Huh, odd coming back from vacation and seeing this was confusing! To set a few things straight...
The "tier" of the items sold was to be nothing extraordinary so a price over 1k plat would not be justified based solely on the items' tier. A rare metal broadsword only appraises for 15-25 plat in most cases. The addition of crushed gems and moonsilver resulted in the exclusive nature of the pricing.
Now the shields did come out a bit odd. They are low on weight (not on hindrance though). Not sure how that slipped by. Mistakes do happen, and we will work to do better for next time. Defense/hindrance-wise they are not Tier 6 so we will probably leave them as-is.
As for the complaints - a majority of GM run events generate only modest interest. In this case I don't believe anyone expected such a crowd and the items sold out very quickly. I insisted on a small limit ahead of the sale because not everyone in the game should have items with such a good appearance :P
Now, I realize it is a downer when folks make a special trip and camp out a shop only to find it sold out before they can type BUY. It wasn't intentional and the last thing folks wanted was everyone getting upset by it. Why spend weeks making a shop, the items, getting it all QC'd just to stir up pitchfork-wielding mobs, eh?
We've always taken the approach of multiple avenues for providing limited items (raffles, auctions, festival shops, quests, random shops, boss drops, Simucon prizes, etc). If you missed this shop well that sucks - but it could lead to you meeting new people, starting some RP over the thing, or just means the lucky people who got the items can feel special for a bit. More opportunities will present themselves!
Some thoughts on your suggestions -
- Limiting shops to 1 purchase per account helps, but then folks just go logging in other accounts and that is difficult/impossible for us to police effectively.
- Giving a specific day/time helps players plan, but also removes some of the RP surrounding it. Due to RL schedules it can always make things very stressful for us GMs. Finally, this just encourages abuse as someone is bound to spam BUY faster than you.
- Removing limited items isn't really an option. All games should have have neat things that exist in rare quantities!
- I can see how having a good mix of cheap and expensive items helps everyone in attendance, especially if folks have to choose one over the other. This leaves the inexpensive items for those without an infinite bankroll.
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