Auctioning off villagers?

[Croconaw]

I’m here and posting another controversial topic. How do others feel about the price it takes to get certain villagers?

You have just about the same chance as finding Marshal on a Nook island as you do if you were searching for Agent S (I mention these two as both have Amiibos), so It just feels weird to me how many people just put price tags on villagers, especially if the person is going to move out said villager anyway. I’ve seen people with a villager already in boxes, and they’re looking for an insane amount of bells. It’s understandable if you’re in need of some bells for a loan or tickets to find who you’re looking for, but it’s so rare to find people giving out villagers for free. It’s definitely not to bash anybody for auctioning off villagers or asking for bells, but I just truly never understood the concept. The tier list giving villagers price ranges and it’s decided by what, how popular the villager is? I get it, supply and demand, but some of these prices are extremely outrageous. If the villager is in boxes anyway, why not exchange them for a villager you want or just generously give them away? I know this is a very controversial topic, but I’m mainly referring to the people that demand very large amounts of in-game bells and/or tickets for quote on quote, popular villagers. And with non-Amiibo villagers... it’s much worse. I hope nobody took this too personal, as I wasn’t referring to any particular person and I definitely don’t have an issue with people who do this. I’m honestly just wondering if anyone has similar thoughts and how others feel about this topic.

 

[tiffanistarr]

Ehh, sometimes i feel it’s stupid but then i can remember offering someone 5 million bells for Gonzo soooo i guess i’m part of the problem with inflated prices for villagers.

For me IGB are so easy to come by, i’ve had a couple hundred million bells for a while so it’s nothing for me to just spend it stupidly on things like villagers.

Now that i’ve finished my amiibo collection and have pretty much anyone i could possibly dream of having i won’t be doing that

 

[S.J.]

The only person I really felt I needed was Megan, and she doesn't have an amiibo obviously. So, I just used all of my Nook Miles and after 105 trips, I found her.

But, had I not found her, I would have resigned to having another great villager, and probably would have used one of my amiibo cards to fill that plot.

I definitely wouldn't bid or buy her, it's just not for me.

I thought I had noticed a lot of people giving away villagers for free, but because I'm not actively looking, maybe I haven't noticed people selling them. I could have sworn I saw someone the other day offering to get you free villagers from their amiibo collection.

It's nice to be a giving community, but at the same time, a lot of trading happens here, so I don't think the price matters that much, because it seems pretty easy to get NMT or IGB.

To me it's more about how you want to play the game. E.g. whether you want to buy bells, NMTs, recipes, furniture, villagers and to what extent. I think if you like to play by buying those things, then the price point doesn't matter that much if it's high. Then again, how much is high?

 

[Croconaw]

I admit I haven’t actually actively traded with anyone in New Horizons on this forum. My experience has been on another Animal Crossing forum and Facebook communities. Nookazon is the worst with the outrageous prices, but of course I just ignore the overpriced items. I’m not even talking villagers now. I literally saw a white rattan chair being sold for 20NMT, which is a bit strange considering it can just be cataloged if the person picks it up and drops it. It takes nothing more than five minutes, maybe, from each person’s day so 20NMT is not a fair price in my opinion. If someone wanted a white rattan chair bad enough though and that person was the only one online with it at the time, of course I’d buy it but I’d have to want it very badly. This is part of the issue though, if people are actually paying the insane prices. It’s understandable but crazy at the same time.

 

[Victoria of Starry Isle]

To be honest, I only really do see people giving out less popular villagers. Also amiibo shortages and villager popularity play a big part in these high prices.
No one really sells popular villagers because either:
1.) They know they can make a ton of bells.
2.) They want to keep the villager to themselves.
It's quite frustrating how people rip other desperate player's off. :/
I've seen some people making their own amiibo with nfc tags, maybe that could help you get your dream villager? Although you can't make new villagers cus those don't have amiibo data.

Post automatically merged: Apr 21, 2021

To be honest, I only really do see people giving out less popular villagers. Also amiibo shortages and villager popularity play a big part in these high prices.
No one really sells popular villagers because either:
1.) They know they can make a ton of bells.
2.) They want to keep the villager to themselves.
It's quite frustrating how people rip other desperate player's off. :/
I've seen some people making their own amiibo with nfc tags, maybe that could help you get your dream villager? Although you can't make new villagers cus those don't have amiibo data.

*By new villlagers I mean villagers added in ACNH

 

[-Lumi-]

I do feel a little guilty about auctioning off/selling villagers. I know that they aren't real and they don't know they're being sold or anything but it still feels a little bit strange. So far the only villager I've sold is Raymond and I do feel bad about it, lol. Like you said, I can totally understand why people sell villagers - they might need the bells to pay off their home loans or re-arrange buildings, or they want NMT to go island hopping to find a replacement, or if they have a cycling town they just want the reimbursement of having spent the time getting that villager to move out. That being said, I think some of the prices are a bit ridiculous.

I don't find that selling villagers is as common with New Horizons though, likely because:

A.) your villagers won't move out until you want them to (so you're never at risk of randomly losing them and then having to cycle through 15 different villagers before you can get your favourite back
B.) You can island hop for your favourite villager or if you have their amiibo card you can use that so you don't need to rely on buying them from somebody else
C.) We can invite campers to move in even if you have 10 villagers (you just have to bump somebody out)

With New Leaf, even a few years into the game life, it was still really common to see people having towns dedicated solely for cycling & selling off popular villagers and their prices remained high. I remember paying some ridiculous price for Stitches - I think it was 10 or 15 million?? That trade took ages, lol. And when you get to that level of pricing it definitely feels a lot less like, "I just need bells to pay off my home loan!" and "let's see how many bells I can get!!" which feels needlessly greedy. People are free to do what they like and obviously the much harsher RNG nature of New Leaf created an atmosphere to support that sort of pricing, but it was a bit much. I feel like this was reflected earlier on with New Horizons as well (although I think prices have mellowed out now thanks to the points mentioned above) but the price of choice was NMT. Villagers went for so many NMT in the beginning it was crazy, especially the new ones. This might still be the case on other Animal Crossing forums but I don't notice it as much here!

In the future I don't see myself selling villagers. It's always made me feel a bit strange and I personally enjoy gifting items to villagers which I know effects their worth. I'd also prefer to let somebody have a chance at getting a more "rare" villager (if I have one) that may not otherwise be able to afford it when their common price is something really steep.

 

[glow]

i mean people only are able to sell villagers at high prices because people are willing to pay those prices. i wouldn't rly call it outrageous, because people value things differently. a price you think is too high might be what it's worth to someone else

so i would not say anyone is getting "ripped off", it's a mutual transaction & ultimately (IMO) the high prices are a result of the currency's inflation, nmt and bells aren't really hard to get anymore

personally i don't sell villagers often even tho i have a ton of amiibo, cos it actually takes a LOT of time to scan someone in, scan someone else in, arrange a trade, etc. if i'm after bells or nmt it's faster to trade other items.

 

[Moritz]

Im not a fan of when they're sold

I think its one thing if you are putting them on your island purely to sell them. I can get how you're going out of your way for it.

But when they're in boxes anyways and would just be voided if not given to someone... why not just make someone's day and do it for free?

I think it just makes the community a nicer place when we do things like that.
I've given away Judy, Raymond, cyd, reneigh and dom for free when I could have got a decent amount for them. But I'm sure those people were super happy.

I've even amiibod in villagers specifically for people who wanted them (I've access to every amiibo) but I only do that kind of stuff when I have time and I'm moving someone out anyways.

So yeah, those are my thoughts

 

[Dunquixote]

I don’t have a problem with people selling villagers. If it was for RLC, that’s a different story since that is against the TOS. I do agree it might make the community a nicer place if they were free, but it’s their villager, their business. But I thought the community is overall a nice place even if something is being charged or not. I have been here many years and I know some of the people selling villagers and I have never seen them being disrespectful or ripping people off.

I’ve bought villagers in New Leaf (forgot who) and I also bought Raymond. I do regret not finding him naturally but, I had enough to make an offer, so why not? I still am in touch with the person who gave me Raymond (not the person who opened the thread. that went through since i guess they got an offer through another site or via dm and ignored the other offers in the thread without saying rejected or too low or anything). I am happy that I bought him since I would have not gotten to know or started talking to him had it not been for that since we’re on the website at different times usually. He is a super nice guy . He didn’t need to sell me Raymond especially since he wanted to keep him, but he still reached out to me and offered me him .

It was my choice to pay as much as I offered for Raymond. So I have no complaints. Raymond was worth every penny (i spent a combination of currency tbt, bells, nmt).

I think I can understand why people don’t like the idea, which is fine as long they don’t expect others to feel the same way. There are many who don’t mind paying and do appreciate getting the villager. As @glow mentioned scanning the amiibo moving the amiibo in and getting them move out takes a lot of time regardless if they are giving the villager for free or not. Their business if they charge or don’t charge and everyone else has a choice to partake in buying or selling or not.

 

[CasualWheezer]

I don't have any experiences with auctioning villagers but I don't have a problem with it honestly, if it's within the limits of normal gameplay then it's fine with me honestly.

 

[Airysuit]

i mean people only are able to sell villagers at high prices because people are willing to pay those prices. i wouldn't rly call it outrageous, because people value things differently. a price you think is too high might be what it's worth to someone else

so i would not say anyone is getting "ripped off", it's a mutual transaction & ultimately (IMO) the high prices are a result of the currency's inflation, nmt and bells aren't really hard to get anymore

This. It is just how economy works, supply and demand. One person might think its expensive and unethical or something, but the other person can think a villagers is priceless and they just want to adopt them and give them a lot of love.

I get why some people think the former, but I also get why some people think the latter. So just think what you wanna think and just participate (or not) in whatever trade you do or do not wanna participate in.

 

[Bilaz]

TBT are suuuuper easy to get if you’re a bit of a chatterbox, I’m constantly raking in 100s just for posting my opinion. When I combine that with the fact that TBT isn’t really useful for anything except forum collectables, which are just as not real as villagers are, I don’t really care.

I dislike NMT or IGB communities, as bells are tedious to gather and NMTs are a nightmare to print. I do think Nookazon and all these new communities are a bit greedy and overpriced but... TBT? Nah. It’s effort to connect to random people online, the least thing I can do is give some of my chattiness coins especially for the non amiibo villagers

 

[Nunnafinga]

I think this video might be appropriate for this topic.I personally wouldn't auction off any villagers or participate in a villager auction but it doesn't bother me if others do.

 

[Mr.Fox]

I'm fine selling villagers for NMTs/TBT. I just spent X amount of tickets finding a villager you like, so the least you can do is repay me in NMTs so I can find a villager I like. That's my opinion.

 

[Foreverfox]

I run a villager shop and charge tbt for my villagers that I offer. It takes alot of time and materials to scan someone in, fill those requests, scan someone else in, fill THOSE requests, and then have someone come get the villager. It's about an hour on average, give or take a little depending on the request and if I have to go source the materials. It's even more time if a plot isn't already open on the receiving end.

When it comes to villagers naturally asking to move and ending up in boxes, eh, I could make a point either way on whether or not they should be given away because they'd be leaving anyway or whether or not they should be charged for. My personal opinion is that if they are heavily gifted, or really any sort of gifted, they should be free. If they're completely original though, that's worth something. Should it be an outrageous price? No. But reasonable, yes. Again, all just my opinion.

 

[moo_nieu]

it doesnt bother me tbh. i bought a villager back in new leaf for a few million and i remember it taking a while to drop enough bell bags to pay lol but i was really happy to be able to do that so i agree that its a mutual transaction. i prefer to do giveaways, but it doesnt bother me if someone wants to charge a lot of in game currency for their villager. the only thing that sorta bugs me is when people void the villager if no one pays rather than just changing it to a giveaway for a short amount of time before voiding. even that though is not a big deal to me bc its their villager

 

[Corrie]

It doesn't bother me. If the prices are too high, I just scoff and search elsewhere. No big deal.

I personally think it's okay for people to sell/auction off villagers. They're spending their time trading and watching their thread so why not get paid for their efforts?

 

[BellBrokeGirl]

I like to put a message out for all my villagers moving out, you never know who somebody desperately wants on here lol. But I agree that millions of bells is crazy I prefer first come first serve, and donations. But this forum has been so mice so far!