Quote Originally Posted by Wolfie View Post
AH: Selling fast-selling, common, and cheap items.
MW: Selling slow-selling, rare, expensive items.

This is almost exactly how AH and bazaars worked in FFXI, Aion, and practically every MMO that had both.

People will naturally flock to the AH to make their quick sales, but when they know they have an expensive, rare item that will take a while to sell, they'll put up a bazaar or shout in trade chat to pawn it off. Nobody wants to re-list an expensive item several times, when you can do it just once in a bazaar.

Even if you have no limits on the kinds of items you can sell in both systems, people will still be doing this.
This is an interesting twist on the concept I had.

I think in this vision, your 'auction house' actually would function as a 'commodity exchange'. This would a fast paced place, with people constantly shouting buy and sell orders for various commodities, with the exchange (the in-game mechanics) helping match up buyers and sellers.

I would envision it is people placing buy and sell orders for various commodities, and when a match is made the commodity exchange makes the exchange for the players, automatically swapping items and gil (minus the exchange fee).

For example:
Player A has 67 iron ore listed as sell for 990 gil each
Player B has 52 iron ore listed as sell for 1050 gil each
Player C enters the exchange and buy order for 90 iron are at up to 1100 gil each.
The exchange automatically sells Players A's 67 iron ore to Player C for 990 gil each, and also sells 23 of Player B's iron ore for 1050 gil each.

This is a perfectly viable exchange mechanism, and one that mirrors real world activities.

The principle difference is that this represents a hectic commodity exchange in NY, while the current market wards represent a trip to the grocery or hardware store.

Regarding the "MW: Selling slow-selling, rare, expensive items.", I think that this is following the concept of a boutique store. Only the expensive of beautiful items may be had here. Prices are high, since you're paying as much for the brand-name prestige as the item itself. Items are displayed on beautiful mannequins, and passers-by stare with undisguised envy.

Both of these concepts are valid game designs, and present interesting possibilities.

The only concerns that pop off the top of my head are:
a) Commodity Exchanges may be more susceptible to market manipulation by RMTers and unscrupulous players
b) Item Boutiques command fairly low visibility, and don't provide a mechanism for buyers / seller to converge to a mutually acceptable price.

I'm sure both of these could be worked around, however!

Thanks for the feedback ^_^