Some Afterthoughts:
You know, after completing this quest, I should be cheering and quite happy to have my dream avatar completed. While I am somewhat happy, and I love the way Marcello looks... I'm a little irked at the Gaian Exchange and Marketplace for the auction jacking that went on with my hat. I saved up the 500K I thought I would need and in three days, my hat went from 500K to over 2M in price. Price jacking is against Gaia's ToS--but whatever.
I did finally find a seller that was willing to take his down and sell to me...but not at the average buy out. He wanted 600K. So now, I'm sitting at 500 or so gold... But I have my hat. I feel dirty and I'm not sure if I'll ever actively quest any item again.
I'd much rather help others and hope that they don't have the same thing happen in return. It's not fair. They should police the Marketplace as well as the Exchange for price jacking. It is happening, people. And it's not right.
So, I won't say hats off, but indeed 'hats on'. Thank you all that helped me and a special thank you to the CCC and Miss Esa and my Violet that came to cheer in my corner. I am in your debt and hopefully, once I get enough gold worth donating I can throw my lot in with the charity and help someone else be able to post their 'completed' threads.
Sincerely,
Marcello
