Limited stock/restock anxiety

[Flyffel]

At least the many restock model makes sure that there are many different timestamps for people who like trading collectibles, so there are many lineup possibilities for people who want to combo collectibles from one event. With unlimited stock from the beginning there would be even more timestamps though as everyone can buy as they earn the eggs.

I don't see any legit reason not to set the eggs to unlimited from the beginning if there are plans to restock unlimitedly anyway. If they turned out to have been legit limited however (like only max 50 prismatics) this would be a whole other discussion.

 

[Livia]

That's a very glass half empty way of looking at it. Even if you are "stupid" or bad at puzzle-solving, being active on the forums throughout the year, whether you're dumb or not, is going to help. And these people get rewarded for it.

There's plenty of other events throughout the year, like a fair, that don't require you to be active. Plenty of people just show up for that.

If you have other schedules that stop this event being as enjoyable then that's just life really. You have to choose what to prioritise.

Being active doesn’t help me. I’m on the forums several hours every day but I really struggled with the egg hunt and only found 9. I couldn’t even get 10 to get a dragon scale egg. This also wasn’t my first egg hunt so I can’t blame it on being a beginner. I‘m just super bad at puzzles. It makes me feel worse that being active on here should‘ve helped me, but it didn’t.

 

[Blueskyy]

I get what you’re saying, but the hunt is supposed to be challenging and rewarding. Did I bust my tush to make sure I earned enough to get a Prismatic egg? Yes. Did I know in the end, everyone who wanted to get a certain egg would get one (granted that they found enough eggs)? Yes. Did that stop me from stalking the shop to get one of 5 prismatic eggs in a restock the day before the hint ended? No. To me, that’s the thrill of the hunt. You know that your hard work will be rewarded, but not always instantly. I could go on a longer tangent about instant gratification, but I’ll spare everyone.

The restocks are done in this way to drive the tbt collectible market imo. The only way staff would be “mean” is if they promised everyone would get the egg they wanted, but then weren’t able to follow through. There is stock leftover with the eggs still, so they seemed to have fulfilled their promise and put a lot of hard work into doing so.
If the restocks ever make you feel unwell, take a break for sure. They specifically promised that there would be enough stock in the end for everyone, so there was no need to stalk the shop if it makes you anxious. However, I also understand that anxiety can be irrational. That’s why I personally am working on strategies and meditation to help with my anxieties and worries so I can begin to remove myself from situations and triggers that elevate anxiety. Always take care of yourself and be well. You are valued in the world and your mental health comes first!

 

[Lancelot]

Being active doesn’t help me. I’m on the forums several hours every day but I really struggled with the egg hunt and only found 9. I couldn’t even get 10 to get a dragon scale egg. This also wasn’t my first egg hunt so I can’t blame it on being a beginner. I‘m just super bad at puzzles. It makes me feel worse that being active on here should‘ve helped me, but it didn’t.

Whilst I appreciate that, imagine how difficult it would've been if you weren't on the forums several hours every day. That's still nearly 40% of the eggs.

If you're super bad at puzzles it shouldn't come as any shock that a puzzle-based event probably won't be your forte, unlike other events. I feel like such a great part of this forum is that there's an event for everyone throughout the year, but that doesn't mean EVERY event has to be for everyone, something else will come up no doubt. Similarly, there's plenty of other ways you can get the egg you want without the egg hunt currency.

You say it didn't help you, but I'd say being super bad at puzzles and getting 36% of the eggs is quite impressive.

 

[skarmoury]

don't know who said it, and i'm not going back to find it, but whoever said (to paraphrase), "if little pixel items make you anxious, you need to step back and reassess your [priorities]" maybe, uh... don't? anxiety isn't always rational. i could tell myself i don't care about not getting X collectible until i'm blue in the face, and i'd still get anxious about the restocks and missing it. just like i can tell myself the cashier isn't going to scream at me when i'm at the shop until i'm blue in the face but still panic about it and ultimately just leave the store instead of paying for my items. don't treat people with mental illness(es) like they're stupid, over-reacting, and/or have their priorities wrong (which, y'know, isn't really for you to decide anyway; someone's priorities not aligning with yours doesn't automatically mean they need reassessing) just because something that doesn't stress/worry you does stress/worry them. if i could not be anxious over the smallest, 'silliest', or most 'insignificant' things, i wouldn't, but it's not something i can control. i don't sit there and think, "hm, y'know what? i think i will worry about missing the restock and not getting the collectible i gave up time/energy for, subsequently causing myself unnecessary stress, mental exhaustion, and general unpleasantness" lmao, it just happens.

I was the one who said to take a step back and reassess, but please don't twist my words. I never meant to say that people who felt this way were stupid, overreacting, or wrong, and if I came across like this then I sincerely apologize. All I'm saying is that if something causes you anxiety, if it helps, try to keep yourself away from it if possible to lessen this anxiety so you can regroup yourself with hopefully a clearer mind. As someone with anxiety myself I understand wholeheartedly what it feels like, and as much as possible if I can stay away from whatever is causing me anxiety then I will.

Again, I'm really sorry for downplaying collectible anxiety if I came off that way. I didn't mean to. I'm not a professional in any way so I don't know the right things to say sometimes, so if your anxiety persists or gets worse you can try seeing a therapist. I'm really sorry again.

 

[daringred_]

I was the one who said to take a step back and reassess, but please don't twist my words. I never meant to say that people who felt this way were stupid, overreacting, or wrong, and if I came across like this then I sincerely apologize. All I'm saying is that if something causes you anxiety, if it helps, try to keep yourself away from it if possible to lessen this anxiety so you can regroup yourself with hopefully a clearer mind. As someone with anxiety myself I understand wholeheartedly what it feels like, and as much as possible if I can stay away from whatever is causing me anxiety then I will.

Again, I'm really sorry for downplaying collectible anxiety if I came off that way. I didn't mean to. I'm not a professional in any way so I don't know the right things to say sometimes, so if your anxiety persists or gets worse you can try seeing a therapist. I'm really sorry again.

i'm not twisting your words, that's just how it read. if you didn't mean it that way, fair enough, but that doesn't change how it could be read/come across, and it's great that you apologized! the problem is, people shouldn't have to "keep away" or "step back" and miss out on something they were otherwise excited for just because people aren't willing to make minor (and simple) accommodations for them. it's not like OP, or anyone else, is asking that limited restocks be abolished completely, or that they completely change the method of earning TBT to acknowledge people with anxiety who struggle to post, just that they should consider unlimited restocks for the egg hunts/events since the currency is already hard (and stressful) enough to earn on its own without having to compete with, and worry about, random restocks that almost exclusively favor the US.

sorry if my initial "reply" seemed too hostile or harsh, it wasn't necessarily directed at just you. there are several comments before and after yours that are quietly dismissing neurodivergent people and/or their experiences, and it's really disheartening/uncomfortable to see.

 

[xSuperMario64x]

I'm not gonna lie I did have some anxiety for the egg restocks cause it's so limited in quantity. but as im sure everyone has seen, there has been one prism egg in stock for the last 5 days and no one has enough eggs to buy it except maybe Jeremy. the other eggs also have quite a few left. so in the end there were enough eggs restocked to give everyone what they wanted.

I would say that's pretty fair, though it would've been nice to be explicitly notified of this prior to the restocks, that there would eventuakly be enough for everyone. I just assumed they would do it anyways since I think they did the same thing for the 2020 fair and the plushie restocks.

 

[sleepydreepy]

I have no issues with the egg hunt. I like that it rewards us for hard work. The reason the Daisy Egg was unlimited was so that everyone could at least get an egg from the event...this is the case with every 3xEgg currency egg from each egg hunt.

Do I think that someone who gave the forum 'business' by being on here for a couple hours over the weekend deserves a Prismatic egg? Sure I do. Do I think someone who hops on here for the last 10 minutes of the contest deserves the same egg? Of course not.

Without Limited Stock on the collectibles, the TBT Marketplace would collapse. Nothing would be worth more than anything else.

Sorry I'm late to the party but wanted to throw in my two cents on this topic since I totally disagree with what you said-

I don't think having unlimited egg collectables for higher tier egg collectables (cost = 10+ eggs) is an issue simply because of the way you obtain "eggs" (the currency). The clues/puzzles are unanimously hard, and I whole heartedly believe that if you have the brainpower to solve 15 of those clues you deserve the prismatic egg, or whatever the "15 egg" collectable may be.

From what I remember before the prismatic egg was removed from the shop there were 97 sold with a pretty much "unlimited" stock. This can be compared to the elusive dark blue house collectable which has been sold 96 times. The dark blue house sits in tier 3 according to the renowned collectable tier list guide, the same as the Flick halloweaster egg that also cost 15 "eggs" to purchase. At the time the Flick egg was not unlimited, but from this comparison you can conclude that unlimited vs limited stock has nothing to do with the value of the "15 egg" collectable. The Flick egg and prismatic egg limit itself by costing 15 eggs/clues/puzzles to purchase.

This can be further proven by looking at the holiday collectables from December 2020. In this case, (if charity was not involved), limited stock of gifts would have greatly benefited the release of these collectables since "snowflakes" were so easily obtained in large quantities ("snowflakes" were the in between currency needed to purchase these collectables, much like "eggs" are needed to purchase the egg collectables). This combined with the surprise factor of these collectables being concealed as "gifts" until the 25th motivated people to obtain as many snowflakes as possible to buy as many gifts as they could. This caused the tbt market to "collapse" because even the most desired collectable of the bunch (puppy plush) was reportedly purchased from the shop over 600 times, reducing its value greatly. But, because each gift contributed real money to charity, limiting the amount of collectables available for purchase in the shop would have been inappropriate. I am simply using this event as an example of how the in-between currency of the forums (eggs, snowflakes, etc.) affects the tbt market place more than stock limitations during events. If the in-between currency is hard to obtain, shop limitations are not needed to preserve the tbt economy.

TLDR; The prismatic egg limits itself by the difficultly and amount of clues needed to solve to obtain this egg, and thus it can safely be "unlimited" in the shop with no danger to the tbt marketplace economy.

 

[Mr.Fox]

TLDR; The prismatic egg limits itself by the difficultly and amount of clues needed to solve to obtain this egg, and thus it can safely be "unlimited" in the shop with no danger to the tbt marketplace economy.

This statement may be true, but the business behind it (and again, this will be the last time I try to point this out) would disagree.
As I pointed out, limited stock causes the consumers to make impulse purchases on other collectibles and thus further saturate the market with variety.

Secondly, (again I pointed this out before) the first people to sell Prismatic eggs (because they were the only people able to purchase them due to the limited stock) will make more TBT reselling the collectible than the people who go to sell them after restocks. Why?...because at that point the collectible is becoming more common.

I'm guessing you didn't read the McRib/Shamrock Shake article I posted for reference

Anyways, no hard feelings moving forward sleepy. We can agree to disagree.

 

[sleepydreepy]

This statement may be true, but the business behind it (and again, this will be the last time I try to point this out) would disagree.
As I pointed out, limited stock causes the consumers to make impulse purchases on other collectibles and thus further saturate the market with variety.

Secondly, (again I pointed this out before) the first people to sell Prismatic eggs (because they were the only people able to purchase them due to the limited stock) will make more TBT reselling the collectible than the people who go to sell them after restocks. Why?...because at that point the collectible is becoming more common.

I'm guessing you didn't read the McRib/Shamrock Shake article I posted for reference

Anyways, no hard feelings moving forward sleepy. We can agree to disagree.

I see what you mean, but I still feel the comparison I made to the dark blue house collectable proves my point that the prismatic and flick eggs maintain their value because of the difficultly to obtain the in-between currency to buy them. However I do agree and understand that limited restocks are important for the tbt market overall, but believe for egg hunts this can be excused. As I mentioned before, I strongly feel that if you are able to solve 15/20 clues you deserve the 15 egg prize and shouldn't have to settle for less because you missed a restock.

But yeah no hard feelings Mr. Fox, just a friendly argument here.