[Suggestion] Quantity selector on market board trades

[Sida]

Buyer doesn't care about your space, only about price. If you want to clear out, you just put up lower price than regular market value. Doesn't matter if one person buys it all, or if 10 people buy it by pieces.

But that's sort of the point, it matters a great deal. The cheaper price is there specifically as a sort of reward for the buyer to clear out the slot. It doesn't make sense to offer it for those who just pick at the pile for their own convenience. And as long as the price is unit based, as it is on MB, defining that the "whole stack" is "whatever is left" is the most sensible way. So yay, cheaper price for the one who decides that whatever is left in the pile is worth the discount.

[Sida]

That assumes the market stabilises and yes to some amount it does. But look at it now, small stacks, 1-3 units tend to always be marked up a bit, or the giant stacks marked down however you look at it. In your example if we assume that the 100 is the "just buy what you need" price that's stabilised I'd put the whole stack even lower, maybe 70, and price my "buy as many as you want" to maybe 90. That way I undercut the normal market, and still offer discount for those who get me rid of the stack.

[Kiritsuki]

For basic resources there's generally always someone who can wait if they get a discount - and question is mostly how high a discount. The wait usually isn't very long in an active market if your offer is reasonable. If lowest price is 100, and there's no buy orders, someone would probably throw in a bulk order at 60 - there's always someone who wants to clear inventory, and that's a lot better deal than you get from NPC. Once you have the stuff, you put it for sale at 90 or 95. It's true there are some items that likely wouldn't have an active market. Bronze rivets, table salt - something basically anyone who might need them, can craft at will. Or something that's used so rarely there's just no point. I think acorns might have been used in only acorn cookies, but I don't remember for sure. But yes, either way I could see a lot of use for market with quantity selectors and buy orders. I have practically all crafts at 50+ (all save culinary) and there's more times than I can count where I would have bought this or that on market to make something - except everyone wanted to sell 90 pieces instead of 2. So off I go with my pickaxe.

[Kiritsuki]

Without buy orders yes, to a point - because sellers can't immediately see the level of demand, and so supply doesn't always react quickly. With buy orders, it's guaranteed to stabilize - buy order can never be higher than sale offer since it would be filled immediately. And there almost never is large difference between them since then someone will put up a slightly higher buy order to get the stuff, and slightly lower sales offer to sell it back to market - free profit from the value difference. To move the price either way there must be a consistent difference between supply and demand - which is natural market behavior. Oversupply means buy orders are eaten away, and sales follow down. Undersupply means sell offers are eaten and buy orders will start climbing to match. Stable prices create market for crafters who can look up the price of components and goods - and if components are cheaper, they make goods and sell them.

[Niwashi]

With buy orders, it's guaranteed to stabilize

Only for items which would actually get buy orders. Lots of people buy stuff that's available but would never put in a buy order in hopes of getting it at some point later down the line.

For simple stuff, if you're going to have to wait to get your order fulfilled, you may as well just go gather it yourself. The only point in buying it in the first place is for immediate access without having to take time to go get it. For more difficult stuff, which a player may not be able to get themself, you're often choosing between multiple possibilities, and which ones are being offered at what price can be the deciding factor. So those wouldn't get buy orders either.

Don't get me wrong, I'm in favor of adding buy orders. I think they would help a lot for when there's a specific piece someone really wants and it's something that's not regularly available. The buyer could get their rare item they were hoping for, and sellers could provide such items knowing they aren't going to just sit there taking up an AH slot for ages. But it would probably be a relatively small part of the overall market, too small to have all that big of an impact on prices.

[Elamys]

I like this idea but I could understand the worry about space on the market listings for the seller. Do you think it would work out fine if additional market slots were added alongside it?

[Sida]

Adding them wouldn't help. See, as it is now, what's regulating the prices to some extent is the limited slots to sell stuff. In general if I want better price for my products I list them in multiple small stacks because people in general are ready to pay a bit extra for not having to buy in bulk. But that limits the slots I can keep occupied with the items. If I could put a stack on sale with people being able to pick up as much, I could have higher price in hopes the price raises as it's not eating many of my sale slots. On the other hand if I want to empty slots I use lower price to encourage someone to buy the whole bulk. It could care me less if he then resells it on higher prices. Increasing the sale slots doesn't remove the fact that the game has easily more items I might want to sell than the slots so there always comes a time when I want to have possibility to encourage the buyer to by everything I have left in one pile and only way to encourage buyers is the price, more so if one can pick and choose from the stack.

[Kiritsuki]

It's amusing how in a way it's -beneficial- for seller that they have limited number of sales slots. Well as a seller you generally count profit per slot per day, and try to maximize that. Simple principle but difficult to carry out.