't it be easier to just stop the trade of NMT's all together?

Get the economy back to good old in game bells.

I wouldn't pay one red cent for a villager here anyway.


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## Khaelis (Apr 8, 2020)

John Wick said:


> Wouldn't it be easier to just stop the trade of NMT's all together?
> 
> Get the economy back to good old in game bells.
> 
> I wouldn't pay one red cent for a villager here anyway.



As was said earlier, it would make a lot of people mad and it won't stop things being done sneakily behind people's backs. It wouldn't solve anything. The damage is done, and the damage is permanent.


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## Reginald Fairfield (Apr 8, 2020)

Jeremy said:


> It's actually impossible to control this, which is the reason for the update. Let's say the current market price for Raymond is 500 NMT, but we think that's too much for a regular player to earn. We then have to decide what the max amount of NMT to be used in a single transaction should be. How is this amount even determined? Let's say we somehow come to the agreement that it should be 50 tickets. Then everything will either be set at exactly 50 tickets or moves to PMs or off the site completely. Additionally, tons of people will contact us about how we're punishing them for playing the game legitimately. Our original policy helped slow down the effects of duping, but it was easier to do something like that then when the game had only been out for a week. It's not possible for us to control prices and we can't change the circumstances of the game. Only Nintendo will be able to address this.


They pk hexed New Horizons, like they did with Pokemon since X and Y. It's not actually that hard to get the Nook Miles for the tickets. I don't usually get more than 10 at a time though.


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## radical6 (Apr 8, 2020)

i mean no one should blame or be surprised because lol its gonna happen anyway

also NMT is mostly valued because its a way for people to get villagers quickly. i mean maybe before people wanted them to do tarantula farming or something but like.. no way someone is burning through 500 tickets unless its just to see which villager is on an island 

f to economy


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## Reginald Fairfield (Apr 8, 2020)

radical6 said:


> i mean no one should blame or be surprised because lol its gonna happen anyway
> 
> also NMT is mostly valued because its a way for people to get villagers quickly. i mean maybe before people wanted them to do tarantula farming or something but like.. no way someone is burning through 500 tickets unless its just to see which villager is on an island
> 
> f to economy


That would be the most reliable way to get the new characters in your town.


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## Antonio (Apr 8, 2020)

The staff should basically get rid of all capitalist aspects of the trading portion of the forums and just require everyone to share their nook miles and bells with each other.


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## Alolan_Apples (Apr 8, 2020)

Antonio said:


> The staff should basically get rid of all capitalist aspects of the trading portion of the forums and just require everyone to share their nook miles and bells with each other.
> 
> View attachment 236210



I don’t think that will work.


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## Antonio (Apr 8, 2020)

Alolan_Apples said:


> I don’t think that will work.


It was a joke.


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## Khaelis (Apr 8, 2020)

Antonio said:


> It was a joke.



Would be hilarious to see how chaotic the Nook's Cranny forum would get, though..


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## Antonio (Apr 8, 2020)

Khaelis said:


> Would be hilarious to see how chaotic the Nook's Cranny forum would get, though..


Why would there be chaos when there is order in communism?


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## Khaelis (Apr 8, 2020)

Antonio said:


> Why would there be chaos when there is order in communism?



*sweats* N-no reason.. yeah, n-no reason at all.


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## toadsworthy (Apr 9, 2020)

Me sitting in my town with my tier 6 villagers loving them, loving the game and no getting involved in villager trading


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## Damniel (Apr 9, 2020)

if sellers want to combat the issue of high NMT prices, they can choose not to accept NMT. without BTB activated yet, NMT are one of the least exploitable forms of currency (it can still be hacked but it's much more difficult than the crown dupe glitch) besides maybe hyrbids?? As PM and discord deals can still happen, there's not much TBT can do except outright ban NMT on the site, which would be very unpopular I imagine. Setting caps still doesn't stop people from accruing massive amounts of tickets and stop them from easily reaching the cap. Nintendo themselves could solve this by not making NMT droppable or something like that, but I don't know how likely that is. (They did fix the dupe glitch though so maybe they do care about the market)

it's a sucky market but I don't think a forum can do much. I highly encourage sellers to not accept NMT if they really want to lower the value of NMT. hopefully the return of BTB will give sellers another medium to accept though


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## Jared:3 (Apr 9, 2020)

Communism at its finest, lovely!


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## Sgt.Groove (Apr 9, 2020)

Damniel said:


> if sellers want to combat the issue of high NMT prices, they can choose not to accept NMT. without BTB activated yet, NMT are one of the least exploitable forms of currency (it can still be hacked but it's much more difficult than the crown dupe glitch) besides maybe hyrbids?? As PM and discord deals can still happen, there's not much TBT can do except outright ban NMT on the site, which would be very unpopular I imagine. Setting caps still doesn't stop people from accruing massive amounts of tickets and stop them from easily reaching the cap. Nintendo themselves could solve this by not making NMT droppable or something like that, but I don't know how likely that is. (They did fix the dupe glitch though so maybe they do care about the market)
> 
> it's a sucky market but I don't think a forum can do much. I highly encourage sellers to not accept NMT if they really want to lower the value of NMT. hopefully the return of BTB will give sellers another medium to accept though



It's actually easier than crowns with the current duplication method XD


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## LambdaDelta (Apr 10, 2020)

toadsworthy said:


> Me sitting in my town with my tier 6 villagers loving them, loving the game and no getting involved in villager trading


sort of me, except I'm just letting anyone come and go free as they please and without a care as to who moves in or out


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## Corrie (Apr 10, 2020)

radical6 said:


> i mean no one should blame or be surprised because lol its gonna happen anyway
> 
> also NMT is mostly valued because its a way for people to get villagers quickly. i mean maybe before people wanted them to do tarantula farming or something but like.. no way someone is burning through 500 tickets unless its just to see which villager is on an island
> 
> f to economy



You're totally right. That's why I think once everyone has the villagers they want, nobody will care about NMTs. It's just a matter of time before they become unwanted and we can all laugh about it later.


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## Glake (Apr 10, 2020)

Bells are essentially useless now because they have no value. Pretty much anyone who wanted to be rich in game as quick as possible took advantage of the duplication glitch, and now most people have or can get more bells than they would ever need without even trying.

I think removing NMT's as a form of trade-able currency on the site would really kill the economy here, and a lot of people (especially those who want tickets to find their dreamies) will probably go elsewhere to get look for them, or like someone stated earlier, will just trade privately.

This ultimately happens with any video game that has any form of exchangeable currency that takes time to get. Someone will exploit the system, sell that currency for IRL money, suckers will buy it, or those who don't have time to sink hundreds of hours into the game, even, and the loop continues.


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## pawpatrolbab (Apr 10, 2020)

Definately a hard decision to make - I hope the team is doing alright 
Although it's frustrating that the only currency people are using now seems to be NMT it's understandable why, and why you can't ask users to stop. Hope you're all enjoying your play throughs!


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