Overhauling the Auction House system

[Marxam]

We have a Market Board, NOT an Auction House. How are people confusing the two? /facepalm

An auction house is where a group of potential buyers are presented with an item and bid on it to claim it. A market board is where potential buyers are given a selection of similar goods at different prices and they pick the one they want, at the price they feel comfortable at, without negotiation.

I feel like me and Sapphic are the only sane ones here.

[Kimikryo]

All this, rather aggressive "this is not an auction house post"

You people really feel good with yourself right? On the 3 pages in this topic more than 50% are like this from neutral to "butt into face" kind of aggressive

Yes it is NOT an auction house. But people coming from different games that have Auction houses are used to calling that place like that, give it a rest already will ya.

This system still needs an overhaul, and some of OPs ideas would be ok, while others would be terrible.

[Sapphic]

Yes it is NOT an auction house. But people coming from different games that have Auction houses are used to calling that place like that, give it a rest already will ya.

But FFXIV isn't those "different games" I've played MMOs since EQ1, seen marketboards, auction houses, player vendors etc and able to call them what they are in the game, not what the system was in another game. Like those who call Miqo'te Mithra, Lalafel tarutaru.

AH and MB are two different systems, why call it what it isn't? If you keep treating it as an Auction House and not what it is, then it will be difficult to make money from it. If you figure out how to work it then a lot of gil is there to be made.

It's called adaptation.

[Kimikryo]

AH and MB are two different systems, why call it what it isn't? If you keep treating it as an Auction House and not what it is, then it will be difficult to make money from it. If you figure out how to work it then a lot of gil is there to be made.

It's called adaptation.

my post was SO far over your head right?

That was not at ALL what I was coming at. I said people are used to calling a place where people sell their stuff auction house from previous games. They still call it that, it does not mean they did not realize it is something different. They are just used to that term and even if someone says auction house, everyone knows what they mean and only the special snowflakes go on a rant that it is called market place.

Tell you what. FFXI's auction house has as much in common with term auction house as the marketplace in FFXIV. Never was a thing for auction, it was a marketplace where you guessed the price in terms of previous sales.

[nugglets]

You know who likes undercutting? The consumer.

No one is selling things for a loss(aside from the occasional venture item, but these prices are unsustainable and as such should be ignored), so there is still a profit being made. If you don't like the margin of profit, you can change your focus to something more agreeable.

But to decide the entire system needs to be reworked because you don't feel you're making enough money is not only selfish, it demeans the point of the MB in the first place which is providing products to the consumer.

[subteraneanbird]

You know who likes undercutting? The consumer.

No one is selling things for a loss(aside from the occasional venture item, but these prices are unsustainable and as such should be ignored), so there is still a profit being made. If you don't like the margin of profit, you can change your focus to something more agreeable.

But to decide the entire system needs to be reworked because you don't feel you're making enough money is not only selfish, it demeans the point of the MB in the first place which is providing products to the consumer.

People will absolutely sell at a loss. Rolanberry Cheesecake is cheaper to buy on Balmung than the ingredients to make it. That's a bit silly but I guess alumen, which is a level 20 item, going for very high prices for its level is also silly.

[nugglets]

People will absolutely sell at a loss. Rolanberry Cheesecake is cheaper to buy on Balmung than the ingredients to make it. That's a bit silly but I guess alumen, which is a level 20 item, going for very high prices for its level is also silly.

That is not selling for a loss. The cost to farm the mats needed is based on your concept of what your time is worth. While there are certain things which are more profitable to sell the mats than the finished item, this does not constitute a loss unless you are dumb enough to actually pay more for the mats and still sell the finished product.

[subteraneanbird]

That is not selling for a loss. The cost to farm the mats needed is based on your concept of what your time is worth. While there are certain things which are more profitable to sell the mats than the finished item, this does not constitute a loss unless you are dumb enough to actually pay more for the mats and still sell the finished product.

And people do that. People on the whole range the entire gamut from shrew to clueless.

[nugglets]

And people do that. People on the whole range the entire gamut from shrew to clueless.

How do you know people do that? You're either assuming, or you know some stupid people.

Regardless, even if that is happening, it has nothing to do with the notion that the MB "needs" to be changed. It's totally fine, people just don't like the competition cutting into the profits they were used to.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

Undercutting is the only thing that prevents hyper inflation in the market. Obviously, the items that are the easiest to obtain are elastic and may be 500 gil a piece one day and then turn out to be 112 gil the next, where as the extremely rare items like desynth swimsuits will probably never drop below 1 million gil a piece. It's all about supply and demand and realizing whether or not there's enough demand for the product to fit the current supply that's sitting on the market board. There will always be those who undercut like mad just so that their item is sold first, but I would bargain that the true winner is the player who puts their item up for a fair but higher price and gets it sold despite the undercutting.

Unfortunately, all of your ideas would just make the Market board worse since:

• Having a time limit + fee on items means that obscure items would be more vulnerable to trends.
• Having a lack of information in terms of what items are going for only leads to people abusing the system and newer players confused as to what is going on. Your model would probably cause players to create a Trade linkshell and shout out what they're selling instead of using the Market board.
• Bidding wars would happen instead of undercutting wars, and it's a lot more toxic to the community since it's not convenient to the consumer as well as being a way of muscling out players who don't spend hours in front of a summoning bell and don't have large amounts of gil to burn.