A Market Manipulation Discussion

[Sakai]

Oh me oh my...I think I actually did perform some market manipulation and I'm pretty sure some of you do as well. 

 

I retired from the market a few weeks back.*  Pretty sure it is the first time on Homecoming. On Live I stopped 3 or 4 times.  

 

As part of the process I logged in to Ebil Bunny to clean out sales that were left and start canceling bids.  I got tired of clicking cancel so some were just ignored. 

 

Overwhelming Forces Knockback** was one such IO. It was another of those it seemed no one else was really trading in .  Buy at a variety of prices in the mid-high 8s, throw  some 9s in occasionally to  break the pattern.  Relist at 12 and change, collect 15,18, got as high as 25 upon occaaion.  (Yes I realize this breaks my standard pricing procedure but the influence was just too easy and their are always exceptions to the rule.)

 

While collecting my final earnings I would check back upon the price and they seemed to have settled upon a low of 6, 8/9 at the top (it is the weekend so the prices may be slightly skewed but take a look next week.)***

 

My brain tells me this is a form of manipulation. Set an average buying price but continue to bid below it to catch the IO and then set an exaggerated selling price. 

 

Hadn't actually occurred to me. 

 

Guess I am Ebil. 

 

Muah ha ha!!!

 

*Retired except for the 2 billion I seem to have accumulated while experimenting in  the Hami  market.  That doesn't count though as I am not religiously watching it. 

 

**have I ranted about Overwhelming Forces before?  My brain is telling me I have and should just bail now. 

 

***apologies to any that are unduly affected financiallly by this post. Hit me up and I will direct you towards another gold mine 😉

 

Edited July 17, 2021 by Sakai

[Sakai]

Retirement is good  though...I am actually playing the game with my time again.

[Ukase]

Retirement...lol. I've been having some fun with a challenge toon that abstains from buying anything. Only selling surplus items. Got about a dozen recipes I'd love to craft/convert/sell, but the challenge forbids the use of merits. I could use converters, but the character has only earned ONE so far, up to level 21. At level 50, the restrictions are lifted. 

So...I have not been afk farming. I have not been marketing in maybe 10 days. Oddly, there have been a number of characters I've moved for day jobs, and they each had a number of completed sales, and the stack of inf gets even higher. Not much just a few hundred million.

Before I "retired", or vacationed from the inf accumulation, I did ensure each farmer was capped for converters so I can resume if I should feel the need. I have 3 accounts. Each one has over 75B in email, not to mention each character having 1B on hand. Last tally was 321B. Seems like plenty to me! I just wonder if I'm making a mistake. Yomo might take over the world while I goof off! 
 

[Yomo Kimyata]

13 hours ago, Sakai said:

 

 

**have I ranted about Overwhelming Forces before?  My brain is telling me I have and should just bail now. 

 

 

 

Not that I remember, but I wanted to express my feelings for the OF proc and the OF market.  I love that proc unabashedly, and I try to fit in into every build I have as soon as possible.  Sometimes it's necessary (Umbral Torrent), sometimes it's useful (any damage aura), sometimes it's just plain hysterical when mobs flop for no apparent reason. 

 

But it appears to be underutilized (at least in my opinion).  It's got limited supply (run the Summer Blockbuster, or spend 100 merits).  For a long time, I occasionally skimmed the bottom of that set, converted to the proc, and listed at a price to skim the cream.  It was awesome (and brief) when you could spin them off at 15mm+.  And that was very nice profit.  I just never felt I could consistently sell more than a dozen a day at that level, and I didn't think I could sell 50 units a day at all.  Then sometime earlier this year, someone else(s) (@Sakai I guess!)  started to undercut so selling over 12mm became difficult.  So it goes.

 

There's still good profit there, but more in the 3mm/unit range.  Be warned though, I've got a backlog of inventory.

[Sakai]

24 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Then sometime earlier this year, someone else(s) (@Sakai I guess!)  started to undercut so selling over 12mm became difficult.  So it goes.

Definitely wasn't me. I am a firm believer if I am making mad cash anyone else that wants to sell at the same level should be allowed to  Profit equally. 

[tidge]

On 7/17/2021 at 11:02 AM, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

Not that I remember, but I wanted to express my feelings for the OF proc and the OF market.  I love that proc unabashedly, and I try to fit in into every build I have as soon as possible.  Sometimes it's necessary (Umbral Torrent), sometimes it's useful (any damage aura), sometimes it's just plain hysterical when mobs flop for no apparent reason. 

 

But it appears to be underutilized (at least in my opinion).  It's got limited supply (run the Summer Blockbuster, or spend 100 merits).

 

I am also a fan of the Overwhelming Force set, although I tend to only use the set while leveling up. It's essentially one of my non-brainer choices for ATs with a lot of offense. The KB->KD is exceptionally good when slotted on Mastermind henchmen, or pets that spawn in multiples. For folks with a level 50 mindset, I can see why the rest of the pieces would be slightly undervalued.

 

As far as marketing, I'm perfectly happy with the roughly 10 MInf prices for each piece in the set. I don't dabble in this as a regular niche so you have nothing to worry about from me.

[SomeGuy]

On 5/16/2021 at 5:55 AM, ArchVileTerror said:

Does buying up every piece of a certain something, no matter the cost, and then relisting it at 1 Inf count as "Manipulation?"

If so, then I was a manipulator last evening for something that originally had about 1700 listed, and less than 700 bids.  Most expensive one was bought at around 17,000,000 while the cheapest ones I sold were at 11.  All bids are now filled.  Only cost me about 300,000,000 to do it, too.  Although the time investment of three or four hours was less than ideal.
I'll be taking a stab at repeating this for the other three of its kind later on.

Market PVPers love you. They sell at a profit, buy it back at an insane discount, then they'll do it again.

[Ukase]

Yeah, I'm on record as stating that folks who think they're doing the "little guy" a favor by buying up all of a certain IO, then relisting for 1 inf isn't doing anyone any favors except certain marketers. But hey, if that's how they want to spend their time, have at it.