Cornering the bazaar

Funzo · February 18, 2004, 11:23:31 PM

Warning - Whiny complaint coming.

There is a way to ignore people in this game. I wish there was a way to keep certain toons (or better yet, accounts) from buying from you in the bazaar.

On my server, there are two toons -- obviously owned by the same person -- who buy up all the high-end gear and crank up the price because he has the only one or two available. Consequently, he's the only one to ever have a Crown of Naradi (278k!), White Dragon Helm, Fungi tunic, Cobalt Greeves or other such items for sale.

And because these items are so rare, it's easy for him to keep a monopoly on the prices by simply buying up the entire supply when another comes available.

It happened to me just now. On one of his toons he had an ODS for 19998pp. I decide to sell mine, and put it up for bid (almost jokingly) at 17500. Now, if you're like me, you feel 17500 is REDICULOUS to pay for an ODS. Sure enough, the guy's second toon comes along and pays my rediculous price only to put it up for resale at 19998. So now he has the only two ODSs available, both the same price.

I'm all for free markets and rampant capitalism, but it's frustrating to know that there are toons that you can actually pinpoint as to the cause of inflation.

I paid 8k for my ODS 7 months ago. In hindsight, I should have just given the ODS to a newbie. At least then I would know the item would be put to use.

I can only hope there's a run on ODSs and soon his aren't worth jack.

Laba · February 19, 2004, 12:11:00 AM

Welcome to capitalism. The only thing that would stop him is if people stop paying too much for the crap. Whats so bad about him buying from you? You seem to have supposedly made more money then you think the item was worth, seems like a great deal to me.

The Kittenpeeler · February 19, 2004, 03:06:24 AM

I beleive that the problem is, there's no recourse to buying it, EXCEPT from buying from the overpricing jerk.

Monopolies are considered illegal in most capitalist systems, because it takes away freedom of choice in purchasing a product.

But to the original poster, blocking him from buying wouldn't work, he'd just whip up a newb and buy it from you after transferring hte plat

TerjynPovar · February 19, 2004, 05:03:42 AM

But those people don't have a Monopoly. You can always go kill the monster and loot it yourself. Or buy an alternate but similar product.

Kerath · February 19, 2004, 07:25:19 AM

QuoteMonopolies are considered illegal in most capitalist systems, because it takes away freedom of choice in purchasing a product.

Monopolies are basically impossible in true capitalism. Notice that the only monopolies we have today are protected by the government. Same applies in EQ. As was mentioned, if you don't like the price you can go get it yourself. If the price gets too high other farmers will notice this and start farming the item to make a profit. Either of those actions will lower the price until it reaches its equilibrium once again.

Laba · February 19, 2004, 07:58:32 AM

Quote from: Kerath
QuoteMonopolies are considered illegal in most capitalist systems, because it takes away freedom of choice in purchasing a product.

Monopolies are basically impossible in true capitalism. Notice that the only monopolies we have today are protected by the government. Same applies in EQ. As was mentioned, if you don't like the price you can go get it yourself. If the price gets too high other farmers will notice this and start farming the item to make a profit. Either of those actions will lower the price until it reaches its equilibrium once again.

Not true. Lets say I discover a spring in my backyard that when you drink from it you become immortal. Since i own the only source of it i can set the price at whatever i want, force people to drink it in front of me so they can't discover whats in it. People will pay whatever i want as a huge huge majority of people want to live forever.

Knaw · February 19, 2004, 11:26:16 AM

Quote from: Kerath
QuoteMonopolies are considered illegal in most capitalist systems, because it takes away freedom of choice in purchasing a product.

Monopolies are basically impossible in true capitalism. Notice that the only monopolies we have today are protected by the government. Same applies in EQ. As was mentioned, if you don't like the price you can go get it yourself. If the price gets too high other farmers will notice this and start farming the item to make a profit. Either of those actions will lower the price until it reaches its equilibrium once again.

Not exactly true. You can hold a monopoly if, for example, you hold patents to key components or to products that everybody wants (or needs) or that you are the only person/company that can make these products. If nobody elsa can make them - you have a monopoly.

What usually is illegal are cartells, where manufacturers of the same type of products rig the prices higher than they would be by competition, forcing everyone to buy at these higher prices regardless what brand/manufacturer they chose to buy from.

Tailzin · February 19, 2004, 01:23:32 PM

I think I read somewhere that as a result of this monopoly system, prices on the lower end stuff shot up as well - ie, spider silk 100pp each.

The economy on some servers is ruined from this, SOE need to take a look at how to resolve it :(

Hrann · February 19, 2004, 04:21:28 PM

I had someone doing this to me from items that I normally farm in Droga. Once this person bought two of the same itme in a row, I knew what was going on, and I started farming those items every chance I got and making tons of money off the person. What was once worth 3-4k she started paying 6-7k for. You know what, after a while that person stopped buying from me because no one was buying them from her.

The price was set by the market at 3-4k for a reason. Unless she had buying power equal to the rest of the market combined, she couldn't keep the prices up forever (this is what the problem was with the exploiters, they did have this buying power).

However, I don't like the underhanded intent that these people have :(

Kerath · February 19, 2004, 06:21:02 PM

QuoteLets say I discover a spring in my backyard that when you drink from it you become immortal.

Yes you are right, in a fairy tale a monopoly could exist. Can you name anything close to realistic that disproves what I stated?

Kanne · February 19, 2004, 07:29:59 PM

How many choices do you have for electricity? Natural Gas? I recognize that these are heavily regulated by the cities and states, but honestly in my opinion they are still monopolies.

How many choices do you have on the next "cure cancer miracle" prescription drug? Until the patent expires, you do not have a "generic" alternative. I would also consider this a monopoly.

Kanne · February 19, 2004, 07:31:24 PM

Duh,
I needed to read your second response Kerath. Seems you do acknowledge "government" monopolies. Still they do exist.

Laba · February 19, 2004, 08:09:54 PM

Quote from: Kerath
QuoteLets say I discover a spring in my backyard that when you drink from it you become immortal.

Yes you are right, in a fairy tale a monopoly could exist. Can you name anything close to realistic that disproves what I stated?

Yes i invent a drug that cures AIDS and patent it.

mac173 · February 19, 2004, 08:34:06 PM

QuoteUntil the patent expires, you do not have a "generic" alternative. I would also consider this a monopoly.

If you have a Patent on a product, you do not have a monopoly. If you create a product, and do not allow anyone to copy it, it is not a monopoly. A monopoly exists when an INDUSTRY is controlled by a single entity, not a single product.
Ever hear of Microsoft Windows? It runs on over 95% of all PC's sold worldwide. But Microsoft does not have a monopoly. They have copyright and Patent rights to the product that they produce.
Now if Microsoft made it so NO PC ANYWHERE could run without Windows, that would be a monopoly. That is what they were charged with doing in the Lawsuit they are embroiled in now. MS tried to change the prevailing protical to it's .net archetecture, and then preclude any web brouser from working with it except Internet Explorer. That would have given MS a monopoly on internet access.

The buying of all of a certain product is not a monopoly, but it is considered illegal in the US, because you are controling the price. This is called price fixing, and is illegal. The essence is that consumers are denied access to copetitive prices due to the vendor buying all the available product.

But of course, we are talking about EQ, not USA.
Go with Hrann's solution, farm the product, and saturate the market. They'll eventually run out of money.

Kanne · February 19, 2004, 09:00:37 PM

Ok, well you guys better watch it. I just bought Boardwalk and Park's
Place and am in the process of building Hotel's on both of them.

No in all seriousness, I consider many utility companies a monopoly, water, electric, natural gas, etc. They are heavily regulated though and many times run by the state itself because of the potential for abuse. Still, they have no competitors and set their own prices.

Oh and while I'm thinking about it, what exact penalty did Microsoft receive? Did they ever actually pay a fine, or did they just appeal it. I know they had a judgement against them, but did they actually have to pay any money? I'm just curious, and can't seem to remember.