Events & Collectibles General Discussion

[Millysaurusrexjr]

I have mixed feelings about the impostor collectible rarity; I think a highly desired collectible that doesn't exist in large quantities makes it even more desirable. Even the not-so-desired collectibles that don't sell as much for some reason seem cooler to me, like the Mush Lamps! Although I didn't manage to win any of the impostor collectibles, I'm not sad about it because like staff has said, there will be more chances to attain them in the future (unlike the Galaxy Swirl since I wasn't lucky enough to be on the winning team.. ripperonis)

I was a bit surprised though that they didn't do the reverse with the impostor collectibles, where the impostor versions are much more common than the original versions, since the impostor versions are newer in addition to being "fakes". I think it might be better if the original versions were kept at or near the rare status that they are now since so many people have already spent so much TBT and collectibles to acquire them. It just seems odd to have both the OG versions and impostor versions be super hard to get.

Anyway staff please make a Red Heart Glow Wand, i triple dog dare you

 

[Foreverfox]

Anyway staff please make a Red Heart Glow Wand, i triple dog dare you

Well, it’s a triple dog dare that means they HAVE to. Nothing tops that!

 

[Drawdler]

I honestly think the site could do with having a ton of more common collectables. As someone who joined last year I kinda just thought I wouldn’t bother with collectables whatsoever since the default, more affordable options seemed pretty boring. There’s just not an entry level unless you’re participating in events and honestly I think just putting the higher quality, cooler collectables, and themed sets is enough incentive to keep people who care about collectables participating in them.

Having more common collectables would not only be friendly to new users but give more options for people with a few event collectables without adding the stress of trading or breaking the bank etc.

There’s a certain collectable I want that goes for several thousand and I’m just accepting I’m not going to get it since nobody will bite on buying my extra space camp collectables. If the site gets more users again then the collectable I want will probably jump in price again and be out of my reach even if I could sell by that point. I just lucked out on being around for space camp and having the energy to participate because unless I get that one collectable then realistically I can’t be happier with my lineup. If it hadn’t been for that then you would just see like five random collectables on my sidebar. It’s too frustrating to participate in the market, and I’m sure if I did I would have to lean more into cliques etc. which I just don’t want. Absolutely disappointing how much drama can surround these.

 

[.: Meri :.]

I hope it didn't sound like I think all collectibles should be common, because I definitely agree on that point! Any degree of "you can have whatever collectibles you want" is a privilege that should stay reserved for staff, imo. (Although I understand there's still some limits in place there as well!) I know balancing rarity is complicated, probably moreso than I'm aware, and a miscalculation might even oversaturate the market, but my hope has been for a relative reduction in rarity to rebalance things a bit. We're a fairly small community as far as these things go, and I think even just older users going inactive/leaving is enough to tip the balance of the marketplace where the rarer collectibles are concerned.

It's satisfying finally getting ahold of a collectible you've been wanting and working towards, and I wouldn't want to not have to put the effort in to get them, but once things start reaching 20k+ tbt in value, and a then a year (or more) of trying to find a seller on top of that... it feels like too much, I think. This might be a bit hypocritical of me to say, even, because I traded a Star Glow Wand for easily 30k-40k in value, but I confess that sometimes I feel kind of guilty/icky for even selling a collectible for that much? ;; It felt like I had too much power. At the same time, I was hesitant to let go of it, because I was scared to mess up what felt like my only realistic shot at getting some of my dream collectibles. Idk, this could very well be entirely a me problem.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

hot take, I actually kinda prefer event timed restocks over having less overall spending currency, and part of me feels this change has been one accidental contribution to how the market is rn

the only time I ever truly abhorred timed restocks was for the main shop items, and that's because it using the site's main currency pretty much meant there weren't even artificial guardrails in place

That reminds me, there’s another problem with the slow TBT Marketplace, and you can’t say lack of activity justifies this. I’m talking about the TBT hoarding/lack of TBT in circulation. In addition to having all my dream collectibles, I would like a handful of TBT Bells. But I can’t have too many Bells without selling my collectibles, and even if I try selling my collectibles, nobody would accept them no matter how low the price is. I know it’s not 2013-2015 anymore where it’s so easy to make thousands of TBT, but the lack of TBT is why newer collectibles are worth little.

For example: The crescent moons from last year’s Camp TBT. If they were sold during the New Leaf era, the average price would be 2,000 TBT (or 1,000 TBT if sold by the most generous of users). Today, it’s 500 TBT. The reason is because people could hardly afford 1,000-TBT or 2,000-TBT collectibles. It’s not just that they became too common. It’s because there’s so little TBT in circulation, as the few who have lots of TBT isn’t willing to part their TBT unless if they’re looking for a rare collectible, which nobody would want to sell.

 

[himekirako]

i agree with what @/Drawdler said!

i’m super grateful for my friends for gifting me collectibles and also letting me borrow some but at the end of the day i only have so many collectibles of my own to use partially because i joined not too long ago, but also because the main shop was quite limiting. my first event was the space camp so i do wonder how different it’d be if i were to have joined earlier for the past events!
i was also in the same boat where i thought i wouldn’t care too much about collectibles or lineups, but it became really fun to make nicer lineups only issue was that a lot of nicer collectibles go for so much and i only have so many bells to my name

 

[seliph]

I'll try my best to explain some background for the existence of these:

Ever since we stopped the timed restocks (which everyone seemed to hate), there haven't been many new rare collectibles. Even the ones that are priced higher in events usually don't get sold significantly less than others. The idea with the imposters was to help keep a balance of rarity. However, this past event was just their introduction. It has been mentioned once or twice already that they would be brought back. In fact, one of the ideas mentioned above is not too different from a plan that is already in the works, but I don't want to spoil too much...

That being said, I understand why high rarities can be frustrating to some. In many ways, the collectible economy is like a video game where collecting is a part of the challenge. Obtaining a rare collectible that not many others have is what makes collecting fun for a lot of people. I have to disagree with the idea that all collectibles should be common. Rarity is a very important part of any collecting game whether it's for apparel in a video game, trading cards, pet sites, Funko, etc. Another silver lining of new rare collectibles is the potential to make old ones slightly more common now that we don't need to depend on age for rarity. Having just a few collectibles for the whole site does perhaps make the imposters a bit too rare, but as I mentioned, that won't last forever!

i don't think everyone's saying all collectibles should be common, but it is ridiculous that some are priced at 15k let alone 25k+ tbt right now. barely anyone has the means to make anywhere near that considering the main ways to make tbt are:

• art, which many people don't have the time or skill to make it worthwhile. plus nearly everyone is underpricing because there's no tbt going around. i see masterpieces going for 100 tbt, that's insane.
• posting, which gets you barely anywhere in the grand scheme of things.
• hoping you can sell recent event collectibles, which you usually can't once the event's been over for a couple weeks and you probably won't get more than a few thousand tbt for one at most.

plus forgive me but it's common knowledge that at least one of the richest users got there by selling duped nook mile tickets when NH was released, which had a hand in driving the economy to hell.

i'm grateful for the explanation and i mean no offense here but this also doesn't address how malignant parts of the community get when it comes to rare collectibles. i realize staff can't control peoples' behaviour but that's a big reason why the high-rarities are as frustrating as they are. i don't think private event polls are gonna solve everything, and if it's always gonna be this way then maybe tradeable collectibles should be more common. we have "trophy" collectibles that are rare anyways, like the crescent wand, snow globe, golden egg, or the literal trophies.

This might be a bit hypocritical of me to say, even, because I traded a Star Glow Wand for easily 30k-40k in value, but I confess that sometimes I feel kind of guilty/icky for even selling a collectible for that much? ;; It felt like I had too much power. At the same time, I was hesitant to let go of it, because I was scared to mess up what felt like my only realistic shot at getting some of my dream collectibles. Idk, this could very well be entirely a me problem.[/SIZE]

nah i feel that 100%, i traded jacob my purple flower and i feel like i took his kidneys ily jacob

 

[LambdaDelta]

plus forgive me but it's common knowledge that at least one of the richest users got there by selling duped nook mile tickets when NH was released, which had a hand in driving the economy to hell.

well call me an imposter, because this is news to me

not one I'm surprised about, but still (note: not towards any specific user, just unsurprised in the general sense)

 

[That Marshal Fangirl]

Pretty much all of my thoughts on this issue have been posted here, but in general I’d like to add that TBT definitely has a cliquey vibe to it, especially if you are new to the site and trying to find your way around things. The collectible market in particular really feels that way in a sense, where if someone popular posts that they’re looking for a collectible they’ll either be gifted it pretty quickly or given financial/trading assistance from their friends. I’m not here to judge people’s kindness, of course, since a good number of my nice collectibles were gifts as well.

The point I’m trying to make is not everyone has that level of connection with members who can offer that kind of thing. So a newbie or someone who’s just not as active would have a very difficult time obtaining even one high tier collectible with the way things are.

The concept of imposter collectibles only aggravates the problem, where the very popular and/or rich members will have an easier time getting them. The fun of collecting is that there are varying levels of difficulty to get some items, but inadvertently catering to popularity contests and the top % of TBT members pushes the challenge from difficult to impossible.

 

[Gabby]

The 1% of collectible holders need to re-distribute the wealth.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

About the TBT hoarding, here’s a suggestion to throw in:

• If the problem is that there’s too little TBT, I suggest there should be a reset in TBT balance in all and make it where everyone has 5,000 TBT.
• If the problem is that there’s too much TBT, there should be price controls.

It’s pretty amusing that 10 years ago, there’s too much TBT in circulation, which is why it’s hard for newcomers to even obtain some of the better, yet basic, collectibles. But all these TBT were also made by users abusing the systems (like the interest and Welcome Bells), so the staff had to revoke these systems while clarifying what real-money trades meant (to prevent selling codes). Now there’s too little TBT.

 

[Gabby]

Perhaps we need a TBT stimulus.

 

[Croconaw]

About the TBT hoarding, here’s a suggestion to throw in:

• If the problem is that there’s too little TBT, I suggest there should be a reset in TBT balance in all and make it where everyone has 5,000 TBT.
• If the problem is that there’s too much TBT, there should be price controls.

The Staff aren’t going to reset bell counts. The people with large amounts of TBT likely worked hard to acquire it and it wouldn’t be fair to reset counts. Jhine comes to mind with his shop and all, and his former date trading services. On the second point, it’s up to the person what they want to price their item at. It's also up to the person to buy it. Nobody is saying you have to buy a glow wand for 5K, and nobody is saying you have to buy it for 25K. Little pixels only have the value we give them.

 

[jiny]

The collectible market in particular really feels that way in a sense, where if someone popular posts that they’re looking for a collectible they’ll either be gifted it pretty quickly or given financial/trading assistance from their friends. I’m not here to judge people’s kindness, of course, since a good number of my nice collectibles were gifts as well.

The point I’m trying to make is not everyone has that level of connection with members who can offer that kind of thing. So a newbie or someone who’s just not as active would have a very difficult time obtaining even one high tier collectible with the way things are.

I agree with this post so hard i admit i have felt a bit sad sometimes, when I see someone “popular” wants a collectible and they can get it easily with their friends adding their own collectibles to the offer, or sometimes even just being gifted it. i’ve always felt like that was just me being sad or jealous that I don’t have a lot of friends on this forum LMAO but i’m glad atleast one other person thinks this way. i don’t have a lot of high-tier collectibles to offer for collectibles i really do want, and definitely don’t have the tbt for it lol so it kinda sucks seeing that out there

 

[Drawdler]

Even some of the newer event collectables seem rough to get. It’s like people don’t want to sell or trade them just in case.

I am newer to the site, but I do think the mods do a good job at controlling cliques outside of the collectable market, within the forum itself. I’ve seen WAY worse places than this, places where cliques would defend bullies all over the forum and this place seems NOTHING like that. I think there’s a certain level you can interact with the forum and avoid seeing it unless something big like the last event manipulation happens.
Like honestly one of the reasons I don’t get involved in collectables is I feel I would be dealing with the worst part of the site, I’m not trying to be passive aggressive to anyone and I don’t really know who’s who there but it’s really obvious you just need to be involved socially to a degree and I’m like nope.

Beyond that for newer users, even when you get the chance to participate in events it’s a tossup wether you like the theme or not. I didn’t really participate in last fair because I was only interested in one of the collectables. With that said, that would be fine if lower-level options weren’t so limited. I’m kind of past that point myself and this will pretty much be my permanent lineup unless I can get the last old collectable I want, here I am feeling like at least it’s not a wand.

Obviously I’m not proposing this to fix the inflation because it just won’t, hell it means more to spend bells on. But even beyond the inflation I think this is an issue, inflation also had this knock-on effect of limited lower tier collectables, so yeah.

 

[Zane]

I think what makes me truly upset isn’t the addition of these new, limited wands, but rather that they refuse to re-release the original Flower/Heart/Star wands in the first place. They were ordinary collectibles that happened to get popular, and now for whatever reason the staff are treating them as if they were meant to be out of most people’s hands.

Not me who ended up trading/selling my original wand set because I naively assumed they would be rereleased eventually, because literally up until that point all collectibles had been lol

 

[Lancelot]

I have to say I’m not necessarily against the way the imposter collectible were handed out as I personally think it’s pretty cool that there’s some rare collectibles that only a few people have - it sort of feels like a mythic Pokémon to me or something. But I am against HOW limited the release was. I feel like they’re could’ve been like 10-20 of each.

It’s nothing against anyone, as they’re obviously earned fair and square, but the rarer collectibles seem to always end up in the hands of the same few users, whether it be through always seemingly winning contests/raffles, being on the richer side of the community or just rotating it between they’re friend groups.

When it comes to purchasing from this forum theres obviously users that don’t have as much time to earn tbt, or have as many connections and there is plenty of people who get additional things added to their offers by friends. I don’t mean that as a negative, or targeted at anyone and good on you for being able to do so, but for more recent members and people with just not as much time a slightly larger release number probably would’ve been appreciated so they atleast had a CHANCE to get one

 

[Drawdler]

I also gotta say the current inflation/market honestly discourages me from participating in future events a little because I know I’m not going to get collectables that are worth anything, granted I’m an outlier since I’m not looking for more for myself and this isn’t the deciding factor (like, if I participated I could probably sell for a bit during the event) but affectionately: staff please fix

 

[Aquilla]

I’d personally appreciate if contest prizes went back to „just“ trophies and maybe some tbt for the winners and the rare animated/non tradeable collectibles staying reserved for fairs/larger events and occasional raffles. I’d appreciate if regular tradable collectibles were only available during events for event currency, not given out in tiny quantities to a few select winners (especially when the „community“ is left in charge deciding who „deserves“ the win ), but this is just mirroring what mogyay, xara and Merielle have said. The re-release of frost egg, yule log and cool feather has significantly changed their value, but in turn made them more accessible for users.

Re: limited restocks, I’m so glad they have stopped (for now) because this way people from different time zones also get a chance at buying what they want with their hard earned event currency. Why go out of your way pouring dozens of hours into event participation but not being able to spend your event currency on something you’d like? That’s so unfair and such a waste of time? Even if this means things are not as rare.

Lastly, I understand that it’s not nice to feel left out when you see friends chipping in to help each other out. That being said, recently I feel like you just can’t win. People seem to take an issue with absolutely everything. If people share collectibles with friends or try to help a friend to get something they want, someone else will call it cliquy. If someone decides to keep their collectibles to themselves, they are accused of stopping collectibles from saturating the market. If someone decides to sell, they are blamed for asking for/accepting too much. Welcome to the internet I guess. For a long time I was under the impression it was different here on tbt, but more and more I realise that sadly that’s not the case. I’m getting tired of the pettiness and I feel like with every event it’s getting worse recently.

 

[skarmoury]

It’s been echoed a lot of times, but I agree wholeheartedly that collectibles should get reruns. I feel the market is just getting more and more saturated with so many new collectibles instead of releasing old ones. Bring back the OG star frags, wands, plushies! We don’t need to have like 10+ new collectibles per event, we can do reruns of old collectibles. I mean, it’s a win-win situation for everyone — people can have a chance again at getting a collectible they previously missed, and staff can rest easier knowing they won’t have to deisgn that many new collectibles. If staff is worried about the “rarity” of these collectibles then they can limit how much currency to give out or how many we can buy (e.g. 1 purchase of this collectible per person only).

I personally enjoyed seeing the recolored collectibles, but I agree that recolors don’t need to be absolutely rare. I think it would be more fun seeing more people with recolored collectibles! Maybe next event we can have recollored collectibles as something in the event shop, that would be nice.

I remember how staff brought back old villager collectibles after years and years without a rerelease. I’m going to be blunt and say that it was a damn shame they changed the art style of the villagers because I LOVED Ruby’s and Coco’s old art look, but more than that, it gave me a sign that staff is capable of rerunning collectibles that haven’t been sold in years. Manifesting the same energy for other collectibles too.