[Suggestion] Can we buy gems in $5 increments please.

[Etterwyn.5263]

@Brother.1504 said:

@Etterwyn.5263 said:

@Brother.1504 said:Hate to say it. Play one hour less a week. Work one hour more irl a week.

Problem solved.

Yeah because I tell my boss when I want to work overtime on demand.

I suppose I assumed you know that you are in control of your own life. Your boss is exchanging payment for services. If you need more money for a fatter entertainment budget you can get another job on the side for a few hours a week. Anyway seems like this is some good practice to work on your life skills. It’s like doing your dailies or farming an achievement but with a much better reward track irl.

Yeah seriously I'm way beyond the "develop life skills and get a better job" phase. $5, $10 is nothing to me. I don't even agree with the OP. But that's not the point. Thinking people can just "get money on demand" is flat out condescending. I hear people say that all the time, but neither you nor I know anybody else's life, employment, or money situation.

[Kovu.7560]

@mindcircus.1506 said:

@SmirkDog.3160 said:

@Mea.5491 said:But why? Buy 800 Gems for $10 and save the remaining Gems for later so next time you want something from the Gem Store you don't have to spend money again. Ta-da!

That's not a solution, and not everyone has $10 USD to spend on the game.

If 5 Dollars is not a problem but ten dollars is, you have bigger problems than the cost of gaming microtransactions and the cost of gemstore currency.

Damn. You beat me to it.

~ Kovu

[tacticalevilnoodlefox.5694]

@Martimus.6027 said:

@Ashen.2907 said:

@Martimus.6027 said:If a $5 total difference is an issue for you, financially, you have bigger life priorities you need to sort without worrying about online gaming.

If someone has made the effort to develop an entertainment budget, and sticks to their budget, then they are fine.

Sticking to a budget is sorting out life priorities.

Spending $5 or $10 on a game while you complain about the cost of it as you have to budget yourself is not sorting out life priorities. Nice try.

If someone hasn't taken care of important bills and savings then yeah it's irresponsible spending, but it's not like you know that's the case. You're just assuming.

If I budget for all my bills, debts, rent, food, and include a chunk to put into savings each month but give myself $5 as an entertainment budget then how is that not being responsible financially? Are people not allowed to spend extra money on things to make life enjoyable if they can't spare over a certain amount? What is that amount? Is it sorting life priorities if I have $10 left over instead? $20?

[ShadowStorm.9415]

I agree with the OP, but I also know that it's more complicated than just adding another tier/lowering the price. Unfortunately, some of the responses on here were uncalled for; telling someone to "fix their life" or "work longer" may work for some people in some situations, but it's not a cure-all.Suggesting that saving up gold in order to convert it to gems, as viable a suggestion as it is, is sometimes easier said than done, especially for new players or those who don't have a lot of time to grind for gold.

[Carnius Magius.8091]

I can see the $5 vs $10 arguments if the processing fees were a fixed amount. But if the processing fees are a percentage the amount charged then those arguments hold no water. It's easier to collect $1 from a million people than it is to collect $1,000,000 from one person.

[Ashen.2907]

@Martimus.6027 said:

@Ashen.2907 said:

@Martimus.6027 said:If a $5 total difference is an issue for you, financially, you have bigger life priorities you need to sort without worrying about online gaming.

If someone has made the effort to develop an entertainment budget, and sticks to their budget, then they are fine.

Sticking to a budget is sorting out life priorities.

Spending $5 or $10 on a game while you complain about the cost of it as you have to budget yourself is not sorting out life priorities. Nice try.

Budgeting is sorting priorities. This is by definition.

[SmirkDog.3160]

@Martimus.6027 said:If a $5 total difference is an issue for you, financially, you have bigger life priorities you need to sort without worrying about online gaming.

@mindcircus.1506 said:If 5 Dollars is not a problem but ten dollars is, you have bigger problems than the cost of gaming microtransactions and the cost of gemstore currency.

@"SmirkDog.3160" said:That's not a solution, and not everyone has $10 USD to spend on the game. And spare me the lecture on "well if you can't afford $10 in gems blah blah blah" because that's not how money works. Sometimes the money you can spare is less than $10 USD and thus you can't buy a single thing.

If you're going to argue against me, read everything I said.

@tacticalevilnoodlefox.5694 said:If I budget for all my bills, debts, rent, food, and include a chunk to put into savings each month but give myself $5 as an entertainment budget then how is that not being responsible financially? Are people not allowed to spend extra money on things to make life enjoyable if they can't spare over a certain amount? What is that amount? Is it sorting life priorities if I have $10 left over instead? $20?

This is exactly what I was saying. If someone takes care of all their bills, fees, etc. and has less than $10 left to spend on wants because all their needs are paid for, that's not being financially irresponsible. That's just having less than $10 to spend on games and other things.

[tacticalevilnoodlefox.5694]

@SmirkDog.3160 said:

This is exactly what I was saying. If someone takes care of all their bills, fees, etc. and has less than $10 left to spend on wants because all their needs are paid for, that's not being financially irresponsible. That's just having less than $10 to spend on games and other things.

Edit: Oh god I did not pay anywhere near enough attention to what was said and got myself all sorts of confused.

But yeah I agree with this 100%. Life isn't just about working to support yourself. People need to have a healthy balance of taking care of needed things, but also having something enjoyable in their lives to make all the dull stuff worthwhile. Even if it's just $5 to spend on a game you love playing.

[Rajani Isa.6294]

@Carnius Magius.8091 said:I can see the $5 vs $10 arguments if the processing fees were a fixed amount. But if the processing fees are a percentage the amount charged then those arguments hold no water. It's easier to collect $1 from a million people than it is to collect $1,000,000 from one person.

It depends on their contract. Some are most %, others can include a per-transaction fee in addition to the percentage (or a fee per X transactions)

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

If one only has $5 per month to spend on Gems, how about saving that $5 until next month, and then spending $10 (every other month)? Voila, now one has 400 Gems to spend each month!

[SmirkDog.3160]

I think people are missing the point. Regardless of a person's financial situation, why can't we buy them in $5 increments. Why does it matter why someone wants to buy only $5 worth of gems. The suggestion (y'know, in the title) is that it should be an option because it can be more convenient in a number of ways. We're not supposed to be debating whether or not I pay bills or work enough hours 'correctly', it's to point out that $5 being the minimum instead of $10 would be better.

[ShadowStorm.9415]

@"SmirkDog.3160" said:I think people are missing the point. Regardless of a person's financial situation, why can't we buy them in $5 increments. Why does it matter why someone wants to buy only $5 worth of gems. The suggestion (y'know, in the title) is that it should be an option because it can be more convenient in a number of ways. We're not supposed to be debating whether or not I pay bills or work enough hours 'correctly', it's to point out that $5 being the minimum instead of $10 would be better.

We get what you're asking for, most of us at least, but unfortunately as others have pointed out, it's not that simple; they can't just add another "tier" because of a few reasons:

• They are bound by a contract
• The payment processing fee isn't justifiable
• Having a lower price/gem might not be profitable for them (looking at its long term effects and including processing fees)

If you have any other theory/reason then feel free to say it (as long as you don't go full tinfoil hat on us)

[GrubySzymek.1362]

@SmirkDog.3160 said:I think people are missing the point. Regardless of a person's financial situation, why can't we buy them in $5 increments.

Because Anet wants you to spend more. This is common practice, not only in gaming.

[Rauderi.8706]

If only for convenience's sake, can we tier the cash-buy options differently? 2000 for $25 is far more convenient than having to pay twice for $20 + $10.And no, I don't care about ANet's gem-conversion crookery by making us buy extra.

[Danikat.8537]

@Carnius Magius.8091 said:I can see the $5 vs $10 arguments if the processing fees were a fixed amount. But if the processing fees are a percentage the amount charged then those arguments hold no water. It's easier to collect $1 from a million people than it is to collect $1,000,000 from one person.

I'm not sure about the system Anet has in place, but all the card payment systems I've used (as a retailer where I knew about the back-end stuff) charged a flat fee per transaction because the process for the banks is the same no matter how much money is being transferred. But it has been a few years since I was directly involved in that side of things, so it may well have changed. I could definitely see the appeal of offering a system that charges a percentage instead, both for retailers who want to allow their customers to make smaller payments by card and for banks who may see more profit on the occasional large transactions.

Unfortunately however that's out of our hands and to some extent out of Anet's hands too. It's up to the company who provides the payment service (Digital River if I remember correctly) to decide what the fees are and how they're charged. If Anet want an alternative they'd have to find a new service provider, which may be easier said than done especially if they have other requirements for the system.

And of course we as players don't even have that option. We can let Anet know that we'd like the option to buy gems with real money in smaller amounts, and/or more increments (2,000 would be useful for me for example, instead of 1,700 and 800) but we can't make that change ourselves.

So having made the request (by creating/posting in this thread) all we can do is look for work-arounds within the current system, like converting gold to gems either for the full amount or as a 'top-up' or finding ways which work for you as an individual to buy more gems without spending money you don't have or wasting it buying gems you'll never use or end up spending on something you don't want.

As the discussion above shows those work-arounds will be different for each person. What works for me probably won't work for anyone else, at least not exactly, and it would be extremely presumptuous of me to tell anyone else they should be doing what I do. But I could offer examples of what works for me so they can adapt it to their situation and preferences.

[MarshallLaw.9260]

@SmirkDog.3160 said:Why is $10 USD/800 gems the lowest amount we can buy.

Flat transaction fee.

[Elva.6372]

@Brother.1504 said:Hate to say it. Play one hour less a week. Work one hour more irl a week.

Problem solved.

It doesn't really work like that...unless maybe you sealing envelopes at home, lol.

[Ardenwolfe.8590]

Personally, I wouldn't mind a five-dollar gem purchase. =)

[artemis.6781]

@sorudo.9054 said:why even pay from Anet directly, they are always more expensive then 3rd party dealers.

Because if you happen to buy a gem code or key code that isn't legit, you may lose access to your account? I only buy everything directly from Anet. After all, I enjoy the game so I try to support it.

[Bunter.3795]

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:If one only has $5 per month to spend on Gems, how about saving that $5 until next month, and then spending $10 (every other month)? Voila, now one has 400 Gems to spend each month!

This solves the OP's problem. You may not get the gems when you want them but you will get them if you're dedicated enough to save the $5 from one month to the next.

As for why they don't offer lower amounts it's more than likely due to a set per transaction fee (last time I heard it was at least $0.75 per transaction but I'm sure it's gone up since then). Some places do get charged a % based fee but that's only after the minimum charge per transaction has been met.

Let's say the charge is $0.75 per transaction. On a $5 purchase that amounts to a 15% charge vs the same $0.75 on a $10 purchase being a 7.5% charge. Big difference in income for Anet/Digital River.

Besides, before we fix this problem, we need to fix why most packs of hot dog buns come in packs of 12 and yet most hot dogs come in packs of 10.

[RoseofGilead.8907]

@Bunter.3795 said:Besides, before we fix this problem, we need to fix why most packs of hot dog buns come in packs of 12 and yet most hot dogs come in packs of 10.

Amen, friend.

[sorudo.9054]

@artemis.6781 said:

@sorudo.9054 said:why even pay from Anet directly, they are always more expensive then 3rd party dealers.

Because if you happen to buy a gem code or key code that isn't legit, you may lose access to your account? I only buy everything directly from Anet. After all, I enjoy the game so I try to support it.

the codes are legit and come directly from Anet, i just pay less for more gems.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@sorudo.9054 said:

@artemis.6781 said:

@sorudo.9054 said:why even pay from Anet directly, they are always more expensive then 3rd party dealers.

Because if you happen to buy a gem code or key code that isn't legit, you may lose access to your account? I only buy everything directly from Anet. After all, I enjoy the game so I try to support it.

the codes are legit and come directly from Anet, i just pay less for more gems.

If they're from an authorized reseller, go for it.A lot of us don't have one close by, or those we have are more expensive than ANet.

Unauthorized resellers is always a gamble, at least online, as you can't know if the code was initially bought with a stolen credit card or similar.

[sorudo.9054]

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:

@sorudo.9054 said:

@artemis.6781 said:

@sorudo.9054 said:why even pay from Anet directly, they are always more expensive then 3rd party dealers.

Because if you happen to buy a gem code or key code that isn't legit, you may lose access to your account? I only buy everything directly from Anet. After all, I enjoy the game so I try to support it.

the codes are legit and come directly from Anet, i just pay less for more gems.

If they're from an authorized reseller, go for it.A lot of us don't have one close by, or those we have are more expensive than ANet.

Un

authorized resellers is always a gamble, at least online, as you can't know if the code was initially bought with a stolen credit card or similar.

here in europe you need to obey certain laws to even sell anything online, certificates need to be added on the site to show registration of legibility for instance.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@sorudo.9054 said:

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:

@sorudo.9054 said:

@artemis.6781 said:

@sorudo.9054 said:why even pay from Anet directly, they are always more expensive then 3rd party dealers.

Because if you happen to buy a gem code or key code that isn't legit, you may lose access to your account? I only buy everything directly from Anet. After all, I enjoy the game so I try to support it.

the codes are legit and come directly from Anet, i just pay less for more gems.

If they're from an authorized reseller, go for it.A lot of us don't have one close by, or those we have are more expensive than ANet.

Un

authorized resellers is always a gamble, at least online, as you can't know if the code was initially bought with a stolen credit card or similar.

here in europe you need to obey certain laws to even sell anything online, certificates need to be added on the site to show registration of legibility for instance.

(EU resident as well) I might take the gamble if it's from a EU-based large-ish reputable dealer. I haven't actually found one that's cheaper than directly from ANet, but I imagine that might vary depending on currencies involved.