Useless black market items

[MrBranch]

On the black market you can buy several items which seems useless to me.
I was wondering if anyone ever purchases them, since I can't imagine that people waste precious gems this way.
Perhaps I'm missing something?

1) Dirty Toolbox (http://forum.thesettlersonline.com/t...=dirty+toolbox)
Via the provision house's Toolbelt you get 250 tools for 750 pinewood planks and 750 stones

2) Hardwood Plank Hulk (http://forum.thesettlersonline.com/t...ood+Plank+Hulk)
Via the provision house's Hard Plank Door you get 500 hardwood planks for 500 pinewood planks

3) Marble Menhir (http://forum.thesettlersonline.com/t...=marble+menhir)
Via the provision house's Lonely Marble Block you get 100 marble for 500 stones.

4) Iron Monger (http://forum.thesettlersonline.com/t...ht=iron+monger)
For this one there's no alternative via the provision house, but personally I would never ever trade 19 gems and 800 bronze for a lousy 100 iron.

[Benedicter]

Seems the same like many other 'lets take advantage of game newbies' gem items you can buy from the market, mainly at the Wholesale category.

[Dorotheus]

1 They are there just for completeness, also prevents players from asking why not.
2 They are fully aware that some do have more money than sense, catering to those means reduced costs to those of us who spend money wisely.

[Maladict]

I haven't been playing the game for very long, and maybe I don't know much about high level economics yet, but options 1-3 don't sound entirely useless to me - especially if someone is in dire need of those resources, and doesn't have coins to buy them through TO. It's true that you can get basically get the same result in PH, but the reasoning seems pretty simple nonetheless: for the right price (this time in gems), you can lower the amount of resources needed to create other resources. For a higher level player 250 pinewood planks and 350 stones (the resource input difference for the creation of tools) might be nothing, but to someone on a lower level (or with struggling economy), even such amount of those resources is precious, and they might be willing to pay gems to save them. Also take into account that gems, besides being something you can buy for real life money, are also a prize for leveling up, and it's relatively easy to get to level, say, 10 (it took me less than a day), so an "easy come, easy go" attitude is not hard to adapt if you are a recreational player. I suppose, then, that Benedicter might be right, in a way, saying that these products are targeted at "newbies" rather than seasoned players, but I wouldn't use the word "newbies" in a pejorative meaning, and I still wouldn't write the items off as completely useless.

Another argument for creating those items might be the time factor. I've never bought them, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume that in case of the black market items, you get the resources right after paying for them - while you have to wait for your PH to turn one resource into another. Some people are impatient, or simply need the resources right away. Speeding up the production of those resources in the PH hast to cost more gems.

As for #4 - no offense, but just because you wouldn't do something doesn't mean it's objectively not worth doing, or that the option to do so is objectively "useless". You have the right to spend your gems (and therefore your real money) on whatever you want - and so do other people. If someone wants to pay those 19 gems (and, right, 800 bronze) for whatever amount of iron, it's nobody else's business, and it's not up to you to decide if it's objectively "worth" it or not.

[Thejollyone]

I will add to this list that many of the Mysterious Decoration Box won-items are no longer trade-able whereas they were before Easter event ( already posted elsewhere)

BB want us to spend gems buying them, but if we cant/don't want to use them, they are stuck in star menu.

How can they change that situation without giving players prior notice?

[Dorotheus]

The Trade office allows you to buy stuff using any excess resource you may have not just coins. Gems are the rarest item in game, what us seasoned players know is they are best used to obtain things which can not be obtained by other means in game.

[MrBranch]

My main purpose is to see if some of these useless items (useless to my opinion indeed Maladict, but if no one purchases them then to all of us) could be improved. It doesn't make sense to fill the black market with things noone ever buys, also from a selling point of view.

[Maladict]

@Dorotheus, they are indeed very rare (if you're not willing to pay real money for them), but I don't see how it's relevant. Yes, some players will quickly learn to save their gems for "more important" things, and that's good for them, of course - but some either won't, or will simply consider it not worth it (in their opinion). Let's also not forget the fact that for some people, rarity of gems is a laughably abstract problem, because they can afford buying them in whatever amount they might need. I would say that, like in most games, the majority of the items you can buy for real life currency are targeted mostly at that group, but perhaps I haven't been playing this game long enough, and their policy is shockingly different.
Your argument about the availability of the resources on TO is a good one, but what I said in my previous post about coins not being easily obtainable on lower levels may extend over other resources as well (especially as you're still struggling to maintain a balanced economy). Another thing is that I've found it somewhat difficult to buy the amount of X that I need for a reasonable price in Y [resource that is not coins] on Newfoundland (perhaps our experiences differ due to us playing on different servers) - what would cost 15-20 (or more) coins tends to be priced in thousands of other resources (hundreds at best, if we're talking about rare ores and the like), which, again, is not necessarily easily obtainable for someone on a low level, unless they are very, very patient and willing to wait a few days for their storehouses to fill (assuming they have enough space to collect so many resources). Paradoxically, then, on lower levels it seems much easier to spend gems than other resources (coins or otherwise), because you do have a somewhat steady income of the former (quick and easy leveling), while how much you earn of the latter depends on many unstable factors, and if you're not careful, you can quickly find yourself with exactly 0 coins (happened to me more than once), and/or a -X income of whatever resource you're trying to excessively produce (in order to spend it).
All in all I think it's better that the option is there, for those who are willing to use it (whatever their reason might be - and when it comes to other people spending their own money, pure fancy is as good a reason as any, in my opinion), rather than it was not available at all.

@MrBranch, I think that unless some official is willing to share the numbers with us, we can only guess if or how many people buy those items If they've been around for a while, though, I suppose there are enough players interested in buying them not to pull them off the market. There's always room for improvement, I agree, but I wouldn't forget about the fact that "improvement" has different meanings for players (who want the best for themselves, obviously), and for developers - who want to earn as much money as possible from the game, not unjustifiably so, since it's their job.
So maybe in the end we all agree that it's just a way to make us, players, spend real money on the game.

[Dorotheus]

There's also the minor detail that somebody would have to do the work of removing them, I for one would rather they worked on removing bugs first.

[peachykeen]

I am using the lonely marble. No one seems to be trading marble, so I don't really have a choice. I would happily do it if the marble deposits are a lot higher thoguht. Lots of 1000s would make more value than 100s. I am sure BB would like to sell more Gems and I am a willing fool if the exchange amount is much more desirable..