I would have to side with the free market aspect. People do it everyday, buy low, sell high. America is built off the idea that someone in the middle is taking a slice of the pie for no reason.
To fix prices you would need a group of people to convene and set a price with disregard to supply and demand. For instance if OPEC got together and said that they would be selling Oil for $100 a barrel and no less, that would be price fixing. Instead they go and adjust supply so demand goes and and price goes to where they want it, which is not price fixing.
Price Fixing
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price fixing
Icon said: To fix prices you would need a group of people to convene and set a price with disregard to supply and demand. For instance if OPEC got together and said that they would be selling Oil for $100 a barrel and no less, that would be price fixing. My point exactly. These players, about 20 of them, fix the prices to what they want by buying/selling the item between them over and over again. It forces the price down. Then, people that don't know the true value, sell their items for the low price- and there are a lot of them. After they have a large quantity, they raise the price to the value they want. I.e. Chiv Chain going from 50k to 300k. Then they profit on the Chiv Chain. Items they are PRICE FIXING, are Astral Ring, Damascene Cloth, Sniper's Ring, and others. ~Yote Yotevol said: Wooooodum said: It was an example to illustrate my point. The Auction House is full of people taking advantage of stupid people who don't understand the value of something. It happens time and time again on a daily basis; people undercut, sell cheaply and sell for more than your average player would pay for them. Do we scream gilseller at somebody everytime they do this? Whether people are buying to resell or buying to sell to a vendor is not the relevant point; they're still buying cheaper than they're worth from, bluntly, idiots, and selling them higher than they bought for a profit. The difference is, these people are buying from players and selling to players. It's not so much that people are doing this that rattles my cage. It's just the fact that everybody instantly assumes people are gilsellers if they're taking advantage of holes in the Auction House. I've been on the receiving end of these accusations a few times. To be quite blunt, it's pathetic. As I said in my previous post, it's jealousy of these individuals for finding a gap in the market they could exploit for profit. As I said before, the people to blame are the morons who won't wait a couple weeks to sell their item at its usual price. Just think about it for a moment. A sensible player isn't going to sell a Scorpion Harness +1 for 50k, are they? A sensible players knows the value of his or her items, and if the Auction House is way down from the normal price, then a sensible player waits until it goes back up again. Bottom line is, it always does. How do you know the approximate value of your item? Do you check price history? Do you check ffxiah.com history? This group of players, buy and sell from each other at extremely low prices on high priced items. They do this over and over, until the entire history is flooded with the price they want it to be. You are right, more intelligent players know the value of their items. However, there are those that are duped into thinking otherwise, because they just don't know better. Then they sell their items on the AH for the historical price and lose a lot of money. This has not happened to me, but I feel it is necessary to at least inform people on what is happening. I honestly believe that their actions cause a disruption in regular gameplay, which is a violation of the ToS. ~Yote The value of your item is whatever you think it is. If you think it's worth the price you'll pay it, if not you'll go without or find a different way to obtain it. Doesn't disrupt gameplay, just increases the number of people who get the item elsewhere and the people who are willing to pay the new price will continue to do so. If demand is too slow, the price will fall. Hypothtical example: let's say 2 weeks ago the Enfeebling torque cost 400k. Price gets forced up to 700k (the actual price on Fenrir). While before I would have done the BCNM in the hopes of getting my torques and just bought the Enfeebling Torque once I got the gil if I didn't get it in the BCNM, now I refuse to pay the price and will do the BCNM with the specific intent of obtaining the Enfeebling Torque. If enough people do this, AH price goes down again. Those who aren't aware you can get the item somewhere other than the AH didn't do their homework. As far as I'm concerned, they're impairing their own experience of the game, same as undercutters. Crafting-only item? You can take up that craft! Or maybe I could complain that the Novio Earring is too expensive for me to afford and that's impairing my game experience... That isn't price fixing, that is manipulating supply.
Price Fixing was kinda what the Gil Sellers were doing when they were monopolizing things like pins and boots. Even though the supply was increasing they were keeping items at a steady price. Supply was available, demand was available, but since they monopolized the market there was little to no chance that a non gil seller's pin or boots hit the market so free market becomes a wash, the prices are fixed at a height that no one can hit. People buy the gil, too much gil is in the market, prices skyrocket, bob's your uncle. At least this is what I think, I don't have an economics degree to fall back on however. People should just not do anything illegal in order to get some money. It is disgusting and sickening. /em gets his lead pipe. Now if you'll kindly excuse me I have to rough up some Taru in Rolen-Mart. I'll teach those midgets not to pay protection.
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Yay! Some of those mules have been kicked!
/dance4 motion!!!!! I'm so happy when [GM]s and STF listens to us. <3 ~Yote I'm honestly more impressed that (regular) players are actually showing restraint and not buying the items at their inflated prices. Either the general FFXI playerbase has suddenly grown intelligent enough to do research or I'm going crazy.
Rowland said: Kyoroku said: I'm honestly more impressed that (regular) players are actually showing restraint and not buying the items at their inflated prices. Either the general FFXI playerbase has suddenly grown intelligent enough to do research or I'm going crazy. Both. But given my knowledge of the Asura server, you're probably going crazy. Spend a day in our shoes and you'd go crazy too! |
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