Guild Wars 2

Dear anet,

Increase the droprate or make it a permanent drop. Thanks.

Sincerely, the entire gw2 community.

Charming Rogue.8071:

Dear anet,

Increase the droprate or make it a permanent drop. Thanks.

Sincerely, the entire gw2 community.

Ask yourself this, why is the item available to be traded on the trading post to begin with? You can’t sell Self Style Hair kits or Total Makeover Kits… why the Permanent Hairstyle contract?

Simple.

Create an in demand item people want.

Create scarcity for no other reason than to increase value. All the item does it let you repeatedly change your hairstyle for free. Most other players wouldn’t even know you owned it.

Item now exists with a well known value of 3000+ gold on the trading post.

After not being available for months, it finally pops back up… 2 WEEKS ONLY, buy your keys now while you still can!!!

Make bank from everyone buying keys in a futile attempt to try and win the permanent hair tonic.

Don’t worry, I’m sure with surge of gem sales in these 2 weeks Anet will re-introduce them later on to boost sales again (just look at “limited edition” dyes etc.).

This is the first time it’s been back in 18 months. Want to wait another 18?

If only the item’s availability equaled what it had the first wintersday. All the new rates succeed in is making the item even more exclusive. If you’re gonna add the item back in, at least do so, permanently.

It’s now the single most expensive item on TP (listed for 6k gold). This is probably the first time in gw2 where anet re-released an item and it only got more expensive lol. #fail

I hate to say this, as I’ve been a loyal gw2 player since beta and have generously bought gems for the past two years, but this looks like a blatant money grab. I feel like players are seriously being milked here. This item should be made a permanent black lion chest drop at least.

1st it is possible that most player who got one choose to keep it, which means few if any show up on the TP.

When the current supply is 0 and you are the first to put one up for sale, the price is entirely up to you. However it’s unlikely someone would post below the current bid which was 4300g. And listing it at least 20% higher than high bid isn’t out of the ordinary either.

And guess what, a 2nd one got listed at 5000g now while the bid had dropped to 4000g. Bid’s now 4600g.

As for the price being outrageous, 18 months of pent up demand tends to do that plus there is a lot more wealth in the world than the 1st time it was offered. And a lot more hairstyles and colors.

I simply can’t believe someone was so naive to think the price was going to go down. High bid was already over 3000g months before they announced this, it was never going to be 500g or less ever. What part of “a very rare drop” gave you the idea the market was going to get flooded with these?

The part that says “very rare”, not the part that says “next to nonexistent”.

Please decrease the rate. I sold all I had back in the day to scrap up 100g to buy it the first time around. I like that it’s a rare and special treasure.

Wonderly.1324:

Please decrease the rate. I sold all I had back in the day to scrap up 100g to buy it the first time around. I like that it’s a rare and special treasure.

Lol.

You’re great.

I think the drop rate is almost exactly where ANet wants it. Assuming the same rate as other permanent contracts, it’s probably around one chance in 4,000. Therefore the vast majority of us will never see one drop, making it scarce enough to be a highly coveted item for the 1%ers, but out of reach for the rest of us.

If they made it too common, they’d cut into their own gem store sales for the one-use contracts.

Charming Rogue.8071:

It’s now the single most expensive item on TP (listed for 6k gold). This is probably the first time in gw2 where anet re-released an item and it only got more expensive lol. #fail

It didn’t become “more expensive.” It was previously unobtainable through the TP (since it wasn’t dropping from any sources and became account-bound on use), so we can’t say what price it was beforehand.

I kind of stop playing GW2, so not exactly how many of it have been listed.

My guess there would probably be around 20 permanent hair license being available for sold from the 2 weeks. That is just my guess number. Maybe more drops but the person decide to keep it. (obviously very inaccurate guess number using the velocity of other permanent license as data).

dislike, its nice to have rare items people can work for and eventually earn, not everything should be easy to get its nice to struggle for things you want it makes them worth having

But it’s nice to open up your chocolate sampler and find out you won a new car.

Duke Nukem.6783:

dislike, its nice to have rare items people can work for and eventually earn, not everything should be easy to get its nice to struggle for things you want it makes them worth having

How aboout Anet creates new content worth struggling for? It’s not like the devs put countless hours of time and consideration into making the permanent hair stylist contract, after the self-style hair kit was coded. Having to struggle for something so basic is just an affront to gamers.

Behellagh.1468:

But it’s nice to open up your chocolate sampler and find out you won a new car.

Hmmm that’s like those scratch cards that say you can win $250,000 – but fail to mention that, should someone win that prize before all the tickets are sold, they’re not exactly going to tell you to stop buying tickets are they ;-)

It’s sort of how I feel about this permanent hairstyle situation. It’s just so wrong, and they know it. Just another cash grab opportunity, knowing most people will never even see a permanent contract from a black lion chest, let alone the permanent hair style contract within the piddly 2 week time frame. What a joke.

Sounds like you believe that they only have X available as oppose to a small percent chance.

Zaoda.1653:

Behellagh.1468:

But it’s nice to open up your chocolate sampler and find out you won a new car.

Hmmm that’s like those scratch cards that say you can win $250,000 – but fail to mention that, should someone win that prize before all the tickets are sold, they’re not exactly going to tell you to stop buying tickets are they ;-)

Actually, I used to work at a store that sold scratch-off tickets, and if all the major prizes on a game were won, the lottery would contact the store and have them pull the remaining tickets and replace them with another game. So, yeah, they do tell you to stop buying tickets.

AlphaNeonic.1925:

…..
Make bank from everyone buying keys in a futile attempt to try and win the permanent hair tonic.

It’s absolutely brilliant…..

Follow it up with a “lesser” desired item chance to drop and do a BL key sale…..*CHA CHING!"

There’s another game I once played where we had way more customization options and most of it was free… but then, I paid a monthly sub for that game for the first couple of years, so what can I say.

At least it isn’t pay to win.

I am a sucker for solid customization options though. I can burn a lot of hours on finding the right look for a toon, only to decide that it’s not quite right a few days later.

But I guess most people just want the options for the prestige of it. So prestigious it will be. They know what buttons to push; heck, we play these games to be “heroes” – so what better way to appeal to our psychology than give us a chance at an item that’ll make us feel more special.

If it’s easy to obtain, then no feeling special = less interest in obtaining the item.

I guess if ANet did the same for precursors by making them easier to obtain and cheaper then they shouldn’t call them ‘Legendary’.

I’m sure ANet knows they’ll lose a lot of revenue from making the contracts easy to obtain and what not. That’s the point. You play this game to try to get these cosmetics and items for your account.

I think it’s a good time to sell them now?

The permanent kits aren’t a prestige item. People either want them because they like to frequently customize their characters or because they hope to make a lot of gold selling them.

Waffles, I think they’ve topped out. The only reason to keep them is if you’re worried about inflation. That is, they will increase in price, but no more than the rate of inflation. Then you only have to worry about Anet coming up with more ways to obtain them.

Behellagh.1468:

Sounds like you believe that they only have X available as oppose to a small percent chance.

The chance is so small, there will be only X available. Assuming it is inline with the other permanent license.

DaShi.1368:

The permanent kits aren’t a prestige item. People either want them because they like to frequently customize their characters or because they hope to make a lot of gold selling them.

Waffles, I think they’ve topped out. The only reason to keep them is if you’re worried about inflation. That is, they will increase in price, but no more than the rate of inflation. Then you only have to worry about Anet coming up with more ways to obtain them.

I’m surprise Anet even release them. Obviously if more people have the permanent contract, people will be less likely to buy the temporary ones.

That being said, the drop rate is probably just so low, that only a few people will be able to acquire them in the 2 week. And it’ll temporary boost key sales a bit.

Labjax.2465:

There’s another game I once played where we had way more customization options and most of it was free… but then, I paid a monthly sub for that game for the first couple of years, so what can I say.

At least it isn’t pay to win.

I am a sucker for solid customization options though. I can burn a lot of hours on finding the right look for a toon, only to decide that it’s not quite right a few days later.

But I guess most people just want the options for the prestige of it. So prestigious it will be. They know what buttons to push; heck, we play these games to be “heroes” – so what better way to appeal to our psychology than give us a chance at an item that’ll make us feel more special.

If it’s easy to obtain, then no feeling special = less interest in obtaining the item.

I hear you brother. I do miss that game so much and not just for the flexibility in altering your appearance for a small amount of ingame currency, assuming you weren’t sitting on a pile of free alteration coupons.

Here, you better get your face right the first time or buy a kit to fix it.

DaShi.1368:

The permanent kits aren’t a prestige item. People either want them because they like to frequently customize their characters or because they hope to make a lot of gold selling them.

Waffles, I think they’ve topped out. The only reason to keep them is if you’re worried about inflation. That is, they will increase in price, but no more than the rate of inflation. Then you only have to worry about Anet coming up with more ways to obtain them.

Aren’t they, though? I was under the impression they give access to hairstyles that are not otherwise available, making them “prestigious” in the sense that you can give your character a look that is only attainable through either the permanent style kit or a throwaway one.

But the cost of buying the one shot kits is miniscule compared to the permanent one. There’s not so much “prestige” when you can gather the resources to cover the cost of a one shot rather easily, assuming none have dropped for you from free sources. At this point, if I have a permanent one fall into my lap (unlikely, I’ve never had a permanent thing of any sort out of a BLC and if I buy keys this week it’ll be no more than 25), I think it’d make more sense to sell it and then buy a stack of one shots with the proceeds. This despite my having wanted one since they first appeared so I could RP hair changes on the fly.

The permanent kit is just ridiculously lucrative for the lucky few.

Having the kit available as a 3000+ gold item they can pull in and out of chests as needed is way, way more valuable to them than making them widely available. I’d really like to see how many additional keys are sold over the 2 week window due to simply including that contract as a super rare drop.

It’s super lucrative as is, no way they ramp up the rate.

Last time I checked the cost were over 4800 g

Lol, it’s kinda ridiculous that an item to change your hair style is one of the most expensive items. I am not interested, but if I should get one, I would sell this piece of crap immediately.

I don’t agree with increasing the drop rate. Arenanet could potentially slit their own throats with that. A permanent addition is a different matter.

But the price would be astronomical. It’s 1000 gems for 5 hair kits so how would you price infinite? 8,000 gems? 15,000 gems? Higher? It’s 4750g right now and at the current exchange rate that would cost you over 52,500 gems, over $650 worth of bought gems. Someone suggested around 1 in 400 chests as a drop rate. 400 keys is only 33,600 gems.

It’s never going to be “cheap” if offered in the Gem Shop. But how many would buy it if it cost $100 or more in gems?

Please stop BSing about the 1/400 drop rate. It’s probably not even 1 in 4000.

laokoko.7403:

Please stop BSing about the 1/400 drop rate. It’s probably not even 1 in 4000.

Agreed. But even suggesting 1 in 400 the cost for keys in gems is huge. Buying enough gems to convert to gold to buy a contract off the market is huge. So no way the price of a permanent gem stop contract will be “reasonably” priced. 8,000 gems would still be ridiculously low and that’s $100 of purchased gems (or 1000g).

It’s fairer almost for all players that it’s a random chance rather than a very costly purchase.

Just a side note, if you try to get the Perma kit with BL keys, you will likely end up with a decent number of the normal kits (and Full makeover kits too).

Or at least you might, Brother Grimm. I opened 25 chests today (actually, 27, 2 keys dropped from the 25). Usually I’d get more kits but I only got one hair kit. Ah well, such is RNG.

The sad part is I opened them all not long before the patch that likely put in the increased claim ticket chance.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Just a side note, if you try to get the Perma kit with BL keys, you will likely end up with a decent number of the normal kits (and Full makeover kits too).

I’m not sure how realistic is that. The drop rate is so low, it is probably less than 1 in 10,000. Because even if you get a permanent contract, it can be any of the merchant, bank, trader, or hair.

If you follow close to the wiki or youtube video. Probably 5,000 chest opened, and 0 permanent contract of any sort dropped.

The data seemed to be accurate because people have been complaining about the pathetic drop rate of black lion ticket or ticket scraps. The ticket scrap have a drop rate of 1/5, I’m not so sure on ticket. So 50 chest probably give you 1.5 black lion weapon ticket. If it take that many chest open to generate a black lion weapon. And consider black lion weapon is a much more common item than permanent license on the trading post, you’ll see the drop rate of permanent contract is extremely low.

I’m not even saying black lion key is trash like most other people claims. Because you actually make some money back from black lion ticket, and like you said, some kits or name changing contract etc.

And right now there is an event the black lion chest have double the chance for ticket and scrap. So actually buying black lion key is not so bad.

Actually, because of the double drop rate of black lion ticket scraps there will most likely be a less likely chance in getting the permanent hair style contract. You will most likely end up with another ticket scrap in its place. Ah well, still gonna try for it.

laokoko.7403:

Brother Grimm.5176:

Just a side note, if you try to get the Perma kit with BL keys, you will likely end up with a decent number of the normal kits (and Full makeover kits too).

I’m not sure how realistic is that.
…..

That you can get the normal (1 use) kits? It’s very realistic as the ones in my storage attest to. I have NO intention of spending RL money or my gold for vanity items like these (but I WILL use them if they drop in my lap from me doing BL key runs as a side hobby).

Brother Grimm.5176:

laokoko.7403:

Brother Grimm.5176:

Just a side note, if you try to get the Perma kit with BL keys, you will likely end up with a decent number of the normal kits (and Full makeover kits too).

I’m not sure how realistic is that.
…..

That you can get the normal (1 use) kits? It’s very realistic as the ones in my storage attest to. I have NO intention of spending RL money or my gold for vanity items like these (but I WILL use them if they drop in my lap from me doing BL key runs as a side hobby).

I’m not sure how realistic is the part “if you try to get the perma kit with BL keys”

If you really trying to get it. using gold is more realistic.

What a lot of people fail to realize about perma hair contract selling it through black lion trader is that if you want to undercut the previous person that has his listed at 4888 or so, it costs YOU 700 gold just to put your listing there and there is a possibility that YOU could get undercut and if you want to change your listing it will cost another 700 gold or so just to remove it and put it back in the listing. A whooping 1400 gold wasted right there.

So if your an average joe, that doesn’t have 700 gold to be able to list your perma hairstyle kit you got lucky with, your pretty much forced to selling it through mail because you wont be able to afford the listing fee.

You multiplied wrong. The post fee is 5% not 15% so it only cost you 244.4g to post, not 700g.

Currently it’s 4500g/3688g so the question is do you want to take the “risk” for the extra 690g or take the 3100g? Not quite the Monty Hall problem but it depends on how greedy or are you willing to take the risk. Supply is currently 4. Are players holding on to some waiting for the “right time” to sell? Is going to 5 going to open a flood gate of items undercutting your own? It’s been as high as 6 available over the last 3 days. These are all factors in picking a price to sell it at. Right now there’s a 22% gap between low sell/high bid so flipping can still be in play.

Anyways just wanted to correct uberkingkong’s 700g listing fee notion.

If you’re an average Joe that just started playing, of course it would be difficult to come up with the listing fee for one of the most expensive items in the game. But if you’re an average Jane that’s been playing a while, you can liquidate some of the stuff that’s been sitting in your bank (if you play alone) or get temporary help from your guildies or friends.

The first two people I knew who got a precursor weren’t interested in Legendaries, but they couldn’t afford the listing fee (this was back when Zap was selling for 200-300g and most people didn’t have 10g+). In both cases, other guildies were able to loan the money and each was paid back after the sale went through.

So, no: no one needs to sell it via mail and take a risk.

tl;dr I’d like to have that problem of getting one of the most expensive items in the game and having to scramble for the listing fees to become one of the 1%ers.

laokoko.7403:

I’m not sure how realistic is the part “if you try to get the perma kit with BL keys”

If you really trying to get it. using gold is more realistic.

Where did the permanent kit you’re buying with gold come from?

The reason why there are any at all to sell is because there are people trying to get it with BL keys.

tolunart.2095:

laokoko.7403:

I’m not sure how realistic is the part “if you try to get the perma kit with BL keys”

If you really trying to get it. using gold is more realistic.

Where did the permanent kit you’re buying with gold come from?

The reason why there are any at all to sell is because there are people trying to get it with BL keys.

You know there are people who use black lion keys before they added permanent hair style as a drop. Weather that boost key farming or gem store sale I don’t know.

laokoko.7403:

tolunart.2095:

laokoko.7403:

I’m not sure how realistic is the part “if you try to get the perma kit with BL keys”

If you really trying to get it. using gold is more realistic.

Where did the permanent kit you’re buying with gold come from?

The reason why there are any at all to sell is because there are people trying to get it with BL keys.

You know there are people who use black lion keys before they added permanent hair style as a drop. Weather that boost key farming or gem store sale I don’t know.

Irrelevant. There were no permanent stylists for months, now there are several. They came from BL chests, and were found recently. I don’t need JS’s database to tell me that the addition of a “grand prize” worth thousands of gold would encourage people to buy more keys.

It certainly did give me the final nudge necessary to buy the Zephyrite Rescue Pack.

tolunart.2095:

laokoko.7403:

tolunart.2095:

laokoko.7403:

I’m not sure how realistic is the part “if you try to get the perma kit with BL keys”

If you really trying to get it. using gold is more realistic.

Where did the permanent kit you’re buying with gold come from?

The reason why there are any at all to sell is because there are people trying to get it with BL keys.

You know there are people who use black lion keys before they added permanent hair style as a drop. Weather that boost key farming or gem store sale I don’t know.

Irrelevant. There were no permanent stylists for months, now there are several. They came from BL chests, and were found recently. I don’t need JS’s database to tell me that the addition of a “grand prize” worth thousands of gold would encourage people to buy more keys.

I’m suggesting if you want to buy lottery go ahead. For a item that have drop rate of 0.01%(and I’m exaggerating, it’s probably even lower). If you are serious of buying it with real money, sell gem and buy it with gold.

The chance to get a permanent license is already rediculously low. And the chance of getting a hair is like 1/4 (that’s assume they all have the same chance).

I think the irrelevant part is if there are other people willing to gamble let them… the odd is so bad, you are better of not gamble. I learned the hard lesson with the RNG dye pack.

And you can’t even blame Anet for the RNG stuff. Take the dye pack for example, the average cost on getting a rare dye is so expensive. I dont’ understand why people are selling them so cheaply in the trading post.

laokoko.7403:

Take the dye pack for example, the average cost on getting a rare dye is so expensive. I dont’ understand why people are selling them so cheaply in the trading post.

Well for some items, they are only worth what people are willing to pay for them. And that’s affected by how many are available (supply) and how many want one (demand).

I don’t really know the complex economics, but I’m pretty sure that with the dyes, it’s largely going to be a matter of: Average cost may be higher than typical sell price, but because it’s random, some people are going to pay almost no cost to see one and others are going to pay a high cost to see one.

So you could have, for example, 100 people out of 1,000 get a rare dye easily, at minimal cost, 100 pay a high cost, and 800 pay a mid-range sliding cost. The important part is that if none of those people consume the dye, then you now have a potential 1k rare dyes being sold.

If, in our hypothetical, only 500 people are interested in the rare dyes being sold, then selling the 1k is going to become a competition of pricing to appeal to a demand that will not cover every dye. And then for the sellers, it becomes a question of, “How low can I go while still profiting off of this?” With answers varying greatly depending on how much was invested in getting the rare dye.

I’ve seen crafted exotics that are much more straightforward; you get the components, you craft one, you know what you’re getting. But because exotics can be obtained through other means, you will find that many of the component sell prices add up to a higher price than the going sell price of the crafted item itself.