Cornering the bazaar

[Graeloth]

I think I caught on the news that California won a case against them and a bunch of people are getting vouchers from MS worth $2000... But I caught the end of the piece. I'm not too sure of all the details.

[The Kittenpeeler]

Monopolies 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.

Yup, because the govenment is quick to break up any other potential monopolies. Take a look at the thing with Microsoft.

Yes, in theory, you could conduct your own land survey, strike your own well, and refine your own gasoline.

And in theory, you can actually get an ODS to drop out of Sebilis.

[Hrann]

Actually in a true capitalist society, it is virtually guaranteed that someone will dig their own well - it is only a matter of time until the oil company charges prices that makes that course of action more cost-efficient.

[Dorrogtr T`A]

Consequently, he's the only one to ever have a Crown of Naradi (278k!),

Although it's spelled NARANDI... heheh, you should've seen how happy I was about a month ago when I found a Crown of Narandi for 250k. I swiped it in a matter of seconds. I spent about 2 weeks auctioning to buy it, and finally bought it. During the nights, I offered 370k for it, nobody ever sent a tell, so lucky. But on the other side of it... well... 1 week after I got a Crown of Narandi for 250k, a guy was asking if I still wanted to buy it, he was wanting to trade it for my Old CCoM (Custom Cowl of Morality) which I sold for 115k. That's how EQ is, spend an eternity auctioning for an item, then a week later you save over 50% on the pp you paid for the Crown. I'm not a patient person but... I'm still happy with the result. That's the law of EQ eh? Enjoy the market!  :)

[feralize]

Your only solution is to take advantage of them, which it seems like you did to a certain extent with the ODS.

Ultimately though, who cares? You still got the price you wanted for it. It doesn't really matter who buys it.

[Elyias Steelfang]

Farm the item you want.  Barring that farm sellable items and sell them for cash to buy what you want.

Why people whine about prices in bazaar is beyond me.  If you dont like then go get it yourself.  

Problem is people see the bazaar and think it will be easy to get waht they want then bitch and moan about the prices.  Money is SOOOO easy to make now in eq legitamately its disgusting.  People just tend to be to lazy to put in the work required for it imo.

<---Seller of Fungis at 100k a pop.  Never bought one just went down and camped King till I get it.  Sometimes I get lucky and am there only a couple hours.  Others I can spend 10 hours there and never see him even pop.  And I sell it cheaper then most.  Typical price is 120-170ish.  If someone buys mine at 100 and resells for 150 gratz them a 50k profit.  I still got what I wanted out of it.  No one forces what price you sell stuff at and no one forces what you buy.

[The Kittenpeeler]

If money's soooooooo easy to make, why do I have 2k after a week of farming split between Hill Giants, Acrylia, and High keep?

Maybe when you're overpricing monopolized items, it moves along a little faster.

[TerjynPovar]

Because Hill Giants, Acrylia, and High Keep, in spite of being known as really good money, really aren't that good because they are too known, and you are always competing with others.

I can make more in an hour in some of my favorite money spots than I can in a week of farming Hill Giants against all the trackers and idiots in Rathe Mountains.

Of course in spite of how I'd love to share the wealth, I can't because otherwise my spots would be full even more than they are now. :)

I'll give you a hint though:  One is in Luclin, and two others are in the old world.

All three give me more than 750 plat per hour...and I'm not fishing either.

[Stunky Beast]

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.

Not to nitpick, but there is a recourse to buying items that are extremely overpriced by the resident jacknuts on every server. It's called don't buy it if the price doesn't suit your preference.

Just because someone goes around buying up all the items you want and raising the price so ridiculously, doesn't mean they're taking away your freedom of choice. It just means their limiting it somewhat. At the end of day you still have the choice to walk away w/o buying it .. or to buy it and cry about the gouging.

Don't get me wrong though, it's absolutely insane the way the in-game economy is flunctuating so much. I don't like it either, but, the part that makes me giggle is eventually (as with all things) it will all reverse and the little bazaar bots will be left with nothing. Guess who'll be whining then?

Hint: Not me <3



Stunky Beast - Torvonnilous

[The Kittenpeeler]

Of course in spite of how I'd love to share the wealth, I can't because otherwise my spots would be full even more than they are now. :)

I'll give you a hint though:  One is in Luclin, and two others are in the old world.

All three give me more than 750 plat per hour...and I'm not fishing either.

Aw, c'mon, man, I'm the only guy on this board from Bertoxx... At least that I've ever seen. You can tell me...  :D

Stunk,

First off, welcome to the forum.
Second... Yer a dum-dum  :P

Sure, I have the freedom to walk away... But that doesn't grant me the overpriced item that is otherwise unavailable. Say, a level 65 spell... Gee, I think I'll go solo in Fire today. Maybe an ODS? Hey, i lived in Sebilis for 6 levels with my Shaman, never saw one once, stands to figure my first kill should get me one, right?

M\aybe if I wait around long enough or come back later, one will be at a lower price... But there we have the original problem - The overpricer is looking for those, as well, and buying them up with alts. Welcome to the world of the plat seller, my friend. A hack here, a little overpricing there.... What person really needs to sell 17 300k items?  :roll:

[The Kittenpeeler]

Note - We need an edit button.

How, exactly do you think it'll reverse, by the way? The two best plat sinks in the game have either been removed or nerfed into oblivion, and people aren't exactly gobbling bark potions off of merchants.

Every hill giant that gets killed, every 11-pound tuna sold makes a platinum piece that much more worthless. Kinda ironic, the more platinum there is exchanging hands, the less it can actually buy. Really the only way you can impact it is to just destroy all the plat you ever make in the bazaar.

And "like all things"... Torpor and Malo, classic examples, have been in the game since Kunark. With LoY, they became researchable, and with LDoN, another source of the ingredients for them appeared. They sell for higher prices than their superior rune spells, Quiescence and Malos, which are not researchable. You can see a similar effect on say, Spirit of snow and flame. Their drops were increased, prices took a small hit, then went up again.

There's two things that reverse a price - A nerf to the item (5k DoFM? You bet) or an increase in drop rate.

[Stunky Beast]

Stunk,

First off, welcome to the forum.
Second... Yer a dum-dum  :P

Sure, I have the freedom to walk away... But that doesn't grant me the overpriced item that is otherwise unavailable. Say, a level 65 spell... Gee, I think I'll go solo in Fire today. Maybe an ODS? Hey, i lived in Sebilis for 6 levels with my Shaman, never saw one once, stands to figure my first kill should get me one, right?

M\aybe if I wait around long enough or come back later, one will be at a lower price... But there we have the original problem - The overpricer is looking for those, as well, and buying them up with alts. Welcome to the world of the plat seller, my friend. A hack here, a little overpricing there.... What person really needs to sell 17 300k items?  :roll:

Dear The Kittenpeeler  :P ,

First off, thank you for the welcome!
Second .. I will not deny that I am a "dum-dum" .. you're so colorful!!

Patience. It sucks, but I guess that's your resolution.  You aren't 65 yet, so you're in luck that you don't have to galavant off to Fire (or any other zone in PoP) to snag a rune. ODS? Well, I'd not wear one so I can't say I feel your pain there. Either way it all boils down to patience and persistance. I know it sucks, but at least you have the choice to buy it or walk away. Just keep in mind someone will buy it, if they don't the seller will eventually lower price until someone else does.

As for the question about what person really needs to sell 17 300k+ items? Reverse the situation and put yourself in that persons shoes. If you aren't going to use the items, what would you do? Give them all away? Doubt it, if that's your answer sing it to a sister that doesn't know better!  :p I think it boils to down because the price is higher than you like (happens to me daily) and out of the range you can afford. It makes you annoyed. Perfectly justified, just make sure you understand the difference.

I can tell you as someone that doesn't hurt for plat, that it's not hard to make. Need tips? You know my server and name, nothing is stopping you from sending me a tell. Also, keep in mind that people that have plat dripping from their veins doesn't neccesarily make them a plat seller .. some of us just don't know what to buy!

Point? I hate price gouging too! I just avoid the sellers that do it, as do most sane people on Torv .. and we have their names and all their bazaar bots on a list. At least I do.



Stunky Beast - Torvonnilous

[Phanq]

The price gouging sucks, true.  But it's kinda like gas here in CA right now.  In the past few weeks gas prices have shot up about $.50/gallon.  You really have just a couple choices, pay the rip-off price, hunt around and find the cheapest place you can, or go without and buy a bus ticket.

P.S. Kanne, you are correct, most utilities are monopolies, in fact they are referred to as "natural monopolies" and are really just done that way to make our lives easier.  So we don't have several power lines, gas lines, water, etc running to each home, one company is given the monopoly.  This is changing recently with deregulation in some states, but that's neither here nor there.

P.P.S. And Graeloth, you're partially right about the MS suit in CA.  Microsoft just settled right off the bat though to put the whole thing behind them.  It was like if you bought Windows, Office or Word or Excel (including software prepackaged on a system) since like 1997 you could get a voucher for between like $15 and $30 for use to buy pretty much any computer product.  If you applied for more than I think 5 vouchers it was a whole complicated process.

[Elyias Steelfang]

If money's soooooooo easy to make, why do I have 2k after a week of farming split between Hill Giants, Acrylia, and High keep?

Did I ever mention those zones?  No I didnt because to be honest they suck for making cash.  But looks like you fall into the cookie cutter method of trying to make cash.  

Here is a hint, try exploring on your own.  Do some actual research and not expect everything to be handed to you.  One of the best money zones I go to I found quite by accident.  But on a good night can avg 2k+ an hour and depending on drops avg can get as high as 5-6k per hour.

Now am I going to tell you where?  Um no.  Go find it yourself or you can just continue to whine about how unfair and unjust things are when its not being handed to you on a silver platter.  

I have NEVER played the bazaar game(buying low/selling high).  I farm items/cash for my stuff.  And have gone from as low as 20k to 150k in a week and then back down to 40k.  And to question why someone needs to sell 300k items?  Well thats their own choice and who the hell knows but why even care?  Sounds to me like your both jealous and lazy.  Jealous fo those with mone and too lazy to work at getting it yourself.

[The Kittenpeeler]

Did I ever mention those zones?  No I didnt because to be honest they suck for making cash.  But looks like you fall into the cookie cutter method of trying to make cash.

Apparently my gigantic brain has failed to save me.

Here is a hint, try exploring on your own.  Do some actual research and not expect everything to be handed to you.  One of the best money zones I go to I found quite by accident.  But on a good night can avg 2k+ an hour and depending on drops avg can get as high as 5-6k per hour.

I am in awe of your leetness.

Now am I going to tell you where?  Um no.  Go find it yourself or you can just continue to whine about how unfair and unjust things are when its not being handed to you on a silver platter.

Yes, sir.

I have NEVER played the bazaar game(buying low/selling high).  I farm items/cash for my stuff.  And have gone from as low as 20k to 150k in a week and then back down to 40k.  And to question why someone needs to sell 300k items?  Well thats their own choice and who the hell knows but why even care?  Sounds to me like your both jealous and lazy.  Jealous fo those with mone and too lazy to work at getting it yourself.

Right you are, sir, I'm on EQ welfare. Shine your boots for a silver?

:P