Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hi everyone, I'm new to the guild so I'd thought I'd say hello and introduce myself. I didn't see an introductions thread so if it's all right I figured I'd start one, if that's all right with you Alexi.

Let's see, I've been on the exchange only since mid or late Dec '04 (whenever I started this account, basically), but I started on Gaia with my original account back in Jan. 04. So I had some money saved up and didn't have to start from scratch. Being an exchange whore is a lot of fun, and is better than what I was doing on Gaia before, which was a whole lot of nothing in the chatterbox.

I'm not really questing for anything, since not really having too much makes the things I really want mostly unattainable. But I can probably get a Devil's Tail with some more hard work. That's my current goal, in all honesty.

EDIT: Woot, a sticky! My first in Gaia, figures it would come in a Guild, seem to be the only free speech zones left! Thanks 'lexi! Good thing I didn't add a poll, and it's GREAT to see and read all your bios, from the people rolling in '03 items to those of us who still might flip a hockey mask smile

EDIT New bio - the real one this time. XP heart

Name: Alexi_Jameson
Occupation: Exchanger, Vender, running GCG, QnFer, Fisher, and art commissioner
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Taiwanese
Forums most frequented: Exchange, RnC, QnA/Feedback, Fishing
Currently earning up for: Devil's Tail and DJs, and art.

RL stuff: Okay, so originally, I had typed up a bio that was similar to mine but was posed as that of a friend. Much of the same is really true: I do study at Stanford University, and I am a sophomore thinking about majoring in biology. (Though I may think about doing business instead of biology now) I also play the piano and have won several competitions, as well as placed in many of them, including being a semifinalist at the Eastman International Piano competition the summer of my Highschool Freshman year.

Gaia History: Alright, so most of you know me as Alexi, the creator of the GCG and top fisherperson of Jan 2005. I am indeed those things, and I regularly go to the exchange, marketplace, fishing forum (not as much anymore), and the requests and commissions forum, as well as go to QnA and Feedback at times. I started this account in November of 2004 and exchanged til I got this Halo and stuff, by pooling with Goddess Nephilim and Madox.

However, there are other names I was known as in the past and I've decided to openly admit them, since pretty much everyone knows about them now. If the powerful Gaians know and are the ones that can harm me, there is no harm in explaining to newer members what is being talked about, and I'd rather explain this on my terms, than have you ask someone else only to get a part of the truth.

History of Kalec: My account, Kalec, was both in January 26th, 2004. It was the first time I had ever set foot on an anime forum, let alone something as big as Gaia is, besides the wizards.com boards and the Magic the Gathering trading boards there. I was introduced by the user Kei Asaki, and he and Nyphe and Cryptic Angel were people I knew from the WoTC boards. CA and Kei were here before then. Nyphe was the guy I introduced.

At first, I was a chatterboxer/roleplayer - this lasted a couple hours or so though before I got sick of it. There's only so much bumping you can do before you get tired of it.

At any rate, I used to be a top-gun Magic the Gathering trader back on WoTC, where I ran a Rippers guide and Reference taker (basically a scammers thread) in which I listed people who were bad traders - it was the first of its kind there on the Magic trading boards, and through it, the amount of scamming on there has basically decreased to near-none. (though Nyphe did have to take over when I stopped going to those boards, which is something that I am very thankful to him for)

Anyway, after the chatterboxing, I was looking for a place that I could fit in. Naturally, I saw the description of the exchange and was intrigued. I looked into it and saw that there were numerous items that could not be obtained in the stores, and started researching. I actually didn't look much at GEN at that time - just figured out prices myself based on the threads. (And in fact, I didn't know about price guides until a few days into my time there)

Whatever the case, I began to do business. I discovered long ago on the Magic trading boards that I could obtain cards by way of trade and gain profits: In fact, for those of you who are interested in Magic, I managed to procure a Black Lotus, Mox Pearl, and Mox Jet, as well as a Mox Emerald while starting with a 200 dollar collection, through trading of my cards. I used these business tactics in the exchange, where I discovered that January letters could be bought for less than 3K and sold for more than 3K.

Nyphe and I tore up the exchange with low priced items, like the Jans and uncommons/rares. I realized after my first opening of a trunk, that selling rare events was the best way to go about things, and so I started selling those off to make profits. As a newbie, I got around 10K within my first day there in profits. I brought Nyphe along and he got 15K, mostly because of some random January letters he got in his inventory somehow.

I continued to exchange and meet people. I met people such as Embyrr and Joking Saint (under her old name), as well as My a** (under her old name as Mermaid Hunhun), and a~chan - others as well, like Teh Sexx (Soranji Chan). Most people were quite friendly to me at the beginning while I was trying to earn up from scratch and helped me out - a~chan started exchanging letters to me for less for instance, or do trades with me.

I started making a ton of contacts and my exchanging began to run into the hundreds of K. I think I got my Minis within the first week being on the site. (Keep in mind, that this is without prior knowledge of prices or exchanging in general, though there is some business-knowledge beforehand) I got another pair sometime in the next week, but I lost them to a scammer because I lent them to him to borrow. (stupid scammers - he was supposed to be my "adopted son.")

The loss of the minis was really annoying but people donated to me to help me out, which was totally awesome of them. Most notably, this is the time I really met Nephilim, who donated me like 40K in pure. With these donations, I managed to exchange up my minis again within 3 days of hardcore exchanging. Nephilim and I had previously met when I was a newbie in my first week, when I had asked her about her bronze medal. ^^

Though I, Nyphe, and Kei had a shop prior to this, I set up a shop of my own I believe at this time, and I actually met some other January members who were good exchangers. Most notable of them was Kanzaki Hayato, better known as Uk0n to many of you, or just as Kanz. I really looked up to him, and I also looked up to Sh0plifter at the time, because they seemed like established Gaians and exchangers with more experience than me. I met Friky at this time as well. And DistilledJoy. We called ourselves the "Jan team" because we were good at exchanging and had just joined early on.

GEN started to become, to me, a ridiculously wrong price guide - I would look at the price guide, and look at the real market and the GEN was often wrong. So wrong in fact, that they at one time had Ports as double the worth of DJs (400 compared to 200K). At any rate, I stopped looking at them and just exchanged on my own, stopping only to tell them of prices when their prices were obviously wrong, by reporting my sales and those of other people.

It was about three weeks into my exchanging that I got a Bronze Medal from someone. When I talked with Delerium and Daisuke at this time through PMs, they said that they had their own Medals for sale for Ports, so I figured why not? Lets sell them for Ports. I put them in my little shop, with an autobuy of Ports, and sometime after, a kid PMed me asking to buy the bronze. The guy had Ports on, I asked if he was trading in his Ports, and he said yeah. And so, I traded him.

Anyway, I got my Ports, and then got some good deals. Since I'm a person who takes offers on just about everything he wears, and doesn't mind parting with something in order to get profits, I had my Ports in the shop as well. After selling off the Ports, buying minis, selling them off, buying Ports again etc I got quite a sum of profits. I think my main commodity at the time was indeed Headphones and Minis, because of the fact that they were just within my price range, and garnered me the most profits per sale for my time.

One set of Ports quickly became two sets of the things, and two became two sets of Headphones and another Bronze Medal, among other things. At this time, Japakitten (under the name Friantase I believe), was taking offers on her Panda Hat. She had listed a bunch of items - basically Headphones, Bronze, Minis, and some other things. I just happened, in fact, to have ALL of those items including the Ducky and Fairy Wings, which was totally random. She wanted some more pure, I sold off the stuff, and we traded. And so I ended up with a Panda and just about nothing else. Kanz was annoyed that I got the Panda before he got his grizzly if I remember correctly and we joked about it together.

Later, I tried exchanging some more, and I just couldn't do anything with the items I had remaining, what little of them there were. I debated, and I sold this Panda Hat to Trufflepig, who was in want of a Panda at the time. She was a friend, and had been recently hacked, and I knew how much her old Panda had meant to her. Her offer was in hundreds of letters, and was less than other people were offering (triple Augusts at the time) but I figured since she was a friend, and I had the hat, I would sell it to her for less. So Truff got her hat and I had enough to exchange with again.

Exchanging proved fruitful and I didn't go after another bear hat until later. I decided to quest for a Halo and set up a thread saying why I would like to do so. My reasons at the time? Halo was the ultimate challenge, and I wanted to show that a newbie could obtain it, so that I could own it of course and show that I myself could meet the challenge, and so that others could be inspired to try to work for their items.

I had already owned everything in the game at one time or another previously to that except for the Grizzly bear hat. I had gone through a bow tie, and a Rose Corsage (which was worth just under what Ports were worth actually, at the time, which was amusing because of how they skyrocketed). I figured it was worth a shot - that even though people said it was a pretty much legendary item, I had a chance. So I went for it.

Anyway, Nephilim was about to quit actually prior to this and stayed only because of me, to help with my Halo quest, citing that Neko Eyowen got her Halo and she had helped. After some time, she decided to quit Gaia after all, and was going to send me her minis to keep until she returned. I was really sad at this time because she was really close to me as a friend, and I actually had started to have feelings for her at the time, and so I wrote a little ode to her in my shop, telling her that I was waiting for her to return, whenever that was. And so, she saw this, and came back.

It was soon after this that Nephilim (I will refer to her as Aya from time to time, which is her real name) and I started going out together. I had set up my shop version 2.0 at this time, and asked her out through IMs. Not as a purely Gaia thing. But as an over-all thing - a relationship for real. Originally, I was a bit afraid to ask her out because I feared rejection, but after a push from Devi, I put up the nerve to ask. I'm glad that I got up the confidence.

I set up another shop. It was tremendously successful, though it was full of drama. I am a center of drama, which you will know if you know me at all, because I am always outgoing and active online. (frighteningly active, as Nyphe would put it at some point) I always had stuff in stock, and spent tons of time restocking, and so I became known as someone who always had high-end items in their shop, and the person to talk to when someone wanted an item.

I think it was after this that Nyphe, Kei, and CA and I started drifting apart - I taught Kei exchanging, Nyphe had disappeared back to the Wizards boards, and CA had just gone back to the wizards boards as well, since they all got bored of Gaia again. (Later, I was to discover that Kei never actually left, Nyphe had left because he was being harassed constantly and took over my responsibilities at the other board, and CA came back later on, bringing some friends over and haunted RnC)

I will openly admit that I was a bit of a n00b back then, as Kalec. I was new to the forums of Gaia and based my thoughts on what I would do if I was in people's situations. I never really stuck my head out of the exchange, nor did I actually -learn- the fine print or the ToS. And this, in fact, got me in trouble. A lot.

The first time I got in trouble because of my n00bness was when someone tried to steal his mother's credit card in order to buy 700 letters. To me, this is immoral and wrong and yet, some people were saying he should do it. Considering how much pull I used to have on the old boards on Wizards.com, and figuring I had enough pull and regularity in the forum of the exchange, I told the guy not to do it or I'd get a boycott on him.

Old vets of the forum, decided to become bitchy with me, defending this offender by saying that I was in the wrong and by yelling at me, saying I was trying to "be the god of the exchange." (This is when Joe's "God of the exchange" joke was born actually - you know the "Kalec is god of the exchange? No! I'M god of the exchange") I tried to expalin myself to her, but she wouldn't let up and even went and PMed me after the thread had been locked, to voice her opinions of me and flame me half to death. N00b that I was, and newbie that I was, I didn't actually know you could report people, and so I didn't report her.

This is the start of the rivalry I had with Delerium, just so you can get a little background on it. I was partly to blame because I was acting like a n00b over something that wasn't my business. She was partly to blame for acting like an elitist vet towards me when I didn't know crap about what was going on. Were both of us wrong? Yeah. But I'll get to some more of the Delerium fight later. Note though please that we've said our apologies and made up.

Alright then, Nephilim and I opened up a new shop - The Fallen Angel Sanctuary. This was a joint shop that we set up so we could have something more to do on the forums, to keep us from being bored. Another extremely successful thread - thousands of pages within months, courtesy of the many people who frequented the thread.

Additionally, though, it became the place where drama always went. People would have drama in other threads and come back to my shop to say something about it. I think there was a Livejournal community that was started based on the fact that there was so much drama in the the thread. Though, the fact of the matter is, there always was drama in the exchange - tons of it. But it wasn't brought up all in one thread before. And thus was born the "Kalec is a drama whore and likes to cause trouble" idea.

The thread became popular as a price guide too, albeit a non-stickied and non-official (not to mention, not in the least MEANT to be) guide/store thing. People started accusing me of "manipulating the prices" because my prices were often not based on GEN, but were instead based on what I actually sold at. The funny thing is, my prices were almost always less than real market value or even just on because I knew that if I listed something outrageous, noone would buy it. People thought I was trying to make the prices though, even though I was doing nothing but selling my wares just like anyone else. And thusly, the "Kalec is manipulating prices" thing came about.

The Halo quest kept going and I tried to earn up the items for it. From vets, I learned that it wasn't the value of the offer that really appealed to anyone, since GEN was always off on the Halo value (which still said 1 million at least months into my time there, which was bullshit). The value, they said, was two bear hats and enough to make another, or triple bear hats + a bit. With this in mind, I decided to put up in my shop that I was trying to get a Bear Hat for my offer, offering up 3 million each. Why 3 million you ask? Because I did my research and saw people's trades and offers for other bear hats, and they came to 3 million apiece. But of course, Japakitten and other questors thought I was trying to raise the price of bear hat, and so the "Kalec is screwing over his friends by raising prices on items" thing was born.

My profits skyrocketed based on good deals and fast exchanging - here are the methods I used:

My style was basically to take offers on big items and value items based on GEN but with a twist. For items that GEN valued too low, I would accept as MAX Gen. For items that GEN Valued too high, I would generally value at 5K to 10K under Max GEN. I actually garnered a lot of profit because people would invariably, of course, offer the items that were valued at Max GEN, thinking they were getting their money's worth more than if they offered the others, which gave me automatic profits for each item offered in that way. Pure was also valued high because I could snatch items up for at least 5K under GEN Max due to people's selling wants at the time.

With Buying, I would almost always buy with either the following: A large chunk of pure with something tossed in at Maximum GEN, which GEN overvalued, or just a bunch of items valued at Maximum, or a pure gold or "I'll sell these off quickly if you can hold this item for me" thing if they valued my items too low. You see, with an item thrown in at maximum, its like an automatic sale with maximum profits AND an offer on the higher item at the same time. If you can score an item for cheap with items inside your offer, you score an extra 2 or 3K per item, or more depending on the items involved.

I got really good at it, and because I always tried to be a gentleman when offering or selling, (even putting up offers that I didn't like, but others could take, for instance) I managed to get good deals. I would also ride the GEN stupidity updates because when they updated wrong, they would invariably cause the real market prices to follow. I think the most I earned was 3 million in a single day, because of them. I sold some minis for a high amount, bought up Headphones for cheap, and then they updated the headphones to a price that they were not really at. I believe it was from the price of around 8 million, jumping to around 11 million. So to those who have asked what my biggest profit was, thats it right there.

The second big drama happened: the veris halo situation. At this time, a user came to me saying he would take my Halo offer saying he was an RP mule and didn't want his main to be known. I did a backcheck on him myself by looking through his last posts, and he was indeed a member who posted in the RP threads. The user was named StarScarSyndrome. He showed me the halo through a trade so I figured alright - this is awesome, checked Veris's rental shop which said the Halo was still there, checked his posts again, and started trading over things. I had lent motorbrethfcker the DJs in my offer at the time, but I told the guy that I would just send him over the DJs when I got them back from motor. And so I got the Halo.

I started celebrating in our shop thread, saying I got my Halo when I was told by Veris that it was her halo. I didn't know what to do at the time actually. She hinted that she wanted it back, and because the offer was a combined offer of me and Madox's, as well as Nephilim's Minis, I was hesitant to just return it. All three of us had worked hard as hell for months before this offer came about and was taken. I wasn't about to make them lose a ton of stuff by simply giving it back. Veris originally said that if I really wanted to keep it, then I could keep it. (but of course, she changed her stance after that)

I responded by saying that I wanted to return it but I couldn't unless I got my stuff, and the other stuff that Madox and Nephilim put in, back. She started lying about it, saying I never wanted to return the Halo, and spreading crappy rumors, and said that I may not have a choice in giving back the halo or not (teh sexx bought into these rumors at the time, and posted all over Livejournal about it, but I responded to them and we worked it out). All I could think of at the time was that if she got her Halo back, and I got nothing back, it would be damn unfair.

A debate really started going between me and a ton of others. People chose sides - people who weren't even involved. People that just wandered in off the street and had no idea what the heck was going on. There was fighting in my thread, fighting all over the forums, people started going all anti-mod or anti-Kalec. Because the thing is, Veris originally got one of her Halos from someone who scammed another person, and that Halo wasn't being returned. But since she was a mod, she expected this Halo to be returned, which struck many as unfair. Similarly, I didn't return the Halo for free when I found out it was scammed, due to my reasons stated above, and others said that I was the one who got scammed, not Veris. (And how can you argue Veris didn't get scammed, when the stolen halo was hers in the first place?) I even had fights with some mods over this, including Noraboo (who I really respect right now, don't get me wrong) and a ton of other mods who posted in my thread with their opinions on the matter, and flame wars did ensue over that (and in fact, our shop thread got locked temporarily without warning so that some of these posts could be deleted).

Anyway, that huge fight ended when veris's halo was rolled back to her account, and my items were rolled back to my account. I was a bit annoyed because she got special treatment: the fact of the matter is that during that time, scammed people really rarely received their items back if at all. The minis and black bow tie that were scammed off me weren't rolled back, for instance (BBT instance was with Yukata-no-Kamisama when he offered to give me some chickies to help my Halo offer, and I gave him a BBT as a thank you and then he got banned for scamming with his lotto) and I knew of people who were -hacked- and didn't get their items back including Trufflepig and K/\O. And because I didn't think this was fair, some decided to say that I was being hypocritical for having a rollback done for me and still say that Gaia isn't fair, when the rollback was for -Veris- not me.

At this time, I asked Nephilim to marry me on Gaia officially, so we could become a couple - to show that we were really serious about our relationship. To both of us, a Gaia relationship is rather stupid. A Gaia Marriage is a bit more meaningful. She said yes. And I had art done for the wedding, as well as for invitations and stuff.

That said, I continued exchanging but things started to wear on me. I was pretty much worn out at this time because I just couldn't take the drama anymore. I was getting physically ill because of it, because I had to be online and deal with the drama 24/7 and I actually did a bunch of all-nighters in a row almost all the time. Nephilim was really perturbed as well because she was being affected by the drama. People would hardly notice her, I was starting to fall asleep at the keyboard, my naps were becoming irregular and disruptive for the relationship, and her own reputation was being smeared as well as mine.

I knew Nephy wanted me to quit the quest. I couldn't for the longest time because it was my dream and I know she understood that, but deep inside, she wanted me to stop. And so, one day, I quit my quest and decided to buy a Rose Corsage for her. I stayed up all that night trying to get one, offering up something like 4 million for it in pure, which was like double GEN price at the time. I thought she had gone to bed but she hadn't, and saw me post the advertisement in my shop, but I remember her reaction the next morning, after she told me she saw what I was doing for her. ^^ Knowing that I would give up my dream just to make her happy was something she enjoyed.

I continued to try to get the Corsage - eventually, Jerry contacted me and told me I could buy his Rose. I can't tell you how great a feeling that was, and because the wedding was only a short ways away, I stayed up a couple nights selling off my stuff for pure. And finally, I got the Rose for my Nephy.

The wedding was the most beautiful thing ever - I wish I still had the link to it, but its gone and died now. We had Jerryvolks presiding over the wedding, and I gave her the Rose during that time. I remember how everyone said it was so lovely, even though Joe and Tool tried to crash it. And I remember how great a feeling it was to know that this was more than just a Gaia thing. It was something that was to continue on for quite a long while.

Oh, third big drama you should know about:

Delerium and I had tried to make up before. Shox and I had actually made up long before that over some other thing, where I was told that she was trying to make me overpay for DJs (and I apologize again for that Shox - I shouldn't jump to conclusions based on other people's words, and I've learned that). However, around that time I started on Lindin, I lent my Grizzly Bear Hat to Japakitten. I had loaned it to her before, but she gave it back the other times, and so I didn't actually think she would scam me since I considered here a friend. But, of course, I went and took a nap and she ran off with it.

Of course, Delerium made a huge big deal about it even when I was getting scammed. I tried to be calm, but she made a big fuss saying that I told her I wanted the Grizzly back for free, when I didn't actually say that I wanted it returned like that, and actually stated that I would like a rollback to happen. She made a thread in which a ton of oldbies tried to flame me. lol Quite amusing really when we had "made up" but she flips out over something like that, in a fashion that doesn't make sense, and it was a bit suspicious.

Of course, I traced Japakitten, and I had labeled the trade saying it was a loan. I reported this via feedback, because I was annoyed that the mods said they couldn't do anything for me. Veris got her Halo back. Why shouldn't I? Took a few weeks, almost close to a month, and I went and spoke with them at fanime and got no reaction from them. Finally, after another month of waiting, I got an email saying my hat had been rolled back to me. I was of course overjoyed. And to me, this settled the problem with the Veris rollback, because I was able to get my Bear Hat back.

Anyway, Nephilim and I got tired of the drama in the exchange. I made some fussy comment/rant in the shop as an excuse to leave the exchange, we closed shop, and we left. Vending was up at the time and just started out. And so we figured we could just sell and buy there when we had time instead of making the exchange our lives. I created a new account. Lindin. Super-crazy vender. Partly because it would be fun to see if I could still do it. And partly because Whiim and I made a funny little joke about how we could try making mule accounts and see who gets to 1 million the fastest. I figured I could cash in on the flow and quickness of the marketplace, and start over just for kicks.

And boy was the vend quick. At the time, new uncommons and rares were released. Those coon tails you have now? They used to be worth 50K or trade for a NM Scarf. Those Angelic Gloves? Same thing. (and actually I was the one who provided the Angelic Gloves link to the GEN and the information for the descript and thumbnail) I got so many good deals - 1 gold Jacked Shirts, 10 K Coon Tails that I would sell in the exchange - and I procured 3 million in a week. Yup - 3 million in a week. Makes my stupid 1.6 million last week in the prelims look stupid. But vending profits were high back then. Insanely so.

I did this up until the end of June, when I returned home and got back on dial up. I could still vend back then because there weren't so many fast people. I think Nephilim enjoyed the fact that she could vend a ton and get profits for herself back then because she was faster than me. whee But then tragedy struck.

So, basically, I'm working on the marketplace in the morning of June. Site was really laggy and there were message_die errors all over the place. As per the usual, I was on my mule Lindin trying to vend, and I attempted to vend while it was laggy. It was a bad idea. A bad. Bad. Idea.

Putting stuff in the vend basically had a glitch in which if you multiple-clicked at all, or refreshed, you'd get a copy of the item in question. And, funnily enough, my usual method of dealing with lag on dial up is to click a bunch until it loads. I didn't realize this until a few items were copied, to which I immediately took them out. Now, I'm not a stupid person. I realized, upon contemplation of the prior two items being copied, that it was either one of two things. Multiple clicking, or multiple refreshing. Foolishly, I decided to continue despite of the glitch because I figured they'd just do a rollback and worst of all, I told Nephilim about my theory. She also hit it on accident due to the nature of the glitch, and we thought it would be interesting to see if these items, like the other glitchy items, would disappear upon trading. (The other glitch items I speak of are ones you got if you accidently bought an item at the same time as someone else. Transaction locks never happened back then - you could potentially get an item duplicate if two people bought at the same time.) They disappeared.

This has several implications, ones that really scared me. The items could be traded via bank to someone else and when they traded the item through the bank, the item would disappear, making it an easy way to scam someone. One could also easily sell the items through the marketplace in order to obtain a ton of gold quickly, and then those new owners could be completely in the dark about the nastiness of the glitchy items, and trade the item over the bank and be accused of scamming. So I figured not to mess with it anymore, and just to leave the items on my account, to await what I thought would be an inevitable rollback. And at the time, I saw people abusing the glitch like mad, making rows and rows of AFK duplicates and Sealed letter Duplicates, and actually -selling- the things.

Downtime pretty much booted me off anyhow within 5 minutes, so I was spared any second-thoughts. Even if I was intelligent enough to report the glitch, which I didn't because I thought the mods would be swamped and that it was spam to report glitches, I was kept from doing so before the downtime, and there hadn't been an announcement about it at the time either that morning. I went to a friend's house to roleplay. We had an appointment to have some fun during the summer, and its very rare that all 10 of us get to have some time to get together, with work and summer classes that some of us take.

Upon returning later that night, Aya told me we were banned. I first stared in shock at the screen for a little while. Considering the fact that I didn't even sell off the items in question, and that it was so widespread, I knew that I wasn't the only one who would feel this way, and I was right. Obsidian Rayne, and KenshinHimura were similarly banned. Though I felt incredibly annoyed that there were some people who I really actually saw in the vend copying like mad and actually -sold- the items or traded them still posting around in an unbanned state, there was really nothing I could do. I discovered later that Delerium was the one who reported me, and she reported it to Veris.

At any rate, I posted up a thread in the QnF about my bannings in an attempt to tell people the story about it, because people kept getting s**t wrong about it. (Recently, I was able to take a look at one of the threads that people had posted in on the exchange, and the opinions and "facts" were astonishingly incorrect.) In it, I explained in full detail what happened. I asked for Nephilim to be unbanned as well partly because I actually did want her unbanned at least, and also to allay those stupid rumors that she was the one to blame and that she had gotten me banned, when she had really not. Here again, I state my opinion that people should just shut the hell up about things they aren't involved in or know about because 99 times out of 100 they are really quite wrong.

I left for a time, and only posted to defend myself against some remaining rumors. Accordingly, I was flamed because I said I left, but I was still posting to allay rumors. You know why I kept posting? Because I hate it when anyone, through any means, tries to flame me or say untrue things about me in any way while I cannot fight them. It is that feeling that kept me tied to Gaia, and ultimately, was a reason I returned despite the fact that all my stuff was lost. And that spawned the "Kalec said he would leave but he didn't *whine whine*" thing. I'd just like to say that if they didn't want me to come back, they would have IP banned me.

Oh and I think some people said I got 10 other people banned because I traded my items with them. That is completely untrue. Its a rumor someone started because they couldn't own up that they made a mistake too, and tried to use me as a scape-goat. rolleyes I didn't trade or sell any of the dupes whereas I know people who sold bunches of dupes which is worse than holding onto the dupes and waiting for a rollback. Additionally, there was a rumor that I duplicated my Bear Hat and Ports. But the thing is, if you check, my last login on Lindin is days after my last login on Kalec. And Kalec has the Bear Hat and Ports on. So there is absolutely no way I could have duped them. But people still believe that. So thats where the "Kalec duped his bear hat and ports because he is so greedy" rumor comes from.

I returned sometime in the end of July, by changing the name of one of my old mules, Kalec_Deathmage, to Heavens Exile. (Of course, after I did that, someone decided to steal the name to try to impersonate me, so the Kalec_deathmage you might see that is banned on the memberlist is not me - just some dumb impersonator) I vended and earned up Ports in a few months, and then came back to campus. Guilds had come out and so I retreated into guilds during this time, at least until I returned to campus.

I met up with some new friends over the days and when I was at campus, I saw Amano Maya again aka Khaleoud. She and I bantered about the old days and one day, she decided to sell her Halo off and give me a Panda Hat to make up for all the s**t that I have been through. (she was going to give the Halo to me directly at first, but I told her she should sell it instead, so she could make herself happy and get a Panda herself and a Corsage, as well as make other people happy.)

Drama started happening again though because I decided to have a shop with Nephilim, and people figured they would run into my shop and make trouble. Most notably, in the vial incident during Halloween, Whiim and some others came into my store to yell at me and say I shouldn't sell vials. At the time, I figured the vials were limited items like potions to make your avatars different - the vend was closed after the vials were released so numerous people started selling them off in the exchange, and so I put up a price in my store saying this might be what I would sell vials for.

I never actually sold a single vial at that 10K price. No thats not worded that way because I sold more. I sold 0 vials at that price. Hundreds of others did sell them at that price, and yet people choose to think that I sold them for that and judge me based on that incident. Even if I did sell one, considering it wasn't an unlimited item at the time, I wouldn't be in the wrong because the price I set was only because they were that high, and also because I thought they were limited. When the vials were re-inserted into the vend in long chunks, I lowered the price to 200 gold because almost every vials was expired or bought. I gave some away to friends in fact. Then when they were put in the marketplace for 100 gold under unlimited sale for 100 gold, I put my price under 100 gold. So thats where the "Kalec is greedy with the vial selling" thing comes from even though I never actually sold one.

But then I got temp banned because Bartuc tripped a Bank Glitch without my knowledge and traded me an Angelic Sash for my gold - Bartuc let me on his account before and I had let him on my account before, since we pooled for Chickies once, and so the admin thought I was his mule. Needless to say, I sent in feedbacks but then I talked with Noraboo and was able to get L0cke to read my PM, and after an investigation, I was unbanned. I was innocent of that glitch, and did not trip it. So thats where the "Kalec hit a glitch a second time and got banned oh teh noes" rumor started.

So as you can see, being Kalec was just stupid and getting more and more pointless by the minute. It was really getting annoying that people would judge me based on name and based on stupid rumors that people start. (And in fact, there are a ton of others like "Kalec made up Nephilim just so he could act cool" when in fact, Nephy is a June 03 member, "Kalec got a sex change in real life" which is dumb because if I did that, how the heck could I be on Gaia at the same time? Those things take tons of money AND time I'm sure - you don't just flip a switch and become a different gender. And finally the "Kalec hacked other people" because some hacker decided to hack or "hack" other people and post that he was kalec_deathmage)

I got really tired of it. I just wanted to be left alone. I started up new accounts or started using mules more exclusively, like I tried with Lindin. Mondai Lostsol was one of them. Why the difference in gender? Because the last time on Lindin, one of the reasons people figured out it was me was because I was male. Then that got compromised because of a misunderstanding between me and Dream, and then I created a new account named Alexi_Jameson.

Now you may ask - why keep my identity a secret? Because I wanted the following things.

1) To get away from the drama of Kalec, mainly from people who don't know anything about me. Even if the oldbies knew who I was, its usually the newbies that caused me the most drama because of the name Kalec and the misinformation that they would receive.

2) I wanted to meet people under a new name, get to know them and have them know the real me, and THEN tell them I was Kalec, so we didn't meet under false assumptions. Thats part of the whole not being judged based on my old name thing.

3) I really wanted to keep my drama away from Nephilim. If she didn't share a shop with me, and I was under a completely different name, people would be focusing on ME with their stupidity and not her, which improves her mood (or at least doesn't hurt it.

4) I just wanted a new life, and to do things over the right way, and not be stupid about it. I wanted to be a new person, and change what I found was bad about myself. And hopefully let others see me as the real me, not the stupid newb who didn't have a clue. And I wanted to get away from all those PMs of people asking me for advice/begging/pointless chatter/people who just wouldn't leave me alone.

That pretty much sums up what I was thinking when creating Alexi_Jameson. This time around, I tried to do things a different way. I fully looked through all the rules and regulations. Instead of going right back into the exchange, I started becoming a QnFer mostly because I wanted to test my knowledge of Gaia, and to improve it if I was wrong about things. I wanted to give back to Gaia, and hopefully get more out of it in the process than when all I wanted was to earn money and make frivolous friendships that frayed the second I was knocked down.

You see, I know I had my bad traits when I was Kalec. They're not as magnified as they appear in the rumors. But I realize that I was a n00b at least in part. Why? Because as I recall, I was young on Gaia and I skyrocketed in richness quickly. I was used to a position of power on the Wizards.com forums and assumed that I could take one here on Gaia.

But what I didn't realize is that I was wrong.

I went about the whole thing the wrong way. Talking with people now has really shown me that, and in light of what I know as Alexi, there are things I should have done differently. I had to craft a reputation again and only a few months wasn't enough especially when I was going about it the wrong way. But really, it was natural. I was proud of my success, but it was what would happen to many people. I was a newbie who had come to power to early, rising too fast, getting items other Gaians -dream- about getting within months, and to boot, was in a real meaningful relationship and was uberly popular. I was at the top of the world. It got to my head. And I apologize for whatever crap that I caused as Kalec because of that. However, I will have you know that I did my best to be helpful and kind, and the times I got scammed, especially, as well as the times I donated randomly and sold things to others for cheap are a testament to that.

That said, I worked with the Alexi account, trying my best to change my stance towards Gaia as well as my stance overall towards making a new life on Gaia. I let my close friends know of course that I was Alexi, but I told noone else. I built up my knowledge, and vended some, and during the first part of November and December under Alexi, I created the GCG after a suggestion was made by Cyranne to make a full commons list so that shopkeepers could have an easier time getting thumbnails and locations.

Yes, GCG was originally supposed to be just a list of the store commons and prices. It was meant to replace not the price guides, but the list of items underneath the links in the price guides - you know, the outdated list of commons? It was only after GEN started to break apart that I really started thinking about making it a price guide and expand it into a larger scheme.

I had big plans for GCG but I didn't realize how much time and work it would be to complete such tasks. For instance, the vending and exchanging tutorial was in the works since last November but upon starting it, I discovered that it was a monumental task. I think now, that perhaps I should actually enlist help with some things on the guide - not necessarily the price guides and such, but with the store commons because those are just hideous. And to get input about the tutorials I will be making.

That said, GCG was born, and I changed it and revamped the structure after it was determined that the first page was too graphic-intensive. I may change it again due to the idea that the second page is what is most relevant to GCG users these days, but the point, originally, of the GCG was to have the store commons listed. Thats the main part of the work I do here on GCG - take a look at the pages 3 and 4 and you'll see how much work there is to do. Especially when they change around all the store items in the stores. :/

I wasn't also just a GCG creator though - I started fishing like crazy when fishing came out, and was a frequenter of the Fishing QnA which started in the QnF forum originally and was later moved to fishing. I was first place for a good long time but got tired of it and stopped when I went back home and got on Dial up. I really regret that though because I could have received a trophy had I stuck with it.

Because of that regret, I decided to go all-out with the fishing in January because I wanted to earn the trophy that I never got and -should- have got. I was annoyed at myself for my lack of dedication and worked my a** off. I managed to get the Overall Trophy as well as the Durem Gold Trophy, which I proudly own today. Though I hardly ever equip them because I think they're not that good looking with my outfits (and that is where the "Alexi sold her Trophies to get the Halo" thing comes from).

However, I also wanted to exchange at this time and also attempted to support Embyrr during her banning, so the fight at the end for the trophies was a tough one indeed. You have no idea how much it takes to earn one of those gold trophies - hours and hours of dedication each day, sleepless nights, hundreds of thousands of gold spent on A bait. Its insane really. Which is one of the reasons I won't do it again for a good long time.

I got a lot of money during the exchanging, and I really am glad I did because later on, when I got my second Bear Hat, Nephilim came up with the idea of going for another Halo. She gets the best ideas sometimes. whee But honestly, I didn't even think about getting another halo until she told me I should. Dashin had put up a Halo for sale and I put down an offer anonymously combining my assets with Nephilim's. Then Madox decided to pool with me again and we got a high bid going on. Finally, I managed to bump the offer around 3 million when I got Minis for my Rubymask and we got the Halo sometime in the early-middle part of February.

Yes, this Halo is a joint-ly begotten Halo. People used to say I wouldn't be able to get one. And I was able to prove them wrong. That to me is what makes giving up all that stuff for Halo worth it. To show that I overcame the odds. Twice actually because I used to have almost enough for one before. I have Amano, Nephilim, and Madox especially to thank for that. Nephilim for volunteering to give me back the DJs and Minis that I gave her to offer for the Halo. Madox for giving me her Bunnies to offer up for it and her Oct. And Amano for the Bear Hat.

Recently, I started playing in Bekita's exchange whore competition because after the Halo, I felt really lost and just discouraged about earning. I didn't think I could do it a third time and start earning and I didn't have the heart to try. But as you can see, I earned up 1.6 million in a week so I know I -can- do it if I try, which makes the whole thing worth it even if I only got to keep 1.2 million. I'm also trying to improve the GCG and think up things while I'm in the finals, which are pretty much a bust because of the fact that the other competitors either quit or aren't playing as much.

At some points, people would try to cause me drama about my identity and my past. Most notably, Araunah and Dlastbird of EVIL (and Letolas, more recently) have been attempting to flame down my guide, piss me off, and the like. That drama is over with now though as we have decided to drop the vendetta though there is still brooding there I'm sure. Finally, the recent drama in the GCG is the one with Lazyboy and me over Bunny Slippers, due to the fact that I was trying to get them as well as him and Raziel, and I outbid him last second by way of snipe. He sold all his items and is apparently angry at me for making his selling moot, and for posting something he misconstrued as laughing as his attempts to get them, when in fact those posts were supposed to be a chuckled of knowing between what I thought of as friends bidding on an item in the marketplace. This resulted in him "telling the world I'm Kalec" as if noone knew that already. lol And he decided to cause drama in my threads and troll, and harass, to which I got him warned. Funny how I never really considered him a friend anyway, and I remember that he used to bother me all the time when I was Kalec, for trivial reasons including loaning him s**t and giving him things, and its funny that he complains about how he lost profits when he has all of May Domainee's stuff to work with, and runs around acting like the halo is his own.

However, in recent news, Delerium and I were able to finally talk with each other and come to terms with the rivalry in a civil and mature manner. I'm very glad that we were able to say our apologies and make up. Hopefully there won't be another big fight between us any longer. Of course this isn't to say we're best of friends, but we are at least on friendly terms and can stand each other in the exchange. 3nodding

But I digress. xp Thats my history - hope you read all of it, and I'm sorry it was such a long read. I hope it was an interesting read for you.

Yo, I'm Myrak. I bet you've all seen me hang out in the GCG so yeah razz

Been on Gaia since April 2004, got into the Exchange right away. First profit was 50g off a hockey mask, just shows that starting small pays off. Look where it's gotten me in 9 months whee

Best achievements are my Devil Tail (got for 400k) and Angelic Minis (1.8mil- Sash+950k), which took me 3 and 2.5 months respectively. I took a while on the DT because that was my first quest, and I wasn't the master exchanger I am now.

Quests would be Ports first up, then a packrat collection of stuff- Uncommon/Rare Sets, all 2004 Letters/items, all event item sets (Xmas 03/04, Halloween 03/04, Gaia Balls 04). Then NM Minis, and finally DJs. Then possibly a sash+nov/dec items to complete the collection n.n

I'll post/edit up more later if I think of anything razz heart

Mm... late me.

______I'd be Lothereal of course, if you've had the heart to look at my username. XD I had joined Gaia once earlier, but left out of boredom, I guess. Then one fateful day, a friend of mine on a different forum was talking about him being addicted to Gaia, and so, I decided to join once again, for I had forgotten my older username/password. So in the end, my join date's September 20th, 2004.

______I was an avid exchanger a month ago, but the interest ended, and I now earn gold quite slowly. XP I get by, so there's nothing to say. Currently, my quest is for a pair of those hugeass DJ Studio Headphones. I'm generally an all-around nice n' crazy person unless you really, really get on my nerves. When that happens, fear me. X3

The End

I am grizwald. I am a Feburary 04 member. Like alexi, I have learned alot from Kalec. I had actually learned most of what I know today from seeing his strategy and working it into what I was most comfertable with. As some of you may know, or have heard. Yes, I am Bartuc. I will openly admit that. I had actually stopped comign onto gaia back in may, shortly after kalecs wedding. I had given away quite a few things to my friends. I had to much going on with the last few weeks of school, and work. I came back in june, and restarted once again from scratch with the exception of a december 03 (which costed 55k-60k at the time). I was banned back in september for playing with that gold glitch (a week or so after the inventory rollbacks) I signed up in october with this account and have restarted and work for my stuff legitmately (like I did even back in the day anyway rolleyes Even though most people think I cheated to get everything I ever had.)

I am a marketplace regular. I tend to not look at guides, I go by the current prices, however, I do come into the GCG sometimes to chat, Alexi is a good friend of mine, and I have met lots of nice hardworking people since I have been coming into the GCG. This is no diss on the guide, I just personally do not need the guide anymore when it comes to selling. This is a great guide in my opinion. And I am happy to help it when I can ^_^;;

Edit: Anything you see on me now has been worked for since December 26th? When did I buy the september off you alexi >_>;;; Well anywho. I gave a couple friends some really nice gifts. So once again I restarted. So dont let how I look, fool you and make you think getting high end items isnt easy. wink

Well, any party that was going is now ruined xd

But yeah, I am Gaidin, as if that wasn't obvious. You can call me Wesley, Wes, Gaidin, Squeaky Toy(Courtesy of Ivy), or whatevers, doesn't matter to me.

Let's see, I appeared on Gaia on September 13th, 2004. Like Charles, I was an ED'er, spending all of my time there as soon as I found it, which was within an hour or less. I even joined the ED-E, though I didn't report as much as the well known members. But ED just went downhill, or was invaded. Either way, ED was a place I didn't go to unless I was either very bored or feeling really in need of some intelligent discussion. Then I found a decent RP guild, and that is where most of my post count comes from now.

As for Exchanging, I am something of a rank below Novice. I basically dealt in uncommons, mostly Shackles over the first few months of being on Gaia. Somewhere in that time I found the GCG, and started checking it often for prices of things I wanted to buy, being donation items then. For a small time earlier in January I got very into Vending with a big break: a cheap source for letters that allowed me to make about 130k in two days, quite a sum for me. But now I basically just work on cheap things, mostly mid to high priced store items and certain donation items that I can get cheaply if there aren't any letters to work with on the Vend. I stay out of the Exchange for the most part simply because I have ill luck there, I cannot find the item I am looking for, or when I do, the person is asking outrageous prices. But yeah, I talk too much, so I will end it here. If for some reason anyone wants to know more about me, my contact methods are on the little bar below the post xp

Sorry, but I have to do this....*Pokes Squeaky Toy* xd

*Squeak Squeak* xd