Is there really people controlling the Market Boards?

[Kaliesto]

Might be just a silly conspiracy, but sometimes I do wonder what group of players are coming up with the prices like they do. When the 20mill mounts were added to the game that suddenly the other mounts that weren't even worth that amount skyrocketed in price. Night Pegasus for example wasn't always 11mil on my server, and those mounts from Eureka jumped up like crazy as well.

Part of me is like "wow I can make gil from this" , but at the same time "this sucks for anyone that didn't get these mounts back in the day when its only worth like 2-5mil".

[KageTokage]

There definitely are people with billions of gil who try to artificially influence stock/prices by buying out everything. I'd seen multiple instances where my server's entire stock of a particular treasure map material was totally cleaned out by one person.

For some dominating the economy is essentially their way of enjoying the game.

[DrWho2010]

if someone manipulates the market it's just a matter of waiting until interest wanes in the item at inflated prices. but that all depends on the amount of patience you have.

[Reinha]

It really is a useful skill to be able to predict human behavior and make Gil this way. People buy more rare dyes when new glamours are introduced, more materia when new gear is introduced and more furniture when new housing plots are added. When do they buy mounts, minions, music and bardings? No idea. But whoever has it figured out makes a lot of Gil from that.

[Curisu]

Mounts are most expensive right after release.
1-2 weeks later they become cheap because everyone is farming the new content.
After 3-4 week's the price stays stable because those who wants it have it already and everyone else is waiting for the price to drop.
5th week the prices start to increase. Less people do the content and other realise that they price will not drop lower, so demand rises again while the amount decrease.

[DixieBellOCE]

Might be just a silly conspiracy, but sometimes I do wonder what group of players are coming up with the prices like they do. When the 20mill mounts were added to the game that suddenly the other mounts that weren't even worth that amount skyrocketed in price. Night Pegasus for example wasn't always 11mil on my server, and those mounts from Eureka jumped up like crazy as well.

Part of me is like "wow I can make gil from this" , but at the same time "this sucks for anyone that didn't get these mounts back in the day when its only worth like 2-5mil".

There are people that own (no i am not joking) over 300 FC houses and Submarines on multiple Datacenters.
These people control gil profits of ~100-1000m gil a month.

[Knot_D]

The Balance controls materia prices especially crafting and gathering one

[dspguy]

There definitely are people with billions of gil who try to artificially influence stock/prices by buying out everything. I'd seen multiple instances where my server's entire stock of a particular treasure map material was totally cleaned out by one person.

For some dominating the economy is essentially their way of enjoying the game.

Mounts like Night Pegasus are a great example of an item with a controlled supply. You can't just conjure up another Night Pegasus Whistle. Sure, they are obtainable, but it isn't like a crafted item where the supply is limitless. They are only a few(?) that enter the server per week - given how often PotD is run, how often they appraise into the whistle and how many people list them on the MB instead of use them for themselves.

It is quite possible to corner the market on something like these mounts. Especially given that those that run PotD to those floors that actually drop the whistle are likely to take a break and run Orthos instead - I'd expect the supply to dwindle. It is a prime candidate where a player could risk millions of gil buying up remaining inventory and relisting for a huge profit while also moving enough inventory to benefit greatly from their investment.

[Hasrat]

It's basically a non-combat form of PvP.

[NekoMataMata]

There are people in this game with too much gil and nothing better to do. They sit there are their retainers buying out items on the MB and relisting them for higher.

It's usually those same people that sit on these forums or reddit, mocking others for being poor, and bragging about how easy it'd be for them to hand out millions of gil.