Is it meaness or shear stupidity -- MB Pricing

[LaylaTsarra]

The tax isn't applied at things below a hundred gil if I remember correctly.. it's something like that. Maybe ten gil. Either way no tax for those low amounts.

Well that is interesting about the tax and if you didn't catch it, I was joking about owing SE money. Relative to motivations for selling at one gil, one can do it if they so choose. If it's to clear your inventory and give it to someone, fine, the more power too you. On the other hand it does at least temporality upset the standard pricing for an item that some work at to sell.

I use the market board/retainer system a lot. It's just part of what I do everyday. For the most part I think it works pretty well.

[Alberel]

This is what happens when they tax after sales instead of taxing before sales.

Imagine if you were taxed before an official listing, how many people would repeatedly undercut?

This is the only game I've played with an after sale listing and it baffles me.

This exactly. Most MMOs charge the seller a sales tax for LISTING the item, whereas here the tax is taken as the item is sold. A listing tax would go a VERY long way to stabilizing prices on the MB as it would become risky to try and price gouge (since you lose money if you can't sell it and have to relist it) and it would become unprofitable to keep undercutting every five minutes. Quite honestly that simple change could potentially fix most of the problems with this game's economy...

[Laerad3993]

I think it's both. Like someone posted prior, just buy them out. If they end up slapping more up, then you know they're being an ass and just wait them out. Or, sell something else. I've gotten to a point where if an item is too low, I'll list it for what I feel it's worth. 7 times out of 10, it will get purchased in a few days.

I don't like that the markets are so unregulated either, but I also wouldn't want them too heavily regulated. All you can do is hope things stabilize over time and the player leaves or sells something else.

[MN_14]

2. Wide variance in HQ item pricing; for instance, most HQ Toadskins listed at 550 gil and above -- then some knucklehead lists them at 150 gil.

It depends on the situation. If a price cut gets items moving faster, the person putting it up for 150 gil might simply be looking for a faster sale. Of course, this is completely contingent on it actually moving sales, otherwise the cut would be counterproductive. The best price cuts are the ones that will increase the market's overall revenue per unit time (each person makes less per item, but more items are sold maximizing revenue; once their item has sold, the seller can also simply put another up).

[BorisDaBlade]

Personally I hate seeing HW msq gear on the market board going for 200k+. So if I am not going to use it on an alt when I get it, I till go up for a price reasonable for my effort to get it, but not far off of the NQ vendor price.

[Nominous]

A little bit of both, if you're only talking about gathered items. Some folks just need (or want) a quick buck, so they make their item the hands-down best deal. Others just want to crash the market for said item, to their benefit.

If you're talking crafted items, there's many more variables that come into play. You have to think about how much money you're either wasting (if you gathered them yourself) or spending (if you're buying off the mb) to create your item. Then you need to settle on a sale price that is reasonable. Then, based on all of the above, you need to make sure you're still making a profit after the mb tax/all purchases and costs of materials. Some people don't care about all of that, because they're rich. They have disposable gil they can use to crash your market, buy out the remainder of it, and then sell it back at a profit.

It's ruthless economics. Ran by psychopathic gamers.

[Skivvy]

On top of adding a listing fee, I'd love to see the following:


-Ability to purchase partial stacks
-A "wanted" listing - let players post things they are looking to buy, and at what price - sellers can choose to fill the orders if they please. This is great for both parties as people can generally get items for less, and those wanting a quick sale get just that.

[MihaelB]

It's ruthless economics. Ran by psychopathic gamers.

Might as well release your psychopathy here where it's legal than in real life

[Fevelle]

I'm on Exodus too and it's kinda strange the undercuttings there. I bought 5 stacks of of 99 aldgoat skin for 3 gil each a week ago. It's like people put things to sell and don't bother changing the pricing value...

[Niwashi]

Occasionally it might be stupidity. Usually it's someone just offering their junk to whoever actually wants it, either to be nice or just because it's a convenient way to clear it out of their inventory.

My suggestions:

1. Prices are blocked such that they cannot be set lower than what can be achieved from selling directly to an NPC.

2. Prices are additionally blocked such that they cannot be set lower than 10% below the average of all similar items (differentiated between NQ and HQ).

#1 wouldn't be too bad, but #2 would be asking for griefing. Pick any low-level item and post a couple listed at several Million. Now nobody can sell it. (It could even happen accidentally, without deliberate griefing, since selling a simple item to themselves for lots of gil is a common workaround for people wanting to transfer gil to their alt characters.)

I do think it would make more sense to use the price at which NPC vendors will sell an item rather than the price at which they'll buy it back as the initial starting price when you put something up. Of course, SE would then have to choose a selling price even for items they don't sell, but they can probably work that out well enough. Besides that, no other changes are really needed. If someone wants to be generous, let them.

The tax isn't applied at things below a hundred gil if I remember correctly.. it's something like that. Maybe ten gil. Either way no tax for those low amounts.

It's a 5% tax (rounded down), so the threshold for where it starts is 20 gil, which is where 5% reaches 1. (But that's a total of 20 gil for the lot if it's a stackable item. So there's no way to avoid tax on stacks of 20 or more.)