Penalize players who adjust their prices too frequently

[HurtigeKarl]

Scenario 1-current market
Trader A:"My reservation price is 1000, but I'll see if the item will clear at 1500, and if it doesn't, I'll adjust it downward."
Trader B:"Hmm...someone selling at 1500...I'll undercut him by selling at 1400...LOL"
Trader A:"Ok...seems like there's competition...lets try 1300"
Trader B:"WTF! I'll meet you at 1200"
Trader A:"I'm going to sleep...gonna change to my reservation price...don't want to sell it at anything lower than 1000"
Trader B:*RAGE!!!* "WTF!!! THIS MARKET SYSTEM SUX!!! THEY SHOULD PENALIZE ADJUSTMENTS! THEY SHOULD NOT ALLOWED UNDERCUT!!! THEY NEED TO CHANGE THE MECHANICS OR THE GAME IS GOING TO DIE!!!"


Scenario 2 - price adjustment penalty implemented
Trader A:"Hmm..my reservation price is 1000, but since I can't adjust my price freely, I'll just sell at 1000 since I've bought it dirt cheap and still makes a good profit from it"
Trader B:*RAGE* "WTF???? WHY THE F ARE THESE IDIOTS SELLING AT SUCH RIDICULOUS LOW PRICE??? THIS SUX! THE MARKET IS BROKEN!! HE MUST BE A FARMER OR A BOTTER OR BOTH!!! THE MARKET NEEDS A MINIMUM PRICE MECHANISM SO THAT THESE IDIOT CANNOT SELL AT SUCH LOW PRICE!"

Try following for the cheapest prices on the market:

1 AM: 15000,15001, 15002
4 AM: 14998, 14999, 15000
7 AM: 14997, 14998, 14999

and so on.

Evidently your scenario 2 is preferable to this one. By enforcing scenario 2, you force people to reach the equilibrium price faster. Currently in many markets the equilibrium price is being reached, but it is going so slowly due to the silly 1 gil undercuts.

The ones that benefit the most currently are sellers in market where everyone is a 1-gil undercutter, because they are are slowing down the rate at which the equilibrium price is reached from "above".

This cements my belief that undercutting is in general fine, but silly undercutting like "1-gil" undercutting is not fine.

Scenario 2 would make people sell at higher prices in response to more taxation.

Not really if the current 5% loss is redesigned to be split into 2.5% loss on posting and 2.5% loss when the actual sale goes through. I.e. so that if you only posted once, you would lose the exact same amount, but if you reposted several times you would lose more.

Actually, the equilbrium price would go up due to there still being a few people that would post more than once, but the actual lowest price would go down in markets previously dominated by 1-gil-undercutters. This is because the equilibrium price would be reached faster from above.