WARDS

[Vaer]

On to the idea of auction houses...I didn't play XI long enough to use it much. But wasn't there some kind of problem with auction houses? I'm seriously asking, not cutting down the idea.

Depends on the way you view it.

First, there was a limit of how many things you can sell at once. You get 7 slots. (same as retainer slots pretty much at this point)

At first, an annoyance is that you can't cancel auctions from other city AH's. (They're now all linked I believe so that is not an issue anymore.)

Second, you could not see how much people put up their items for, so you are basically guessing. (some people undercut like crazy or overcharge) This makes it easy to price fix as your only hint at what the item might have been put up for is the price history, which can be manipulated rather easily. (Such as a player overcharging for an item and buying it on his other character to set a precedent)

[Rina-ran]

Depends on the way you view it.

Second, you could not see how much people put up their items for, so you are basically guessing. (some people undercut like crazy or overcharge) This makes it easy to price fix as your only hint at what the item might have been put up for is the price history, which can be manipulated rather easily. (Such as a player overcharging for an item and buying it on his other character to set a precedent)

Hmm. I think that's the part I heard about it being so bad. But then again, the MWs now is all about undercutting the current lowest price or trying your luck at being the 2nd/3rd highest and hoping that whatever before you gets bought up before someone undercuts you again. Prices just continue to drop and drop with very little hope of inflating again.

The auction house idea doesn't seem so bad. Cause even if people used their alts to hike up the price and then underprice it, there's still a chance a player comes along and sees the item sold for 20k the last 20 times, but decide to try for 500g out of random and wind up getting and underpriced item. Am I right? It sounds like gamble on the seller's end to me. Unless the buyer loses that 500g and not get the item??

[Vaer]

Hmm. I think that's the part I heard about it being so bad. But then again, the MWs now is all about undercutting the current lowest price or trying your luck at being the 2nd/3rd highest and hoping that whatever before you gets bought up before someone undercuts you again. Prices just continue to drop and drop with very little hope of inflating again.

The auction house idea doesn't seem so bad. Cause even if people used their alts to hike up the price and then underprice it, there's still a chance a player comes along and sees the item sold for 20k the last 20 times, but decide to try for 500g out of random and wind up getting and underpriced item. Am I right? It sounds like gamble on the seller's end to me. Unless the buyer loses that 500g and not get the item??

That's sorta right. If someone places an item for 1 gil and price history says it's worth 500k, you would get it for 1 gil if you put that in. The reason people would undercut is to sell faster. When someone purchases an item the lowest price item always sells first. For example, I put an item for 20k that is worth 50k. Buyer pays 50k for it, mine sells before someone who put it for 21k, but I still get the 50k.

Usually people price things like 1,999 (sells before 2,000) or 1,001 (block someone from buying it for 1k so they maybe try 2000 to buy it) to one up people as people usually purchase things with last digits in 0's.

You see the issue here though. While most people are too lazy to try every single combination (such as 1,100, 1,111, 1,200, 1,202 etc), when someone is patient enough to do it the price on something can drop a lot rather quickly, especially if it is a hot item/flooded market.

[Rina-ran]

That's sorta right. If someone places an item for 1 gil and price history says it's worth 500k, you would get it for 1 gil if you put that in. The reason people would undercut is to sell faster. When someone purchases an item the lowest price item always sells first. For example, I put an item for 20k that is worth 50k. Buyer pays 50k for it, mine sells before someone who put it for 21k, but I still get the 50k.

Usually people price things like 1,999 (sells before 2,000) or 1,001 (block someone from buying it for 1k so they maybe try 2000 to buy it) to one up people as people usually purchase things with last digits in 0's.

You see the issue here though. While most people are too lazy to try every single combination (such as 1,100, 1,111, 1,200, 1,202 etc), when someone is patient enough to do it the price on something can drop a lot rather quickly, especially if it is a hot item/flooded market.

Oh, that first part does make it seem like a pain. I can't think of a way to make that nicer without someone losing out...

Has anyone thought/suggested maybe an actual auction house, with bidding? I suppose I can make a thread for what I'm thinking since I feel like I'm throwing this one off subject. ^^; (ya can tell by my post count I'm new to the forums.)