No Longer Used Gemstore Items

It would be nice if we could do something useful with certain Gemstore items we no longer use. I have multiple Copper and Silver Salvage-o-Matics that I bought before the introduction of Shared Inventory Slots. I also have an extra set of unlimited gathering tools sitting in storage. I'm sure many other people are in the same situation. Perhaps we can have an in-game vendor that collects these items for gold or some other game currency. Personally, I'd be more inclined to upgrade my other sets of unlimited gathering tools if I knew I could so something useful with the old ones.

@"Shining One.1635" said:It would be nice if we could do something useful with certain Gemstore items we no longer use. I have multiple Copper and Silver Salvage-o-Matics that I bought before the introduction of Shared Inventory Slots. I also have an extra set of unlimited gathering tools sitting in storage. I'm sure many other people are in the same situation. Perhaps we can have an in-game vendor that collects these items for gold or some other game currency. Personally, I'd be more inclined to upgrade my other sets of unlimited gathering tools if I knew I could so something useful with the old ones.

ANet's made clear their stance on gem shop items: we got fair use out of them for plenty of time after they were purchased. It wouldn't be reasonable to refund all or even part of the value simply because we no longer have the same interest in them.(There are exceptions for accidental purchases, misunderstanding the description, for buying right before a discount or bundle, and sometimes even for buyer's remorse. But that all has to happen "soon" after purchase.)

So that leaves out the Salvage-o-Matics, all "before the shared inventory slot" purchases, outfits, minis, and so on.

The only possibly exception I could see would be side-grading from one set of gathering tools to another. The question is: would ANet really end up selling that many more tools at e.g. 700 gems each (versus 1000) to make it worth the time spent to program the trade-in mechanic? Would doing so open up a huge can-of-worms for Support, by changing our expectations about refunds/trade-in?

I know currently I can't justify dropping 2700 gems (900 each) for the unbound set, when I already have multiple sets (also from pre-shared-inventory days), so a trade-in would make that more attractive. However, while that's good for me, I don't really see the long-term benefit for ANet.

I'd like to be able to gift the items to another player. For example if I bought a set of unlimited harvesting tools I like better than the ones I had before, and don't have any other characters I'd use the old ones on, it would be nice if I could gift the old ones to a guild-mate.

@Orion Templar.4589 said:I'd like to be able to gift the items to another player. For example if I bought a set of unlimited harvesting tools I like better than the ones I had before, and don't have any other characters I'd use the old ones on, it would be nice if I could gift the old ones to a guild-mate.

This is a good idea.

@YoukiNeko.6047 said:

@Orion Templar.4589 said:I'd like to be able to gift the items to another player. For example if I bought a set of unlimited harvesting tools I like better than the ones I had before, and don't have any other characters I'd use the old ones on, it would be nice if I could gift the old ones to a guild-mate.

Agreed. My girlfriend plays, too, and some of my extra gem store items I would like to gift to her. She actually wouldn't buy the items anyway but it would be a nice little QoL bonus for her if I could gift them.

I actually made the suggestions in the gem store thread at one point that gem store items already in inventory/bank should get a one-time gifting use. One case I would really like to use this is bank access express. I have a permanent bank contract so all my express bank access have no use to me.

@Orion Templar.4589 said:I'd like to be able to gift the items to another player. For example if I bought a set of unlimited harvesting tools I like better than the ones I had before, and don't have any other characters I'd use the old ones on, it would be nice if I could gift the old ones to a guild-mate.

I think that is absolutely the best solution for this problem.

I've bought a couple of gemstore items myself that I don't care for but I don't want to just destroy them since I paid money for them.But I'd gladly give them away to another player who did want them or pop them in the guild bank for others to use.

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:It wouldn't be reasonable to refund all or even part of the value simply because we no longer have the same interest in them.I'm not looking for a refund. I'm just looking for something useful to do with them. As others have suggested, giving the items to someone who doesn't have them would fall under "something useful" in my book. As it stands right now, my only options are store or delete.

@Shining One.1635 said:

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:It wouldn't be reasonable to refund all or even part of the value simply because we no longer have the same interest in them.I'm not looking for a refund. I'm just looking for something useful to do with them. As others have suggested, giving the items to someone who doesn't have them would fall under "something useful" in my book. As it stands right now, my only options are store or delete.

You are looking for trade-in value; that's no different from ANet's point of view. Gifting to others is even worse from a business stand point: they get one less potential sale at the full price.

Again, their policy is: we've gotten value out of the item already; that's what we paid for.

@Shining One.1635 said:

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:It wouldn't be reasonable to refund all or even part of the value simply because we no longer have the same interest in them.I'm not looking for a refund. I'm just looking for something useful to do with them. As others have suggested, giving the items to someone who doesn't have them would fall under "something useful" in my book. As it stands right now, my only options are store or delete.

This is how I feel. It would be nice to be able to do something with items we no longer use. If I could gift my spare salvage-o-matics somehow it would be wonderful to be able to give a new player or a guildie something nice. Or be able to get something for our guild hall by turning older things into a special vendor. For me it is more about recycling. I got my more than fair use out of these items but would like to re-purpose them somehow.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Shining One.1635 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:It wouldn't be reasonable to refund all or even part of the value simply because we no longer have the same interest in them.I'm not looking for a refund. I'm just looking for something useful to do with them. As others have suggested, giving the items to someone who doesn't have them would fall under "something useful" in my book. As it stands right now, my only options are store or delete.

This ( Though i do understand your feelings TS. I was just lucky i always have a main which i care and the supports one are not a problem. Sometimes i managed to pass everything on the alts btw ).

Remember also that due to Shared inventory slots you, we all, won't suffer from this problem anymore.

Even with shared inventory slots sometimes something comes along that you like more than a previous purchase...so you buy the item again, even though you already had a set(gathering tools come to mind). If you've got more than one character, just parcel them out, it's not always going to be convenient to use the shared inventory slot for items that you can share amongst characters(like gathering tools, since you have to take them out and put them back in, unlike the salvage-o-matics, which work from the slot).

@Orion Templar.4589 said:I'd like to be able to gift the items to another player. For example if I bought a set of unlimited harvesting tools I like better than the ones I had before, and don't have any other characters I'd use the old ones on, it would be nice if I could gift the old ones to a guild-mate.

That has the potential to be a really scary mess should someone's account and/or credit card become compromised. I wouldn't want to be the dev having to clean up over 10 accounts due to a security breach.

While gifting would be a great idea knowing the people, it would end up ppl selling these tools discounted for IGG.

@Shining One.1635 said:

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:It wouldn't be reasonable to refund all or even part of the value simply because we no longer have the same interest in them.I'm not looking for a refund. I'm just looking for something useful to do with them. As others have suggested, giving the items to someone who doesn't have them would fall under "something useful" in my book. As it stands right now, my only options are store or delete.

Allowing you to give them to someone else means anet loses a potential sale. That's not good business. These items fall under the same umbrella as buying the core game, or buying HoT at full price, or buying the handful of gem store skins they turned in to ingame rewards for that Mordrem Invasion event, or bank tabs bought with the intent to store resources after the collections tab expansions (of just adding things you were storing in the bank to the collections tab) etc. etc.

You bought a thing for its use at the time. That thing has been indirectly devalued after a certain amount of time. This happens with stuff people buy all the time. In a capitalist system, things become quasi-obsolete after a while. The items you have are still functional, and I guess my question is if you have so many, why buy or use a shared inventory slot for the one? Why not use them as you were and put something else up there in stead, continue using what you purchased, and save the gems (or save the free shared inventory slot if that's the case)

@"Orion Templar.4589" said:I'd like to be able to gift the items to another player. For example if I bought a set of unlimited harvesting tools I like better than the ones I had before, and don't have any other characters I'd use the old ones on, it would be nice if I could gift the old ones to a guild-mate.

This would create a "black market" where players "sell" their black lion items they don't like to other people, for a price. While Anet gets zero profit from it.Although many would use such a feature with good intentions, gift them to a friend, it has huge potential for abuse.

I really want the Mistlock Sanctuary pass because it unfairly has the most NPCs like dungeon and fractal vendors, fractal entrance and it takes me back to my previous location... But I already have the Royal Terrace pass in a shared slot and I would never use it again because let's be honest, it (and every other pass) svcks monkey balls compared to Mistlock Sanctuary. I just don't want a 1k Gem item to collect dust in my bank so that's why I must stick with the crappy Royal Terrace... At least let me gift it to a friend who would actually use it... :/ Or let me Trade Royal Terrace and 300 Gems for Mistlock Sanctuary.

What about items we have then they have changed the game and are no longer used?I still have 3 instant trait resets. Maybe I could trade them in for 3 instant merchants or bank access?

I've been begging for some way to convert extra sets of gathering tools forever. Charge me something more to do it, I dont care. I just cant destroy them.

@Drecien.4508 said:I've been begging for some way to convert extra sets of gathering tools forever. Charge me something more to do it, I dont care. I just cant destroy them.I like this idea. I don't mind spending extra gems if I can do something useful with them.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:ANet's made clear their stance on gem shop items: we got fair use out of them for plenty of time after they were purchased. It wouldn't be reasonable to refund all or even part of the value simply because we no longer have the same interest in them.

And where exactly did they make that stance clear? Because there is no written policy on the subject, and the only other times something similar happened, was when they made infinite gathering tools account-bound, and when the base game went on sale then immediately went free to play, and they publicly announced that they would grant refunds in both cases.

If the OP hasn't danced with support yet about this subject, he should do so.

@Conncept.7638 said:

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:ANet's made clear their stance on gem shop items: we got fair use out of them for plenty of time after they were purchased. It wouldn't be reasonable to refund all or even part of the value simply because we no longer have the same interest in them.

They've responded on the old forums several times on this: they'll do a refund if you just bought an item, refund some gems if it just went on sale, and, on occasion, when there's a massive overhaul in mechanics (e.g. the wardrobe), they'll offer exchanges for some things.

So yes, when the infinite tools went account bound, you could trade your soulbound items in; you didn't get a chance to return them for gems (not unless you had just bought them). When the wardrobe was introduced, you can get a refund on gems (I don't think there was a time limit on that). When commander tags went account bound, you got a partial refund of the gold which depended on how many you had acquired. And that's about it for exceptions.

When shared inventory slots became available, no refunds were offered for people who owned 'extra' salvage-o-matics unless they had just bought them ("just" turning out to be less than 3-4 weeks, by published accounts).

I don't have time right now, but I'll see if I can find specific quotes on the archives of the old forum. I didn't happen to save those links because I honestly didn't expect anyone to be surprised this is ANet's policy. (Not all policies are published in a readable form for customers.)

@Conncept.7638 said:If the OP hasn't danced with support yet about this subject, he should do so, they're quite helpful and frequently bend policy to make players happy.

That's good advice, regardless of the details. It cannot hurt to make a graciously worded request for an exception. The worst thing that happens is that Support says "no."

@Drecien.4508 said:I've been begging for some way to convert extra sets of gathering tools forever. Charge me something more to do it, I dont care. I just cant destroy them.

Something along the lines of a MF recipe requiring a 500 gem item, plus 3 infinite gathering tools, which then pops out a container from which you can choose 1 infinite tool of your choice?I don't know how deeply a 50% hit in price would cut into the revenue that Anet needs; nor do I have the data on how many players could even take advantage of this option to justify its implementation; nor do I know the percentage of said players that already buy new infinite tools without the above discount; but it's an option which could be mulled over.

@Shining One.1635 said:

I know currently I can't justify dropping 2700 gems (900 each) for the unbound set, when I already have multiple sets (also from pre-shared-inventory days), so a trade-in would make that more attractive. However, while that's good for me, I don't really see the long-term benefit for ANet.

They could create and sell an Upgrade to transform ordinary infinite uses gathering tools into Unbound Magic collectors ones.

I love my Mad gathering tools set, but I would love them more, if they could collect unbound magic.

Not sure how much this upgrade could cost. Maybe something like 200-300 gems per tool?

For example:

GM Awesomeness

2016-01-12 22:51:00 UTC, in response to the introduction of Shared Inventory Slots

As for refunds: if you’ve had these account-bound items for ages, we won’t be doing refunds because you’ve already derived substantial benefit. If, however, you bought them more recently, we’re doing refunds on a case-by-case basis.

@Mea.5491 said:I really want the Mistlock Sanctuary pass because it unfairly has the most NPCs like dungeon and fractal vendors, fractal entrance and it takes me back to my previous location... But I already have the Royal Terrace pass in a shared slot and I would never use it again because let's be honest, it (and every other pass) svcks monkey kitten compared to Mistlock Sanctuary. I just don't want a 1k Gem item to collect dust in my bank so that's why I must stick with the crappy Royal Terrace... At least let me gift it to a friend who would actually use it... :/ Or let me Trade Royal Terrace and 300 Gems for Mistlock Sanctuary.

That's your PERSONAL decision to not get the Mistlock Sanctuary pass because you already have the Royal Terrace pass. There are times when you might still want to use the Royal Terrace...say for instance you do the Dailies and it's something you can do in DR from where ever you happen to be. Cheapest route there is using the Royal Terrace pass and then going to your home instance...or a nearby zone. Would I personally get the Mistlock even though I already have the Royal Terrace and Lily of the Elon, no, because I have no need for those other vendors, would I get it if I used those vendors...yes, and that would give me 3 permanent passes in my shared inventory...not in storage.