Dealing with old currencies
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 30th 2009 at 4:00PM
Gaviedrummer has exactly the problem that I have, only mine is probably worse: he has about 50 Badges of Justice left over from the last expansion. True, I've only got about 30, but I've also got stacks of Apexis Shards, Spirit Shards, Halaa Tokens, Obsidian Warbeads, and pretty much every other old reputation and currency item from the Burning Crusade sitting around clogging up my bank. And while some of it is just me being lazy (I could turn the Warbeads in, and I think I could probably grind out a few more Halaa tokens to pick up something there), as gaviedrummer finds out, most of it is completely useless. Yes, we can still trade for level 70 items, but who needs those any more?It would be nice, especially with the soulbound stuff (I presume I will someday have an alt coming up through Outland that might need some help), for Blizzard to give us an out. Even if it requires level 80 to do, and even if the exchange rate is terrible (something like one level 80 badge for five or ten level 70 badges), at least we'll be able to get rid of the old stuff. Obviously, they're worried that if they offer exchanges for new items, people will go back and grind the old instances for the old currency. But there has to be some middle ground or a level requirement or something, some rate that allows us to get something for the old junk, while keeping current level 80s from exploiting the system. Heck, even cloth has a reputation turn-in value, at the very minimum.
The Stone Keeper's Shards at least have a turn-in for honor, and at the bare minimum, that's what you'd want for any currency -- something cheap that you can just cash out of the system with all of your leftovers. Blizzard may say what's past is past (and like I said, I may just need to spend a weekend cleaning out the bank), but it would be nice to have an NPC in Shattrath that can say "Oh, you're level 80? Let me just take those old tokens off your hands at a discounted price!" And it would be an Ethereal, of course.
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Expansions, Leveling, NPCs, Making money
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ghola Apr 30th 2009 4:04PM
Totally agree. Would love to dump badges as an alternate way to up a few BC reps.
elstor Apr 30th 2009 4:04PM
If only....
I have 117 or so Badges of Justice on my currency tab, and being semi OCD I just NEED to get rid of them all
Hal Apr 30th 2009 4:05PM
It might be nice if the old stuff became BoA, or at least BoE. That might be more work than Blizz wants to spend on old content at this point, but it would at least make the gear useful for any alts who go through Outland.
Rihlsul Apr 30th 2009 4:12PM
^this
Lyraat Apr 30th 2009 4:16PM
Agree.
Why not make the BoA gear from emblems available to those with badges?
Robert M Apr 30th 2009 5:05PM
The perfect response!
Not only would BoA make things easier, it could also encourage max levels who never saw end game to try and do it with reduced groups for the badges. Who wouldn't want, on an off night of boredom, to hit Black Temple and send the badges to an up and coming alt to make the trek through Northrend easier?
Though sharding BoE's is always good for cash on my lock, BoA runs of out of date content would be the most kick ass thing Blizz could do for those leveling alts!
atrahasis Apr 30th 2009 4:07PM
That's just being greedy. Yes, you probably earned those tokens when they were worth something but they aren't worth squat now. Just trash them and move on. It's like going back to the grocery store and asking for a refund on a 2 month old loaf of moldy bread. It's just not going to happen.
Eric H. Apr 30th 2009 4:43PM
Its really not...
Its would be like turning in old currency, perhaps 2 dollar bills or Sacajawea dollar coins for real bills...
I don't see how having bread would even relate to currency imaginary or otherwise. =/
Robert M Apr 30th 2009 5:05PM
You trade currency for bread, not old bread for better bread.
If I was asking to trade my old badges for upgraded emblems, then ya, your bread analogy would be nice, but as it stands it just a little lacking.
Yeng Apr 30th 2009 4:09PM
I don't think trading lvl 70 badges for lvl 80 badges would be good at any exchange rate, but I see no problem if they allowed you to give your old currency to your alts so they can make use of it when they are of level.
akw Apr 30th 2009 4:10PM
Protip: You can drag items out of the little squares in your bags and bank, and drop them on the air or the ground (click somewhere on your screen that isn't occupied by a bag or bank slot, or a unit frame, or a character). A little confirmation dialog will pop up asking if you want to delete the item. Press yes.
Protip #2: Badges of Justice don't take up space anywhere.
Why, WHY does there HAVE to be a way to make EVERYTHING relevant at all times? Why can't you just get over it and delete the old junk and move on with your lives?
Jason Apr 30th 2009 4:22PM
I have to agree here. If it's of no use to you, get rid of it. If Blizzard won't let you trade Emblems of Heroism for Emblems of Valor, why would you ever think they'd ever let you trade Badges of Justice for anything?
Spend the Badges of Justice on Primal Nethers and Nether Vortexes and AH them...someone is bound to buy them when leveling an alt's crafting professions, you won't make a ton of money, but something is better than nothing.
The problem with changing the existing Badge gear to BoA items is that you'd be buying them with BC currency and they'd scale beyond BC gear.
Krick Apr 30th 2009 5:09PM
Please DO NOT throw away Apexis Shards!!!!
There are bosses that can be summoned at Forge Camp: Wrath and Forge Camp: Terror by using 35 shards. The bosses usually drop a random outland green item, and they also have a chance to drop a depleted rare or epic item that can be "charged" with 50 shards to turn it into a decent item. However the most important thing they can drop are 6 BoE jewelcrafting recipes. While the actual gem cuts aren't desirable, the recipes themselves are of great value to people trying to collect them all. I've been trying to get my hands on the Wicked Flame Spessarite recipe for ages and I still haven't seen one.
If you have a lot of shards, please go farm those bosses for the recipes for the good of the jewelcrafting community. With a prot pally, I can solo the bosses. I imagine that certain cloth wearing classes may have some trouble, so bring a friend.
Another type of "currency" that a lot of people have are Darkmoon Faire Tickets. Please do not throw these away either. There is a Lesser Darkmoon Prize that you can buy for 12 tickets. This prize usually contains a random level 30-ish green or rarely a blue. More importantly, it also has a chance to contain one of several world drop BoE recipes including the Lesser Block enchanting recipe, which is phenomenally rare and will easily fetch 1000g or more on most servers.
...
Krick
http:/www.tankadin.com
Robert M Apr 30th 2009 5:16PM
@Jason,
No one is going to be using Primal Nethers to level professions. Blizzard completely dumbed down leveling profs from BC to WotLK by making the starting patterns level 350 and not level 375 when you step off the boats.
Things could be relevant longer if Blizzard didn't dumb down so many aspects of the game.
Zeplar Apr 30th 2009 5:52PM
Alternatively you could kill Shartuul and get a 100% drop chance on an epic, epic-quality blue, and a jewelcrafting recipe.
Krick Apr 30th 2009 7:13PM
Shartuul doesn't drop the recipes...
http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=23230
...
Krick
...
http://www.tankadin.com
shibumi Apr 30th 2009 4:10PM
if it's rye bread chances are pretty good you can trip nicely on it.
I like the idea of BoA sorta like the heirloom items.
Tzi Apr 30th 2009 4:18PM
Turning them in for new badges (even at a hefty exchange rate) seems too much to eask, but why not introduce some old heirloom items we could spent them on? Maybe nothing as nice as the +xp shoulders or snazzy weapons, but what about regular nothing special blue-equivalent armor pieces.
Or at least make the badges themselves BoA so I could mail them to an alt closer to the appropriate level.
FireStar Apr 30th 2009 4:28PM
How about making the items bind to account? you could give them to an alt you're levelling up and get gear for them to speed the way to 80 sooner. Not exactly something worthy of farming at lvl80 - working the same way as bind to account gear works now anyways.
Flambee Apr 30th 2009 4:30PM
Ah - I was a minute late with my post. Great minds and all that.