That seems reasonable, but yet, it has to be wrong. I do not believe this "exploit" had fail safes where it required "multiple, intentional steps." Indeed, I have been banned and I will tell you exactly my trading history:
I have conducted thousands of transactions. The goal was to complete collections. I started as soon as I opened my deluxe packs and pulled a Trout. From there, I liquidated it and started buying and selling cards.
99% (if not more) of my transactions were done on the PS4. For starters, trading through the computer is very clunky and time-consuming as you have to deal with all the CAPCHAS and it is hard to track the bids in real time (which is something you have to do if you want to get items - other bids constantly flow in).
The only time I would trade from my computer is when my son was on the PS4 and I had no access. By the way, he does not play the Show, so he would not have been making any trades while I was in the other part of the house on my computer).
1. In the morning, I would start the Program on the PS4 and then check my orders over coffee. I would see what was bought/sold and then mass-clear the remaining orders (because they would be stale by then).
2. I would put in new sell orders for diamonds, new buy orders for diamonds, sell orders for golds (if there were slots left), buy orders for golds (if slots left), etc.
3. I would play a game and after clear the orders and re-set.
4. I did this every time before and after a game. At all times before a game, my 20 slots would be filled.
5. During the day, I would check my orders from work at my computer. I would clear all orders and reset because they would be stale. I would do this about 1 - 2 times a day.
6. After work, I'd usually play in the evening (after the kids were done playing PS4 and went to bed) and I would do steps 1 -3).
7. Before putting the console in sleep mode for the night, I would clear and re-set all my orders.
That is it.
Once in a blue moon, it may be the case that I cleared orders from my computer and then checked to see if my son would let me on to re-set orders (because putting orders in on computer is a pain). I would then load the program and put in new orders (step 2). These instances would happen usually on a weekend when both me and my son would be home.
That's it.
I usually had between 10 - 50k stubs on hand in addition to the inventory I regularly flip. Once the on-hand stubs got near 80 - 100k, I would buy a diamond and try to complete a set. I averaged about 1.5 diamonds per week since getting the game.
I still had two sets to complete when I got banned. The only diamonds I needed was Harper and Scherzer (and also Stanton who became Gold).
I never played BR and still have my free entry and I don't play online. This is due to the reported gaming issues and risk of DDOS attack (whether overstated, or not, I don't know).
Anyhow, there it is. That is my entire history. If I ever received "free stubs" I did not notice. I would have noticed if it happened AND I kept a log of my transactions, but I don't. I make so many trades, I can't really keep track of them ... I have a general idea of what a good buy price is for a card as well as the corresponding sell price. For ones that fall outside of that range (or a new card I am trading), I often have to go back through my transactions list to see what I bought it for.
So, fluctuations up OR down in relatively small increments is going to escape my notice - especially since most of my transactions are for between 5 and 15k. Only a few times did I trade a larger card since it is hard to actually get those cards to begin with.
So, I am banned, and I suppose the MLB the Show community is better off now, right?
Finally: if anyone cares (and I'm not asking or expecting you to), can someone cross-post this on the SHOW FORUMS? My ban extends to the forum and I can't even contact a developer to look into my history. The TOC of the SHOW NATION provides an email for banned accounts, but it is simply listed as (TBD - to be determined). So, I cannot even contact anyone on those forums, period. I am simply waiting to hear from SDS from email and so far - nothing.
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