Dante wrote:
On the other hand, it's not so nice that I heard that some players bought items explicitly for other players who went later. That violates the spirit of the random timing. It starts to break Whedon's Rule and can lead to cooperation among friends or competition by players who are willing to use their time slot for a "finder's fee."
Yeah that was me, and as far as I know I was the only one that did it. and I did it specifically to purchase a sword that belonged to an ancestor of my character, that in all likelihood, I will never use in combat. It would have been played out publicly at the end of the BI, but that roleplay was quashed (that table had more resolution to deal with)
If I was violating Whedons rule I would have certainly gone for the cloak that provided AR.
The Market place provided the opportunity to be a game within a game, when my actual turn came up somewhere in the middle of the pack, I bought something completely useless for my character _mechanically_ but instead could be used as a political tool to win favor from the S'sressen, to whom I gifted said item, without any prior collusion from them.
I ,having spent more than 30 gold that weekend, have in hand a sword i wont use, but posses just for the story, but have in my political folder, more connections and favors than I started with, and as Ivan would say " Is good thing."