I know i don't go on the forums often very much, and i know theres threads about Basil and terminal tickets already, but i'm concerned with something different, which I have never seen anything about on my 2 page search for "basil invite", or is ignored and pushed down the abyss of the archives.
Of course, if you're reading this from what the topic name is, you're probably a newbie who has probably no idea how this thing works. I'll break it down simply.
Ask for an invite -> Get into terminal -> Buy the recipe -> Pay the ticket price -> Leave.
That's how it works in text form. However if you find something different from the chain of events up there, such as paying the ticket price before the invite happens,
It's a scam.
Why am I telling this?
I'm concerned with the outflux of new players who have had extremely difficult times with the CE price of nearing 5k CR per 100 CE. Several of my friends have been scammed from the fake terminal tickets who have proven to be false and the same old people.
Why should you believe me?
It's simple logic. Technically, from the chain of events I've listed up there, even if the guy kicks you, you are still safe inside the terminal. It is definite that even if you are kicked, the shop list STAYS the same. Even if the guy has a motive to scam your money, you should be able to buy another recipe, sell it for a mark-up to gain back the profit. HOWEVER, if you pay before he invites you, and he decides to scam you, there is no way to get that ticket price you farmed so much for, back.
So there it is. Some clarification and help for the newbie who apparently got scammed and ragequit.
How should the mods handle this?
Make the terminal a restricted area, as like treasure vaults. This will stop the possible scamming, get back the player's recipe market, and stop new players from ragequitting.
How should the actual ticketers handle this?
Definitely, stop the terminal tickets because it ruins the recipe market. However, i understand that making money in this way is one of the better farming ways, so i shall still suggest the chain of events if you really want to do terminal ticketing.
As a note and side-tip, here are the non-definite prices for different star-rating items and terminal tickets. I shall ignore tier 1 and 1-2* for obvious reasons
3* recipe mark-up : around 1k (or around 6.5k after calculation)
4* recipe mark-up : around 2k (or around 17k after calculation)
5* recipe mark-up : around 3k (or around 48k after calculation)
Tier 2 : around 2k ticket price
Tier 3 : around 3k ticket price
I shall be expecting scammers who are going to flame me for ruining their business.
As viper901's suggestion, a better movement would be of the simpler, non-possible scammable way which is the compose message function.
The buyer who wants a recipe asks for it. The seller then asks his comrade inside the terminal to get the recipe, and send it to him using the compose message function for an extra 100 crowns. The seller then trades the buyer this thing.
This is completely safe until some idiot players appeared who don't respond after trading and can't understand english.
The compose message function is through clicking the message button on the top left of the screen, click the compose message button, type recipient's name, click attach button on the bottom right of the dialog box, drag and drop the item, and click send. There you have it, except you lose 100 crowns.
A few comments.
Firstly, there's nothing wrong with a seller asking for payment before offering an invite. It requires the same level of trust for the seller to invite first at the risk of not being paid, with the difference that if the seller turns out to be a scammer, they are quite easy to discredit immediately.
Secondly, while there might be a standard set of markups/prices that are often used, anything in Spiral Knights is worth whatever someone will pay for it. People shouldn't be absolutely incensed to find people charging more, or jump on any deals where people are charging less than the prices you've listed.
Just my two crowns, as it were.