1. Grey Market - The "Aftermarket" of Star Citizen. Pledge Items can be purchased from 3rd party websites and from Individual sellers.
2. LTI - Lifetime Insurance -- When game is released CIG intends on having an Insurance and claim system in place for damaged and destroyed ships.
3. OC - Original Concept -- First release of a new concept standalone ship. Will have LTI with the Warbond Purchase option.
4. CCU - Cross Chassis Upgrade -- CCU is an upgrade from one ship to another of higher value. Until used a CCU is kept in hanger as an item.
5. Chaining - The process of implementing several warbond Discount CCU's into an upgrade to gain a lower total price of the desired end goal ship.
6. MELT - The exchange of a ship for RSI store credit -- All money invested in the unit is returned in the form of store credit on the RSI store.
7. GIFT - Sell or Gift an item (Ships, Gear, CCU's Etc.) Items are only giftable if purchased with new money. Items purchased with store credit are only exchangeable.
8. Warbond - Warbond is a cash only purchase option often at a discount.
9. Buyback - Once a ship or item is exchanged the item is put in buybacks which allows you to re purchase at a later date with new money.
10. Buyback tokens - Buyback tokens allow you to re purchase buybacks with store credit but buyback tokens are very limited.
11. LTI Token - An inexpensive ship that comes with LTI is often referred to as an LTI Token.
12. Concierge - A title given to People who have spent/pledged $1000 or more in the RSI store.
There are 3 types of ships.
Unlimited sale ships. - A ship that is always for sale in the RSI store.
Time Limited ships. - Ships that are only for sale for a limited time during events and other sales randomly throughout the year.
Hull Limited ships. - Ships sold only at events and other scheduled releases. These ships are released in small numbers and when they're gone they're gone. They sell out fast!
At the time this article was writted the Hull limited release times during events are 11am, 7pm, 3am CST.
1. **Grey Market** The "Aftermarket" of Star Citizen. Currently CIG allows the existence of the grey market and you might say they even condone it but they will not participate in disputes or recovery of items in the event something does not go as planned. Play in this arena at your own risk.
Ships, CCU's, Gear, and Skins can be purchased from 3rd party websites with some level of risk. Some Websites offer excellent brokerage services that create a relatively safe trading environment where the money is held in escrow until items are confirmed as delivered but this comes at a substantial cost. Sometimes as much as 20%. Items can be purchased and sold on ebay which also has fees and comes with the normal risk shopping on ebay. Reddit trade group and other forms of private selling are often referred to as the "Dark Grey Market" Private trading obviously has the highest risk but often the highest reward. Without fees or external costs involved private trading can be extremely lucrative for buyers and sellers. Reddit does has a type of sale verification process which is used as a form of reputation for buyers and sellers so you are not flying completely blind.
The grey market can be used to acquire hard to find items and ships or just to find discounts on common ones. Sometimes a mixture of both. One strategy for getting discounts is to purchase store credit. Currently store credit is valued around 55-65% of Dollar value and can almost always be obtained on Reddit trade page or FB groups. When you purchase store credit it comes in the form of a CCU'd Unlimited sale ship that you can melt. Example: You purchase an Argo Mole with a Melt value of $315 at 60% for $189. The ship is gifted to you after payment and you can then melt the ship for $315 in RSI store credit. (remember 24hr wait to melt an item once its created).
RSI Accounts can be purchased and sold on several of these platforms but this is against CIG's Terms of use and can result in the account being banned. Account sales are categorized as Black Market.
All mentioned websites are listed as examples and are not recommendations of either Eagle River Syndicate or myself. Eagle River Syndicate nor Degans take responsibility for the outcome of your participation in the Grey or Black Market.
2.**LTI** Insurance is listed on every ship ranging from 2 months to 10 years and some offer LTI. LTI is just that.. Lifetime insurance. When the game is released there will be an insurance system in place for ships. At this point in development it is somewhat unclear how much of a role insurance will play but LTI ensures that you wont have to deal with whatever consequence is implemented for losing a ship without coverage if you let it lapse in game. Some consider LTI to be mandatory but nearly everyone agrees that LTI is a priority. LTI can be obtained 3 ways. High $$ packs, CCU'd LTI tokens, and OC ships.
3. **OC** Original Concept is the first instance a ship is listed for sale. This has several benefits over other standalone ships. OC ships have a warbond sale option which is at a discount and comes with LTI. Some OC ships come with a limited paint that may never be available otherwise. One major benefit to an OC ship is that if it is melted it can be re purchased as is with its LTI as opposed to losing the upgrades when a CCU'd ship is melted. (I will go more in detail on this in **Melt**)
4. **CCU** Cross Chassis Upgrades are how you upgrade a ship you currently own IRL to another ship of higher value. CCU's can be purchased with New money or Store credit. Example : You have an aurora that cost $20 and you purchase an upgrade to a cutlass black which is $100. An aurora to cutlass black CCU will cost you $80 dollars. . CCU's are listed in your hanger as an item until used and therefor can be gifted or exchanged in the same ways as any other item. Unused CCU's can be exchanged for store credit and will sit in your buybacks as an item as well. Important to note that all CCU'd ships retain their original properties regarding insurance and giftability. When a cash purchased LTI ship is ccud, even with store credit the final product will have LTI and remain giftable.. ((Hint-this is how you sell store credit)) CCU's can be used as a lower risk option to get a ship currently not available in store. CCU's can be purchased grey market often from the closest valued unlimited sale ship. You can buy an inexpensive upgrade in the grey market and spend the bulk of the money in the RSI store if youd prefer. Want a Redeemer $320. Upgrade to mole in store $315. Buy Mole to Redeemer CCU Greymarket.
5. **Chaining** CCU chaining is a lifestyle for some. This is how you acquire discounts on ships without using the gray market. Chaining requires patience and planning but can yield extreme discounts, often better than the gray market. Warbond CCU's are occasionally available and come at a slight discount just the same as OC ships. The goal with chaining is to implement as many warbond discount CCU's into the final product as possible. Warbond CCU's usually range from $5-20 discount but there are sometimes higher value ship CCUs for up to $75 off.
Example: You have a $20 ship (ship A) that you want to upgrade to a $100 ship (ship D) This is an $80 upgrade. The Goal with chaining is to get warbond discount CCU's from your ship A to Ship B. save $5. From Ship B to C. save $5. From ship C to D. save $5 Etc. Each time you can implement a Warbond CCU to ships with a value in between your current ship and your end goal will yield a bigger discount. You can save Hundreds of dollars on the higher end ships doing this but like i said it requires patience. Warbond CCUs are only available during events and occasionally while an OC ship is for sale. Not all CCU's to all ships will be for sale at the same time so to optimize chain it can take a year or more and can be 15+ different upgrades in one ship.
Star citizen CCU Game is an extremely valuable plugin for chrome that will organize and plot a course for chains. Chains can become hard to keep up with as they get more complex and this tool spells it out for you.
6. **Melt** Melting ships is the term used for Exchanging them for store credit.. When an item is melted you receive all money invested
in RSI store credit and the item goes into buybacks with option to repurchase later. . If you melt a CCU'd ship you only retain the original ship in buybacks. Once an item is created or purchased it cannot be melted for 24hrs.
7. **Gift** Gift is the P.C. term for Sell. Items that are purchased with new money (not store credit) are giftable and therefor can be transferred or sold to another account. Once an item is Gifted to another account it is no longer giftable. In order to regift an item it has to be melted and re purchased from buybacks using new money.
8. **Warbond** Warbond purchase option is new money only and is at a discounted rate.. Packages, Ships, and CCU's are available at certain times with a warbond option. See OC and Chaining.
9. **Buyback** Buybacks are located in your RSI hanger under Buybacks. When an Item is melted it goes to buybacks and you have an option to re purchase the item at a later date with new money. It is Important to note that everything purchased from buybacks is at current value so if there is a price increase in the store it will reflect that in buybacks as well. Buyback tokens allow you to re purchase from buybacks with store credit. Buyback tokens are distributed 1 every 3 months so use wisely. 2 every 3 months for Concierge backers.
11. **LTI Token** Inexpensive OC ships such as the Spartan, Hoverquad, and the Mule are considered LTI Tokens. They are often purchased for the sole purpose of using as a base for a CCU'd ship in order to provide LTI. A CCU'd ship will retain the insurance properties of the original ship. A ship that is CCU’d
Also retains its base ship as the ship displayed in the hanger (see second pic) The LTI Token will not be displayed as but rather contain the ship you upgraded to.
12.**Concierge** This is a title reserved for players who have pledged more than $1000 into the RSI Store. Concierge has many tiers based on how much has been invested. Each tier has a unique reward once met. Being Concierge has several benefits. It allows access to the Concierge spectrum forum, a higher priority service ticket portal, 2 buyback tokens per quarter as opposed to 1, extended time to purchase limited sale items, and special Concierge packages are available to buy depending on your tier. Access to the Public Test Universe is also now dependent on concierge level. Each Tier up has earlier access to the test universe.
13. There are 3 categories of ships regarding availability.
Unlimited hull ships are always available in the store. Ships are added to this list occasionally but
rarely removed. If we are currently outside of any type of event and there arent new releases then what you see in the store are most likely all unlimited hull ships.
Time limited ships are available during events. Some are sold more often than others and after some time playing spreadsheet citizen you will become familiar with what events produce which time limited ships. These ships are essentially for sale in unlimited quantities within a certain time frame. There are events almost every month throughout the year but the biggest ones are ILW in may and IAE in November.
Hull Limited ships are difficult to get. These ships are sold 2 days a year in 3 waves at ILW and IAE with the exception of the 890J which is sold slightly more often. These ships are available for sale in very limited quantities and when they’re sold out there are no more. Most of these ships with very few exceptions sell out almost immediately. Each ship is on sale collectively for less than a minute annually so ask your friends how they got theirs.