Question About Card Pricing

[LostInTheDream]

So I've been on the forums for quite a bit, over three years. I was even a mod at one point. However I still cannot figure out why cards are priced so highly.
Many of the cards available require hundreds of thousands of credits. This results in users spending months and almost years saving up for these cards. I feel like the high prices were implemented as a challenge for users. A user would be more enticed to spend time on the forums so they could save to buy the card they want. But I've found that this has led to spamming, which nobody enjoys. In addition, I know a lot of users, myself included, have just given up on collecting certain cards because of the ridiculous amount of credits they are. All of us just want to support our faves by purchasing their cards, but this has become impossible.
I'm not saying that we make them free, but maybe just lower the cost a bit.

I don't see how changes can't be implemented. It's not like we're paying real money to the forums when we buy these cards. Credits are useless online currency that are only valuable on this forum.
But I also don't want to discredit the iShop Managers that do create the cards. You all 100% deserve praise and recognition for making so many of these amazing cards and other items. I want to thank you for all of your hard work. However, wouldn't you rather the cards you make actually be bought because they are affordable.

I would appreciate it if any admin, mod, or iShop Manager could shed light on why they are so expensive. That way I'll at least have a little understanding.
I doubt posting this will bring about change. But I'm hopeful that maybe one day I'll actually be able to purchase the cards I want without mass posting and saving for long periods of time.
If you agree with me, I hope you can support this thread.

Thank you!

 

[escapism]

First I'd like to thank you in return too.
Now I'm just going to tell you my opinion, I believe items were initially priced this high due to the original Kprofiles challenge which is now closed.
I agree that I would want people to be able to purchase our creations but at the same time I'm wondering how possible it'd be to change the prices since we'll have to manually edit all the cards in the Shop which are, to put it simply, a lot.
But I completely understand your way of thinking, and if any update regarding this comes up we'll let you everyone know about it right away.

 

[LostInTheDream]

First I'd like to thank you in return too.
Now I'm just going to tell you my opinion, I believe items were initially priced this high due to the original Kprofiles challenge which is now closed.
I agree that I would want people to be able to purchase our creations but at the same time I'm wondering how possible it'd be to change the prices since we'll have to manually edit all the cards in the Shop which are, to put it simply, a lot.
But I completely understand your way of thinking, and if any update regarding this comes up we'll let you everyone know about it right away.

Thank you for the response!
and that makes sense. I completely forgot that contest existed.
I can understand how it would be difficult to change the prices. I hope there will be a way to simultaneously change cards of the same level.

 

[ONF]

Aside from changing the prices for the cards, there is also the issue regarding possible refunds to account for the price change. For example, if someone bought a card costing 60,000 credits before and we changed the price to 40,000, it would make sense to refund them the extra 20,000 credits they spent when they purchased the card. Unfortunately, we have no way of checking who exactly bought the card, and there is currently no method of doing mass-refunds, so this process would be nearly impossible for us to do.

 

[LostInTheDream]

Aside from changing the prices for the cards, there is also the issue regarding possible refunds to account for the price change. For example, if someone bought a card costing 60,000 credits before and we changed the price to 40,000, it would make sense to refund them the extra 20,000 credits they spent when they purchased the card. Unfortunately, we have no way of checking who exactly bought the card, and there is currently no method of doing mass-refunds, so this process would be nearly impossible for us to do.

that makes sense too
I mean I personally wouldn't care if I wasn't refunded if it meant that all the cards became cheaper. And I mean in real life when an item you buy becomes cheaper you don't get a refund of the difference. It seems like an equal compromise to me. But I'm sure there are other users who would want credits back.
So yeah I guess it's pretty impossible.
I'll just have to deal with not being able to purchase the cards I want. Not a big deal. I just figured there was no reason for me not to post this thread. Hopefully in the future a change can be made.

 

[yunaing]

The cards do show when you purchase them though correct? They do for me? So perhaps there could be the option that if users want a refund, if they can show the date they purchased the card was before the change, then they can contact an iShop manager for that refund? Ofc, a problem with that would be it's in the users hands so some might be unaware of this. But at least that way it wouldn't be the staff at fault?

 

[LostInTheDream]

that makes sense too
I mean I personally wouldn't care if I wasn't refunded if it meant that all the cards became cheaper. And I mean in real life when an item you buy becomes cheaper you don't get a refund of the difference. It seems like an equal compromise to me. But I'm sure there are other users who would want credits back.
So yeah I guess it's pretty impossible.
I'll just have to deal with not being able to purchase the cards I want. Not a big deal. I just figured there was no reason for me not to post this thread. Hopefully in the future a change can be made.

But I also do want to bring up that we can't get refunded by returning cards we don't want anymore. So I feel like giving out these kinds of refunds wouldn't make sense if we're going with the current trend.

 

[ONF]

The cards do show when you purchase them though correct? They do for me? So perhaps there could be the option that if users want a refund, if they can show the date they purchased the card was before the change, then they can contact an iShop manager for that refund? Ofc, a problem with that would be it's in the users hands so some might be unaware of this. But at least that way it wouldn't be the staff at fault?

But I also do want to bring up that we can't get refunded by returning cards we don't want anymore. So I feel like giving out these kinds of refunds wouldn't make sense if we're going with the current trend.

You bring up several great points here. I'll be sure to pass these ideas along to the other staff members, perhaps we can find a solution then.

 

[Jun Lee]

Regarding this issue, as @cookiejar and @ONF explained, the high prices were initially calculated so the forum would be able to actually give the freebies to the users who complete the challenge (there were a lot of calculations made by the financial team).

Now, since the freebies challenge is closed, we decided to drastically lower all the card prices.

However, it will be impossible to give refunds for the bought cards, as any credits that are manually added to an account create additional database queries. We can't allow even more queries as it could exhaust the server and bring the whole forum down.

 

[LostInTheDream]

So I've been on the forums for quite a bit, over three years. I was even a mod at one point. However I still cannot figure out why cards are priced so highly.
Many of the cards available require hundreds of thousands of credits. This results in users spending months and almost years saving up for these cards. I feel like the high prices were implemented as a challenge for users. A user would be more enticed to spend time on the forums so they could save to buy the card they want. But I've found that this has led to spamming, which nobody enjoys. In addition, I know a lot of users, myself included, have just given up on collecting certain cards because of the ridiculous amount of credits they are. All of us just want to support our faves by purchasing their cards, but this has become impossible.
I'm not saying that we make them free, but maybe just lower the cost a bit.

I don't see how changes can't be implemented. It's not like we're paying real money to the forums when we buy these cards. Credits are useless online currency that are only valuable on this forum.
But I also don't want to discredit the iShop Managers that do create the cards. You all 100% deserve praise and recognition for making so many of these amazing cards and other items. I want to thank you for all of your hard work. However, wouldn't you rather the cards you make actually be bought because they are affordable.

I would appreciate it if any admin, mod, or iShop Manager could shed light on why they are so expensive. That way I'll at least have a little understanding.
I doubt posting this will bring about change. But I'm hopeful that maybe one day I'll actually be able to purchase the cards I want without mass posting and saving for long periods of time.
If you agree with me, I hope you can support this thread.

Thank you!

I feel like a revolutionary. The post actually worked!
I hope you all enjoy the cheaper cards just as I am.
I'm not sure if they're all updated yet but they will be soon!

 

[escapism]

I feel like a revolutionary. The post actually worked!
I hope you all enjoy the cheaper cards just as I am.
I'm not sure if they're all updated yet but they will be soon!

We were on fire today. Most of the levels are updated and we'll most likely have them all completed by tomorrow. Special thanks to you for helping us

 

[🎀♡RYU♡🎀]

I feel like a revolutionary. The post actually worked!
I hope you all enjoy the cheaper cards just as I am.
I'm not sure if they're all updated yet but they will be soon!

Thank you guys so much! Now I can purchase all the GWSN cards <3

 

[yunaing]

I just want to thank the iShop team for working so hard to bring this to action. I’ve always wanted to be able to buy these cards but it’s always felt like an impossible task - so I can’t wait to be a greedy goblin and start hoarding them. But seriously thank you for spending your time changing all of these one buy one for the users here. I can’t imagine it’s been fun but I’m sure this will be something appreciated into the future and beyond

 

[Tachibugi]

Omg, I was wondering why I saw prices of cards drop!! When I first joined the forums earlier I was so intimidated by those huge prices but with the old concept it does make sense, thanks so much for taking all the time to update (because this must be tedious work)

 

[ITSJUST_👹✨VEGAS✨👹]

these prices make me feel so broke like damn bruh the only way i had got the photo cards was bc i participated inside the event. Please let us know when the next thing is

 

[ignoring]

these prices make me feel so broke like damn bruh the only way i had got the photo cards was bc i participated inside the event. Please let us know when the next thing is

Do you mean as in when the next event will be, or?

 

[ITSJUST_👹✨VEGAS✨👹]

Do you mean as in when the next event will be, or?

MHM

 

[ignoring]

MHM

Well, with the special events they’re usually held up whenever it can, so we can’t predict when exactly the next one will be up. I’m pretty sure the mods would usually have a choice on when they want to held up the next event though and the list goes on.

 

[🎀♡RYU♡🎀]

these prices make me feel so broke like damn bruh the only way i had got the photo cards was bc i participated inside the event. Please let us know when the next thing is

It really just depends, since not all mods can do the special events since some of the mods aren’t authors, but I will ask them when/if anyone wants to plan the next special event sometime soon.