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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Will you buy the TCG mounts now they're no longer BoP?
by Lesley Smith 
Jul 28th 2009 at 8:00AM
Earlier in the week, we mentioned that mounts from the WoW Trading Card Game are no longer Bind on Pickup. Do you hear that ever-advancing noise? That thunderous roar? That's the sound of a million collectors cheering their little hearts out. Ever the boon and bane of the die-hard mount addict, these cards have been known to fetch a pretty price on eBay and have been the subject of recent scams. Indeed as the owner of El Pollo Grande, the Big Battle Bear (aka The Red Bearon) and both forms of the X-51 Nether Rocket, I can relate. I really want the infamous Spectral Tiger and now, for the right sum of gold, it seems like I could have a chance.
So I wonder, constant readers, does this change mean you will finally be able to get your hands on a mount without paying top dollar on an auction website? How much exactly, while we're at it, would you be willing to pay with in-game gold for a mount? Why do you think Blizzard have implemented this system? Is it just another gold sink or the answer to many players' prayers?
So I wonder, constant readers, does this change mean you will finally be able to get your hands on a mount without paying top dollar on an auction website? How much exactly, while we're at it, would you be willing to pay with in-game gold for a mount? Why do you think Blizzard have implemented this system? Is it just another gold sink or the answer to many players' prayers?
Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!Filed under: Patches, Blizzard, Economy, Breakfast Topics, Mounts
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
economics Jul 28th 2009 8:10AM
This would stop scammers dead in their tracks because you wont have to 'buy a code' anymore to get one of these TCG items. Instead you would simply ask for them to trade the mount itself.
It's a good move imo, but it also allows (to a certain extent) for a player to buy TCG cards outside and sell the said loot cards ingame. Legitimate purchasable wow gold?
Amapele Jul 28th 2009 8:19AM
"Legitimate purchasable wow gold?"
I wouldn't go that far. I don't know ANYTHING about the TCG so I won't pretend to, but I do know I've seen one spectral tiger and one chicken in my year of playing so I think it's safe to say that it's a pretty rare occurrence to even receive one of these cards.
I mean how many packs would be worth buying to get a couple thousand gold in WoW?
Vladeon Jul 28th 2009 8:29AM
There are legitimate websites that allow players who are fortunate enough to have recieved a card to auction it off for a fair price. I haven't looked at the prices of the mounts, which I would expect would be very high, but things like the goblin rocket chicken or whatever usually go for about $40-50. Now I would buy one of those chickens to finish off my collection of chicken pets for easily 1-5k gold in game. 40 dollars for 5k gold seems like a steep price to pay for gold, but at least you don't get keylogged/hacked.
Irem Jul 28th 2009 8:12AM
Collectors are probably still going to have to go to eBay to get the mounts, for the most part. The vast majority of scammers claiming to want to sell the mount never had it and were never intending to sell it, considering how much actual money they could get for one, and someone legitimately trying to sell one of them in game is likely to be pretty rare. All this provides for collectors is a surefire way to call a scammer's bluff: "I've got a Spectral Tiger I'll sell to you for 5k!" "All right, let's trade!" "Um, go to _________.com." "Yeah, right."
impurezero Jul 28th 2009 9:14AM
You're absolutely, 100% correct. Nobody is actually going to sell one of these for in-game gold. This change was likely not made with the belief that anyone will. It's just to give us one more way to call out scammers.
(Unfortunately, anyone who actually spends time at wow blogs probably already knew that people offering spectral tigers for gold were scammers. So, nothing's really gonna change...)
Delshay Dethecus US Jul 28th 2009 8:13AM
No!
Morthax Jul 28th 2009 8:19AM
"Is it just another gold sink?"
No. A gold sink would involve gold leaving the market, which isn't going to happen. Paying gold to another player only redistributes it.
Tumleren Jul 28th 2009 8:25AM
And this might very well be exactly the opposite - People will probably just buy gold to get the mounts, introducing even more gold into the economic system. I think Blizzard made a mistake there, but I guess the end of scams outweighs it
Nathanyel Jul 28th 2009 8:32AM
Then again, if they're sold through the AH, the house is gonna take a huge chunk from that profit.
Sleutel Jul 28th 2009 8:19AM
I'll buy them if they start showing up--but who the hell knows if they will or how expensive they will be.
Phil Jul 28th 2009 8:24AM
I was thinking about this the other day. This could be a way for someone to buy gold in game legitimately in a manner of speaking. So i did some research, i searched in Google to find out what the price of gold was or there abouts anyway. One seller was selling 500 gold for $3.83. So lets say you buy a spectral tiger card off eBay or whatever for $1000. That means basically this mount is worth 137,741 gold. I don't want to even think about the amount dailies I would have to do to get that much gold lol. Now granted even if had that much gold i doubt i would spend that much on a single mount, but neither would I spend $1000 dollars on a single mount. So while I think this technically could be a way to make gold in game I think if the prices correlate from a gold seller to in game prices I don't think many people will be able to sell these cards successfully. So personally I doubt we will see many Spectral Tiger cards for example on the local AH.
Jon Do Jul 28th 2009 8:26AM
No.
I have a Choppa on my main.
I don't need another mount.
Adam Jul 28th 2009 8:28AM
You're kinda delusional if you think the spectral tiger will go for only 20k. Remember this can be sold for as much as $1k real money and a code only gets you 1 mount to sell. I can't see them going for much less than 50k gold frankly, probably more.
Gordal Jul 28th 2009 8:28AM
Since they'll probably be going for stupidly high prices, and I rarely save more than maybe six grand at any time, I'd probably have to go with "no".
zurigan Jul 28th 2009 8:36AM
well let's see ... spectral tiger card on ebay goes for $900-1000, current prices on gold selling sites seem to be about 120k gold for $1000, best get saving!
Gunthaar Jul 28th 2009 8:40AM
Cha-Ching !!! I'm gonna sell those Big Battle Bears like hot cakes !
William Jul 28th 2009 8:50AM
Def would buy them.
Im a mount whore, already on 100+, but the chicken/rocket would be the iceing on my mountcake.
50k would be the max i would pay i think, then i can buy 3 and need to work the Ah hard again.
Gyde Jul 28th 2009 8:57AM
Phil is probably right in that you have to work out the exchange rate based on what the gold sellers are peddling their wares for. Ultimately I think it's them that are probably overwhelmed with glee about this news. If only because it raises 2 very obvious questions:
1. Where are you going to get 100,000g from in order to buy this mount?
2. If you sell this mount for 100,000g what are you going to do with all that gold?
In both cases gold sellers stand to make money.
Irem Jul 28th 2009 9:22AM
The only way the goldsellers would stand to make any sort of reasonable profit off of this would be if there were a steady supply of mounts to buy and sell, and there isn't. A Spectral Tiger hitting the AH is likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, which is just not often enough to make any kind of dent either way. This is really just the easiest way Blizzard could have implemented to prove that any mount a scammer is offering up for sale probably doesn't exist.
Irem Jul 28th 2009 9:24AM
And on a personal note, since you asked, if I had 100,000g I would spend it on ale and wenches. :D