Guild Wars 2

No doubt this topic has been brought up before, but I’ve noticed that the starting rate to purchase gems are at 10$ for 800gems.

Thats excessive for what I want to purchase, could this be added?

Would a 5$/400gems option be bad? if so, why?

Isn’t there some sort of transaction lower limit regarding credit cards? I seem to recall hearing at one point that credit card companies only allow purchases above a certain dollar value. It could be that $10 is the bottom limit.

Idk, I’ve only found the $10/800gem to be the lowest option using my CC, or PayPal.

We could use a nice fat sale on gems at the BLTC to entice some of the player base into feeling a bit better over the ascended gear fiasco. I know I for one would jump on the chance to actually buy a few gems if the price were reduced. Everyone loves a sale especially at this time of year when money is tight!

Tommyknocker.6089:

We could use a nice fat sale on gems at the BLTC to entice some of the player base into feeling a bit better over the ascended gear fiasco. I know I for one would jump on the chance to actually buy a few gems if the price were reduced. Everyone loves a sale especially at this time of year when money is tight!

Will never happen because of the gem—>gold option

Debsylvania.7396:

Isn’t there some sort of transaction lower limit regarding credit cards? I seem to recall hearing at one point that credit card companies only allow purchases above a certain dollar value. It could be that $10 is the bottom limit.

That’s a misattribution. Merchants may impose a minimum charge amount because of the fixed processing fees that are included in every transaction. Technically, this is a violation of their service contract with the CC, which is why you typically only see this in local businesses that fly under the radar, and not in national chains. Businesses like Anet can get around this since they basically invent the products they sell, like the 800 gem package. But if Anet did offer a lower-cost option, they would be required by contract to accept credit cards for payment, or risk losing their ability to accept credit cards at all.

This is not to say that the merchants are the bad guys here. It’s really the CC fees that are unreasonable, charging fixed amounts even when it would end up being a negative cash flow for the merchant. The fees are also why certain ethnic businesses – whose financial culture is not as beholden to credit – are often cash only. It’s not a tax dodge as many people seem to assume (though that may be another factor), it’s primarily because they do not want to pay the fees for accepting CCs in the first place or don’t want to “cheat” the system by using minimums that are contractually forbidden.

The CC fees are also why you tend to see things like “$20 for 1800 gems, $10 for 800 gems, $5 for 300 gems” (more you spend = more you get). The pay less, percentage wise, for higher amounts so they give you more to reflect it.

Thanks, Leablo, for that detailed description. It all makes sense now!