Habbo Trophies Release

The Habbo Trophies Release occurred on 11th November 2005 on Habbo.co.uk. There is no absolute certainty as to why, but it became evident that this was an unintended and unplanned, accidental release. This is the second catalogue-related release incident to occur in this year. Early in 2005, super rares, rares, seasonals and the Gold Habbo Trophy were similarly available for a short amount of time during the Palsternakka incident.

Release

Perhaps the best anecdote on the reason for release to date is from user Billyk. He cites the reason for the release as a mistake of the then hotel manager, Callie.

Billyk Explanation

The trophy given to Billyk, supposedly causing the accidental release

Billyk had won a G-Nation campaign competition, the prize being 100 credits and a Gold Habbo Trophy. After not receiving this prize, he sent a string of emails to Callie in inquiry, criticising her perceived tendency to spend a lot of time in-client with users in rooms, whilst not attending to a backlog of pending prizes and complaints (these were common complaints against Callie at the time.)

On 11-11-2005, Callie responded apologetically, sending Billyk his winners trophy, the gift wrapping stating:

"Sorry it was so late, Luff Callie"

Shortly after this, she was reported to be offline. Word soon surfaced via the Habbo Console that Habbo Trophies were available in the catalogue in the trophy section, at 15 Credits for either Bronze, Silver or Gold - the first time they had ever been available in the catalogue.

It seemed apparent that Callie had enabled the Habbo Trophies section briefly in order to purchase said prize for this user, only to accidentally leave the section open to all Habbos until it was removed by Moderators.

Criticism

Users were quick to question this series of events, many argued that staff would likely have their own access to all furniture in the hotel on-demand, via 'housekeeping' catalogue sections such as Palsternakka - without the need to make a section 'live' in-order to purchase prizes. A counter to this is the previous appearance of Palsternakka in the catalogue, where it became clear that an all-encompassing rare furniture section was able to be made live for all users, though for an unknown purpose.

Also noted, was the existence of the Gold Habbo Trophy in the Palsternakka section, warranting a need to utilise a separate section unneeded. This page was also integrated into the existing trophies section, with English descriptions and titles, (not Finnish and gibberish as in Palsternakka), with normalised pricing and no forced deletions by MODs. All this suggested that rumours of unannounced rare releases in the catalogue at the anniversary of Callie's first year on the hotel (around this time) may have held weight.

Aftermath

Although the real reason for their release remains unclear, it nevertheless had a great impact on the hotel. The Habbo Trophies were high-status items, given out primarily in gold for the highest prizes and accolades to users who have contributed greatly to the hotel. The Silver and Bronze versions had never been available until now, and still, only a few users managed to grab them before the catalogue section was removed under no explanation from Habbo staff.

The value for these trophies, given their popularity, did not suffer in the long term. Habbox rated furniture by Throne and Habbo Club Sofa valuations before Credit Furni. It is not clear whether in the week following the release, that prices rose or fell, though by the following December, they had risen to 1T 2HC for the three trophies in a set, from 1T pre-release.