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Skins as "Collectibles"

Bergk·3/3/2015, 12:18:44 AM·42 votes·3,609 views

I know there are a lot of "skin collectors" out there and I myself am one of them. I currently own 361 skins, and I purchase every "limited availability" skin that I can get my hands on. I would love to see Riot expand on the “Collectability” of the skins, by allowing people to trade their currently owned skins for other players' owned skins (hear me out, before you blow me off). This would benefit everyone in the League of Legends community: “Free Players,” Collectors, and even Riot!

  1. For those people who are not avid skin collectors this would benefit you as well, say you were gifted a mystery gift skin (even the one for “good behavior”) and you got a skin for a champion you never play… but hey that’s your best friend’s favorite champion and he has a skin that you’d like. It’d be awesome if Riot would allow us to trade them! Just like any other collectible in the real world!
  2. And what this would mean for us skin collectors is a chance to **trade big **for skins that "un purchasable." For example, I would trade DOZENS of skins to get my hands on a Black Alistar skin! Or another example: A collector missed a limited holiday skin sale and doesn’t want to wait a whole year to purchase it at its next availability. I would be willing to trade a few skins to someone who bought it but decided it wasn’t as cool as he/she thought it would be.
  3. It would benefit Riot as well, because I know if skins were tradable people would be purchasing a lot more mystery boxes! Also I’m sure more players would buy the limited availability skins (as investments), in hopes of trading them during “unavailable” times to get more skins for their money. As a collector, I currently only purchase "limited availability" skins. But if trading was an option, I would invest in normal skins during skin sales to use them as “currency” to get skins I really want…. (Riot, I would even be willing to pay a transaction "fee" to trade skins. Maybe it would cost like 100RP per trade and that money goes to Riot for all the hard work of setting up such a lovely trading system. The transaction fee can either be split 50/50 or one player can pay the whole fee as part of the deal) All of these examples means more RP spent at the store, which means more money in Riot’s pocket!

Obviously, Riot would have to put limitations on this. For example, players cannot trade skins that are earned (ie, Grey Warwick/Medieval Twitch) or awarded for achievements (like any of the “Victorious” skins or Trophy Ryze). Also players can only trade skins for skins (no buying skins from other players).

Really, there is no down side. The rare-unpurchasable skins will still be just as rare because the **number ** of skins in circulation would not change. Riot makes more money and players are happy with their new cool skins!

What do you guys think? Riot if you read this, please sincerely considered it; I'd love to hear what you guys think of this idea!

21 Comments

Zaíphon3/3/2015, 12:25:49 AM7 votes

Sounds good at first, but could be exploited e.g. if the Account get hacked.

Never Ganks Mid3/3/2015, 12:27:53 AM4 votes

/signed I'd love to be able to trade skins of champions I have duplicates of! Like since I bought DJ Sona, I'd love to be able to trade Arcade Sona since I'm obviously never going to use that one again.

Bananas of Doom3/3/2015, 8:14:04 AM2 votes

/signed aswell. This would be amazing. I'm a vivid collector, been since LoL started, and by that I have also had many mains. There is a lot of skins I'd like to trade away. Like Mecha Skarner or whatever. I wanted Fnatic Janna, Riot. Pls >:

Scuttler Slayer3/3/2015, 5:08:41 AM2 votes

I wonder what I'd have to give up for Urfskin Warwick... Missed it by 2 months :[

KING OF MASKS3/3/2015, 8:29:14 AM2 votes

Very interesting idea, I like it.

QueenAqua3/3/2015, 12:38:48 PM2 votes

I would happily trade the skin i got mystery gifted by riot for something else (got bandito fiddlesticks and not only do i barely play him, but this skin is in my opinion the worst one he has) like sweetheart annie or some other cheap skin like that.

Senteth3/4/2015, 8:38:06 PM2 votes

Dear Riot: This would make you a lot of money, AND make your players happy! (Making you more money.) Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, do it!

Jim3/4/2015, 9:55:10 PM1 votes

This is a great idea and the tips you put along with them are great too.

Riot just has to be **extremely ** careful not to turn it into a Steam economy bullcrap where everything is inflated to incredibly low values, but as long as there isn't any way to make a currency out of it (which there is not :D), shouldn't be a problem.

Keep in mind however some people DO ignore caution and do things such as trade "White Mage Veigar" + IRL Money for "Urf Warwick". Always the bad side to it. Would get Riot's hands a little busy in the support tickets.

Other then that - this is a idea I've wanted for a long time. I don't need to own 2 skins of the same champion if I use only 1.

MidNightDevilSai3/3/2015, 6:09:43 AM1 votes

Purpose of a company is to earn money. You said you are the skin collector, so if you really like a skin, i think you will buy it, even if it is not on sale. About the transaction fee, a cheapest skin is 520RP, even it is on sale, it is still 260RP, both of the prices are more expensive than your transaction fee. So i don't think they will adopt your idea.

Quepha3/3/2015, 4:44:17 AM1 votes

riot was throwing that idea around when they were trying to solve the issue of limited skins that you could no longer get.

considering they went with "we'll just re-release them and live with upsetting some people who thought they would have these skins all to themselves" instead of something like you suggested, we can probably assume that they consider a trading option to be too difficult to implement compared to whatever benefit it would provide to the players.

Simplicate3/4/2015, 5:55:34 AM1 votes

Not willing to PAY to trade skins I already bought. I swear to god if Rito pulls a money grab like this people will go nuts! Don't get me wrong I do love the idea of being able to trade that disgusting Coral Reef Malphite skin but I dont want to have to pay to do so. I would also be contempt with them allowing me to pay with IP.