Alright. Say you open this brand new extended box with the gold you've been grinding the past month. ... And you end up with a bunch of spares. Now you got some options: 1) Sacrifice them in the Forge. 2) Trade them to PoxBox for credit. 3) Trade them to PoxPoints for credit. 4) List 'em up on the Trader for profit/1-on-1. 5) Keep them/Gift them. Ignoring options #4 & #5 for the purpose of this thread, you come to a point where you begin to wonder which of the three "rune banks" (aka PB, PP, and Pox Nora's Forge, which I'll refer to as PN) will give you the most credit for your spare runes. On first glance, it is obvious that, compared to the 2 unofficial stores, PN's rates (using the shard system) are pretty bad. The advantages that PN provides are the following: 1) Scam-proof. 2) Non-dynamic market. 3) Official (in the sense of support and longevity - it won't suddenly go down one day and *poof* went your credit) 4) Speed (no need to access 3rd party/host a trade) 5) Access to every non-LE rune (except current expansion, ofcourse) 6) You can build up your shard stock (PN credit) by playing. When it comes to comparing the 2 unofficial stores, it is obvious that PP is still very young. Most runes are still only available for premium points, quite a few are not in even in stock yet, etc. Thinking somewhat long term though, it is safe to assume that PP will come to contest PB's place as undisputed "bang for your buck" destination. This will inevitably lead to a % price reduction from both parties sides; a controlled fall, as PN stands as a safety net and price guideline (its non-dynamic pricing prevents severe price fluctuation between different time periods or between the 2 different stores). Along with PP's eventual acquisition of stock (decent size of rune pool to trade-out), a time should come where the 2 stores co-exist and are much similar in terms of economic power (not counting separate functions such as auto-trading from PP, direct rune purchasing with IRL $ from PB etc). So if we re-evaluate our options again: You can trade to PB or PP instead of PN but this way you support a 3rd party (profit-makers) instead of the game itself. You can trade to PB or PP with no actual guarantee that your credit with each is safe and translatable to runes at any given moment/once they go kaput. You can trade to PP with the hope that it will catch up with PB (but your credit will currently be worth less on PP, due to the store's limited stock) You can shard in PN to grab a rune that is unavailable in both stores (highly unlikely) or to bypass an increase in the rune's price due to high demand (not so unlikely) You can shard in PN if you want your credit safe for the very-long-term. You can shard in PN if you look to play a lot and build up shards that way to add to your pre-existing pile. You can shard in PN if the in-price for a certain rune has hit rock bottom on the 2 stores. You can avoid trading to one of the two (or both) unofficial stores out of loyalty issues. PB and PP rates are, and always will be, better than PN's. PB and PP offer LE runes as well as latest expansion runes. As such, what you should look to be doing is probably the following: Build a decent shard pool on PN, pile any extra shards you earn via playing/purchases on it and save it for emergencies/speed-buys/any of the scenarios described above. Only shard runes which have a very low in-price on the unofficial stores compared to other runes of the same rarity. In the same logic, look to mostly craft runes on PN with a high out-price in the stores (Remember: PN cares not about price, supply and demand. It only understands rarity and sets). Start to build up credit in one of the stores and stick to it. This might be PB because you already have credit there, PP because you believe in new blood and competition, PB because you don't believe PP will ever catch up in terms of stock or because you think PB's currency will always be stronger than PP's, or you can go with PP because of the options it promises to deliver (automated and stuff). Or you can just hate on of the owners and decide to stick it to him, hell do I care. Trade most and all of your spares with a respectable in-price (usually higher rarity runes) and look to trade-out low or mid range priced runes compared to their rarity (low/medium demand). Closing, I'd like to return to the point about the Rune Trader. The rune Trader can be a very dangerous place as you can read here. However, if you feel you're ready to play ball and done your research, then by all means, try to find a trade that suits you. The Rune trader has the potential to be the most efficient way to handle spares - problem is it is 1) too slow 2) most people there are looking to make profit 3) you need to know exactly what you're looking for and you need to have a rune (or sum of runes) of ~equal value on hand. As such the Rune Trader should be mostly used for Exo+ spare runes you might have; try to trade those 1:1 (or anything you think is fair) for other same rarity runes you don't own.
