Time-limited unique items. THIS IS WHY NOT.

So I was talking to this one guy, and he was telling me about the discharger he was making. And, well, he said the price of a voll's devotion amulet on SC was 17 ex the cheapest he could find.

Wait, what?

A quick search on xyz turns up 31 results, of which 4 have buyouts set, one of which is 10 ex. Clearly, he was wrong. But 10 ex, really? I got mine for 2 gcp when Anarchy was running, and they were in the 2 ex range a couple weeks after it ended.

Generally speaking, legacy uniques are just alternate versions of their current forms, with the same effects if not on the same scale. I'm cool with that. Kaom's still fulfills its purpose as a big ball of HP, even if it's less HP than before. But completely removing all inflow of a particular unique item with an effect unique to it? (pun intended) That's not cool, in my book.

While I recognise that new short-term leagues are free of the effects of no-longer-available uniques, and greater focus is (rightly or wrongly) on these as opposed to the permanent ones, surely that isn't an excuse to completely neglect them. Dumpster economy or otherwise.

Gifts as a race reward is great. But GGG better have a consistent plan to make these uniques more readily available again, one way or another, because gating interesting/useful content by date of signup is one of the worst things a developer can do to its players. There is empirical evidence of what, exactly, happens to content gated this way. Look it up if you want. Magic: the Gathering designers whine about it. Riot Games, of League of Legends fame, faced this issue and recently made a really difficult decision (in the opposite direction of Magic's decision, I should point out, though equally much taking context into account.) And how much do Runescape party hats sell for on Ebay again?

It doesn't affect gameplay if it's cosmetic items or if the functionality can be duplicated another way, but unique items with unique effects really? You're going to gate gameplay by signup date?

Seriously, there is no good move from here except to reintroduce the items, some time some way. (Suggestion: chance orbs. I can come up with half a dozen more, but this isn't my job.) At least GGG has specifically made a point of refusing to say whether they will be reintroduced. They flippin' well better do it.

Kiri owns 4x death rush, 2x victario's acuity, 1x voll's devotion, 1x shav's revelation, 2x gifts from above (will be 3 after racing this season), and 1x daresso's salute. That's enough to craft any build that uses any of these items. I don't stand to benefit from this recommendation, okay?