Please implement a listing fee!

[DBthaONE]

I don't like this at all, for a few reasons:

1. Undercutting is a word that is being applied in a bad way. Undercutting is what happens when there's competition. If all sellers explicitly or implicitly agreed upon a common price this would price fixing. That is bad.

2. The listing fee you propose would only be a tax. Taxes are in turn passed to the consumer. They don't affect the seller. Hurting consumers is worse on the market than sellers since the padded price would discourage buyers, especially those buying goods they don't need.

3. It punishes sellers who don't have Gil to sell the product also. Sure that'll lower the number of sellers, which could increase selling prices, but remember most of these sellers have to buy goods to make their ware. If they decide that they'll incur more cost they may not buy or produce goods. That is bad for the market as a whole.

The issue of RMTs and bots is a valid issue. It's using the game in an unintended manner.

[synaesthetic]

1. Undercutting is a word that is being applied in a bad way. Undercutting is what happens when there's competition. If all sellers explicitly or implicitly agreed upon a common price this would price fixing. That is bad.

This is not a real economy. NPC prices do not auto-adjust for the value of gil, and as a result, prices need to stabilize at a certain point. They're just in a mad race to the bottom. Currently, all trade goods are completely worthless with very few exceptions. Two-star gear goes for peanuts these days. Food is pretty much a dead market since it persists through death now. It's impossible to use the market to make any money, in relation to NPC prices.

I would agree with you if NPCs sold nothing, though. If FC housing was free, if all items had to be gathered, crafted or found as drops and there were no vendors in the game, then I would agree with you. But because NPC prices do not scale down, the market has become pointless. There needs to be some way of forcibly ensuring market stability and listing fees would go a long way to combat this rampant devaluation.