Marketplace Stupidity. (in Off-topic)

Definition: undercutting other sellers in a buyer's market consistently so as to get the edge on the competition, causing unintentional harm to one's own and everyone else's future profits.


I just notice this happening in a lot of online games and cannot help but wonder...what is everyone in such a rush for? Why sell your fish for less than everyone else and lower the average price when you could hold out for the same or more? *tssk, tssk*

ya i noticed that too...kinda sad

im predicting CB$ to get to $1USD per 1 milllion in under a years time. I think there is to much money coming in and not enough things to spend it on. I have been here less then a week and have over 1,200,000 CB2$ while renting full single mage gear and even wasting my money on a few stupid things. The sad thing is I don't even come close to using all my BA daily, i can't even imgaine how much people profit when they get on every so hours everyday all the time.

Keep in mind, Colts, that you are getting 5x normal rewards. (NUB)

you have a "new user bonus", it is not the norm in any manner or fashion. if used properly you can get very high in the game.

it is also reminiscent of the saying that youth is wasted on the young.

As stupid as this sounds, I'm starting to miss CB1 again.

I think it is simply supply and demand. If it is just constant undercutting, there is enough quantity demanded of CB$ at that price, it will just sell. In no time, the price goes back up. The price is dropping constantly because there is a lack of quantity demanded at the higher price, and it is bound to drop. Give us some cash sink. Jon. Please. Think about the pet petition forms I keep next to my computer. I will use them if I REALLY have to. :P

i miss cb1 too. See even a NUB thinks NuB is messed up theres been tons of new users selling out lately too. Multis? The more we ignore this problem the more it will be exploited.

More and more players are joining and some old players are leaving, the new players, get the nub and bring in vast amounts of rewards, and the old players accounts sit. Therefore, there is more money coming in then is spent, so the mentality of them is...why not sell it for USD to make some cash on the side while dominating.
I personally do plan on selling some game money, once college starts in the fall. I mean why not, it's either make some cash for books or let it sit here, to be used maybe once a month.
I honestly think if you want the game to be more balanced, there needs to be higher priced items in the store, auctions, and businesses. One thing that could be done, would stop producing some rare items for awhile, to increase there value.

Oh, good god IND, you should see what happens should an item's value increase.

"REINTRODUCE! IT NEEDS REINTRODUCING! OHMYGODIDONTHAVEONE!"

That's probably a verbatim quote if I bothered to look it up.

wow... people undercutting away out there. There's like 6 different exchange rates being offered at the moment. I guess everyone just needs their money yesterday... :P

did someone say rolling bonus? Bonus capped at 200%, but extended to 6-8 months time?

yeah... XP bonus would totally explain people undercutting each other and nuking their own profits...


Word to the wise, demand is seemingly going down, but only because half the big-time buyers are done spending USD on CB for good due to changes they didn't like or an excess of highly upgraded items they'll likely never use, and the other half see all the undercutting and are waiting until the price gets below a certain point... I know I personally wouldn't buy something i saw getting cheaper by the day... Stop selling yourselves short, and they'll stop waiting. ^_~

beware the paradigm shift... you should expect 0$ for your CB2$

With any luck, things just may turn out that way Levon ^_^

but i can already see it now... "OMG I can't buy an advantage over everyone else and now I'm forced to play a strategy game using *only* strategy?!?!?! LAME!"

wait... Just realized why i can already see it now... That was the reaction to encumbrance, no? :P

Encumberance is the reason why prices are dropping. You can't just pump your armor anymore.

I don't think encumbrance is all that much of the reason. I can fit a total of over 250 mil on my minions already at 1.5 mil mpr.

I know some of the reason. Kids. Plain and simple. Why you ask? Well, kids are impatient. Kids whine and groan about a ten minute detention they have to serve because they couldn't wait until after class to whip out their phone and text message their friend about what they are doing that very second. Kids see it as "Well this person is selling this item for 2 mil, so if I sell it for 1 mill I'll get the money pretty much instantly! w00h!" Maybe we should solve this problem with an age limit eh? =P

Not everybody who's young is stupid.

I speak this out of personal experience, being one of the youngest CB players (especially when I first started playing CB. :P).

I'm not saying that every youngling is stupid. However, in my experience, I must say that most kids are are either A) stupid, or B) impatient to the extreme. In rare cases, (however a recent study says otherwise), both. Yeah there are a select few that actually do have patience. And honestly, I can respect them for just that alone.

I have over 300 mill in the kitty (cruelty to cats ? ) due to ENC and I believe it is in many ways due to ENC that the dollar is dropping. I fully agree with ENC in theory as it does avoid USD-Blender syndrome (and its saved me a lot of money.

I agree that we need a cash sink.

ANother game I play recently had the same problem in that there were billions of dollars lying around the game being unused and they introduced a cash sink which works very well.

Another piece of "marketplace stupidity" we're likely to be seeing soon is artificial inflation of pricing. The price of the new items will be on the decline as their numbers double daily, but there will likely be a handful of people not allowing the price to drop by bidding on them just slightly under what they are selling for at the start on the grounds of "That's what they sold for, that's what they're worth" :P

When demand for an item outpaces supply, people have no problem selling for rediculous amounts of money (See TSA, MgS, and AoF :P), but when supply outpaces demand, there are often a bunch who won't allow the item to be sold for much less than they paid due to their impatience :P Joke's on them when they realize that the supply will continue to outpace demand and the prices of these items fall after they've overpaid for a couple of them too keep it up

"and they introduced a cash sink which works very well. "

What was the cash sink in this particular instance?

Going back to the original point about undercutting other sellers, on a whim I just did a quick survey of the CBD FS posts going back to the start of June. Where the seller did not follow up to indicate they had sold, I checked the transfer logs to see if any large amounts had been transferred out since the post. In addition, there were a few posts that seemed to be the same stack of cash being offered more than once, so these I disregarded entirely.

On a rough count, out of approximately 180M being offered for sale around 55M was bought, at an average price of $4/M. It would appear, therefore, that the low value of $/CBD offers is a true depiction of market prices. The sub-prime crunch has hit CB, and the days of $5/M are over. On the bright side, we've got some shiny new items to play with!