Stop Auction Scams - NOW!

Forza Horizon Legacy Horizon FH4 Discussion
81

Ok, I normally don’t post, like ever, but some of you really don’t get what is going on here.

This is not a scam, it never has been, you’re just upset that guys like me paid full price for the car so we could make an FE and then sold the car for someone else to buy to help cut the losses on the initial purchase. To be perfectly honest, I could argue that the buyer is scamming me because I already unlocked all the permanent perks yet I’m forced by the system to sell the car for less than I bought it for. That arguement goes both ways.

Now, since no one else has yet, let’s take a detailed look at the cars involved, as this really only has to due with 5 cars(technically only 2 as the FEs of the other 3 are not worth producing to sell). First, the main issue of this thread, the 300 S, which is laughable we think this car is a problem as it hits the block in fairly low numbers, the only reason it hits the block at all is trying to recoup it 6mil price when its FE can only sell for just over a mil max. People with no interest in keeping the 300 S sell it to recoup losses. And honestly if I had to pay 6mil why should you get to buy it for 1mil and have all the unlocks reset, that right there would be a true scam.

Quickly covering the other 2 non problem cars, the TVR and the Mercedes, the Mercedes because like the Maserati you have a FE that sells for less than the car that makes it. And the TVR because the small profit it can net is not worth the effort of getting the 128 skill points required to make the car.

Now to the true problem cars, the Nissan and the Lambo. Both are here for the same reason, they make a profit, however I will only go into detail on the Lambo as its market is much stronger than the Nissan’s and you can sell it for more. It is what my business is in. You buy the Muira for 1 mil, put I believe 48 skill point into it, and you get a Reventon FE and a wheelspin, the Reventon sells for 1.7 to 1.9mil, giving you a hefty profit. Guys that can be on all day every day maximize there 10 auction a day profit buy selling only the Reventon FEs, their Muiras either just sit in the garage or are destroyed.

Then you have guys like me, that don’t have the time to produce 10 a day and spread them out for sales, so we sell the Muiras with them as a pair to maximize profits. Personally to identify mine atleast I use the first design for my Muiras and put them on the block as low as they can go, 100k. All of mine have a 10 point wheelspin still intact, so even if you wanted a cheap Reventon you still get a wheelspin as a consolation prize.

Now we could just reset perks when you buy the car on auction sure, but that kills the market on these cars. As soon as those perks start resetting we stop putting cars like the Muira on the block at all, as then it only helps feed more competition flooding our market.

As for why we are making and selling these cars, it’s one of the best legit money makers in the game and we have to be able to afford those castles somehow

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82

Exactly. You pretty much have to be a total moron to sell the car for half the price without unlocking the FE car first. That’s just a rational decision, not a scam.

83

I’ve bought all the castles just by driving cars in races.

Not via cheap exploits that have nothing to do with driving and are an ugly reflection of how greedy and lazy people have become.

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84

It’s not the only car being used as a perk scam. There are YouTubers educating the public on how to scan or “make quick credits” through the auction house using the perk scan. IMO it’s the equivalent of selling a real life car knowing it’s lucky if the new owner makes it home. Most areas have lemon laws for this reason. Selling a car with the perks removed is a sign of low morals. If this happens to you, you should write down the GT (no posting) and never buy an auction from them again.

The proper fix would be as Hieronymus1967 said, inspect the car before you buy. The real fix would be to remove the Auction House.

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85

No kid, low morals is trying to scam the seller to give you a clean new car for a 1/6th of what they had to pay for it. The only scam on the AH right now is the scam you are trying to run

And you have a horrible analogy, as it’s not even close to selling you a lemon that won’t make it home. Its selling you a car that has had performance upgrades down to it and as a result is not longer in it’s pure stock form. Another even better analogy is you are buying the car wholesale

86

I’m a little confused by this thread…

… is a moderator actively discouraging people from using a feature of the game due to “risk?”

Why wouldn’t the solution just let people see what has already been done to a car (i.e. unlocked perks) and such?

The definition of “caveat emptor” is:

Which is exactly what we “CAN’T” do… we can’t “check the quality and suitability” of cars before we purchase them… I believe that’s what the OP was asking for.

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87

Very well said.

I am all in favor of taking responsibility for my purchases, but it’s like checking a car with a blindfold on.

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88

I don’t mind the way it is, I can’t see how its a scam. I have picked up a few cars from the auction house that have a heap of the skill perks already applied and I thought it was a bonus, I didn’t have to spend points to do it myself. Who cares if a wheelspin is used what are you missing out on?? a pair of shoes??

There is only a couple cars that have other cars in the skill tree. Buy them new from the auction house and your fine.

3 Likes
89

To me, it is a problem that doesn’t reflect well on either side.

If you are expecting to pay a (very) low price for a car that grants another car as a perk, surely you are conducting a scam that relies on the lack of awareness of the seller? The only reasons you will get a 6 million car for one million credits are that the perk has been used or the seller is unaware of the perk. The first reason is caveat emptor, the second is you the buyer exploiting a newbie. That is why I don’t feel guilty for selling my Z432’s at 17k/83k - surely it is obvious I am merely trying to get rid of rubbish, allowing collectors to complete their collection or get an extra 432 for different S1/S2 etc? If they don’t sell, I just scrap them. Alternatively, the buyer might want a livery design that doesn’t appear on the overly biased livery collection offered by the game for new cars - I tend to make designs that are way off mainstream, for example only a few people liked my KITT car Porsche design in FM7.

So, that gets car-perk-car auctions sorted - in a way, the buyer is also maybe a kind of scammer.

The scam that annoys me most is the credit perks scam. Buying a car for the RRSP, using up the perks to get the cash, which may be more than the RRSP, then using any wheelspins that are easy to access, and THEN starting the auction at the RRSP. I think the Aventador is the worst example of this, and I have seen more than one Youtube video chortling about this absolute scam.

But the bottom line is obvious really. If it looks to good to be true, it probably isn’t true. Also, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Don’t buy auctioned cars for the perks, and if you do get disappointed, learn from experience and don’t make the same mistake twice.

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90

Once again, these are USED cars. Honestly the only “unuseful” feature in the used perks are the cars and wheelspins, everything else actually benefits the second purchaser with the extra skill chain amounts and higher skill multipliers. People are essentially complaining because they can’t buy an expensive car for cheap just to use the feature they want (Forza Edition car). How is that fair for the original purchaser of the car that spent the money or got lucky enough in a wheelspin to win the car (if they’re selling it, they’re taking a big loss since most people care about the newer cars)? It’s a used car marketplace, hardly anyone gets the benefits of a new car from a used car in real life. At least with the auction, you’re getting an extremely expensive car, for a small fraction of the cost…you just don’t get the “new car warranty”. The car still works, runs, has whatever performance parts the previous person installed, and still has access to the beneficial perks that the previous owner unlocked. I don’t see the problem, unless you’re trying to cheat the system, yet reap the rewards of a brand new car. It’s not a scam, it’s high risk high reward. I was one of the people looking for a cheap car that had the available FE perk (I got lucky), and I still kept the original car because it’s a pretty cool car.

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91

An answer to this would be for the Auction to show how many Perk Points have been used. If I sell a car I make sure none of the points have been used. Not a problem as they are usually duplicates.

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92

Yes, definitely. A <5/16> perk counter is such a simple thing to do. And it has such a huge impact. A counter like this would be very useful in your car collection too. If you upgrades a car to 15/16 perks but forgot what that car is, having a perk counter there would make your life infinitely easier.

That’s all we need, really. Just a simple perk counter. Seeing a Miura with 7 perks taken should be clear indication that probably the Reventon has been taken.

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93

A perk counter could work positively in many ways:

  • easier to spot close-to-complete car masteries in your garage
  • fully leveled skill cars (16/16) could sell for more
  • unleveled cars with car unlock perks could sell for more (far closer to autoshow price)

It’s amusing to see how many are defending the intransparency of the auction house, often with very blunt and simplified RL comparisons.

I find it more worrying that the current practice is more or less officially sanctioned. If anything, it instills in me the wish to see how much I can scam out of this system for myself… sure beats racing multiple laps on Goliath with the risk of crashs or more likely, disconnections.

94
  • most perks are useless
  • cars with perks that unlock cars are very likely already used on AH
  • I don’t care about any car in the game anyway, since my lineup for S1, S2 is pretty sold.
  • you won’t ever see me in the AH again
  • forza edition cars aren’t really that special anyway
95

I wouldn’t go and search for one of these cars in the AH because there’s a damned good chance someone has already unlocked the useful perks and they’re just offloading dead weight to recoup some of their outlay.

Buy new - 100% of the perks are locked
Buy used from AH - You’re at the mercy of the seller

Selling cars on the AH with perks unlocked isn’t a scam though. Who wouldn’t mind buying say, a BMW M5 FE with all 20 of the perks unlocked without having to spend the necessary 100 skill points to get them yourself? The AH has always been a seller’s market, the new skill trees have added another risk/reward factor to buying.

I would guess it’s probable that 99% of the cars that reward other cars or double credits via the skill tree that are for sale in the AH are going to have had these perks used already. If they reset the perks when the cars are sold via the AH, what’s the point of having the Autoshow? Instead of going to buy a new Miura for 1m with all perks unused, I could go to the AH instead and get one for half the price? That wouldn’t make any sense at all. The only way to guarantee that the car you buy has all of the perks intact, is to buy it new, and that’s exactly how it should be.

As long as people are willing to part with credits to buy these cars though, there will be an abundance of people who are only too happy to sell them, regardless of perks, so the real question you should be asking is whether or not the risk is too high. If the answer is yes, then don’t buy the car. Personally I’d rather spend 450k on a 3 new Porsche 911s and get a guaranteed 900k in return for 57 skill points than risk 500k on a 1000/1 shot, and because there are so many Reventons on the AH, their value is nowhere near what it was a couple of weeks ago. Any listed with a starting bid that’s too high just don’t sell and those that do sell are usually around 1.1 - 1.2m mark, so with the AH taking their cut, you’re making around 100k on the cost of a new Miura, plus the time it takes to get the skill points… Very rarely do they sell for 1.9m anymore.

96

That would make the same sense it made in all previous Forza games.

We don’t mind that some perks on some cars might be used up but that only specific perks are used up repeatedly and specifically for profit.

97

As soon as people realise they can get their own Reventon/GT-R LM with the investment of 1m credits and a few skill points, they’ll lose their value, and more and more people are catching on. Pretty soon Miuras, R390s and their respective prize cars will be worthless, in fact I’m surprised people are still buying them…

98

I’m not a fan of exclusive things and I don’t care if everyone has them. Those buyers must be new players who have just bought the game and made some credits.

99

I am an AH addict. I can spend hours on there buying and selling cars…

100

don’t worry folks
i only sell those that i have x2,x3,x4 cars…thanks to wheelspins lol…i never touch the perks on them…unfair for the guy who wants to buy my cars