Thread: Price gouging and you

RM wake up! Your AH prices are that of all the other servers from a year ago. Stop buying 1st age lvl 60 gear at 20g! IT'S OBSOLETE!! Stop buying Symbols of Celebrimbor at 15-20g! That was the going rate on E a year ago! Stop buying raid consumables at crazy prices! Don't get me started on pots! RM, you are getting ripped off big time. It is sad that these prices are even allowed on the AH in the first place. Stop posting lvl 45 class items at stupid prices. This has to end guys. No wonder the community has huge rifts in it. People are tired of the price gouging.

The same people that would post a long-winded reply about supply and demand and try to make themselves come off as some kind of financial genius are the same exact people that rip you off on a daily basis. Think back to whenever you see these rants about supply/demand in glff and now link these same people to whenever they sell items like lvl 60 1st age items to you at exorbitant prices. To make matters worse, some of these people are held in high regards in the community. There are a lot of cult leaders with thralls aplenty on RM. Wake up, people.

I invite you to make a lvl 6 toon on ANY server and compare the items that are posted on the AH there to RM's AH prices. You will soon be angered knowing that your peers are ripping you off. Boycott these items on the AH for a week and I guarantee you will end up paying half of what they normally would be posted for. This is intended to be a positive thread and those who respond with negativity are likely to be the ones who rip us off on a daily basis.



Flesh

I have to agree. The sad thing is mats for crafting are stupid expensive, if I dont sell for a certain price then I lose money. Its a lose/lose, i've pretty much given up hope on the AH and try to farm all the mats I can now.

Originally Posted by jerejo1976

The same people that would post a long-winded reply about supply and demand and try to make themselves come off as some kind of financial genius are the same exact people that rip you off on a daily basis.

I don't sell on the AH, ever, nor do I write long replies when short one will do: supply and demand is a fact, you're free to stick your head in the sand and ignore reality if you like, but that doesn't change the reality. It's also nothing to do with being a financial genius and everything to do with common sense, not everyone has that it appears.

And yes, paying 20g a Symbol is silly to me considering how easy it is to Skirmish for one, but that fact I find it silly is irrelevant to the fact others don't.

Originally Posted by Kerin_Eldar

And yes, paying 20g a Symbol is silly to me considering how easy it is to Skirmish for one, but that fact I find it silly is irrelevant to the fact others don't.

This sums it up nicely dosent it? You can obtain items in game from other sources outside of the AH. Complaining about the prices at the AH is absurd given this fact. The AH works fine, I put it in for a price and someone pays it, if i have over priced it then it dosent sell and I need to lower the price.

thats exactly how it works, the fact that I got 13G for a symbol and 15G for a symbol should be welcomed and applauded. You dont need to be a financial genius to understand the AH and to make the judgement of pricing and you. It isnt a store its an auction. If you do sell in the AH (I do from time to time) please increase your prices just to make sure people like the OP understand clearly you arent gouging anyone, you arent selling anything there lazy asses cant obtain elsewhere!

If people are buying things, then why should prices be lowered?
This is how an economy works, people buy things at a certain price, if they don't want to pay the price then eventually the price will drop. If things are being bought and sold at these "mega-high prices" then they aren't too high. Welcome to the free market economy my friend.

If people don't buy at the AH price then people would lower their prices.

I can spend a couple of hrs a day and easily get 100 Rune Carved Tablets. I used to sell then at 50 for 2.5G then I received an in game mail from someone thanking me for selling at a decent price and offering to buy from me direct rather than going through the AH.

I realised I must be way too cheap hence upped my prices.

I now put 25 tablets on for between 2.4 and 2.6G and usually they all sell within 1 day.

This week I've gone from 44G to 89G by just spending around 1 - 2 hrs out of my playtime every other day getting tablets and selling them on AH.

I choose to spend 1 - 2 hrs collecting these mats, others choose to spend their time doing other things and pay me for my time. I see nothing wrong with this at all. They could always do what I do and collect them themselves if they so choose.

If the prices dropped to too lower a point, it wouldn't help anyone as it simply wouldn't be worth people like me spending our time harvesting the nodes. Instead I would spend 20 mins a day getting mats for myself only and wouldn't bother selling any.

As it's so easy for me to make money, I also don't mind spending a load, hence I pay high AH prices for other mats rather than get them myself. I suspect very few (there will always be one or two) people simply want to see their in game gold grow and grow and grow, there's little point in spending your time harvesting mats just to see your bank balance grow. I like to keep a balance of around 100G on my main and when it gets down to around 30 - 40, I spend a few hrs collecting tablets until it's back to around 100. But I soon spend that gold on other AH mats.

Maybe people complaining need to realise they also have the choice of spending their play time harvesting and selling mats if they so choose. But they don't, hence have no choice but pay the going rate or go without. Anyone can get low level mats for their characters if they so choose, hence don't need to pay the AH price if they don't want to.

Ahhh this topic again... Ok this was brought up when f2p started after it started there was items I seen jump from maybe 1g to literly 8g overnight, the AH is stupid now with all the price hiking and BS so there is an easy solution to the whole problem...... JUST DONT BUY ANYTHING ......... Plain and simple .... At least that is what I did lol I basicly stopped buying anything since f2p started because of the stupid price hiking, basicly you can pretty much get everthing you see on the AH yourself if you just take the time to go get it (sides from a few rare items of course) but come on guys like what was already stated stop feeding them ... Easy enough ....

Originally Posted by Perfang

The sad thing is mats for crafting are stupid expensive, if I dont sell for a certain price then I lose money.

This is quite accurate. Especially for consumable professions like cook or scholar.

I have characters in every profession and I did a cost analysis using lowest prices available in the auction for raw materials and for finished products and concluded the only product I could make money on was dyes. Weapons and armor all sold for less than the raw materials needed to make them would sell for. This is not a problem for me because I can make all I need, but for people new to the server or with just one or two characters it must be difficult to get gear.

The only alternative I can think of would be price fixing for raw materials and finished products, and everyone would have to agree to it, which seems unlikely to happen

Originally Posted by Alderlea

I have characters in every profession and I did a cost analysis using lowest prices available in the auction for raw materials and for finished products and concluded the only product I could make money on was dyes. Weapons and armor all sold for less than the raw materials needed to make them would sell for. This is not a problem for me because I can make all I need, but for people new to the server or with just one or two characters it must be difficult to get gear.

Surely it means that new players can acquire reasonable weapons and armour, especially yellows, for not much money.
They have a choice of gathering for their crafting, or gathering raw materials, selling the materials and then buying items crafted by others.

I enjoy crafting in its own right as a mini game - I enjoy gearing myself and twinking my alts and kin, but it tends to be the case on any mature server that raw materials cost more than most of the things you can make. So I tend to have at least one 'gathering in a lowbie zone' per character when trying to reach mastery of a craft. You can also try to hit some slayer deeds at the same time.

If you dont enjoy crafting, gather materials and sell them as you go, and you will do well out of it.

If you enjoy crafting but not gathering, what you have is an expensive hobby. That's fine, just be prepared to pay for it.

Originally Posted by Alderlea

The only alternative I can think of would be price fixing for raw materials and finished products, and everyone would have to agree to it, which seems unlikely to happen

indeed it would be unlikely. The problem seems to stem partially from perception. Some players view the AH as a market, it isn’t its an auction. Now perhaps the happy medium would be (given your suggestion) would make more raw materials available from vendors (markets in essence). I’d be okay with that, I think its reasonable game play to assume an NPC might mine some ore and bring it to his market place to sell.

That’s about as far as I would be willing to go though, the AH is an auction I want it to remain a player driven supply and demand entity.

Do kinships help new players get geared? Maybe that's the part of the equation I'm missing, since I don't join kinships. I suppose new players could survive on quest gear too for awhile.

Originally Posted by Alderlea

Do kinships help new players get geared? Maybe that's the part of the equation I'm missing, since I don't join kinships. I suppose new players could survive on quest gear too for awhile.

Some do yes. If you follow the epic quest line from start to finish its not unreasonable to think you can survive and flourish with the reward gear. Along the way you'll be able to level in a craft and if your astute and watch the trade chat you can work out swaps for mats and crafted gear.

No one needs to AH to play this game, everything within it can be obtained outside of it.

Wow, is this horribly bad argument still relevant?

Originally Posted by Fantoma

Wow, is this horribly bad argument still relevant?

Realistically, no I don't think it is. Sellers correct overpricing by lowering prices on what doesn't sell and buyers agree to prices by buying. I could sell things at a loss just to be nice but someone would likely buy them and mark them up for resale. I'd rather just give something away once in awhile

You know, I have noticed this in the AH on our server. I always put up 3rd age lvl 75 items up for 300 - 500SP.
They mostly sell for a nominal 500 silver.... ITs for the lazy who dont want to farm their own.

Then I will see the SAME thing posted for 2G. REally? for a lvl 75 drop? Why gouge> There is no need to do so.
I charged 10GP for a lvl 60 1st ager. I thought that was reasonable. I have seen those go for 20 GP in the AH... Thats just silly.

And before everyone gets all cranky, I have given away like 4 1st agers that drop in Turtle run to Kin members for free....
Thats what a Kin is for.

I see that mostly we talk "high lvl things" here, but I would like to bring low level view here aswell.

I have noticed that there is quite expencive weapons, armours etc. for low level characters as lvl 7, 12, 14, 15, 16 & 17.

I don't know are some gamers just so creed or do they really have big expencives while collecting materials for those things?

I know that there is many players who has own wealthy high lvl characters or they have friends who has wealthy high lvl characters so high price is not a problem from them, but there might be players who has just started and doesn't have this friends or own high lvl characters so I try to give that kind price so lvl 6 Lore-Master can wear armour what gives thye best protection what he can get with reasonable prize.

Example how I calculate my price is:
Real worth of item + AH posting fee and + 1 to 3 sp (repairing cost) = Minimum bid price
Minimum bid price x 5 or 10 (depending item specs) = Buy out price.

With high lvl items you can aks higher prize just becouse high lvl characters mostly has "lots of money" or they can "farm" it much easier.

My lvl 19 Hunter can craft lvl 7 - 22 lvl melee / ranged weapons and my lvl 13 Captain can make level7 and 14 shields, lvl 15 - 17 armours and I have sold critical items in AH from 25 sp to 60 sp.

For me those are really cheap prizes especially my frien gave me 1 gp and has equipped me with crit. jewellery and has bought some other things from AH so it was easy to me make some money and harvest incredients, but without help it's not so easy and fast and I think that even those (my) "low" prices can be good/high prices for low level characters and how short time they are in that lvl!? Soon they neen agian new gears so more they has afford to update them selfs with your gears more money you can get from them. It's not so long roud to take own crafting to that point that you can make your own things.

Maybe someones just doesn't know or remember how much they did have money when they were at lvl 6.

(Sorry about my english. It's not my mothertongue.)

Originally Posted by Quikka

Example how I calculate my price is:
Real worth of item + AH posting fee and + 1 to 3 sp (repairing cost) = Minimum bid price
Minimum bid price x 5 or 10 (depending item specs) = Buy out price.

Interesting equations; I use a number of different equations myself, depending on the item.

Crafted and dropped items: item level x quantity = min (usually stacks of 10)
Scrolls: crafting tier x10 = min
Cosmetic/decoration: "whatever the market will bear" (within reason)

Typically, I set the buyout to 2x the min; x2 again for min/buyout if it's a superior crafted item. So for someone @ level 6, I don't see 6sp as unreasonable for a level 6 item (12sp if you want it "now"). And if you're at or near level 50 and can't afford 50sp (or 100sp buyout),... "you're doin' it wrong".

I generally don't bother keeping track of what has sold for how much in the past, unless it's a superior crafted or a cosmetic/decoration item. While I've sold a few "rare" (?) items in the past for more, I typically don't post anything for more than a 2g buyout. Keeping all that in mind, I still manage to make enough to maintain upkeep on my deluxe and kinship homes 6 weeks in advance, buy whatever gear/supplies I need for crafting/leveling, and sometimes pick up items on the AH. That's good enough for me; after all, it's just a game - "for entertainment purposes only".