Value of Skins + Ressurection

[Kaioh]

1 hour ago, RexySeven said:

And if you are suggesting tiny price increase then don't you find this whole price argument really petty over this measly price increase of 2-3 dollars or something. Do these couple of dollars really so crucial to go between "it's worthless and cheap now" to "it still holds value"?

I'm suggesting a % MSRP based model that is not something small like 20% let alone 10% or even 5%, but at least 50% or even higher. The current pricing of standardized $10 is not appropriate considering merch has different price tags. For crabpack, the value is about 28.5%, for Meepsack it's 33%, already we have a disparity with the first 2 skins. A hypothetical calico chester chest would only be 16%, this issue will only be exacerbated once these skins start receiving 50% special discounts during events, that's far too low.

Also, in regards to regional pricing, specifically in the case of resurrected skins, I frankly don't consider it fair to make it dirt cheap in some parts of the world either considering you still have to adhere to US pricing and all the other headaches related to international shipping when buying merch to get proof of purchase skins, regardless of where you live (because Klei typically only works with American companies, they don't have domestic sellers in let's say Africa or even Europe to make things easier on them), there are no technicalities that give you a special privileged massive discount just because the economy in said poor country sucks. A poor Sudanese person living on minimum wage of less than a dollar a month can't even dream of affording merch, a poor unskilled Luxembourger with a minimum wage of little less than $3,000 USD a month is laughing and can buy every piece of merch for this game with a single salary, it's not comparable, so I would go with your first proposed option, but only in the case of resurrected skins due to their relation to physical merch which is equally expensive everywhere in the world (not counting shipping fees and import duties or customs).

[cybers2001]

10 hours ago, 00petar00 said:

There doesn't exist a good reason to keep tesla coil lantern and other items so expensive compared to the game cost.

The reason is because you absolutely do not need to own the tesla coil lantern no matter how much you wish you do.

Likewise, I may never own the chinese-exclusive blind box skins, and I am okay with that.

Edited July 21, 2025 by cybers2001

[Picklesaurus]

4 hours ago, Kaioh said:

A poor Sudanese person living on minimum wage of less than a dollar a month can't even dream of affording merch, a poor unskilled Luxembourger with a minimum wage of little less than $3,000 USD a month is laughing and can buy every piece of merch for this game with a single salary, it's not comparable, so I would go with your first proposed option, but only in the case of resurrected skins due to their relation to physical merch which is equally expensive everywhere in the world (not counting shipping fees and import duties or customs).

Minimum wage in my country is around 270 dollars per month, your proposal is that Klei should make sure non rich people in countries like mine can't afford digital stuff they would like to have because you feel like you are losing something when they can afford it and they are poor anyway so who cares if they couldn't afford it? What the ****.

Edited July 21, 2025 by Picklesaurus

[Kaioh]

1 hour ago, Picklesaurus said:

Minimum wage in my country is around 270 dollars per month, your proposal is that Klei should make sure non rich people in countries like mine can't afford digital stuff they would like to have because you feel like you are losing something when they can afford it and they are poor anyway so who cares if they couldn't afford it? What the ****.

I'm not sure what you're getting at here, but why do you feel entitled to get something for cheap which others had to buy at expensive costs? These are purely cosmetic items with no bearing on gameplay, so it's not like you even need to have them to fully enjoy the game's actual content

[cybers2001]

This is sort of like complaining that designer brand clothing is more expensive than regular clothes.

[Picklesaurus]

24 minutes ago, Kaioh said:

Why do you feel entitled to get something for cheap which others had to buy at expensive costs?

I don't, I'm not buying those skins, at the current prices they are already expensive to me, you are the one being entitled by asking Klei to increases prices so YOU can feel good when others can't afford something whose value is artificially inflated and digital of all things, something that can be replicated an infinite number of times.

15 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

This is sort of like complaining that designer brand clothing is more expensive than regular clothes.

Damn, you got me, I was just going to dowload a Louis Vuitton for cheap to use on Wes.

Edited July 21, 2025 by Picklesaurus

[cybers2001]

36 minutes ago, Picklesaurus said:

Damn, you got me, I was just going to dowload a Louis Vuitton for cheap to use on Wes.

Do you think that virtual items shouldn't be priced differently because they cost the same to make?

Because, I assure you, the materials used to make a Louis Vuitton purse is not 100x the cost of materials of other purses.

[Kaioh]

44 minutes ago, Picklesaurus said:

I don't, I'm not buying those skins, at the current prices they are already expensive to me, you are the one being entitled by asking Klei to increases prices so YOU can feel good when others can't afford something whose value is artificially inflated and digital of all things, something that can be replicated an infinite number of times.

Thing is I paid for the things at full price, which even included huge expenses like shipping, import duties and customs. You, on the other hand, are promoting the idea that these things should be unreasonably cheap just because there are people either too poor to afford it or too unwilling to buy it, two very different situations. It is you that is entitled, not me

[Picklesaurus]

24 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

Because, I assure you, the materials used to make a Louis Vuitton purse is not 100x the cost of materials of other purses.

Exactly, you understood my point well, Luxury goods are already just an excuse to charge more for something you can buy for much much cheaper without the brand name and sometimes close quality or equal quality if you have access to Asian markets, applying Luxury goods logic to skins that can be replicated an infinite amount of times without extra costs just shows how much more ridiculous this idea becomes.

Edited July 21, 2025 by Picklesaurus

[lowercase skye]

Since various types of valuable goods come up constantly in these threads, I'd like to ask everyone to genuinely take a step back and ask themselves what makes something "rare" or "valuable". Why is expensive brand-name clothing so valuable and prestigious if it's made in sweat shops and costs the company behind it absolute pennies to produce? Why are certain Pokemon cards considered valuable just because the Pokemon company decided to make some artificial scarcity and print less of the cool-looking ones? Why are the licenses for Don't Starve Together skins (a license that says you are allowed to view this set of pixels on your screen) considered valuable and rare, and it considered a disservice to sell them for cheaper than someone bought them in the past, whenever they cost literally nothing to produce more of? There is no physical product here being created and handed to you, there is an entirely digital switch being flipped that says you're allowed to change the color of your backpack, something which Klei has infinite of as soon as that piece of artwork was drawn. They can make infinite crab-shaped backpacks for no cost. How in any way does that contain any inherent monetary value, past what Klei is currently selling it for?

Well, okay, I know the answer, but I don't think anyone here likes to hear it. It's very very important to step back sometimes and think about why you feel the ways you do about things. What's happening here is that capitalism works by convincing you that clothes made in sweat shops, pieces of paper with Charizard on it, and videogame cosmetics are all something you want to spend as much money on as possible, and will be happy to Complete Your Collection and Gain Social Status! And I think there is a clear divide in all of these discussions between the people who buy skins because they simply like having them, and the ones who are compelled to do it by capitalism and so start to fall apart as soon as the "value" of those products is decreased. Someone smarter than me could probably say such better words on this, but yeah... think about why you feel the ways you do about certain things, other than just it being how things have always worked. Go collect cool rocks, or something.

Edited July 21, 2025 by lowercase skye

[Picklesaurus]

15 minutes ago, Kaioh said:

You, on the other hand, are promoting the idea that these things should be unreasonably cheap

Unreasonably cheap to you, to others it has become a much more reasonable price since they can actually afford it now.

 

26 minutes ago, Kaioh said:

just because there are people either too poor to afford it or too unwilling to buy it, two very different situations. It is you that is entitled, not me

The cheaper price is already a reality, you are the one asking for changes so others can't afford something, not me.

[Kaioh]

3 minutes ago, Picklesaurus said:

Unreasonably cheap to you, to others it has become a much more reasonable price since they can actually afford it now.

 

The cheaper price is already a reality, you are the one asking for changes so others can't afford something, not me.

Because the current system is beyond unfair to the original buyers, I can't believe how many times I have to point this out

[cybers2001]

11 minutes ago, lowercase skye said:

Well, okay, I know the answer, but I don't think anyone here likes to hear it. It's very very important to step back sometimes and think about why you feel the ways you do about things. What's happening here is that capitalism works by convincing you that clothes made in sweat shops, pieces of paper with Charizard on it, and videogame cosmetics are all something you want to spend as much money on as possible, and will be happy to Complete Your Collection and Gain Social Status! And I think there is a clear divide in all of these discussions between the people who buy skins because they simply like having them, and the ones who are compelled to do it by capitalism and so start to fall apart as soon as the "value" of those products is decreased. Someone smarter than me could probably say such better words on this, but yeah... think about why you feel the ways you do about certain things, other than just it being how things have always worked. Go collect cool rocks, or something.

Oh absolutely. It's like bankers in Times Square wearing expensive watches. Nobody drives cars in Manhattan, so they use jewelry as status symbols instead. It's not like a $100,000 watch is going to tell time better than a $100 one.

I know it's stilly to think of virtual goods as status symbols, but maybe not for those of us who do spend literally thousands of hours living in the game. Tesla coil lantern skin is a top-tier skin. I enjoy using it. But there are so many other great lantern skins, too. If it wasn't rare, it would be overshadowed by quite a few of the newer lantern skins Klei has cranked out over the years.

The thing that's amusing, though, is that the people who insist all skins should be cheap aren't much different than the people who insist some skins should be expensive or rare: They both see the skin as something that represents status, which they either like or they don't like. The people who really don't care at all about the rarity of the skin are the people who are basically ignoring this subject altogether.

[lowercase skye]

12 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

The thing that's amusing, though, is that the people who insist all skins should be cheap aren't much different than the people who insist some skins should be expensive or rare: They both see the skin as something that represents status, which they either like or they don't like.

It's not some crazy observation to say "whoa... both sides are actually the same", it's the kind of thing you see in South Park and anyone with any knowledge on the topic being discussed rolls their eyes at the conclusion.

Edited July 21, 2025 by lowercase skye

[cybers2001]

8 minutes ago, lowercase skye said:

It's not some crazy observation to say "whoa... both sides are actually the same", it's the kind of thing you see in South Park and anyone with any knowledge on the topic being discussed rolls their eyes at the conclusion.

Oh right, the third group of people, the enlightened ones who have transcended the simple human pleasure of collecting and owning things.

[viblym]

On 7/20/2025 at 10:13 PM, Kaioh said:

Actually, quite the opposite. The people complaining about the current status of resurrected skins are primarily OG buyers who were directly harmed by this, so my statement is accurate. It would only be inaccurate in the context if I said all OG buyers, which I didn't do on purpose since I know there are people out there who just buy merch for merch and not skins. Ultimately though it is on Klei if they want to be seen as financially irresponsible or not. We gave them the chance, but only they can act on it

The utilization of "harmed" here implies that somehow this is damaging the "Potential" money I could make by... reselling something at an inflated price? The original post outright states that you cannot effectively seek out to obtain profit by holding onto a product. The initial thing you purchased is not "devalued" by the resurrected skins. Who here is being hurt besides scammers?

7 hours ago, Kaioh said:

I'm not sure what you're getting at here, but why do you feel entitled to get something for cheap which others had to buy at expensive costs? These are purely cosmetic items with no bearing on gameplay, so it's not like you even need to have them to fully enjoy the game's actual content

"cheap" is not "cheap" for them. That is not how conversions work.

[Kaioh]

1 hour ago, viblym said:

The utilization of "harmed" here implies that somehow this is damaging the "Potential" money I could make by... reselling something at an inflated price? The original post outright states that you cannot effectively seek out to obtain profit by holding onto a product. The initial thing you purchased is not "devalued" by the resurrected skins. Who here is being hurt besides scammers?

"cheap" is not "cheap" for them. That is not how conversions work.

Why is that the only implication you interpreted from this, I wonder? How about the fact that collectors simply buy the expensive skins for the sake of, well, simply having them because they like having unique skins, even expensive ones? They get retroactively ripped off by the resurrection system, because something they had to spend heavy money on before is now extremely cheap for no reason, you really think these OG buyers have no other use for their money? Why should they have to pay the heavy extra money for something when the others won't have to do that to reach the same effect? I can assure you, had they been informed this is what would be coming beforehand, they would reconsider buying expensive merch and would rather wait for the price devaluation, because merch is not cheap, especially with shipping and import duties/customs. I would happily not spend $610.47 total on 12 merch skins so far, because that expense being reduced to only $120 total in the future is so insane, I could definitely use that spare money for other things in life.

It doesn't matter, international buyers from poor countries still have to deal with American prices the same way privileged countries do, they were in no position to own something like that before, they shouldn't be now either just because they demand it

Edited July 22, 2025 by Kaioh

[00petar00]

13 hours ago, cybers2001 said:

The reason is because you absolutely do not need to own the tesla coil lantern no matter how much you wish you do.

Likewise, I may never own the chinese-exclusive blind box skins, and I am okay with that.

I can find so many arguments against what you just said but I'll focus on the most important one which is that DST is a game and goodwill needs to be nurtured between developers and players, developers can trade goodwill for money and bad decisions they make in the future with updates or new games.

Klei isn't going to make any money from players buying tesla coil lantern for 100$, it is only steam resellers profiting and you can only imagine how much positive publicity it would bring If the expensive items on steam market become easily obtainable or sold for much less.

Its completely fine if you don't have any issues with there being exclusive skins that you won't ever get but that doesn't mean that other people are and that is negative publicity for the company.

10 hours ago, lowercase skye said:

Well, okay, I know the answer, but I don't think anyone here likes to hear it. It's very very important to step back sometimes and think about why you feel the ways you do about things. What's happening here is that capitalism works by convincing you that clothes made in sweat shops, pieces of paper with Charizard on it, and videogame cosmetics are all something you want to spend as much money on as possible, and will be happy to Complete Your Collection and Gain Social Status! And I think there is a clear divide in all of these discussions between the people who buy skins because they simply like having them, and the ones who are compelled to do it by capitalism and so start to fall apart as soon as the "value" of those products is decreased. Someone smarter than me could probably say such better words on this, but yeah... think about why you feel the ways you do about certain things, other than just it being how things have always worked. Go collect cool rocks, or something.

What's funny is that mostly only poor people buy designer goods because rich people know that it is a scam, we have recently had a lot of news about this because of tariffs imposed on China, there were many videos made saying that they produce goods for 10-30x lower compared to the actual cost with brand placed on it and they will sell it in China for that price without brand logo.

Everyone that wants the skins to be exclusive and expensive is basically trying to gatekeep them at their own cost so less people own it and they can show off.

Also, a lot of people seem to forget that players play games to escape reality and have a fun time, its actually absurd to me that there is so much pushback against making skins more accessible on the forums but it is somewhat understandable because gaming has been going downhill for a while and so many games are much worse so they find this acceptable. It is the "boiling frog" analogy, they are slowly getting used to being taken advantage of with most other games especially mobile ones.

 

[Kaioh]

13 minutes ago, 00petar00 said:

Klei isn't going to make any money from players buying tesla coil lantern for 100$, it is only steam resellers profiting and you can only imagine how much positive publicity it would bring If the expensive items on steam market become easily obtainable or sold for much less.

Actually this isn't true, developers take a cut from every steam marketplace sale that happens. They take about 10% of the base value, Valve takes about 5%, the rest of additional costs is VAT

[cybers2001]

5 hours ago, 00petar00 said:

Its completely fine if you don't have any issues with there being exclusive skins that you won't ever get but that doesn't mean that other people are and that is negative publicity for the company.

If that were true, Valve would be the most hated company.

To be honest, if no skin was advertised as an exclusive limited edition skin, I wouldn't even think about this conversation. It's the idea of obtaining something that has perceived rarity, and then taking the rarity away is what rubs me the wrong way.

[RexySeven]

48 minutes ago, cybers2001 said:

If that were true, Valve would be the most hated company.

Aren't they already. 

[Johnny_Waffles]

I don't get why people are mad about skins coming back since, 1.The only skins that came back so far are skins that no longer have a irl item on sale. 2. No matter how much the advertisement and you think, you bought the plush or figure the skin is a plus 3. There not selling a digital skin at even half the same price as the irl item since it's a fake item and has no real value unless its with a plush or figure since those cost money to mass produce whilst the skin only cost money to make once.

[Kaioh]

1 hour ago, Johnny_Waffles said:

I don't get why people are mad about skins coming back since, 1.The only skins that came back so far are skins that no longer have a irl item on sale. 2. No matter how much the advertisement and you think, you bought the plush or figure the skin is a plus 3. There not selling a digital skin at even half the same price as the irl item since it's a fake item and has no real value unless its with a plush or figure since those cost money to mass produce whilst the skin only cost money to make once.

1. Because it sets a precedent for the future as well
2. Promoting exclusive digital items will ultimately create consumers who only buy merch for the skins, to them the actual merch might be worth dirt. If they don't want to exploit the skin collectors so more people buy merch because they actually like it, they should take the road of regular winter hats where they give random common in-game skins with codes instead and stop the exclusivity system in the first place
3. That's kind of the point, though? They're expensive because they're tied to expensive merch. I don't get why do people keep justifying Klei cheating people out of money so horribly like this

[lowercase skye]

51 minutes ago, Kaioh said:

I don't get why do people keep justifying Klei cheating people out of money so horribly like this

Whenever a game goes on sale, are you being cheated out of money for having bought it at full price earlier?

[Kaioh]

2 minutes ago, lowercase skye said:

Whenever a game goes on sale, are you being cheated out of money for having bought it at full price earlier?

No? That's just a temporary discount, it always returns back to its normal price later, standard business practice