Price gouging on Wentworths

[Digirium]

For a PvP enhancement 7-8M Inf is typical "ball park" territory.

 

With experience you eventually figure out ways around the auction house, instead of being dependent on what is offered on there. That could be buying recipes or/and using converters to get what you wanted. Or ahead of time of need, setting a lower buy order. Or dipping in to a PvP bin in your base, converting whatever is there to what you need.

 

So many combinations to bypass handing over Inf to another player -- every time you can do that, you've won.

[Murcielago]

Sorry, I'll stop listing everything really really high.

 

Instead I'll list everything really really really really high.

[Wavicle]

You are not entitled to ATOs at any particular price besides 100 Merits.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

It's nice to see that some things never change. The economy on Homecoming is ridiculously accessible compared to live (which was already ridiculously accessible compared to most MMOs) and we still have people complaining about prices.

 

In any case I'm doing my part to keep prices down by amassing billions of inf and not spending it thereby removing it from the economy and creating a deflationary pressure. You're welcome.

[Arxnine]

?

[Adeon Hawkwood]

6 hours ago, Arxnine said:

?

What are you confused about?

[Ukase]

On 1/5/2025 at 11:32 AM, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

I'm genuinely curious:  what do you think the "fair" price of this item is or should be?  How does that change if you are buying or selling it?

These two questions are relevant. 

Particularly the last question. 


Disappointment tends to stem from two factors: unreasonable expectations, or unrealized expectations. 
Just my own anecdotal experience, but for most folks, their disappointment stems from unreasonable expectations. People have free will. They tend to have stress from many areas in their lives, and that's under the best of circumstances. For some folks, a trip to the grocery store is enough to bring on stress-induced tinnitus. And we're going to quibble about imaginary loot? A very nice first world problem. 

Be a part of the solution if you can. You see items that are selling at too high a price? Make some and list them at a cheaper price. 

I noticed that Eradication: Chance for energy damage enhancements were out of stock on the AH. So, I made about 30 of them and listed them. 

[WhiteNightingale]

On 1/5/2025 at 11:32 AM, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

I'm genuinely curious:  what do you think the "fair" price of this item is or should be?  How does that change if you are buying or selling it?

 

I'd say what OP really wants to say is: A lot of us are sick of no-lifers buying ALL of a specific resource (ex: Aeon DOs) and then re-selling them at ridiculously inflated prices. Market manipulators need a date with the guillotine.

[Wavicle]

37 minutes ago, WhiteNightingale said:

 

I'd say what OP really wants to say is: A lot of us are sick of no-lifers buying ALL of a specific resource (ex: Aeon DOs) and then re-selling them at ridiculously inflated prices. Market manipulators need a date with the guillotine.

If people purchase those relisted items then the prices aren’t ridiculously inflated. If they are too high then people won’t buy them.

[Yomo Kimyata]

1 hour ago, WhiteNightingale said:

 

I'd say what OP really wants to say is: A lot of us are sick of no-lifers buying ALL of a specific resource (ex: Aeon DOs) and then re-selling them at ridiculously inflated prices. Market manipulators need a date with the guillotine.

 

Even if that is what is happening, which I'm not sold on, I'm not concerned for two major reasons:

 

1.  There is no limit on the number of loot-related items entering the system, and there is kind of a limit on items leaving the system.  For an example, let's take lvl 50 D-Sync Provocations, which seem to be trading over 200mm.  Let's round it up to 250mm.  There are currently 67 for sale.  Could I buy every one of them at 250mm per?  Sure.  Could I buy every one of them at 2bn per?  Sure, although it's a major pain in the butt to buy things for the inf cap.

 

However, let's say I did buy them all at 250mm and reposted them at 500mm.  Who is going to buy them?  They are kind of a niche item, although extremely useful in a few specific powers.   I'd argue that anyone who was willing to buy them at 250mm probably isn't going to rush out and pay double because -- 

 

There are more of them entering the system every day.  Every one who runs a Aeon or a Lady Grey has a chance to get one as a drop.  There are six servers now that share the /AH, and anyone on any of those servers can get one.  How many enter the system a day?  Your guess is as good as mine, but I'm going to make up a number and say a lowball estimate is ten.  Can I buy ten of these a day?  Well, for now, sure.  But not forever because I'm not earning 2.5bn inf a day.  So eventually I'd have to give up supporting the market.

 

This is an extreme example, since they are very rare items and can't be synthesized (through converters) or purchased (through merits) by other methods.  My long-winded point is that the daily flow of items in is going to be higher than outflow, over the long term.  This universe has so much stuff and there is only more stuff coming in every day.

 

2.  This particular forum has plenty of people who love nothing more than Market PvP(lol) and who also have plenty of inf.  Most of them are very familiar with the simple algorithms of the /AH, and they would love nothing more than to outbid me by 1 inf or undersell me by 1 inf, so for such a scheme to work other knowledgeable market participants would have to either ignore it, or not see it, or collude.  It's easy to manipulate a market in the very short term, like hours, but again over the long term it's not feasible.

 

There is also a 2a.  There's really nothing I can do to stop anyone in the short term from doing this.  It's how the /AH works.  I'd love to step in and rain on someone's manipulation parade, but I really don't because most of the time I never even notice.  Sooner or later, aggregate market forces will tend to equilibrium.  

 

That's my two cents

[UltraAlt]

On 5/24/2025 at 11:53 AM, Adeon Hawkwood said:

What are you confused about?

 

I thought your name was Tim.

[jrhughes0]

3 hours ago, Wavicle said:

If people purchase those relisted items then the prices aren’t ridiculously inflated. If they are too high then people won’t buy them.

 

I agree with this statement.  The market will reflect what buyers are willing to spend.  The best way to protest against out of control pricing is to refuse to purchase.