I had something weird happen to me today. It's quite possible I'm making a mountain out of a string of unlucky coincidences but some nuances make me think it might have been an attempt at subtle manipulation, taking advantage of the following economic and psychological facts: many people trade a lot, don't keep logs of their trades and can't remember all trades they did; many people would want to be "nice" at all costs. Here's how it goes: you're selling something on trade chat; an avatar sends you an outrageously low offer; you refuse; they get offended along the lines of "you sold me at that price the previous time, and now you're mad at me"; (divergence point) you say there was no "previous time"; they back down saying "it was perhaps a similar avatar name then". Now, it's technically possible that someone named Fat Naruto, or whatever, had indeed sold them stuff at those rates. However: the rate offered was impossibly low, 30 percentage points below weekly auction average and below all-time low for the stuff in question; I refused saying just (citation) "sorry, that's beyond the pale". Mad? Mad people use four-letter words instead of "sorry"; responses came back a bit too fast and might well be typed in advance; and, well, "similar avatar name" excuse. We've seen it before. Now I'm left wondering - could concessions be extracted this way from someone who, at the (divergence point) above, isn't 100% sure there was no "previous time"? Thoughts?
There is all sorts of shady 'tactics' and yup this may well be another one of them. Stick to your guns,let em get upset and move an
No point even stressing over this sort of thing. Even if there had been a previous trade at that price thats not relevant to the price today. Just say no and move on.
It is even a waste of time to engage in discussions with such people, which is a bit hard to avoid if you're educated to be polite. Takes some getting over oneself sometimes. Some know that jolly well and exploit it. The other day this guy I had never met pm'd me on the street while I was at a public auction terminal and asked if I had a space vehicle. I made a mistake by even responding. Turned out he wanted to be taken to Calypso, and for free, and right then and there. When I asked him if he would at least offer some compensation for my cost plus the trouble of dropping whatever other plans I had, he started a long lecturing tour about the spirit of helping each other, blah blah blah youknowwhat. I finally lost it after the futile attempt to explain to him that it's obviously the "each other" part he didn't understand, that money was invented to settle small bills immediately so one doesn't have to keep tabs who owes a favour until St. Nevermore's day, and in the end had to put him on ignore because he just wouldn't stop the yapping. Really, some people are just asking for it. If their parents failed to educate them, then life has to do it. Whether sinister intent is suspected or outright stupidity, I spend less and less time with every such encounter before I either turn real cranky or ignore without further ado. Or play out some nasty joke on them, if I'm in a good mood. It is fully deserved.
Back in the day it was people scrounging for ammo so naturally the answer 'yes of course you can have some but I dont have it with me,Meet me at New Oxford Bridge and you can have it' Generally given one round a time :biggrin2:
