Duped Epic Gems - Blizzard Actions

[Deleted]

Today I bought 10 Stacks of Queen's Garnet for 150k gold (that's 750g per gem). Initial asking price was 900 gold, in the AH on my server you can find uncut Queen's Garnets from 1100g upwards. So the offer wasn't THAT great.

Only a few hours later 9 yet uncut stacks were removed from my bank by a GM. He sent me a mail with explanations and refunded me the gold for the 9 stacks (135k). The one stack that I already cut and partially sold was untouched by this action.

It's good to see that Blizzard is taking actions against these things, though I don't know if they know for sure that those items were duped, or if they just assume it due to supposed rarity and actual quantity people buy / sell. Good thing anyways, but I guess it's diffcult to buy epic gems now, since you never know if it turns out to be a waste of time, or even worse, you as the buyer get also punished. I hope they fix the dupe method soon, instead of only cleaning up after the damage was done.

Btw. I hope I don't violate any other Blizz rules by sharing this story.




/edit and my answer to the discussion this thread caused:

It seems like some of you think that this story is made up, due to the spelling errors in the official GM mail. You're entitled to believe whatever you want, this thread was presented by me as a fact, as something that happened to me and as a piece of information for those who are interested. I still have that mail in my mailbox, though of course I won't permint anyone to access my account to prove that this is real. It is of no particular importance to me whether some of you want to believe this, or whether some of you want to believe in an alternative truth.

I've also noticed that a few readers would have rather seen those who buy such things also banned, instead of refunding them the gold. I used the in-game trade system as it is intended by Blizzard, I did trade in-game currency for in-game items. It is not my business nor my responsibility to "smell" whether the goods other people offer are legit or not. These items are stored and created on the servers of the game company, if they can't fix inconsistencies, I won't play detective and fix it for them. So as a buyer I should use common sense? If someone sells 200 red epic gems it's fishy right? What about 50 red gems, or 20, or 10? Where is the limit? What if he distributes them in the AH, under different names in different stack sizes for slightly different prices? Right, then even YOU would buy the quantity you need. If it is a known fact that red epic gems are amongst the prefered dupe targets, then anyone of you is guilty who is using non selflooted epic gems, especially if they are from the AH or trade chat. Look at that one of my stacks that did not get deletet, I sold those in the AH, not more than two at a time... I bet even those of you asking for a ban would have bought one of those. That's as "guilty" as I am.

I am close to 4 million gold revenue from the AH since I started doing business there last december, a bit less than 50% of that is profit. It's normal for me to buy raw materials for tens of thousands of gold at once. I'm saying this, as some people wonder why someone would ever buy 200 epic gems. If I see the opportunity to make a good deal, I'm gonna do it, that's normal "AH goblin" behavior.

What's my opinion on this? That guy was selling 15 stacks, I didn't buy all of them for one single reason: I was afraid not being able to sell all of them before the price drops below the sum I paid for them. Did I know that this offer is fishy? I considered it, I definitely did not exclude this possibility, but as already stated above, it's not my business to judge this. I was deliberately willing to take the risk, especially that these epic gem duping rumors were around since patch 4.3 was released, and that's quite a while now. I was assuming that meanwhile this company was in control of such inconsistencies, but in fact I did not care. Not my business. I didn't do anything that's against the "laws" of this game.

The reaction I received to this from an official Blizzard GM? It's good what he did, it's good that the gems got deleted, it's good that I got my gold refunded. There's one thing I do not agree with, and that is that subtle little warning he gave me, saying that they can also suspend players involved in this. Do we have to know drop rates and normal market volumes of certain items by heart? Should we get banned for using the trade system in a way that it is intended? Should we know about all fishy things there are in this game? I never raid, though I knew that the epic gems were related to DS raid as an exclusive source, and yes I did know that this deal might be fishy, but I would not expect this from anyone else, nor would I ask for a ban for those who bought such gems.

[Darsithis]

Considering the low drop rate (only killing Deathwing means a for sure epic, and even then it isn't necessarily red), it's incredibly rare that someone is going to be able to sell nearly 200 epic red gems. They almost are guaranteed to be a dupe exploit.

Good to see Blizzard is being fair to you in this.

[Profish13]

Considering the low drop rate (only killing Deathwing means a for sure epic, and even then it isn't necessarily red), it's incredibly rare that someone is going to be able to sell nearly 200 epic red gems. They almost are guaranteed to be a dupe exploit.

Good to see Blizzard is being fair to you in this.

I dont see how Blizzard is being fair to be honest. You just said its fairly obvious the gems were duped, I find it hard to believe the OP had no idea that something might be wrong with having 200 for sale. I dont think the OP should have gotten his gold back.

Its not like buying one or two stacks, even though that much still seems a little off. We are to realistically believe a guild has 200 extra laying around for sale?

[aabay123]

holy crap i never even knew there was a duping exploit O.o and I've been playing for nearly 7 years.

[Resentful]

That's good stuff in terms of blizzard actually being fair with you. It's obvious that there was a exploit if they selling 100+ Reds like some in my server

[Deleted]

holy crap i never even knew there was a duping exploit O.o and I've been playing for nearly 7 years.

I once tried the same as OP. And the gm wouldt give me the gold back. - I did a new ticket, and that GM did. lol

[Count Zero]

The spelling / grammar errors in the letter make this seem fishy to me.

[Aquamonkey]

I've heard stories of people buying duped/exploited items not getting their gold back once the GMs removed them.

[Profish13]

I've heard stories of people buying duped/exploited items not getting their gold back once the GMs removed them.

Thats how it should be in the blatantly obvious situations. If its a gray area and seemed like an honest mistake, then sure give the player their gold back. In a situation like this? No one who has the gold to buy 200 queen's garnets is gullible enough to think everything is 100% legit.

[Nelle]

This been going on for 2-3 months now. Amazing they haven't fixed it yet. Made a few 100k reselling them some months ago, stopped when I found out it was an obvious duping exploit. First I just thought they had hacked accounts and used the epic gems to "whitewash" the gold.

[Deleted]

The spelling / grammar errors in the letter make this seem fishy to me.

Yeah, humans are perfect.

[cFortyfive]

Well good that I made enough gold of this already.

[Aquamonkey]

Yeah, humans are perfect.

It's not about perfection. It's about being professional.

[Batix]

It's not about perfection. It's about being professional.

He's europpean.

Infracted: This does not contribute.

[Nightbliss]

He's europpean.

And you must be American because you can't spell European properly.

I agree though that the way the letter has been written makes it look fishy...

[Brett Skullcrack]

You just said its fairly obvious the gems were duped, I find it hard to believe the OP had no idea that something might be wrong with having 200 for sale.

It's not OP's job to play detective, especially since he does not have access to the information necessary to determine whether the gems are duped or not. He should be able to rely on Blizzard having their shit together and making sure such exploits don't happen in the first place.

[Nightbliss]

I won't find it strange now when I see people selling loads of epic gems but I certainly found it odd when one week into release of DS, there were people already selling over 20 Red gems on trade.

[Deleted]

It isn't YOUR fault when you buy stuff on the AH, and the seller got hold of it via duping/hack whatever.
So yeah, ofc you get your Gold back...everything else would be a reason to cancle the account

[Caiada]

I dont see how Blizzard is being fair to be honest. You just said its fairly obvious the gems were duped, I find it hard to believe the OP had no idea that something might be wrong with having 200 for sale. I dont think the OP should have gotten his gold back.

Its not like buying one or two stacks, even though that much still seems a little off. We are to realistically believe a guild has 200 extra laying around for sale?

Unless there's proof otherwise, the logical thing to do is give them the benefit of the doubt and refund them.

[Duilliath]

He's europpean.

And as the above post indicated, even Americans aren't exactly flawless. (No offense intended, just a handy example really.)

That said, I can understand that they don't exactly have copy/paste-ready made texts for such cases, which would allow for errors to slip in.