Below Vendor?

[kubwulf]

Been back to COH for a little under a month as I write this.  Something I've noticed and do not yet understand, is the penchant for people to post on the Marketplace for less than the sale price to the vendor.  Often below 50%.  The number of times I've seen the vendor offer 10k only to see the same recipe on the AH for 2k forces me to wonder why?  If purples go for 10 to 20mil why are yellows and oranges going for below vendor prices?

 

Apologies if this is a retread topic, my search-fu is weak and I write this without the benefit of coffee.

[Ura Hero]

I'm lazy.  It's really as simple as that.  I don't care what the vendor buys it for.  I'm already posting stuff to the market and I don't want to make a trip to another spot just to sell for a miniscule amount profit.

[Siouxsie]

1) Ignorance - They just don't realize the vendor would give them more

2) Convenience - One can do /ah outside any mission map or base while the vendor is waaaay over there

3) Apathy - Some of us have hundreds of millions or billions of influence so it's a drop in the bucket

 

When (2) and (3) outweigh (1) it's real easy.  The plus side is that makes for some cheap buys for bargain hunters to make their wealth.

[kubwulf]

1 minute ago, Ura Hero said:

I'm lazy.  It's really as simple as that.  I don't care what the vendor buys it for.  I'm already posting stuff to the market and I don't want to make a trip to another spot just to sell for a miniscule amount profit.

But you don't have to go elsewhere.  This is what I don't get.  You go to the vendor, type /ah see what the vendor is offering, and post for a little higher.  Even posting at the same price costs you influence due to the AH cut.  I suppose if you've been playing since Homecoming launched and you're sitting on billions of influence it isn't a big deal to you.  Also, I come from the WoW market where greed is key.  I mean, I know that common salvage is on AH for 100 influence vice the 250 of the vendor, but I understand that because of the vast amounts of it.  Selling to the vendor gives you seed money at low levels but I just don't get the recipes going for below the vendor price.

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

54 minutes ago, Siouxsie said:

1) Ignorance - They just don't realize the vendor would give them more

2) Convenience - One can do /ah outside any mission map or base while the vendor is waaaay over there

3) Apathy - Some of us have hundreds of millions or billions of influence so it's a drop in the bucket

 

When (2) and (3) outweigh (1) it's real easy.  The plus side is that makes for some cheap buys for bargain hunters to make their wealth.

 

I'd say it's mostly a combination of 2&3, that I will categorize as low marginal utility.  Yes, you can squeeze out a few hundred or thousand more inf by going to a vendor, but the incremental value of that few extra inf doesn't really matter to many people.  It's like how people in America might look down and see a penny and not pick it up.

 

I generally vendor some and AH some and squeeze out the few incremental inf, but I certainly don't *need* to.  I just feel like it is a good habit.

[Triumphant]

I sell everything at 1 insp.  Things that have actual demand/value (i.e. that go for half a million to several millions) I will typically get a nice chunk of the asking price for.  For example, if an orange enhancement is going for 5 million, I can sell it at 1 insp. and I'll typically get anywhere from 3 to 5 million for the inspiration.

 

I hate bothering with the market.  It's boring and has nothing to do with the super hero game that I like to play.  However, I do need to acquire large sums of cash to buy the enhancements I like to slot on my characters.

 

The solution, for me, is to list everything at 1 insp.  It doesn't require me to futz with the market and I get in and out with my cash and back to doing the things I like.

[GM Impervium]

Also, there's badges for selling items on the AH, many of which grant additional market slots.

 

Otherwise, it's a cheeky way to earn some cash:  place tons of bids for half (or less) of the vendor price, wait a day or two, then sell it all to the vendor and cash in!

[iBot]

We've debated the "why's" of the market multiple times and mostly have come to the consensus that people are funny.  She's funny, their funny, everybody's funny.  Now you funny too.  As to this specific question personally it is convenience and impatience.  I know that if I list something for low inf it will sell fast thus giving me a nice little hit of cash and I didn't have to spend too much time doing it.  Granted if I list too low then someone could potentially get that low sell for way below market but honestly when that happens I just figure it was me giving them a nice gift.  You know kind of a pay it forward thing.  The only difference is when I'm on my farming toon that only exists to earn inf.  There I'll stand at the vendor in Pocket D with the AH open.  If the going rate for something is not above what I can vendor it for, then I vendor it.  Otherwise it goes on the AH for the vendor price + cost of listing + a small ( or large) profit.  However I've not done this in quite some time because I've since realized that I can self-fund a toon way easier by just paying attention to merits and converters.

[Hedgefund]

I'll add a 4) that's altruistic with a smidgen of self-interest thrown in.

 

The altruistic part is to add supply to the market so newer, or players just otherwise looking for good prices, can have items available.

 

The self-interest part is to provide converters (players who convert, not the salvage) the recipes they need so they can provide a supply of "good stuff" that I'll end up wanting to buy.

 

My ask prices are geared to the former, I'm a-ok if the latter end up with the items.

 

Ultimately the marginal utility Yomo referenced is, for me, the biggest factor.  Let's just say I've sold 10,000 recipes all at a "loss" of 7,000 inf, meaning I sold for 3,000 on AH where vendor would have offered 10k.  As a ratio of net worth, that's a percentage of a percentage for a good number of folks.

[Ura Hero]

On 10/10/2021 at 10:22 AM, kubwulf said:

But you don't have to go elsewhere.  This is what I don't get.  You go to the vendor, type /ah see what the vendor is offering, and post for a little higher.  Even posting at the same price costs you influence due to the AH cut.  I suppose if you've been playing since Homecoming launched and you're sitting on billions of influence it isn't a big deal to you.  Also, I come from the WoW market where greed is key.  I mean, I know that common salvage is on AH for 100 influence vice the 250 of the vendor, but I understand that because of the vast amounts of it.  Selling to the vendor gives you seed money at low levels but I just don't get the recipes going for below the vendor price.

 

 

But that is just it.  I have to go to a vendor.  As @Siouxsie said, I can type /ah anywhere.  Convenience and a little apathy.  I have billions.  I also came from the WoW market where I tried to get the most out of everything because gold was hard to come by.  Influence is easy peasy in CoH compared to WoW.  I can make a billion in two weeks with literally next to no work just flipping things.  Why worry about saving 20k?  It would be like Bill Gates stopping to pick up a dollar.  Not worth the effort.

[Bionic_Flea]

For common salvage, I will frequent list for anywhere from 1 - 100, simply because I want them to sell fast, secondarily to get the badges as GM Impervium mentioned.

[tidge]

I also list common salvage for 1 inf. The difference from the vendor for common salvage is peanuts... and there are bigger peanuts to be had by simply street sweeping at level 50. If I have to think about the cost difference, I'd just put it in terms of "the extra inf is simply the character spending inf to work towards a specific set of badges."

 

The only drops I reliably (i.e. 100% vendor) are SO/DO/nO enhancements and level 50 common recipes. Everything else is somewhere on a spectrum of "I might be able to do something else with this." That doesn't automatically mean that I'm hording the item, or I'm putting it on the market, it just means that I pause to think about it.

 

I go through different phases with respect to putting inspirations on the market. I will almost always do this to the point of getting specific badges, but typically I just try to use them as I get them. The SG base has storage for bigger ones for particular circumstances, email stores the resurrections.

[nihilii]

On 10/10/2021 at 4:22 PM, kubwulf said:

But you don't have to go elsewhere.  This is what I don't get.  You go to the vendor, type /ah see what the vendor is offering, and post for a little higher.  Even posting at the same price costs you influence due to the AH cut.  I suppose if you've been playing since Homecoming launched and you're sitting on billions of influence it isn't a big deal to you.  Also, I come from the WoW market where greed is key.  I mean, I know that common salvage is on AH for 100 influence vice the 250 of the vendor, but I understand that because of the vast amounts of it.  Selling to the vendor gives you seed money at low levels but I just don't get the recipes going for below the vendor price.

 

 

The most important currency is time. Personally, I delete white/yellow salvage, as well as most yellow and orange recipes. Selling to the vendor or listing on the AH has an opportunity cost compared to punching mobs in the face or playing the market.

[Marine X]

One thing that is a good add to a base is an Auto Doc, it disperses Inspirations but will also buy Salvage and Recipes as a Vendor would, and I tend to put it near the TP Area for easy access between missions, along with the Base Rez.

[Greycat]

On 10/10/2021 at 9:22 AM, kubwulf said:

But you don't have to go elsewhere.  This is what I don't get.  You go to the vendor, type /ah see what the vendor is offering, and post for a little higher.

 

 

*Middle of a mothership raid - notices salvage is full.*

*Options - throw on AH or delete.*

*List anything I have a stack of 10 or more that I don't need at the moment at 6 inf.*

*Continue punching Rikti 5 seconds later.*

(This is also true for inspirations - I tend to have medium dropping, and can use the space for ultimates on my Warshade instead - useful for shadow slipping. List at 6, then click-list-click-list-click-list for everything else I've dumped in the AH.)

 

Do I lose out once in a while? Sure. Do I care... not really.

[Aeroprism]

AH. At a loss.  Instant, easy, there.

 

I can't stand the vendor.  All he does is talk about his stupid kids in college while I have places to be.

[TheMoncrief]

When you have and make billions, a few thousand here and there just doesn't really register. Your time is more valuable doing real trades than going to the vendor to sell for marginally more.

[Yomo Kimyata]

Also, when you sell to the vendor you are capped as to the price they will pay.  Offer it up on the /AH and maybe you get exactly your offering price, and maybe you get a lot more.  Sometimes people are generous; sometimes people make fat fingered mistakes.  But the only ones who will capitalize on that are those selling in the /AH.

 

[Andreah]

Another thing I like about selling salvage (and other drops) on the auction is it preserves supply and removes some inf from the economy as the 10% of sell price market fee. Selling to vendors deletes the item from the economy and creates influence in its place, which is basically inflationary.

 

In the big scheme of things, these aren't that important, since excess salvage and recipes end up being vendored by someone. But at least some influence gets removed along the way. :)

 

One of the things I wonder about is a more or less closed-cycle economy; where vendored items go into a pool from which mob drops are drawn, and influence sources proportionately take inf from a pool filled by market fees and vendor revenues.