### Effective in one week (August 20): Custom credit will (temporarily) no longer be for sale

Currently there’s two issues with custom credit. First, it’s dominating the trading forum and making it very difficult for non-USD-spending users to buy things. Second, there’s almost $2000 of custom credit on the site, *a situation that makes me very uncomfortable*. If it helps to make the situation more relate-able, to us selling custom credit is a little like selling slots in an art shop, except that they’re prepaid… and we’re already ~40 slots deep :\

So, we are (for the time being) shuttering the custom credit shop. You will of course keep and be able to use any credit that you have, you just won’t be able to buy any additional credit. I understand a number of you may have trades pending that involve custom credit, so the shop will remain available for a time in which you can complete your trades: it will close on August 20 at 23:59 server time.

We know this is inconvenient to a lot of you, and we apologize. We hope the week’s notice helps smooth the transition.

—-

*I really like some aspects of custom credit: it makes it much easier for non-USD-paying players to acquire customs, it makes it a lot easier to buy a custom as a group of people, and so on. So if anyone has **any ideas at all** on what we can do to try to ease the above two issues in the future when we re-open, I would be very interested to hear them <3*

*Feel free to post ideas in this thread, contact me by echo if you’re more comfortable speaking privately, or even [by email](mailto:glitch@mycenacave.com) if you’d rather do so in a way unconnected to your account.*

—-

**Edit: If you are currently running a user-run contest or event that has custom credit as a prize and needs a little extra time, don’t worry, just let me know about it, I’ll plop them in the list below so I don’t forget and we’ll make it work :)**

Extensions needed for:

- [Dilemma of the Crystal Princess](https://www.mycenacave.com/forums/viewthread/4/1673/1)
- ...?

I agree with Roan!  Having that much credit in circulation at one time can be a bit iffy so maybe if it’s like a scheduled thing every few months then people can plan for when it’ll be available and you can somewhat regulate how much is around with smaller time periods.

That could, however, pose the same problem because people could just buy a lot during the windows of time it’s available…

wow I’m super helpful, I know

- sneaks in all quick-like -

Scheduled custom credit shop openings seems like a good concept but Dakota does have a point. Even if the custom credit shop were only open at certain times of the year, users could go on planning as they did before and then buy CC when the shop does open. Not sure if that would really solve the problem here. :/

Well, I don’t know much about customs and have never bought any custom credit in the past (nor do I expect I will in the coming future) butbutbut, what if ordering customs could be a limited slots and/or seasonal kind of thing? By limited slots I mean, like, there could be a certain amount of customs purchasable per opening before custom pet orders are closed off until the next window. I’m not sure if I’m doing a good job of explaining this, LOL, but that’s my idea. ^^

Also, what if you guys hire more artists? 8D /shot

- sneaks back out (yes, even after being shot) -

Going by a slots based system seems a little… skewed to me. But to build on it, what if during that window people were limited by how much credit they could purchase? Have it be a set maximum like $250 or something like that. Everyone could still purchase credit, but it would be a little bit more controlled.

Edit: Skye put my thoughts on slot based systems perfectly.

edit: i took too long typing this. this sort of builds off of/around the above ideas posted while i was in my mind-bubble.

another thing that would totally never work, but i’m going to say anyways, would be to do the schedule as previously stated, but perhaps put a cap amount of money allowed to be purchased during that schedules opening? so say, only $100 [ or whatever amount ] can be bought by whomever for whomever else for the 1 week, or the 1 month or whatever long period?

though i could see that turning into a somewhat terrible competition…maybe make the amount already purchased private? but then it would also cause the issue of not being able to get an amount if you’ve previously offered on a purchase…

make it an item that can be ‘used’ on another user? maybe? so that way the credit is on hand when making an offer, as opposed to offering without knowing? once the item is used, the credit somehow gets added to the intended users account? though that would mean that the item might end up being transferable unless there were a way to disallow it’s removal in an inventory…

and wow, i’m really spitballing here. i think i lost myself a paragraph back. vAv

Thanks so much for throwing ideas into the thread! It doesn’t matter if you think your idea is unreasonable… perhaps it is, but maybe it’ll inspire the perfect idea into someone else’s head :D Also, just like in science, **talking about your ideas that you think won’t work is just as important as talking about ideas that might**: you can save others a bunch of time if they end up having the same idea ^^

The avenues I’ve been thinking about are less along the lines of capping things (putting in limits always seems so arbitrary) and more along the lines of making it difficult to use in a way that would make it proliferate across the site. For example, making it non-transferrable was (in part) an attempt to stop it from becoming too popular. Similarly, making it useful only for customs and not transformable into gems etc. That way it still accomplished its purpose (of making customs at least somewhat accessible to people who do not pay USD) while being generally unsuitable for anything else.

Generally, I think if we could connect the buying of custom credit more directly to the buying of a custom, that would go a long way.

Some random thoughts I had (some of which are [terrible ideas](https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/6881867520/h46340EE3/)):

- an expiration date on credit — it works great for gift cards and stuff, but it’s probably a terrible idea here because you have no control over when your custom order gets picked up by an artist.
- maybe it *should* be convertible into gems? Any conversion from custom credit to gems would be a reduction of custom credit (i.e. good), but it would also make custom credit more useful and thus more desirable (i.e. bad)
- get through custom orders faster (more artists?)
- make customs MOAR ESPENSIVE (lol just kidding >>)
- make custom credit a little bit more expensive (e.g. $11 for 10 — making it a slightly worse deal than just paying for a custom the normal way); i could imagine this one working really well, but i could also imagine it just being annoying and having zero net effect
- head in the sand: just open back up when it’s low enough, hope for the best, and close it temporarily again if it gets too high again

I heard you like limits, so I’m limiting limited things to limited slots for limiting while you limit!

Ok, bad memes aside, the idea of limiting an already limited feature to “Slots” scares me and sounds like a bad idea, it would just breed more problems with customs (And put custom credit at a much HIGHER value than it already is), and cause more strife and serious rifts between players. Especially if things happened where, for example, a player with many customs kept getting MORE, and the limited slots prevented someone with none from even ever getting one, because people with more kept ‘getting there first’. That kind of thing is just an all around ungood idea, and just feels like it would breed more ickyness over the whole thing.

Now setting a cap specifically for -custom credit-, I could see working pretty well. (Like a set amount per every few months per player.)

Likewise setting just a few times a year allowing for custom credits to be purchased for other people. (Opposite from events, maybe? Meaning no CC purchase a week or two before/during/after various events?)

Or perhaps a rule that CC can only be “traded” for nuggets/gems among players? (though that one also gets super ‘sticky’ to deal with, but would ensure nuggets/gems kept higher value as trade currency.)

I mean, yes, CC DOES feel really “unfair” in the context of trading items, but it’s zero different than people plopping down a boatload of money on gems to steamroll offers for items they want, equally effectively pushing nugget or item trades out of the equation. (_I_ remember those kinds of spiteful scuffles players had against each other, even if other people forgot in light of this ‘new target’ for it.) CC isn’t filling anything that Gems didn’t for trade issues among players.

It DOES however, give more users who may not ever be able to get one, something they may never be able to achieve any. other. way. And that’s a wonderful thing! (Me being one of them. I would NEVER have been able to get my custom that’s now pending if not for a trade including CC. Granted, for ME, now that my ONE goal that way is done… -I- probably won’t be much interested in CC again. I’ll stick to gems/nuggets. Because yes CC is great and gets customs, but being unable to trade CC means you can’t SPEND it on new pets, mushroom fodder, monthly items/pets. It’s kinda a one-trick pony, one user can buy it for another user, that user gets a custom, or custom edit, whatever. Game over from there, it’s not a coloration you can hold onto and sell a year or two later for more, it’s not an item. It’s pretty finite and one-use.)

Yeah, things got pretty out of hand with everyone going crazy with it… But (hopefully) now that we’ve all seen just HOW over the top we’ve been going, people will express a little more self-control. (sure some users might not, but I’m betting MOST will.)

All that said, holy simoleons, batman!!! That is a scary quantity of floating CC$, I can VERY much see why, and support it getting temporarily shut off! Especially with a lot of people perhaps not knowing just how long customs can take to make, that’s just… From a business mindset… Yeah, scary. *hugs admin* >.> If seeing that number made you have kittens, can I have one?! :D Glitch-kittens!

Edit: ... I bet a glitch-kitten would meow in binary.

Roan: I suppose slots wouldn’t work well if there were tons of users buying customs, but what I’m understanding here is that it’s the amount of custom credits being bought that seems to be the problem? Ah well, said credits could be used to order a custom at any given moment so I guess I understand what you mean by ‘skewed’. <.<

On another note, a custom credit limit purchasable per user during a window (phew, what a mouthful) sounds workable. I think I’m getting used to the idea already, to be honest. ^^ In my opinion, this could definitely work unless everyone started making deals to buy CC for each other. /shot

glitch: Dat list of ideas. xD

Skye: I agree with everything on your post - especially the idea of glitch-kittens being handed out. 8D I also have to say that I agree with your opinion about CC. I might aim to get one custom, that’s a might right there, and that will probably be it for me. Gems and nuggies are the only things a girl really needs if she finds all the non-custom pets adorable enough. *woot, woot*

What if we just put a moustache on everything?

I know putting slots on something isn’t really something people want, but perhaps putting slots on individual artists would be helpful in discouraging the purchase of CC constantly.

Or maybe no one would really care about that and buy it anyway, thus making it a competition between users to claim one of those slots.

A reign on how much CC you could purchase for other users but having no limit on the purchase of your OWN custom seems like it would be more manageable. Only so much CC is going to be sitting idly around the site but if someone chooses to buy a custom the standard way, there’s no issue.

I don’t know how well the idea of some other (non transferable) thing you could purchase with CC (while keeping the cap on it) would sit with people but it’s an idea? I don’t know what kind of item would work best for that, something worth buying but not really raising the demand for CC (plus it’d be non transferable as I said)

I dunno, I feel like I’m not making sense anymore oops

Just an idea that might relieve slots, you could maybe open a pre-made custom shop. Maybe one artist dedicated to making non-order customs and people can just purchase it for custom credit (reduces wait time, especially since I assume at least a few of the people holding onto their custom credit have no idea what they want anyways). They’d probably have to be simple and follow the price estimates set in the custom order form idk if that even makes sense LOL.

Another idea is to close cc periodically, and make it convertible to gems only after the cc buying feature is closed, that way it’s a way to reduce the amount of cc in the system during the cool down period.

(I dunno what you’re talking about, Glitch. Head in the sand is a great way to solve problems AHAHA)

I like the head in the sand option…. Because Nephy has no disposable income and due to some family issues isn’t likely to have any anytime soon.

But in all seriousness a premade custom shop could work to relieve some of the CC floating around and more artists couldn’t be a bad thing right?

I am…really glad this is being discussed. I’m on both sides of the issue where, I want a custom one day and CC is the only means I’m gonna get it(atleast while i’m living at my current apartment, rent being $800/mo BUT I DIGRESS)...yet at the same time I’ve often found that since CC is in higher demand, it seems that even an amount of equal value(by site purchase) to the other currencies is actually worth more. Like, personally I know I prioritize nuggets over gems because of bank interest, and that keeps gem value in check in general—it drives down gem exchange prices a little bit, and users are more inclined to trade for something that earns them more in the long run. and users who need gems now can either exchange nuggets for it or, if they don’t want to deplete their bank reserves/have the spending money, can purchase them from the gem exchange.

there’s nothing like that keeping CC in check, though, and I can see why the huge amount of it floating around may be an issue. should a bunch of users decide to cash their CC in all at once, the artists would be obligated to fill in that many custom orders and the queue would get super long…like if I was doing commissions and my art was in demand, I would have limited slots available. customs are something that you are trying to keep available, so that makes this hard to do. it will be a bigger problem the bigger the userbase is, so this is something that needs to be curbed now.

I dont think I have any ideas, though…but I really like the idea of a pre-made custom shop. the only drawback i’d see for that is people would still be ordering their own personal customs and that might be spreading artists a bit thinner…but that’s no different than with no pre-made shop, really.

maybe a personal limit on how much CC you can hold at one time? like…maybe the limit will be whatever the most expensive custom was, so it’s high enough that someone can order a heavily edited custom right off the bat. then having ordered their custom, the user can go back to saving for whatever other customs they have in mind. that way users will have a cap on the amount they can use in trades around the site…which then again might still be too high, hmm. the limit could also be whatever the average cost of customs previously ordered is, so a user can order that and then tack on other edits later. i dont know if it is good or bad but this would lengthen the process of a custom, i suspect. bad because users just want to have their custom and not wait while it is incomplete, and artists having to take more slots for the edits that users couldn’t get the first time around. good because users might be inclined towards working on the incomplete custom instead of using their CC in trades?
I dunno the above all seems kinda arbitrary and stretching out the custom process might not do anything towards the issue at hand and only make things cumbersome for everyone. and there is still also the problem of users holding CC for each other.

hmmmmmmmmmm

I think the best solution would be that only so many customs can be requested within a certain time period.  Also, have a limit on how many customs each user could request within a time period to keep certain users from hogging all the slots and give everyone a fair chance at getting one.  I’m not saying these should be the numbers, but here’s an example:

Let’s say only 20 custom requests can be put in per month.  Once they are full, no more customs can be requested until the next month.  Each user can only request 1 custom every 2 months.  If Emzie buys one custom in August, she would have to wait until October before purchasing another one. That means 40 different users could get 40 customs in a 2 month time period. 

The numbers of course would depend on the artists and how much work they can handle.  As the userbase grows, more artists and more slots would be needed per time frame to keep things fair. 

I feel a system like this would keep the artists from being overwhelmed, make everyone have a fair chance for getting into limited custom slots, while still letting users buy and “trade” CC.  There would be the potential for a lot of CC in circulation, but it could not all be used at once. 

I’m sad to see it closing, but I’m glad it isn’t permanent. I’ve seen CC sell for about 4k per credit & was actually surprised it isn’t “selling” for more. Customs are popular, a lot of people (including myself) want them.

I like the idea of having a premade custom shop, I think that’d actually be pretty popular.

Maybe while the custom credit shop is closed users could buy pets/items from the Out of the Shadows shop in lieu of gems? I’m not sure of making it available for pure gems would be good, wouldn’t that impact the economy?

Maximum Limit Model - One way of limiting CC is to put a hold on how much you can buy within a certain amount of time. Say $100 every two months as an example. That’s plenty to get a basic custom plus some edits depending on the base you want. So if you’re gifting out of sheer kindness it’s still pretty reasonable and if you’re trying to use CC as a currency to get things on the user market, you’re limited (although I think $100 is still pretty hefty).

Pooled Maximum Limit Model - Another idea is that you could create a pooled limit of both regular custom purchase and CC where a user has a maximum limit of $250 custom dollars every three months. So if you buy a $130 custom for yourself, you only have $120 to attempt to use as CC for the next three months (or get another custom).
This turns custom credit as something you really need to balance and think about instead of throwing it around as the idea of a common currency to get things from other users. From my understanding, CC as a widespread or common currency was not its intended purpose. This model at least makes users think about whether they want to sell their CC or save their allotted amount for a custom.
This could also limit the amount of custom requests a little bit as there is a maximum dollar amount within a time limit so one person can’t order a large multitude of customs within two months without getting CC from someone else.

Exchangeable CC - This could actually help take out CC if you make CC exchangeable for Gems and only that one direction (basically no gems -> CC, only CC -> gems). $1 is $1 CC and buying gems costs $1 each, so it’s not really a bonus or a loss. You’ll just trade 1CC for 1G. If someone is doing small CC transactions of $5 or $10 (and we know you can’t get a custom at that price), someone might be tired of saving the CC and want to do something with it. Making it removable for gems would give them that option and help remove some CC without exactly making CC more desirable than gems since it’s the exact same rate.
I’m not talking about making it exchangeable between players either like nuggets -> gems market. Make a CC sink NPC/shop/page where you give the site the CC and get gems. This is what will make the CC go away.

Custom Slots Model - To balance work load, slots seem like a good idea. You wouldn’t even have to put a maximum monthly limit which would stop others from ordering customs for the rest of that month; an alternative would be to just have slots and once a custom is finished, open the slot again. Slot availability can even be modified for individual artists since when ordering customs, users select their preferred artist anyway. For example, Artist-X works fast or has more free time and has 5 slots while Artist-Y is busier with another job and only has 3 slots. If your preferred artist has full slots, you can always note to opt for your next preferred if they have slots open.
In order to stop certain users from constantly taking up slots, consider creating a limit on how frequently you can order customs. Once every three months for example; modify it however you want. Doing this without slots can also still slow down how frequently someone orders a custom.

All price and time limits are of course modifiable to actual needs of the staff/site, these are just some ideas/examples. Helpful information in deciding would be to look at who is ordering customs/custom credit (is it regularly the same people, a select few, or a wide variety of people), what’s the average price of customs ordered, how is the CC being used (as a common currency, do people with CC actually get to use CC to order customs, is the amount of CC being traded actually miniscule compared to custom prices).

Anyway, I’m glad this is being looked at. Good luck finding the right solution.

an expiration date on credit  No, no no no. No. Glad to see that this was a bad idea. Particualrly when the primary use I thought was to get small amounts to save for a big order custom. Or to give to a friend to help pay for theirs etc.

I also approve of This idea. It also prevents a user just perpetually buying customs.

I was typing my response, but a lot of what I in the process of writing followed the same lines of what was said by Lilael above.

I’m quite partial to a slot system myself after CC is lowered. Something for only CC though — not buying it straight out so there is still a queue. That way buying CC is discouraged but allowed. And then there would be additional rules like x amount of slots are for people who don’t have a custom yet to prevent anyone who is trying to nab all the slots.
As for future CC purchased, I’d like to see a limit for what people can buy on a monthly basis. be it for themselves or others.

Sapphy made a good point: Track who has how much. I personally have $35, so I wouldn’t be able to use it to buy a pet. I’d have to about double it before I got to a pet I wanted - a Drasillis. I think a lot of that credit is in the same boat, so as long as it’s not transferable it’s not really that much to worry about.

I agree with the CC -> Gems conversion. I don’t think it’d make custom credit substantially more valuable, but it would take unwanted credit out of the system, giving you a better idea of how much is /really/ out there and planned to be used. Bonus points if you make this a temporary deal - trade within the next week, or not at all. That should clear out a lot of the less wanted credit.

Allow any number of requests to pile up, but emphasize that it’s requests, not orders. Don’t take payment until a request is started by an artist. Unless artists have been overwhelmed so far, I can’t see it becoming an issue - maybe the queue will get long, but that would mean cleaning out a lot of the custom credit, so there won’t be as many new orders for a while after that.

And a modifier on Emzie’s idea: Instead of a hard cap (you may only buy a custom every two months), perhaps a percent fee for excessive demand? Like, you can spend $100 every 60 days on customs without any fees, but after the first $100 it costs 20% extra - so spending $150 in a 60 day period would cost $160 - $100 at flat rate, and $50 at the +20%.
—-I see both of these ideas being circumvented by people buying customs based on others designs, then trading them to the others. So not sure if that would work out.

I really love the suggestion of there being a pre-made custom shop! Maybe do a set (male and female) of the same design for premades? There’d only be one male and one female and, in my opinion, I still think it’d be ‘unique’ if there’s only a single set on site?

Another idea to whack down CC would be making ‘custom items’. Maybe leave a certain amount to be bought (e.g. A sword-like item would $10 in CC and be able to purchased by say… 20 users until it’s gone. Then there’d only be 20 swords existing on the site). I feel better with the idea of a large quantity so people have a chance to snag it... Or maybe just do unlimited items for CC? Basically their costs would be similar to an actual custom edit on a custom. o3o Maybe even do things like a ‘wig shop’ or something and sell them for CC? IDK i’m just doing a silly brainstorm here. Ignore me whoops. *melts* x3;; 

I also have no good suggestions and I don’t wanna repeat anything else mentioned. >v>;; 
Though, I have to agree with the ideas of slots will make things competitive.
I also almost felt my heart jump at the idea of CC expiring. I honestly think back to Neopets with that. Stuff like that is generally a bad idea, imo. 8I;;

*scurries out of thread swiftly*

Hi everyone!

Yay more ideas OuO.

I have a quick question — a number of you have suggested implementing some kind of limit to the number of customs that can be bought. I’m not sure I understand… how would this help reduce custom credit on the site? The more customs we can make, the more custom credit gets spent. How would limiting the queue lessen the amount of custom credit on the site? I must be misunderstanding something because to my mind, putting in such a cap would make the situation worse rather than better… someone explain it to me? <3

I had a separate realization that might help: currently when you place a custom order, if you have custom credit available, you can choose how much custom credit you want to spend on the order (if any), etc. We could make it so that if you *have* custom credit when it’s time to pay for a custom, it uses your credit then asks you to pay the difference. Paypal does this for example (i.e. if you have a paypal balance and a linked bank account, when you send someone money it doesn’t let you say “just pull from the bank, leave my paypal balance alone”). Would that be acceptable? Or would it bug people?

This pre-made custom shop also sounds pretty nifty! Definitely an idea worth discussing. I’ll talk to Myla and the artists about it and see what they think :)

Finally, I got a suggestion by email that I figured I should plop in the thread so it could be discussed: basically open up the possibility to buy breedings for USD (and of course, custom credit). If we just put them in the custom shop it wouldn’t really have much of an effect, since they’d just get put on the end of the queue like any other custom. BUT what if we had a system where it was a daily chance thing, kind of like the changingshroom in the Fungimental Magic shop? E.g. if you have a karass that wants babies, visit the tree every day, and if you persevere and get a little lucky you’ll be able to buy a breeding slot. Since we could tune the odds to be low enough, these could be handled outside the custom queue (kind of like breedings are done now when they’re won in raffles). **This would also have the upshot of introducing non-raffle breedings to the site.**

What do you guys think of all that?

It would make the custom credit less desirable due to the fact that your custom might not be able to be accepted until a slot was open. Even then you’d have to get the slot when it did.

For the second thing.. I can see that bugging people who want more than one custom. Particularly if one is a small ticket custom and one is a large ticket custom and they’re using the CC as a way to save up for the large ticket.

An idea I had, and chucked at Myly, was to possibly shift Custom Credit to Breedings. I’m not sure if this would necessarily make it more or less desirable but it’d put less pressure on any artists who might specialize in Customs as opposed to Breedings. ((I know Wren prefers breedings to customs))

And uhm.. That’s the first I’ve heard of the changingshroom in the Fungimental Shop T_T;;
I’m kinda iffy on that because I can…see that not going so great with the breedings. Because there are other factors to breedings.
1) Does the person have the money to buy the breeding. 2) if they care about it; is it time in the RP for the breeding to happen?
Depending on how long the breeding takes something might happen that causes them to not be able to pay. ((which is also technically true for customs but >_o because of the randomness factor this seems a lot more arbitrary.))
I could see something like you visit the tree X number of times to gain access to it but… that also seems arbitrary because of number 2. Most people buying breedings I think will be wanting them for RP characters. so most of these breedings will be planned because of that, and possibly waited on already. It’s the randomness aspect that I sorta read in there that’s not sitting well with me. And excuse me if I misinterpreted something.

> 1) Does the person have the money to buy the breeding. 2) if they care about it; is it time in the RP for the breeding to happen?

If when you’re given the opportunity to buy a breeding, the answer to either of those questions is no, then don’t buy the breeding? Kind of like the fungimental magic shop… when the changingshroom comes up, if you don’t have the nuggets, or don’t have a use for the changingshroom, then don’t buy the changingshroom. Am I missing something?

Glitch, do you mean that the breeding would be a one time only random chance event that disappears if you don’t use it? Or do you mean that it’s a random event that once triggered persists until the person purchases it? I think BlackSapphire was more getting at the first possibility.

(Edit: As a completely random aside, it would be nice to have more daily clicks that rewards nuggets. If you did that idea with the Sacred Tree, maybe make it pay out nuggets randomly if it doesn’t award a breeding?)

EditEdit: My initial thought about more babies was “YES PLEASE”... But it seems like it would make things worse with the CC since breeding is just as desirable as Customs (even moreso in some cases with RPers). And by the same token if you were to implement more breeding slots as a random event per user that disappears if you don’t buy it… I personally would feel angry and hurt because I wouldn’t be able to afford to buy a breeding for real money. It would be like dangling a juicy steak in front of a starving man and yanking it away when his stomach growls. It’s not cool. If it persisted once triggered though, it would seem fair since it would give people enough time to get CC or buy it with real money if they need to budget and wait.

I also like the idea of making/commissioning items, but don’t support making them limited quantity & would suggest raising the prices. Making a custom item is different because it’s only going on one base, whereas if this was implemented, they’d have to make it for multiple bases (cat, dog, fox, dras, fem/male) which makes it more work. Instead of making it limited, staff would choose how said item is released (through one of the shops, as an OOTS item, etc.).

I like the idea of introducing offspring in ways outside of raffles. Maybe hold an auction where users can bid using CC (& irl money, if you want) if you’re trying to get rid of excess CC?