Results of Rube trade offers are as follows. Original post is below that. Prices are based on the encyclopedia worth of each item. See the individual results in the replies to this thread if you're interested in what sort of items were traded, and want to evaluate them based on other types of worth (personal or auction prices).
Results compiled from 235 Rube trade offers (from 47 separate Rube encounters), with normal, mixed inventories (cheap and expensive items):
16% of Rube's offers were worth less than what he wanted in return (a loss for the player).
Average gain the player would have gotten from all trades including ones that would have been a loss: 200 currants.
Average gain the player would have gotten from all trades NOT including ones that would have been a loss: 251 currants.
Gain of most profitable trade offer in this study: 3350 currants
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Effects of special inventories: It is clear that eliminating cheap items from your inventory and only carrying expensive ones results in many more bad trades from the Rube, greatly increasing your chances of a loss.
Results compiled from 20 Rube trade offers (from 4 separate Rube encounters), with an inventory only including 0 through 2 stacks of items worth under 100 currants, and everything else worth over 100 currants: (keep in mind that this is not based on very many trades, so the results are much more uncertain than those listed above for normal inventories)
55% of Rube's offers were worth less than what he wanted in return (a loss for the player).
Average gain the player would have gotten from all trades including ones that would have been a loss: 156 currants.
Average gain the player would have gotten from all trades NOT including ones that would have been a loss: 428 currants.
Gain of most profitable trade offer in this study: 2300 currants
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Original post:
So, the Rube has taken night classes... and now there have been some anecdotal stories of a "stingy" Rube, or even one that's acting like a down right con-artist, "tricking" people into trading expensive items for something worthless. I propose that we band together to take some real data, for the sake of our fellow Glitches who can use it to evaluate how much time they want to spend with the Rube, and (more importantly) for the sake of the Rube: Tiny Speck can still tweak his personality, and this information will help them learn if they should at all, and what they might do to make him better.
If you would like to participate, here are the rules: (Changed slightly from the original)
1) It's best to wait until the 5th offer before accepting so we can see what all the trade offers would have been, but if you get something totally awesome go ahead and accept the offer, then post the results here (including all previous offers).
2) Write down what the Rube offered to give you, and what he wanted in return for each offer (including the order it was offered in).
3) Take note of anything that might be of interest about the content of your inventory, so we can gauge if that has any effect on the results.
**EDITED to add** : If you get a doll, throw all these rules out the window and let us know what you traded it for.... I don't know of anyone who has publicly stated what they gave the Rube in exchange for a doll since the Rube took his night classes.
Then, just post what you find here. Multiple posts from the same person about different Rube trades are greatly encouraged.
The Rube thanks you!!