The reason players began taking notice of the Mist Shop was neither the generous terms offered by Boss Su nor its overnight rise to fame on the Player Forum. It was because the forum administrators had announced a new plan for the exchange.
And the most important new mechanism in that plan happened to overlap somewhat with the way Boss Su ran his shop. That was also what surprised Su Bai.
Under this mechanism, the Relevant Authorities would open a buyback program to players on the forum. Players could choose the online option, registering with the exchange before a specialist from the Relevant Authorities visited to assess their items. Alternatively, they could choose the offline option and visit the public service counters the Relevant Authorities had established in various cities, where their items would be assessed and bought back in person.
The buyback mechanism announced by the forum administrators was very similar to the Mist Shop's current trial operations and the functions of its self-service machine. But unlike Boss Su, who could only offer shop points, the Relevant Authorities could provide much more in exchange for unwanted items, such as money, job opportunities, conveniences unavailable to Regular people, and even privileges.
Those were things the Mist Shop could never offer.
The reason the Mist Shop suddenly became popular among players was one particular rule in the buyback program announced on the forum: regardless of whether they chose the online or offline option, players first had to price the items they were handing over themselves, then quote that price to the buyback staff.
The buyback staff would not price the items players submitted on their behalf. They would only check whether an item's value justified the player's asking price. If it did, the transaction would go through.
At first glance, there