Community Forum

I have a question about what you consider normal Marketplace usage for a legitimate human flipper. How frequently should a normal player actually be able to use the Marketplace for buying and selling?

I actually only ran into this because I saw your post about testing the new Marketplace filter and wanted to see whether I would be affected.

I hadn't done any flipping or Marketplace transactions for three days, so I simply found a random bronze card and placed a 25-Stubs buy order as a test. That very first order resulted in a 10-minute cooldown.

That's what concerns me. I wasn't doing any high-frequency activity or anything remotely resembling bot-level behavior — I was literally just testing the Marketplace with a single 25-Stubs order.

So what level of Marketplace activity do you actually consider normal for a legitimate human flipper?

I'm not asking for unlimited transactions or bot-level activity. I understand the need to fight bots, but there needs to be a reasonable level of access for legitimate players who use the Marketplace regularly.

The problem is that restrictions like this don't really stop me from flipping — they just push me back to the console. And the console doesn't even have the same Favorites functionality that makes the App useful for managing the cards I'm interested in.

If this level of restriction is truly necessary, then I think the console Marketplace needs to be improved accordingly. The web Marketplace has already become much less practical for flipping after the reCAPTCHA frequency was increased. I've been using the Marketplace for years, and I've seen firsthand how much that change affected the experience, and now the App is becoming increasingly difficult to use as well. If the App and web versions are going to restrict how frequently legitimate players can use the Marketplace, then the console should at least provide the same basic tools and convenience.

Otherwise, it feels like every Marketplace option is gradually becoming more restrictive rather than simply addressing the bot problem. I really hope the goal is to stop automation without limiting how legitimate players are allowed to use the Marketplace.

I actually agree that the market looks much healthier with the filter enabled, and I think that's a good thing. However, I think there is an important distinction here that I'm still not seeing addressed.

A healthier market doesn't necessarily mean the filter is successfully distinguishing bots from legitimate players. It can also mean that legitimate players simply have fewer practical ways to participate in the Marketplace.

For example, I haven't flipped anything for about three days. After seeing your post, I decided to test the App myself by placing a single order on a common card. My very first order resulted in a 10-minute cooldown. If a legitimate player can go three days without using the Marketplace and then get a cooldown from their first order, I'm honestly not sure how we're supposed to use the App for normal flipping.

This also makes the alternatives important. On console, there is no Favorites feature, so manually flipping specific cards means constantly searching for them. The web version has already become less convenient for flipping compared with how it used to be because of the increased reCAPTCHA frequency. And now the App can put legitimate users into cooldowns after very little activity.

So if all three ways of accessing the Marketplace become more difficult, of course the market can look healthier. There are simply fewer people able to actively compete. Larger spreads and less aggressive competition are then an expected result.

I'm not saying the filter should simply be removed. I understand that you are trying to deal with bots and third-party sites. What I'm questioning is whether the current approach is actually separating bots from legitimate players, or just reducing Marketplace activity from both.

I also find it difficult to evaluate the long-term effect when the filter is repeatedly turned on and off after only a few hours. Every iteration changes the behavior of the entire market, so I'm not sure how meaningful a short-term comparison can be. If the goal is to find a sustainable solution, wouldn't it make more sense to leave a version enabled for a meaningful period and let the community use it normally before evaluating the results?

Most importantly, what level of Marketplace activity should a normal human flipper reasonably be able to perform without repeatedly receiving cooldowns?

Because that's ultimately what I'm trying to understand. I don't need to flip hundreds of cards per minute. I'm perfectly happy flipping manually every few minutes. But if even normal, occasional Marketplace activity can result in 10-minute cooldowns, then the App becomes very difficult to use for its intended purpose.

And if the App needs to have these restrictions, then I think the console Marketplace needs to become a much better alternative — especially with features like Favorites. Otherwise, you're essentially making every method of flipping more difficult and then using the resulting healthier market as evidence that the solution is working.

I understand SDS wants to improve the Community Market experience, but the current implementation is becoming frustrating for normal Marketplace users.

Earlier today I was able to use the official Community Market website normally. I use ShowZone to quickly find cards, add them to my Watch List on the official website, and then use the Companion App to flip them. Everything worked fine.

Then, at around 12:00 AM CT, doing the exact same thing started returning 503 errors on the website, and shortly after the Companion App began showing "Request verification failed." The error continued even after I stopped using the website.

I don't even flip at a particularly fast pace. Most of the time I'm doing something else and only come back to check the market occasionally. The website is mainly for adding cards to my Watch List so I can easily find them later in the Companion App.

Flash Sales and content drops are supposed to be the busiest times for the Marketplace. That's when players are most active, and that's when flipping has the most value for people trying to earn Stubs for their own teams.

Most of us aren't trying to do anything unusual—we're just using the Marketplace to progress in the game.

If there are new Marketplace limits, please communicate them clearly. Don't leave players guessing why the same actions work one moment but suddenly stop the next.

Right now it feels completely inconsistent. If there are limits, tell us what they are so players know how to stay within them.

@Manu__SDS_MLBTS said:

Howdy,

I just checked, and it appears that the app is operating at normal speed again.

I appreciate the reports about slowness - you are responding to the question I asked - but please remember that the Companion App is just a client in a larger ecosystem!

I am the equivalent of your car mechanic and I can't do anything if your car is low when the traffic builds up

@Manu__SDS_MLBTS I completely understand the Companion App is just a client, and that the Marketplace backend is a different system.

But I think that's exactly why so many players rely on the Companion App. If the console Marketplace were more convenient to use, far fewer players would need to manage the market from their phones throughout the day.

That's also why you're seeing so many reports appear around the same time. When the Marketplace runs into issues, a lot of players are affected simultaneously because the Companion App has become the primary way many of us interact with the market, especially during Flash Sales and content drops.

Players aren't using the Companion App because they prefer using a phone. They're using it because, in its current state, it's simply the most practical way to use the Marketplace.