I was watching Market the other night, this was maybe a week ago, and it was in the latter part of the evening. A new player came into channel and linked a few T1 formulas/techs and listed them for sale. There were no takers.
About 20 minutes later, the same player linked 3 items of jewelry, all bronze, unteched, also for sale. Again, no takers. A few players offered suggestions to list those items on the connie in NT (which btw, is borderline broken because of being overlisted). I hope very very much that someone eventually purchased those pieces.
I thought about going later and buying them myself, but then didn't.
My reasoning:
If there's not a market for these low level unteched crafted items, then my purchasing these items might lead this player into thinking that there WAS indeed a market for such things, and then this player might go off, craft a bunch of them, and then get hit with connie listing fees and in 2 weeks, find them in his/her vault. Then he might get really discouraged and quit.
Then again, he might get discouraged and quit over not being able to make coin crafting.
To me, it seemed like a catch-22. Buy a few pieces up and give this new player a false sense of expectation, or don't buy and hope that he learns of other means of making coin off of crafting (or elsewhere).
What is there that we, as seasoned players can do, to try and stimulate the money earning capabilities of new players into the game?
Are there changes that Virtrium can implement, perhaps increasing pawn prices on T1/T2 items, but only if the players adventure/craft rating is low?
Even here, there would be potential for taking advantage, in that a player could craft a ton of materials and then hand them off to a low level alt and sell them...BUT, I'm thinking of not a HUGE increase in pawn price for this tier, but just maybe enough to make it worthwhile for a new player to be able to earn a decent amount off these items, perhaps 70% of a fair market price?
I don't know, I just know it made me feel a little sad, and disturbed to think that this new player (who was so very very polite btw), might quit out of not getting a sense of growth/achievement in crafting.
I haven't seen this player again, and honestly, I don't remember the player's name. I just remember how very nice he/she seemed and how sad that there was no market for his/her goods.