The only thing that bothers me are the Johnnies out there joining every single raffle they can to hoard the crap out of the maker just to gather stupid trade value. But it's partially fault of the makers, since they allow it to happen in the first place. KeyKollectiv, for example, who the hell needs 5 Koala keycaps? Why not limit to one or two per person? 9 out of 10 times people will make an entry with the Koala they want and 4 other good ones just to trade. Do you wanna know why? I'm gonna tell you why:
[H] 5 Kill-Wallas, 3 Snackeys [W] Any BBV2
"I don't like them as much as I thought I would, so I'm trading now."
Yeah sure, two days after the actual sale. And the price of that? 4 people somewhere around the world disappointed that they couldn't get a single useful Koala, because the ****head Johhny hoarded the one he wanted and 4 useless extras. And the worst part is that Johnny did that for absolutely nothing since nobody is gonna trade a Bro for a load of KK's. Another sad thing is that instead of making 5 people happy, KeyKollectiv decided to make a single one, since they allowed people to hoard in the first place. I'm using KK as an example, this is happening with every maker out there. Read again: I am using KeyKollectiv as an example.
I'm not salty (I won the only one I entried for and gave it to another member, Sunshine MX) it was an example and such situation is also affecting other makers. This is not my problem anyway, makers should create whatever rules they want. If they feel like 5 per person is the ideal rule, I'm absolutely no one to say otherwise. Makers should start their raffles in whatever way they want, but I'm pointing out an issue with the model currently being used by some of them.
It's even worse with Bro Caps. Absolutely everyone will join any single sale he makes, even though they doesn't even remotely want a certain cap. I'm pretty sure that many people joined the TR8-0R Sale just to snipe the keycap and trade it afterwards. I'm absolutely sure that many people dislike the design but joined anyway just to have something made by Bro, which has relevant value in the trade market.
About buying and selling artisans at a huge price, I don't see any problem with it. This is basic supply and demand in full action. Most people just happen to want nice robots, astronauts and skulls, they don't want to spend hours and hours on the Internet as if they were on a quest for the holy grail. You gotta face the reality. The community grew, and some people don't give a damn about "supporting the maker" or "the community members". They are just costumers looking for a cool product. It's a very disappointing reality that absolutely nobody has the power to change. If you enjoying selling and buying at retail and 1:1 trading, that's okay, I do too, but don't condemn people who buy and sell at high prices, because again, that's just supply and demand in full force and most people don't want to engage on a mission for a cube of plastic.