The Black Market

The Black Market was a mysterious shop created in the Sixth Era by TheShadowDealer, an alt account who's true identity is only known to a few. The Market would appear in late March 2019, and was located in Antarctica, under a town with the same name. It was built to resemble the ruins of a stone structure, with a black tarp covering a main area where items were sold. What made the market different from many other server shops at the time were the items available for purchase. Items such as mob spawners and spawn eggs, which couldn't be normally acquired in game, were somehow available. Large quantities of Slimefun machines and resources could also be purchased for relatively cheap. 
Each week, an account on the MCPE discord called "Shadow Dealer" would announce items and prices that could be found at the Market. This is all the discord account would do and it wouldn't engage in conversation with players. Shortly after an announcement, TheShadowDealer would log on to stock up items and change prices. Players that went to the market at the time who tried to engage with TheShadowDealer described that the dealer would simply stop what they were doing and stare at the player until they (the player) left. 
== Possible Identities ==
Due to the mystery surrounding the Black Market, many players began speculating and examining evidence in an attempt to identify who TheShadowDealer was, and whether or not it was one person or a group. 
=== RabbitCarrot ===
In a now deleted channel on the MCPE discord, Garrett109 would claim that TheShadowDealer was RabbitCarrot. Rabbit was known at the time to be using exploits and had a Slimefun lab large enough to produce the quantity of items available at the Black Market. This claim also carries a lot of weight due to Garrett's close relationship with the staff team, who had stated that they were aware of the identity of TheShadowDealer. Rabbit himself would deny this and would point out that he was rarely on the server during the height of the Black Market.
=== MCPE Staff and Garrett109 ===
One popular theory made by a player was that the Black Market was set up by the server staff team as a test for a future voter shop in an attempt to gauge player reactions to item values. The theory further states that TheShadowDealer account was purchased by Garrett109, who was the one tasked with setting the whole thing up. It was also pointed out that TheShadowDealer's activity significantly dropped following the addition of the voter shop, with the Black Market disappearing entirely a few days later.
Both Garrett and the server's owner at the time, ReborneLogik, would deny the theory, with Reborne stating that "If I wanted to test something, I wouldn't have this elaborate plan, I'd ask the beta testers." When confronted with the fact that the Black Market was selling supposedly unobtainable spawn eggs, Reborne would also state "[That the eggs were] on some of the worlds in space, in chests." and "That we wouldn't give some random person spawn eggs... but then now sell them." While the statement does explain how TheShadowDealer might of acquired spawn eggs, it still doesn't explain the quantity that supposedly were being sold, as chests were rare in space and at most, a player could find 1-3 spawn eggs per chest.
=== GummyGuy ===
Early on in its existence, GummyGuy was put forward as the mind behind the Black Market. Gummy and his town, Toto, were known to be dupers, and were the first ones to have access to space. This could be one explanation as to the quantity of Slimefun items and spawn eggs that were being sold. However, this theory started to fall apart shortly after Gummy's ban, as it's unlikely the staff team would continue to allow a banned player selling possibly duped items on an alternate account. Gummy himself would deny being TheShadowDealer and would even offer support in attacking the Black Market during his ban, due to it selling Slimefun items at low prices. 
=== Spy and Central Intelligence ===
Shortly after the creation of the Black Market and TheShadowDealer, another anonymous account on the MCPE discord calling itself "Spy" appeared. Spy offered information in exchange for information. Players also happened to find him to be really annoying and quickly discovered that the player behind the account was RealJulio. Another account called "Central Intelligence" would also appear during this time. A few players believe that all three were related.
In the end, due to the overall incompetence and how quickly players were able to discover the identities of both Spy and Central Intelligence, it's believed that neither account was related to TheShadowDealer, and were simply copycats trying to ride off of TheShadowDealer's mystery.
Category:Shops
Category:Miscellaneous
Category:Sixth Era