Limited item (2024)

Limited is the label given to Marketplace items available in finite quantities. They are initially regular items that are sold by Roblox for a set price until they are taken off-sale, or in the case of a limited unique item until there are no more available copies. When this occurs, they will become limited items, which can be traded or resold for Robux by owners of the item with an active Roblox Premium subscription.

Concept[]

Limited items are classed as 'collectibles' by Roblox, which means that multiple copies of a specific Limited item can be attained and stored in a user's inventory. They are a quintessential part of the trading system, and because of their ability to be traded and resold, they are a very large part of the Roblox economy in general.

The Recent Average Price (or 'RAP') of an item shows the average sale price for the item in question over a recent period. This value can fluctuate heavily; for example, one day the Beautiful Hair for Beautiful Space People may have a RAP of over 8,000 Robux, and other days it may drop to lower than 6,000 Robux. A limited item's demand can be determined by monitoring its RAP.

Trading[]

Selling[]

After purchasing or trading for a limited item, users can resell the item for Robux. This feature allows users to sell back unwanted items. Item selling can be done through the item page itself by clicking the dropdown in the top right-hand side of the page and then clicking Sell. Only users with an active Roblox Premium subscription can sell items.

When selling items, keep the lowest current price in mind. When looking to get Robux quickly, a limited item is typically sold for lower than the lowest current price. If the item is speculated to rise soon, it can be put on sale at a higher price; then, when the item rises, it will be bought for a higher price.

Limited unique[]

Limited unique (LimitedU) items are those which are sold in specific quantities with a fixed price upon release and immediately become available for resale or tradable once sold out, compared to limited items which generally go off sale as regular items until they are manually selected to become limited. There are also serial numbers attached to the item depending on when the item was purchased. Limited unique items are often seen as more valuable than regular limited items, and this is amplified by demand for certain serial numbers, which also signify when the unique copy was purchased (#1, #14, #42, #1337, etc.).

Limited 2.0[]

Limited 2.0 items, also known as UGC Limiteds and otherwise Collectibles, are a term used to refer to the new version of Roblox limited unique items which began releasing in 2023, an example being Shiny Bling. As of April 2023, there are many differences between limited uniques and limited 2.0 items, although it is speculated additional changes will continue to be made to the concept. Some of these differences include the lack of RAP (Recent Average Price), a 30-day holding period based on when you bought the item in which the item cannot be resold during that period, the inability to be traded, and all limited 2.0 items becoming resellable after a month if they do not sell out within that period, preventing instances like the Infernal Undead Immortal Sword, which released in October 2018 and has only sold around a third of its stock after nearly five years. However, an item can still be sold for its original price until it sells out, essentially becoming a price ceiling as resellers would have to compete with that immovable price by selling it for lower, which may end up making the item take an even longer time to fully sell out, but regardless, still able to be moved around.

The maximum initial price a UGC Limited appears to be 10,000, the minimum is 0, while the maximum stock seems to be limitless, with the Pink Star Sigil holding the current record for the highest stock of 2,147,483,647 copies, and the minimum being only 1.

Criticism[]

Oversaturation[]

The oversaturation of the limited market is a common concern, as even if there is an upload limit of one collectible per day, the large amount of UGC creators on the platform still means dozens will be released every day.

As of May 5 2023 (29 days after UGC limiteds were launched), there are 615 UGC Limiteds with a stock of 100 or lower (110 of which have a stock of 20 or lower), compared to the 217 non-UGC limiteds with the same criteria. The minimum quantity a UGC limited can have is 1, meaning it is also believed to have been caused by the fact that the amount of copies is a factor in the price to upload a UGC limited, which would make items with lower copies cheaper to upload than more common items, incentivizing uploading rare limiteds rather than more common ones.

This issue extends to more common items as well, as there would be so many limiteds on the Marketplace, and almost all of them will perform poorly, as the holding period of an item will diminish any excitement for it, as they also get overshadowed by the hundreds of limiteds that release every week, meaning possibly only a few UGC limiteds will be able to go anywhere.

Taxation[]

When UGC Limiteds were finally launched for UGC Creators, there was initially a 30% marketplace tax as well as a 30% tax for the creator on resells, meaning reselling the item would only give you 40% of what you sold it for, unlike 70% for regular limited. Once the test Limited 2.0 items finally went past their holding period, however, they had a 50% tax, so it is likely that the amount the creator got from resells was reduced to 20%. While lower, it is still higher compared to normal limited's 30%, and so for buying and reselling, it is better to buy normal limiteds. This also makes it much more difficult to profit from UGC Limiteds, as for a normal limited that costs 1,000 Robux, you'd need to sell it for 1,428 to break even, but for UGC limiteds, you'd need to sell it for 2,000 to break even. With the issue of oversaturation as well, many players avoid most UGC limiteds if they want to seek out profit, usually going for extremely rare (yet cheap) or free ones.

Botting[]

When an item releases, especially a free one, it may sell out within seconds, as a result of a combination of the number of people who want a free limited with the amount of bots, as there is no limit as to how many copies a person can buy of a UGC limited before it sells out (at one point it was restricted to 4, although that restriction seems to have been removed as of late). This can cause issues for Star Creators releasing free limiteds for their fans, as they may not be able to get the item without help from an extension or a bot when competing against other users looking for free limiteds as it would sell out incredibly quickly.

Criticism[]

Limited unique[]

Bots[]

The amount of bots (or 'item snipers'), purchasing limited unique items as soon as they come out, or buying up multiple copies of an existing limited at the same time, has caused a large amount of backlash. It is a prominent issue with low-stock items such as the Immortal Swords due to their much higher chance of skyrocketing in value for the owners.

Glitches[]

Some issues arose from the release of certain limited items in late 2018 and early 2019. A few examples of these are Horns of the Creature, Torque the Blue Orc and the Wanwood Autumn King Crown. Eventually, this resulted in Roblox placing the release of new limited unique items on hold until further notice. The most recent bug, which allowed players to obtain limited items for free while others have already spent Robux on them, has been speculated as one of the main causes of the drought of new limiteds since many items that had these bugs lost their original value.

Return[]

It took nearly 2 years for more limiteds to be released after the Ice Valkyrie and the Viridian Domino Crown, namely sponsored items like the Gucci Dionysus Bag. After UGC was announced, Roblox noted in a Frequently Asked Question response that UGC creators would be able to make limited items sometime in the future, and that limited and limited unique items made by Roblox would return as soon as the issues with them were fixed.^[1]

On May 7, 2022, the first non-sponsored limited item came out since Ice Valkyrie and the Viridian Domino Crown, Sinister S. Many other items have gone limited since then. Around late May 2022, several limited items gone limited in a short period, including notable items such as Silverthorn Antlers, Immortal Sword: Vlad's Lament, and the Blizzard Beast Mode Bandana, coinciding with Memorial Day, however, a sale remains unconfirmed as speculation.

General[]

Inflation[]

IAt certain times (usually on Christmas or Black Friday), Limited items shoot up in price very quickly, and take a long to go down back to their original prices. This is from the higher amounts of Robux being purchased to purchase limiteds. Many traders and players dislike this certain time due to "cheap" items like the Shaggy originally being sold for a reasonable price, but then shooting up to 2-5 times the original price once inflation begins to take effect on the market. (images below for more reference)

Market[]

Although limited items follow the general rule of supply and demand, many players still dislike this because of instances such as an item being sold for 50 Robux rising to 50,000 in a short period. Many players also dislike instances where there are no resellers for an item, making it impossible to get until someone puts a copy on sale. This issue is exacerbated by 'hoarders', a term used to describe users who buy or trade for a high quantity of a specific Limited item to take those copies out of circulation with the end goal of increasing the item's value to be resold or traded at a hefty profit.

Another issue arises from price-warring, which begins with two or more users wanting to sell a copy of a limited item, and continuing to lower the price so that their copy is sold first. In large magnitudes, this issue can greatly impact the value and RAP of a limited item, which also hinders others from selling copies at a reasonable price.

Glitches (Limiteds)[]

In early 2021, there was a Marketplace glitch with prices and limited items being unpurchasable, but in March 2021, the problem was mostly fixed, until April, when certain items had a pricing glitch if sold under RAP. Most items that experience this are the recent Gucci Garden items, as competitive pricing causes items to be sold under RAP, making the items glitch until someone purchases the item with the right amount of Robux. In 2022 there was a glitch where people could buy resold limiteds for free. This was an issue because the resellers wouldn't get any Robux when this happened.

Trading[]

As with all online games that have trade systems, some users seek illegitimate gains through scamming. Since Roblox introduced trading in 2012, there have been many deceptive tricks that users have employed (such as the infamous 'double-trade' scam) to con others out of their limiteds.

In some cases, malicious users may obtain a poisoned limited on purpose, and attempt to quickly trade it off to someone else, with the intended result of the recipient being terminated. Users have called on Roblox to be more careful when reviewing these incidents.

Deleted Copies[]

Roblox has sometimes removed limited items from terminated players' inventories, even though they are already considered to be deleted forever when the user is initially terminated. This is often for players that use the "One Time Rollback" feature. One known example was ContentCool in 2016; due to Linkmon99 getting compromised several times and ContentCool purchasing his 'stolen' limiteds, almost all of ContentCool's items were taken after his termination.

Since Roblox does not automatically resell or redistribute a terminated player's limiteds in most instances, they are usually considered to be gone forever, and this has led to concerns from many users because of the effects on the limited economy as well as the site's history.

Special terms[]

Rare[]

Users consider an item rare when it has a low stock (usually less than 100 copies in existence). Due to the low stock, the recent average prices (also known as RAP) may be low, and the item is thus perceived of less value, however may be traded for amounts much larger than its RAP due to its rarity. Rare items are the most expensive items in the catalog and the reason for their low RAP is because hardly any copies of them are ever sold.

High demand[]

A limited with high demand is wanted by a large number of people, which is why many of these items have moderate stocks but are worth considerably more than you would expect. These types of limiteds commonly sell daily and have ascending prices. An item can be in high demand mostly when it has a high stock and is bought several times a day.

Projected[]

A limited that is projected is intentionally sold for a very high price while the RAP dramatically rises extremely high. They mostly vary with low stock (around 10,000 or less) and are not sold as much by users. Once a limited is projected, it will start to sell under RAP due to the unexpected price change and rapidly descend to its original selling price and RAP. These limiteds are not as favored by the community and are considered to be 'foul' or 'scamming' items, although some may attempt to take advantage of the price illusion.

LPP[]

LPPing (LPP meaning Lowest Price Possible) is the opposite of projecting and is usually done in an attempt to lower an item's value. For example, if a limited with 100,000 RAP that had barely sold in the last 30 days was suddenly put up for only 1 Robux and purchased, the RAP would be decreased by ~10%.

Poisoned[]

A poisoned item has been stolen from a user's account. These items contain the risk of the owner being banned without awareness. They are not commonly traded around but can be traded for without notice. Bans from harboring a poisoned item can be appealed, but it depends if the owner intentionally or unintentionally traded for the item (often judged by whether they offered lower or higher value in RAP for the item).

Unobtainable[]

Unobtainable Limiteds are Limited Items that are completely unobtainable to the Roblox player base because every owner of this item has eventually been terminated. Unlike non-limited items that have been off-sale with many owners. Unobtainable Limited's were once items that owners could sell and were extremely rare items. Over time in a few years, owners of the items get their accounts deleted/terminated until it narrows down to the last owner of the item that is still active. When that player is terminated, the Limited becomes completely out of reach as any owner of the account couldn't sell the item because they were terminated.

Trivia[]

This section is a trivia section. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections of the article.

• Some users with at least 10 copies or more of the same Limited item may spam the "Private Sales" section of the Limited item's page, with each copy usually costing the same price.
• When a user purchases a Limited item, it will appear next to the last item the user bought after it became a Limited item.
• Although users can only purchase one copy of a Limited Unique item per account while it is still in stock, some have used methods to purchase more than one on the same account. These accounts are usually terminated by Roblox shortly afterwards.
• After the release of UGC Limiteds, Roblox stopped constantly making Limited items, reasoning that they did not want to compete with the UGC market.^[2] It took around 4 months for Roblox to create another Limited, the Puffy Puffer Fish. It took Roblox another 7 months for Roblox to create another Limited item, the Vault Swordpack during The Hunt: First Edition.

References[]