If you guys could go ahead and restrict the use MBs while being on another world

[Azureskies]

LMAO

Just keep thinking that to yourself, pal. Maybe someday you'll actually do some research/study and realize how foolish you sound. Your statements have said all we need to know about your "understanding" of economics.

-Signed International Business/Economics double major and owner of two businesses

You might want to go back to school.

If someone was inclined they could go to ..lets say china. They buy a ticket and everything and go there, look at local prices and then they end up buying X good for Y price with the sole intention of selling it back in.. australia. So they do this because the cost of the flight, time spent looking at good and shipping (along with taxes / customs blah blah) was low enough so they would still make a good roi. This is of course because the restriction on china is they CANT sell to other countries (which is totally illogical in the real world but here we are).

In FF all someone on a low pop server has to do is make a bit of money (how much would be dependent on their individual server). From there all they have to do is open up a spread sheet doc and keep tabs on prices of things they are interested in possibly selling from other servers. Making a table for price over time would help them a bit more in this regard but is not needed in a game such as FF (as in EVE it would be). So they click on a crystal and hop over to the other servers and do the same thing. Now they spent maybe an hour putting all the information together but they have the tools and resources to buy on higher pop server and sell for a profit on their own crappy server.

Now there are a few things that will happen from this. The higher pop server might charge higher prices because demand is higher on their server. That only goes so far as just like in the real world when prices go too high (an example of this is when a monopoly is in charge of a single product) people stop buying that product. That would be to combat not only the demand but also the prices on other servers. If someone from crappy low pop server sells their X good at 1M gil and the higher pop server get wise to this all they have to do is sell it for 950k and now both servers have a terrible economy because the seller is now acting as a middle man of sorts. Something the "Traders" are acting as right now in the game.

One of the other things that can happen is more people get into supplying that good therefore driving prices WAY down (look at oil prices). That only will last as long as the person from the crappy low pop server/s allow it as they can buy the good and trickle it onto their MB without any objections from anyone.

There are countless other things I could add but this post is already long enough but if people can't see how easy it is to exploit this system then i guess it is their own fault and I just will continue to not buy anything off the MB.

Meh.

[Krotoan]

In FF all someone on a low pop server has to do is make a bit of money (how much would be dependent on their individual server). From there all they have to do is open up a spread sheet doc and keep tabs on prices of things they are interested in possibly selling from other servers.

This.. sounds perfectly fine as a way to make money? It involves time, monitoring and effort. Why shouldn't they be rewarded for that? Prices change hourly so you would have to do this daily at least..Why is this unfair?

[Azureskies]

This.. sounds perfectly fine as a way to make money? It involves time, monitoring and effort. Why shouldn't they be rewarded for that? Prices change hourly so you would have to do this daily at least..Why is this unfair?

Because the sellers don't have the opportunity to sell directly to those buyers...

If they did have the chance but didn't then I wouldn't mind, it would then be on the sellers but they have no way to do so.

In the meantime though all the servers prices are very ****d until they make data center MBs linked. I do understand that the higher prices are here to stay on some level but they are inflated right now because markets are beholden to the lowest common denominator (the most crappy low pop server).

[Krotoan]

Because the sellers don't have the opportunity to sell directly to those buyers...

If they did have the chance but didn't then I wouldn't mind, it would then be on the sellers but they have no way to do so.

In the meantime though all the servers prices are very ****d until they make data center MBs linked. I do understand that the higher prices are here to stay on some level but they are inflated right now because markets are beholden to the lowest common denominator (the most crappy low pop server).

That's not your concern as a seller though? You're still making the money, you're still profiting however much you wish to or rather what the market will support. Why do you deserve a cut of the profits from someone who's made a business of being the equivalent of an importer? If you truly wanted a piece of that pie you could create an alt with a friend and run your own "importing" ring. They're putting in the effort and deserve the profit.

and.. technically you CAN reach those same buyers they just aren't active enough or the price difference isn't enough that they'd bother to come to your server. The market is open and people have found a niche that people are willing to pay for : Price shopping.

[Hash_Browns]

snip

Real talk here: You have no idea what you're talking about.

[Hash_Browns]

So allow me to ask you a (somewhat leading) question that has been on my mind.

From an economic standpoint, doesn’t this also create more competition and thus incentive to provide services/goods at fairer prices? I’m a consumer, not a seller. So from a consumers POV I love that I can shop to find the item I was looking for that might have broken the bank when I was on my home world but is significantly more affordable at a different location. Prices have flattened out a lot more over the recent days/weeks, but I still like knowing I can shop around the prices. I never have much Gil to throw around to begin with.

I dunno, I’m a layman and won’t pretend to know economics, but I would have thought that increased competition helps foster a healthier overall economy for everybody.

Most items haven't seen much change overall. If anything, the items that have changed have been in servers where the item had so little supply that people could sell it for an insane price.

The MB did see some dips when the change first happened, but it hasn't changed much from what I can tell.

[Azureskies]

Real talk here: You have no idea what you're talking about.

Yes, ill take what someone that glams their character out to be a frog seriously.

Wait, on second thought I wont.

[Seraphor]

Yes, ill take what someone that glams their character out to be a frog seriously.

Wait, on second thought I wont.

How petty.

[Hash_Browns]

Yes, ill take what someone that glams their character out to be a frog seriously.

Wait, on second thought I wont.

My frog costume makes more sense then "Everyone on every one of the six congested worlds I have access to stopped competing for prices because the two non-congested worlds had higher prices."

[LaylaTsarra]

My frog costume makes more sense then "Everyone on every one of the six congested worlds I have access to stopped competing for prices because the two non-congested worlds had higher prices."

Seems pretty obvious to me the OP is being undercut and doesn't like it. If that is the case I would suggest he/she adjusts their selling strategy because SE isn't about to change the ability of people buying on other servers. There are still plenty of people who won't price shop but at least for me I will for the higher priced items and the differences can be pretty striking.