Mists of Pandaria: Black Market Auction-house? (1 Viewer)

[Jerry]

Mists of Pandaria, Black Market Auction-house offers rare and removed items

So what's available at the Black Market? A little bit of everything, including rare mounts like the Ashes of Al'ar, pictured above. Also included are pets that require a grind to obtain such as the Sen'jin Fetish, previously available only from grinding out Argent Tournament reputation, and high-level crafting recipes, although we don't have a lot of information on what those recipes are exactly.

However, perhaps the most interesting note to glean from this is that the Black Market Auction House appears to be carrying the original tier 3 sets that were removed from the game when Naxxramas was moved to Northrend and changed from a 40-man raid to a 10- and 25-man raid in ​

Wrath of the Lich King

. Obviously, this means that those looking to transmogrify into these rare tier sets can now pay to do so -- provided they've got the gold to fling around.​

See also:
Black Market AH - Forums - World of Warcraft

Blackmarket - Forums - World of Warcraft

Your thoughts?


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I have mixed feelings on this one. I understand Blizz needs new gold sinks to combat inflation, but pissing off long-time players by selling hard earned rare and discontinued items and mounts isn't the best way to go about it imo. I would stress careful selection of what is available on this black market. I would further stress to keep functional items, such as T12 PvP gear (just an example), out. Vanity only items or it will brake the game.

Unfortunately, vanity items are what veteran players care about the most. Encountering another player riding a rare mount or sporting a rare armor set or tabard is a chance to connect with someone who overcame the same challenges. When a rare item can simply be perchised for gold, it cheapens that item and disrespects everyone who earned it legitimately.

On the other side of the coin are folks who, say, farmed old-school ZG religiously, but the raptor and/or tiger mounts never dropped. They put in the time and effort, and old ZG is gon forever so it's not like they can farm it today. In that case I don't see why that person shouldn't be able to buy the mount from a Black Market. Another example might be someone who played a long time ago and earned the T3 set, but stopped playing and has long since lost/forgotten/gave away their account information. Since such a person earned the items legitimately I don't see any harm in allowing them a way to require those items when they rejoin the game.

It's also worth noting that the number of auctions up at any one time will be limited. As will the frequency any specific item is auctioned in any period of time. You won't always be able to go buy that rare mount after seeing it and begin collecting the gold to buy it. Buy the time you have the gold, the auction could be over and it could be a very long time before that item is back up in the Black Market.

As for me, to be honest I don't pay that much attention to what others are wearing and wouldn't know a full T3 set if it bit me. Unique mounts catch my eye because while everyone's armor look different from everyone else's armor and so uniqueness blends into the crowd, everyone is typically riding one of only a handful of common mounts, so uniqueness stands out. Even if I had the gold, I don't see myself buying anything just because it's rare or discontinued. The item itself would have to be appealing on it's own merits. My palidan, for example, has a handful of rare mounts, but I only ever use the Armored Snowy Gryphon because that's the one I like best; and that gryphon can already be bought by anyone. In PvP I use the Wintersrping Frostsaber exclusively, not because it's rare and requires a mind-numbing grind (even if your max lvl), but because I like the look of the unarmored cats and this cat's skin in particular. I would use this mount exclusively even if it were a common mount you could buy from any vendor.

So to recap my view:
Gold sinks to combat inflation - good.
Rare items for gold - the more expensive and less frequent any given item is up, the better.
Old-time player's QQ - I wouldn't have noticed your prestige items anyway.