Is anyone actually getting characters to sell on Icecrown?

[Torlaan]

I have stopped playing on Icecrown and now play on Lordaeron.

About 2 months ago, I started putting my BiS Icecrown toons on the trade system. Not one of them has sold. The only character I have been able to sell are a few of the 80s with no gear that I got with the Warmane reroll.

I have resorted to selling w/o inventory to lower the cost, despite having some really nice offset items in bank/bags. I have a full wrathful PVP set in bags on my druid, but nobody is going to buy that toon with Val'Anyr equipped, a full PVP set, and 2 offset spec sets in bags. It would cost over 1,000 coins. 402 coins right now is ridiculously high also, but the value is there if you add up the cost to create the toon (BiS gear purchased at 23 coins each, Val'Anyr, instant 80, full JC with all patterns, bought mounts, etc)

I have removed ICC rep rings to lower cost.

I am to the point where I doubt any of the toons I am trying to sell will actually sell unless Warmane changes the formula for minimum price. These toons are just rotting over there unfortunately.

Has anyone had any luck?
Does anyone have any tips?

[Char0n]

Do i understand right that you wonder why noone buys your character for "cheap" 402 coins?

[WolfPrince]

One from my guild sold bis pvp warr for 500coins + but you have to wait bit longer and depends on lucky ;)

[RustCohle]

In computer programming development and design terms, the method of character sales currently is a by-design-poisoned-feature. Every market must self-regulate in order to be viable, which is true in economics as well as in gaming. It seems Warmane was calculating on a gold rush hoping that people would buy characters fully geared and optimized but donate a lot of money in order to do so. If you want a fully bis toon this is slightly cheaper than buying the gear through donation, but it's really not much cheaper especially if you take into account the coins that the player selling the toon has to pay.

The way this feature was implemented was for short-term gain while everyone rushed to market and spent coins on putting their toons up first, without realizing that a very high supply would ultimately result in a very low demand. That's an economic law and it's unavoidable.

Demand now is rock bottom for toons this way and people more or less seem to have abandoned this feature altogether because the cost is greater than the benefit.

Benefits must be greater than cost in order to ensure a flowing market.

Donations must be low when I see claims like this on news threads: "Depending on how well the activity goes towards the end of season and depending on our overall funding, Warmane International Tournament: Series II might get organized in the upcoming Fall season." This "depending on our overall funding" comment could indicate that Warmane is in need of donations and they aren't getting enough of them.

There is only one way to ensure long term viability of any given web market place and that is to have customers and users who truly believe in the service and the community itself. Reddit for example made a lot of money selling Reddit Gold, which would allow a user to anonymously flag a comment or post as exceptional in their view, but with little other benefit. The only way that kind of thing is going to make money is if there are enough users who want to support the site and also use the feature.

Warmane has for the most part it seems really raised the bar in terms of quality and play-ability overall. The character-trade system though is flawed.

We need to have the onus of the cost of trade be placed on the seller but only after the trade. Let players who are buying characters this way pay whatever the market will support. Remove the forced pricing scheme. Let some unintelligent person sell his toon for 1 coin if he wants to. But you charge the seller a percentage of the sale. (say 20%)

I'm not sure if they are doing it now but a character on the trade system should be removed from the account and held while it is for sale.

The way it works right now or at least appears to work is kinda dangerous for a seller. You're going to lose your coins if you list but if you list and someone agreed to buy it then they will do that (you hope and hope wanes as faith wanes). It would be smart if this was done more of an escrow service. Two parties that want to make a trade could each put up something (the seller puts up the toon into escrow, the buyer puts the coins). This happens only if both are in agreement. There are no charges for this escrowing though in a good system but in our current system it appears as though you have to pay coins up front to sell which will mean that eventually all faith in the character trade system would diminish as successful sales diminish.

Warmane should only take a cut if the character is traded. That's the way all big escrow companies do it in order to maintain faith in their services but also in order to provide benefits and value for those customers using the system.

I think this kind of system would require a major overhaul and it's a shame because the idea of trading characters is great -- it's the execution that needed to hear more and think more carefully about the users who would either want or not-want such a thing.

[iloveandre]

I sold a level 70 twink Pally for 155 coins yesterday

[Peregrine]

I sold toon on Icecrown 3 days ago for 300 coins.