Market ideas, and how to fix it.

I don't really understand where people are coming from on this whole "barrier to entry." I think it's safe to say that doesn't apply here. Not being able to enter the market due to not knowing how to manage doesn't make something a "barrier" exactly. Maybe a specific PART of the market, but you shouldn't be running into issues with not being able to afford the tax of what you're selling anyway. You work your way up, like with most other things.

Gotta spend money to make money.

Irrespective of whether it is a barrier to entry or not (if you define the "market" as "selling any good on the market board" then I guess you could define it as a very low barrier), I still don't think that's a good thing. Any barrier to entry, however you define it, is designed to stop new entrants. Whilst the people who have already levelled a specific craft might benefit from that (low competition therefore an ability to dictate prices) that's not very fair on others. Imagine in an extreme example, 1 player had cornered the Culinary market entirely and the cheapest item of food was 1 million Gil. Is that really enjoyable? In the current market it can't happen because substitutes are available from NPCs at a fixed low price ( albeit they might be inferior ) and there is a low / zero barrier to entering production (you can level culinary yourself) which feels fairer to me.

I think what you are really advocating is that in a the markets you are active in, you don't want any competitors but you want the advantages of low priced goods and efficient, competitive markets in all the others. Unfortunately every time there is a thread about undercutting that it what it amounts to - it's just not going to happen.

You can also avoid that "barrier" because it doesn't apply to production, only on sales, and it only applies to sales on the market board. I think it would lead to more crappy shouting spam in towns which personally I think is a huge step backwards. Also, if it's a fixed % of an items listing value it's not really a good barrier because there is nothing to stop me listing and selling at 1G to avoid it (although that's likely to be unprofitable, there is nothing to stop me). A true barrier would make it impossible for me to make a sale (ie. you can only use the markets boards having cleared Bahamut turn 5).

Yes, essentially all of the conversations I have seen are people wanting to impose barriers, taxes, or other obstacles to keep people out of the markets where they participate... but when applied universally degrade the entire system.

It's a very myopic way to view markets and trading, and while the profit motive is understandable, I believe that these self interests would ultimately undermine the greater market interests of the game.

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

Yes, essentially all of the conversations I have seen are people wanting to impose barriers, taxes, or other obstacles to keep people out of the markets where they participate... but when applied universally degrade the entire system.

It's a very myopic way to view markets and trading, and while the profit motive is understandable, I believe that these self interests would ultimately undermine the greater market interests of the game.

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It's funny because this is so true from what i've seen on these forums.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ApolloGenX

It's a very myopic way to view markets and trading, and while the profit motive is understandable, I believe that these self interests would ultimately undermine the greater market interests of the game.

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Perhaps that's most people's reasoning...but again, back to my earlier point. I personally don't really care about adding taxes as much as trying to prevent prices from jumping all over the place. Looking at the history of various items, they're all over the place and change way more frequently than they should. Not saying this is how everyone else is thinking, just my perspective.

Yes, I have my own "niche" markets that I mess around with. But people entering that shouldn't throw anyone off--just find another and wait for it to die down. All I want at the moment is some sort of stability in the market. And a little bit of added functionality, QOL nonsense and the like.