Badge purchases now refundable for two hours
by Eliah Hecht 
Apr 14th 2009 at 4:00PM
A previously unannounced relatively un-promoted feature is apparently going live in patch 3.1 today: buyback for "alternate currency" items. "Alternate currency" means any currency except gold - Emblems of Heroism, Arena Points, etc. According to Vaneras, when the patch goes live, you'll have two hours after buying an item with an alternate currency to sell it back and get a refund. I've never accidentally bought something with badges, but I know people who have, and it sucks; this is a nice fix.
A few caveats:
- Stackable items (such as Frozen Orbs) are non-refundable.
- Items that grant achievements are non-refundable.
- Augments will not be returned - if you buy an item, enchant it, and then sell it back for badges, you don't get your enchant mats back.
- This only works one step back: If you buy a tier token for emblems, then exchange that tier token for a tier piece, you can trade the tier piece back for the token if you want. You can not, however, trade that token back for emblems after doing that.
Even with these limitations, it's still good protection against accidental purchases. Thanks, Blizz!
Filed under: Items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Mityap Apr 14th 2009 4:04PM
"A previously unannounced feature"
It actually has been announced a while back... :)
Thander Apr 14th 2009 4:04PM
This is great. Once, I accidentally bought the holy pvp pants from honor vendors instead of the ret version. Would've been nice to be able to just buyback to get the honor instead of having to go through GMs for hours.
Seraph Apr 14th 2009 4:04PM
I'm fairly certain that this was announced before at some point, because I was expecting this already. =/
Makros Apr 14th 2009 4:04PM
I wonder if we will have 2 hours after the realms go up to return all the stuff we bought over the past few months :)
aaw Apr 14th 2009 4:05PM
sounds like there could be a a possible exploit where a person can purchase pretty much an offset wardrobe for an hour of attempts on a boss, then return and re-purchase
Ryan Apr 14th 2009 4:08PM
My sister does the same thing for first dates.
racecar Apr 14th 2009 4:20PM
1. Gemming would be a nightmare if you're not a JC.
2. PvE gear. Less likely, especially with dual speccs. You're gonna want that gear down the road anyway. PvP gear, on the other hand...
uncaringbear Apr 14th 2009 6:29PM
I had the exact same thought. While having a two hour window may not leave much time for most people, I can still see some "creative use of game mechanics" develop from this. Nerf coming in 3...2...
Bronwyn Apr 15th 2009 3:14AM
I imagine this is going to save Blizzard a lot of work refunding things for accidental purchases.
Nadezhda Apr 14th 2009 4:13PM
Honestly, I hope they allow a one time refund on currently purchased items. I think that's fair.
Balthezor Apr 14th 2009 4:19PM
Hell no they won't. Because of hoarders like me that still have 1/2 of their old gear in the bank. But GAWD that would own. I'd have FAT badges.
Flesh Apr 14th 2009 4:08PM
QUESTION:
What if, I bought something before the patch that the GMs wouldn't refund? Can I still sell it back within two hours of the patch? Or do I have to go through the GMs, again..?!
Thander Apr 14th 2009 4:13PM
It's just like the regular buyback in that once you logoff the server clears all the buyback information. You are out of luck.
Manatank Apr 14th 2009 4:09PM
"Items that grant achievements are non-refundable"
I'm pretty sure this can't be the case. What about the Superior and Epic achievements. Can someone buy one of the often terrible iLevel 213 relics, equip it to get the Epic achievement, and then return it?
Braundo Apr 14th 2009 4:13PM
I assume that they are referring to things that grant achievements simply by virtue of owning one -- e.g. the Wooly Mammoth mount that can be purchased with Emblems of Heroism.
Irshalthra Apr 14th 2009 4:16PM
No, anything that grants an achievement is "non-refundable". I would assume if it granted a "piece" of achievement that it would be non-refundable. You be stuck with it.
Manatank Apr 14th 2009 4:43PM
"I would assume if it granted a "piece" of achievement that it would be non-refundable. You be stuck with it."
I'm not sure they programmed that kind of complexity into the system. It should work that way, but I wouldn't count on it. It would require extra data stored about each purchased item for those 2 hours to determine if it was "achievement bound" or something like that. They may have implemented it that way, but we wont know until we try it.
Derek Apr 14th 2009 5:02PM
I'm having trouble imagining that this would really be an issue. I mean, if buying the Awesome Chestpiece of Ultra-Coolness +1000 granted you the item level equipment achievement, wouldn't that mean that it was better than whatever you had before, pretty much automatically? That being the case, why would you return it and go back to using your lower quality armor just to have a few more badges / emblems / etc on your currency tab? Wouldn't you want to keep it? To look at it another way, if you expected to come into equivalent iLevel gear from some other source (raid drop, etc.) soon enough that you'd rather save your badges for something else, then why buy the badge gear in the first place? After all, you'd be getting the achievement soon enough anyway. I can totally see someone wanting to buy, say, the mammoth and return it immediately, if they just wanted the achivement, but with armor / weapons? I don't see it. Just my two cents.
akw Apr 14th 2009 5:50PM
"I mean, if buying the Awesome Chestpiece of Ultra-Coolness +1000 granted you the item level equipment achievement, wouldn't that mean that it was better than whatever you had before, pretty much automatically?"
Nope. My hunter uses the item-level 200 cloak from 10 man KT (Cloak of Mastery), but I dropped the badges on the Hammerhead Sharkskin Cloak (item level 213) just to ding [Epic]. The KT cloak is far better than the badge one, despite being 13 item levels lower.
It would have been pretty nice to be able to return the cloak as soon as I got the achievement, but meh...
I once bought the wrong set piece for my shaman (grabbed ele instead of resto). This feature would have saved me some time, but more importantly from Blizzard's perspective (I imagine) it would have saved the GM who helped me undo the transaction some time, as well.
Manatank Apr 14th 2009 6:26PM
"I'm having trouble imagining that this would really be an issue. I mean, if buying the Awesome Chestpiece of Ultra-Coolness +1000 granted you the item level equipment achievement, wouldn't that mean that it was better than whatever you had before, pretty much automatically?"
iLevel doesn't necessarily mean an item is better. This is particularly true for classes that use relics in their ranged weapon slot. For instance, I got the epic achievement on my prot paladin by equipping the iLevel 213 libram that buffs consecration by a pitiful amount, and promptly switched it back out for the iLevel 200 libram that buffs my block value as it is superior to the consecration one in nearly every conceivable scenario.
Another likely candidate for lower iLevel being superior are trinkets.
Comparing iLevel of gear is fine for a quick comparison, but gearing for it doesn't mean you have best in slot unless you are doing a silly vehicle encounter that scales specifically with your iLevel.