Auction house monopolies...??

[Arterra]

I fear these. in another game, i pretty much had a monopoly on a certain item, so that I bought up all those below my price and sold them for higher. I had the monies, so I could.
WHAT could stop a monopoly like that in this game?? I bet if some really rich dude got smart he could buy up all the new AO3 drops and sell them for crazy prices.



EDIT: THE Antitrus Banhammaer of Fair Trade!

[Royce]

Weird, I was just thinking about this possibility the other day. I was saying to myself, why on earth do people want tons of gold. However, if you have the buying power, you could literally buy up all of certain item types when they appear in the auction house, control supply, and set your own ridiculous prices. Of course in the end, all you get is more fake money, and I'm still not sure what good that is, but people seem to like having it. Anyway, simplest solution I can think of is place a cap on how many auction hous transaction s a given account can take part in (or at least a cap on buying) per day, or something like that.

[Arterra]

Weird, I was just thinking about this possibility the other day. I was saying to myself, why on earth do people want tons of gold. However, if you have the buying power, you could literally buy up all of certain item types when they appear in the auction house, control supply, and set your own ridiculous prices. Of course in the end, all you get is more fake money, and I'm still not sure what good that is, but people seem to like having it. Anyway, simplest solution I can think of is place a cap on how many auction hous transaction s a given account can take part in (or at least a cap on buying) per day, or something like that.

= new accounts being made JUST for buying.

edit: also capps in general just seem limiting those players with real lives lol.

editedit: JustG will need a new banhammer: the Antitrust Hammah of fair trade!

editeditedit: someone post me a laquint troll pic... i wanna make a hammer with photoshop :P

[Royce]

= new accounts being made JUST for buying.

edit: also capps in general just seem limiting those players with real lives lol.

If you make a new account, you have to have 2 devices or a friend to transfer the gold every time you want to do it, so it would still be a significant impediment. Also, if the buying limit was like 10 items per day, how would normal people be affected? Just get what you need today, buy other stuff tomorrow...

[flaimdude]

That's how a real in-game economy works, because that's how (in real life) the economy works. If somebody can make tons of gold off of one item, more power to them.

[Royce]

That's how a real in-game economy works, because that's how (in real life) the economy works. If somebody can make tons of gold off of one item, more power to them.

Actually there are laws in real life to prevent monopolies and price fixing

[flaimdude]

Actually there are laws in real life to prevent monopolies and price fixing

Well obviously, because we have government. But you think that Google doesn't make a crapton of money because it's the most used search engine? I think not.

[Arterra]

[Arterra]

Well obviously, because we have government. But you think that Google doesn't make a crapton of money because it's the most used search engine? I think not.

but there are others, and actually used a lot. China actually has a browser more popular than google.cn

[Royce]

but there are others, and actually used a lot. China actually has a browser more popular than google.cn

True. Clusty ftw! Edit: Whoops forgot it's Yippy now. Anyway, google is certainly not a monopoly. And though monopolies can exist, the point is we are inclined to oppose them. Why not do the same in PL?

[Arterra]

It's about time we set the hounds on those rich scammers that enjoy their monies like a vampire does blood...

[Royce]

It's about time we set the hounds on those rich scammers that enjoy their monies like a vampire does blood...

I'd lmao if STS just decided to limit gold per account to like 1 million, and just yanked the rest on some patch. It will never happen, but I would love to see it
(and yes I'd lose some money but don't really care)

[Gaabob]

Or... You can't buy more than two or three of the same item in a day, and you can't sell more than two or three of that item in one day(or can only have 2 or 3 of that item in the house at a time). This would make monopoly very hard to do, and very tedious if using more than one account.

Also just be sure to report any suspicious monopolizing- if support is given the ability to deal with it, the players can police themselves with the support FBI.

[Pleasure_Pirate]

I agree with Gaabob, you have no reason to buy more than one of each item other than to merch it, do placing a cap per specific item should prevent this.

[vulgarstrike]

thats incredibly stupid. some people would like to make money to buy other things, and we need a free market for that. I definately buy more sometimes, because I am reselling for a profit. I am not scamming anyone, nor am I doing anything dirty, it is an honest trade. Honestly, I say let the free market run.

[flaimdude]

FREE MARKET WOOHOO.

But srsly, in a completely free market, if people can make monopolies, they can keep them. It's probably just the capitalist in me but I'm ok with that in-game.

[FluffNStuff]

Buying to sell in this game can be extremely risky because of the swings. Consider when a new item is released:
First person to get it sells for a fortune.
People see that fortune and over farm the item.
Prices drop extremely fast.

And consider the fact that no item is unique, so 'buying them all up' is near impossible. People will just farm more and the person who thought they controlled the marked will end up broke. Just ask Joshua Norton, the Emperor of the United States and the Protector of Mexico.

[Vyvin]

It called merching get with it... U buy low sell high that's how it's works and will always work...
Speaking of which sold red scarab Osiris for 70 made a 20k profit!
/Vyvin

[Arterra]

So this has fallen into a argument of whether to implement a completely free market system with no constraints (and run the risk of monopolization, if not of a individual then of a Guild) or a limited trade system in which you cannot be allowed to distribute or collect too much of one item (at least via auction house. if you loot it or do a secure trade then on your own)
even if there isn't a monopoly of a individual or group, there could be talks of keeping the price at a certain point. I think that current prices are sort of arbitrary decisions based on rarity, and the only reason they sell so well is because all people can focus on is obtaining the rarest things... when the auction house opens, the true rarity of a item may shine thru, but prices will still be set based on a personal opinion of what it is worth instead of true value (scarcity and usefulness)
i do not know if i made sense lool...

I THINK we should just let things run as they will for a while, then make decisions on what is what.

[vulgarstrike]

makes sense. kudos to you