About the rebirth of the mandrake backpack

[Your Chester]

First of all, to support the rebirth and return of the crab backpack, the discontinuation of the crab backpack CDK has given second-hand dealers an opportunity to maliciously raise the price and disrupt the market price. The rebirth of the Crab Backpack solves this mess.

Oppose the rebirth plan of the Mandrake Backpack and other peripheral skins! The other peripheral skins CDK have not been explicitly discontinued and out of print, and returning at a relatively low price is a betrayal of those who bought the peripherals, and they have been stabbed in the back! The price of the Chinese Mandrake Backpack is 18¥ in the Mall, but it costs at least 200¥ to buy the CDK skin. This is a betrayal of the person who bought the high-priced peripherals, and he was stabbed in the back!

[gaymime]

the people complaining about resell value should not be part of the conversation. they can't swindle and cheat people into over-paying for skins anymore which is good. buy the skin if you want the skin. dont buy the skin so you can make a profit off of others. there is no betrayal.

[Your Chester]

On 6/13/2025 at 7:02 PM, gaymime said:

the people complaining about resell value should not be part of the conversation. they can't swindle and cheat people into over-paying for skins anymore which is good. buy the skin if you want the skin. dont buy the skin so you can make a profit off of others. there is no betrayal.

We support the people of Kore, and those who spend more money on the official website of Kore to buy merchandise to get CDK are very wronged, and they deserve to spend more money to get skins that look exactly the same. You're not putting yourself in their shoes

Edited June 14, 2025 by Your Chester

[JazzyGames]

How is Klei responsible for the resale market?

[Duck986]

1 minute ago, JazzyGames said:

How is Klei responsible for the resale market?

They decide make the items (un)tradeable and (un)marketable.

[JazzyGames]

11 minutes ago, Duck986 said:

They decide make the items (un)tradeable and (un)marketable.

Making them so won’t curtail the resale market. The funko pop skins are tradable and sellable and look at their resale prices.

And if the items are not sellable then the physical product price bloats, exactly how OP has described it and one of the problems that the Resurrected campaign helps to remedy.

Edited June 14, 2025 by JazzyGames

[gaymime]

12 hours ago, Your Chester said:

We support the people of Kore, and those who spend more money on the official website of Kore to buy merchandise to get CDK are very wronged, and they deserve to spend more money to get skins that look exactly the same. You're not putting yourself in their shoes

i own these skins. you are right; i am not putting myself in the shoes of scammers. i am in the shoes of someone who bought the mandrake and bought the crab 5 and 4 years ago. i am in the shoes of someone who bought the merch at the high price because he wanted to have these items and is happy he bought his favourite skins when he could and is happy more people can buy them now more reasonably(and happy there is a free version of these skins too!). 

you cannot invoke my sympathy for scalping. i have been in the games ecosystem since 1992.  strangling people's ability to buy things wont make them want it less and having sympathy for those who make it worse by snatching up the desired items then ransoming it for a much higher price is rubbish.

Edited June 15, 2025 by gaymime

[Kaioh]

On 6/13/2025 at 12:52 PM, Your Chester said:

First of all, to support the rebirth and return of the crab backpack, the discontinuation of the crab backpack CDK has given second-hand dealers an opportunity to maliciously raise the price and disrupt the market price. The rebirth of the Crab Backpack solves this mess.

Oppose the rebirth plan of the Mandrake Backpack and other peripheral skins! The other peripheral skins CDK have not been explicitly discontinued and out of print, and returning at a relatively low price is a betrayal of those who bought the peripherals, and they have been stabbed in the back! The price of the Chinese Mandrake Backpack is 18¥ in the Mall, but it costs at least 200¥ to buy the CDK skin. This is a betrayal of the person who bought the high-priced peripherals, and he was stabbed in the back!

While I agree the cost of resurrected skins is low and nonsensically standardized, your case is far too egregious to defend. 3rd party resales of CD keys are not allowed and Klei takes no responsibility in people getting scammed by this tactic

EDIT: After rereading this I now understand the complaint a bit better. Yeah I think it's bad that they didn't clarify the status of the Mandrake Plushie/Meepsack until after the last update dropped. Because of this vagueness, the assumption that the Mandrake plush would eventually come back was still plausible (Deerclops plushie/Duffel made a comeback for instance, even though it was also initially deleted from the merch shop). I even asked Klei for clarification on the matter, but they never answered. That being said though, my original message still stands

Edited June 16, 2025 by Kaioh

[Johnny_Waffles]

the people who are mad about the skins only being 10 bucks i don't get. the skin wasn't the reason it was that much, it was the irl item. i bought the Wilson and maxwell youtooz for 35 each (other 2 ran out of stock before i had the chance  ) but if the skins they come with go on sale i wont be mad why, BECAUSE I STILL GOT THE YOUTOOZ IRL

[Kaioh]

2 hours ago, Johnny_Waffles said:

the people who are mad about the skins only being 10 bucks i don't get. the skin wasn't the reason it was that much, it was the irl item. i bought the Wilson and maxwell youtooz for 35 each (other 2 ran out of stock before i had the chance  ) but if the skins they come with go on sale i wont be mad why, BECAUSE I STILL GOT THE YOUTOOZ IRL

Because there are people who buy merch only because of exclusive skins, simple

[Johnny_Waffles]

9 hours ago, Kaioh said:

Because there are people who buy merch only because of exclusive skins, simple

I get that, but they need to understand that when companies sell the item the main product is the plush or figure and the skin is an extra item (even if they don't advertise it as that) so it makes sense that when just the skin goes on sale it's definitely going to be alot cheaper than when they bought it with a plush, not the same price.

Edited June 16, 2025 by Johnny_Waffles

[gaymime]

5 hours ago, Kaioh said:

Because there are people who buy merch only because of exclusive skins, simple

yeah but that feels like it serves the idea of exclusivity as a status symbol which is kind of a mean reason to collect things and sort of gives the impression that the thing being collected has no intrinsic value to the collector

[Kaioh]

13 hours ago, Johnny_Waffles said:

I get that, but they need to understand that when companies sell the item the main product is the plush or figure and the skin is an extra item (even if they don't advertise it as that) so it makes sense that when just the skin goes on sale it's definitely going to be alot cheaper than when they bought it with a plush, not the same price.

I think the idea that the standalone skins will sell for less than 100% MSRP is fair, but the idea that they will sell all of them for this cheap is just ludicrous. In situations like this, Klei has to make a fair compromise between the people buying expensive merch and people not buying anything at all, the sale price should be at least 50% MSRP for it to be fair, but realistically even higher than that (but below 100% obviously), what we have now is a compromise of a compromise, leaning too forward to one side while leaving the OG buyers alienated. Klei has acknowledged it shouldn't be dirt cheap when they announced the resurrection for the first time "We want to make these available to players but do not want to disrupt the inherent value that they have by their rarity and cost to acquire." they also initially mentioned the price would be based on a % of MSRP on steam (but they have since removed this part, that's just bad on their part). They half followed through on the first promise and completely ignored the second (the price is a standardized $10 for a single skin, this will hugely screw over the owners of calico chester plushies as they paid upwards of $60 for the plushie and the skin), people are feeling rightly betrayed.

7 hours ago, gaymime said:

yeah but that feels like it serves the idea of exclusivity as a status symbol which is kind of a mean reason to collect things and sort of gives the impression that the thing being collected has no intrinsic value to the collector

Klei is the one making these decisions, not the buyers. They have decided merch would have exclusive skins, not the buyers. It is extremely foolish to assume there won't be people who will then buy the merch just for the skins only instead of the merch. Naturally these people want to protect their investments, because they did not buy a product only for its digital component (the relevant part to them) to become ridiculously cheap later. I really don't know why do some people (not pointing fingers at anyone specific here) keep trying to gaslight them into thinking that they're wrong for wanting to protect these investments. Making investments go bad is a dangerous thing to play with that could really hurt the company, hence the importance of fair compromises between all parties in situations like these, more people need to understand this so the game can survive for longer.

[Johnny_Waffles]

13 minutes ago, Kaioh said:

I think the idea that the standalone skins will sell for less than 100% MSRP is fair, but the idea that they will sell all of them for this cheap is just ludicrous. In situations like this, Klei has to make a fair compromise between the people buying expensive merch and people not buying anything at all, the sale price should be at least 50% MSRP for it to be fair, but realistically even higher than that (but below 100% obviously), what we have now is a compromise of a compromise, leaning too forward to one side while leaving the OG buyers alienated. Klei has acknowledged it shouldn't be dirt cheap when they announced the resurrection for the first time "We want to make these available to players but do not want to disrupt the inherent value that they have by their rarity and cost to acquire." they also initially mentioned the price would be based on a % of MSRP on steam (but they have since removed this part, that's just bad on their part). They half followed through on the first promise and completely ignored the second (the price is a standardized $10 for a single skin, this will hugely screw over the owners of calico chester plushies as they paid upwards of $60 for the plushie and the skin), people are feeling rightly betrayed.

 

don't forget that the only 2 skins so far have been the cheapest items on the site (30 bucks each if i remember) so they might be doing a 3rd of the original price because i do get that people spending 60 bucks for the calico chester plush are getting screwed over, it hasn't come out yet, and while i don't think it'll be 30 bucks (30 bucks is insane for a  single chest skin) I do believe 20, while still expensive, could be an ok price for it, And while on the topic of people originally owning the skin, while not being that major, they still are different rarities (new ones are a "resurrected" rarity), though for most the rarity probably doesn't matter.

Edited June 16, 2025 by Johnny_Waffles

[Kaioh]

3 minutes ago, Johnny_Waffles said:

don't forget that the only 2 skins so far have been the cheapest items on the site (30 bucks each if i remember) so they might be doing a 3rd of the original price because i do get that people spending 60 bucks for the calico chester plush are getting screwed over, it hasn't come out yet, and while i don't think it'll be 30 bucks (30 bucks is insane for a  single chest skin) I do believe 20, while still expensive, could be an ok price for it, And while on the topic of people originally owning the skin, while not being that major, they still are different rarities (new ones are a "resurrected" rarity), though for most the rarity probably doesn't matter.

Mandrake was $30, but Crabbit was $35, which means the price is standardized at $10, which is why I'm not okay with this, especially since once these skins will become eligible for discounts, they will really be DIRT CHEAP at that point, then even the first promise will be broken fully. The OG skins preserving their rarity is the only good thing about this whole mess, but not good enough to save the situation

[Johnny_Waffles]

16 minutes ago, Kaioh said:

Mandrake was $30, but Crabbit was $35, which means the price is standardized at $10, which is why I'm not okay with this, especially since once these skins will become eligible for discounts, they will really be DIRT CHEAP at that point, then even the first promise will be broken fully. The OG skins preserving their rarity is the only good thing about this whole mess, but not good enough to save the situation

I do agree with 10 bucks each being too cheap for some skins (crabbit pack right now), the issue is most of the plushies were very expensive on the site (average is around 45 if i remember) so the main issue is they can't make these skins too expensive, or too cheap. And while so far it hasn't been set in stone, they might need to up the price of the future ones by a tiny bit, since if they all stay 10 bucks, for the people who bought it originally it sucks that the expensive plush skin they got has lost alot of value, though they still get a plush. and if they make it too expensive, it'll feel crappy for people who don't own them to kind of get scammed on skins since the plush that it came with a few years ago was expensive to make. 

Edited June 16, 2025 by Johnny_Waffles

[Kaioh]

4 minutes ago, Johnny_Waffles said:

I do agree with 10 bucks each being too cheap for some skins (crabbit pack right now), the issue is most of the plushies were very expensive on the site (average is around 40if i remember) so the main issue is they can't make these skins too expensive, or too cheap. And while so far it hasn't been set in stone, they might need to up the price of the future ones by a tiny bit, since if they all stay 10 bucks, for the people who bought it originally it sucks that the expensive plush skin they got has lost alot of value, though they still get a plush. and if they make it too expensive, it'll feel crappy for people who don't own them to kind of get scammed on skins since the plush that it came with a few years ago was expensive to make. 

While I don't quite agree with your proposed prices, I'm glad we can agree on the fact that fair compromises need to be made here

[Johnny_Waffles]

i also believe that any plushies that are still on sale won't be getting a "resurrected" rarity since your still able to obtain them.

[Bumber64]

45 minutes ago, Kaioh said:

the sale price should be at least 50% MSRP for it to be fair, but realistically even higher than that (but below 100% obviously), what we have now is a compromise of a compromise

Why would a license to use a digital good be more expensive than the physical object it's bundled with? That's completely ridiculous.

Klei sells entire sets of skins for cheaper! If it's not limited by the production physical good, then there's no justification for the price. 50% as the compromise price is the middle ground fallacy. A fixed $10 is more than fair since the variable of the other partner's price has been removed (given they've stopped production in factories).

Edited June 16, 2025 by Bumber64

[Kaioh]

28 minutes ago, Bumber64 said:

Why would a license to use a digital good be more expensive than the physical object it's bundled with? That's completely ridiculous.

Klei sells entire sets of skins for cheaper! If it's not limited by the production physical good, then there's no justification for the price. 50% as the compromise price is the middle ground fallacy. A fixed $10 is more than fair since the variable of the other partner's price has been removed (given they've stopped production in factories).

Yeah, okay, you've missed the point completely, but if you really think $10 is "more than fair", then we have nothing to talk about

[Bumber64]

17 minutes ago, Kaioh said:

Yeah, okay, you've missed the point completely, but if you really think $10 is "more than fair", then we have nothing to talk about

No, I get it. Klei could charge $35 for each individual skin they put out and you'd just want them more. Wouldn't stop it from being predatory behavior on their part and they'd lose money in the long run.

Edited June 16, 2025 by Bumber64

[lowercase skye]

2 hours ago, Kaioh said:

what we have now is a compromise of a compromise, leaning too forward to one side while leaving the OG buyers alienated.

Hi, I'm an OG buyer of several pieces of official merch, including plushies and both winter hats: I do not feel alienated at all, because I still have physical items sitting in my house that people buying the skins directly do not have. In fact, if I had it my way, I would prefer that buying the skins directly be MUCH cheaper than it already is. Having to spend $10 on a single videogame skin is ridiculous, especially compared to the value you would normally get by buying a larger pack.

2 hours ago, Kaioh said:

(the price is a standardized $10 for a single skin, this will hugely screw over the owners of calico chester plushies as they paid upwards of $60 for the plushie and the skin), people are feeling rightly betrayed.

I paid upwards of $60 for the plushie and skin. I would prefer that the skin itself be available for like, 2 bucks (that's already 4x the price of buying a regular chest skin on the market), so that more people can have this cool decoration option. I do not feel betrayed, because I can look beside me and see a physical Chester plush sitting on my desk, which is why I decided to buy a physical Chester plush to sit on my desk.

2 hours ago, Kaioh said:

Naturally these people want to protect their investments, because they did not buy a product only for its digital component (the relevant part to them) to become ridiculously cheap later. I really don't know why do some people (not pointing fingers at anyone specific here) keep trying to gaslight them into thinking that they're wrong for wanting to protect these investments. Making investments go bad is a dangerous thing to play with that could really hurt the company, hence the importance of fair compromises between all parties in situations like these, more people need to understand this so the game can survive for longer.

Capitalism does not need you to defend it this hard, my friend. Why do you find it necessary to argue so much about why a digital license to make a video game item look like a dog should be $30+? Nobody made any investments here, they bought a plush of a cute cartoon animal that came with a little code that says "you are allowed to make your video game item look vaguely like this", that is the beginning and end of the story. There is no reason to feel upset here unless you bought the plush, like, days before the Resurrected system, and were planning on throwing out the plush itself because all you were interested in was legally being allowed to make your video game storage chest look like a dog. It is undeniably a good thing for these cosmetics to be more accessible. Capitalism is not going to sputter out and die and plunge Klei into chaos if we acknowledge for once that video game skins shouldn't cost as much as 4 copies of the game itself.

[Kaioh]

12 minutes ago, lowercase skye said:

Hi, I'm an OG buyer of several pieces of official merch, including plushies and both winter hats: I do not feel alienated at all, because I still have physical items sitting in my house that people buying the skins directly do not have. In fact, if I had it my way, I would prefer that buying the skins directly be MUCH cheaper than it already is. Having to spend $10 on a single videogame skin is ridiculous, especially compared to the value you would normally get by buying a larger pack.

I paid upwards of $60 for the plushie and skin. I would prefer that the skin itself be available for like, 2 bucks (that's already 4x the price of buying a regular chest skin on the market), so that more people can have this cool decoration option. I do not feel betrayed, because I can look beside me and see a physical Chester plush sitting on my desk, which is why I decided to buy a physical Chester plush to sit on my desk.

Capitalism does not need you to defend it this hard, my friend. Why do you find it necessary to argue so much about why a digital license to make a video game item look like a dog should be $30+? Nobody made any investments here, they bought a plush of a cute cartoon animal that came with a little code that says "you are allowed to make your video game item look vaguely like this", that is the beginning and end of the story. There is no reason to feel upset here unless you bought the plush, like, days before the Resurrected system, and were planning on throwing out the plush itself because all you were interested in was legally being allowed to make your video game storage chest look like a dog. It is undeniably a good thing for these cosmetics to be more accessible. Capitalism is not going to sputter out and die and plunge Klei into chaos if we acknowledge for once that video game skins shouldn't cost as much as 4 copies of the game itself.

Pot calling the kettle black. I could ask you the same thing "Why do you find it necessary to argue so much about why a digital license to make a video game item look like a dog should be worth dirt?" I mean I'm happy for you that you're content with just the physical merch, but to me it sounds you weren't going in it for the skins but rather the merch itself. Too bad people have different motivations to buy merch now that Klei has exclusive skins attached to it. If you don't find anything wrong with Klei making a $60 item worth $2 then you clearly don't understand the situation at all and the negative consequences such a move would have both on the players and the company as a whole 

[mima_]

im sorry but when u purchase merch to "support" developer means u buying the merch and getting skin for "free" with it.
the one that set the value of skin on market is just people that feeling that they should make money from allegedly "free item" just because it limited (as in stock and availability to purchase) 

yes its klei fault, the skin they redeemed through merch should have not marketable on steam in first place. 

but feel at a loss because they can't sell at a high price anymore is just baffling 

Edited June 16, 2025 by mima_

[RexySeven]

 

3 hours ago, Johnny_Waffles said:

30 bucks is insane for a  single chest skin

You're right! It needs to fit modern gaming industry standard after all, 90$ for a single skin will do!