A Better Black Friday Sale

Feature Requests Website Features
#1

Note: I initially wrote this in early September, but as the Black Friday sale is nearing (23-25 November), I feel like it should be mentioned on the devforums.

Currently, the Roblox sales are deteriorating, and my belief that this is happening, is because Roblox don’t know what people want. In late August - early September, I set about writing an essay that talks about these issues, and lists ways in which Roblox can solve it.

‘Roblox Sales, Troubles and the Future’ is a document written by myself with the advice and input of 25+ other users, on Discord and Twitter. Here, I brought forward a number of issues that I have noticed with recent sales, as well as provided helpful solutions to fix these problems.

You can read the document here (and let me know of any feedback, too): https://docs.google.com/document/d/18L83fhwLdMgGYYneh4ObmrwZAtzVSHScLnHM82X-ED0/edit

I also made a unique sale timetable for each day, detailing items that I believe should be limited/on-sale. I gathered this info from the almost 8 years that I have been on the website, and some suggestions from other users. I have not touched the timetables in over a month and a half, to ensure that if Roblox were to go with my idea, there would not be any confusion if I suddenly change items in the timetable. Plus, this gives them ample time to look at the timetable, considering the entirety of the document was posted at once.

All I am asking is that Roblox please listen to my ideas, 331 others seem to like it too. It’s nothing game-changing, just simply changing the items that are in the sale. If Roblox want to appeal to the wider demographic, the suggestions that I outlined will work incredibly well.

Please consider,
Younite

32 Likes
#2

I have a few comments, I’m going be honest, I just skimmed your document, so you might have already addressed some of these.

-you have over 35 items you want to go limited in a 3 day span, and the items are a mix of bloatware (items that will maintain low demand, such as Louie, Awesome Ring, Cake hat, Shoulder helper bot… etc) but also you have multiple items that would usually be considered the highlight of a sale all going limited with 3 days? including Dusekarr, Red Void Star, Epic Face, Festive Sword Valkyrie, the list goes on. As you mention in reference to the time table, you cannot predict what items would be released, but your time table does not even leave blank slots such as [NEW ITEMS] that would clearly indicate a new item should be published then.

-Earlier in the thread you complained (twice) about Katana Traveling Pack - Roblox this item going limited because it had over 200k sales, and you go on to suggest you own item with 200k sales to go limited. Electric Punk - Roblox

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Same thing with Gurt going limited, I got tired of counting after loading 15,000 owners, but it has a lot. it was a free, game prize afterall

-you mention " which I’d like to mention, is a highly anticipated wave, you scatter classics all around the sale instead of just one place! I’ll be showing what I mean in the sale timetable." my personal opinion disagrees with this, messing with peoples FOMO (fear of missing out) will cause people to spend countless hours the day especially upsetting knowing it’s before, during, and the day after thanksgiving. this is why I really don’t enjoy the hourly format, it also guarantees that users are going to miss big parts of the sale, because the common user cannot spend 12 hours on the website.

-I would like to know more about your polls

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I’m not sure what sale you are referencing which had multiple hours where 10+ items were affected, I can recall maybe 1-2 hours during the beginning of sales when items get discounted etc. But I would be curious to know

hi I’m a roblox trader since the trading system was released in 2012, I’ve been on roblox since 2008, my entire roblox career is centered around my own trading career, owning the largest trading group and what not. this sale would be ‘the best’ sale in roblox history in terms of user feedback

but in every other regard, such as leaving items for future sales, not completely destroying the demand of several items at once (i.e you want two doombuckets to go limited within the same hour, blue & purple doombuckets look identical, both limiteds would do poorly because of this, red doombucket will take demand from the other two) and you would effectively stir up the entire trading community especially hurting value sites in the short term during an otherwise productive season

tl;dr. yes sales are not as good as they can be, but please consider more different views if you ever do a revision of this document. overall good job!

3 Likes
#3

I’ll address your points by number.

  1. I stressed that this is a mock-up timetable, Im not enforcing the idea that Roblox should take it all. I don’t know the scale of how many new items are releasing, hence why I didn’t include them.

  2. Electric Punk was chosen not because of the amount of sales, but because it is a classic item. I said that I wanted the classic wave to be spread out across the weekend, not just centered in one hour, which is why I included that item there.

  3. I chose Gurt, because well, why not. Same goes with Louie. The sales aren’t supposed to be predictable, which is why I threw in a few curveballs to throw people off, like Shoulder Helper Bot and Candle.

  4. There’s FOMO in every sale, yet I’ve never had a problem with it. Nobody knows when the classic wave starts or ends in any sale, so I don’t see your point there.

  5. https://devforum.roblox.com/t/a-couple-of-sale-related-polls/175428

  6. The black Friday sale 2013 was a great sale where there were multiple items going on-sale/limited every 1-2 hours. The items, I don’t remember, but I do remember that it happened.

  7. You complain about me including different coloured meshes like the doombuckets, but Roblox already do this with faces and no one has an issue.

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Thank you for the feedback though!

4 Likes
#4

i’ll clarify a few points as there seems to be some misunderstands (I could have included more details on my side)

responding to your specific points anyways

  1. I still believe that goes strictly against your statements with large stock limiteds, however I cannot argue that is a classic item.

  2. fair enough oddballs are always a nice inclusion, I just felt like there was a high number of oddballs in your items (additionally including bumbo, muscle, obivous troll, the list kinda goes on) however your point number 1. makes it clear this is a mock up meaning it’s not perfect, I just felt there are other popular items that could’ve filled those slots instead (additionally, you did include re-concurring items like big/bigger head despite stating earlier they were being beaten to dead by going onsale so often, props to you for seeing their sale value)

  3. FOMO I’m talking specific about the wave every hour format, if users are expecting a wave every single hour, on the hour, they’re going to avoid everything to be on the website. I’m in support of longer-spaced waves such as 3 hours with more items affected than shorter waves with fewer items. however I see why you like shorter spaced waves

  4. I should have stated the value difference thats my fault, those faces with multiple colors never succeed a couple thousand robux, (not to mention faces in nature, have virtually universal high demand to help them with recolors). however the original doombucket has a value of 45,000 robux, and a rap of 37,000, releasing the blue doombucket that looks extremely similar will greatly decrease original doombucket value, likely below it’s rap, causing it to get listed as projected which is bad for various reasons.

thank you for not getting offended by my feedback, but rather listening, and providing additional insights.

3 Likes
#5

I don’t mind the idea of longer waves with more items but a couple hours in between, but I agree with everything you said.

1 Like
#6

Update: Roblox have released a blog post regarding the sale, which includes a teaser image for some items coming out!

It gives me hope that they listened to the communities request.

https://blog.roblox.com/2018/11/roblox-black-friday-2018/

3 Likes
#7

The Black Friday sale has started, and it’s already looking promising! Let’s hope it continues throughout the weekend until Tuesday!

3 Likes
#8

wait why is this a web feature it’s just about buying aesthetics and a trading community :joy:

It’s not really a feature but a discussion of Roblox economy as it relates to novelty items (which, as custom characters are being used more often in games, isn’t a huge worry - seems more for showing off virtual wealth). I personally have been fine with every and any Black Friday sale, even if I don’t have the cash to really get anything at all. The only thing I found intriguing was the whole FOMO thing, which I can say a majority, if not all, people would have on such a day when new things are getting released that people want.

I for one, would like game pass sales more than hats. ; )

Good job writing a whole document though, I guess?

1 Like