Why ?????????????????

[Legomyeggo]

we all are causing the prices on AH to go up..

recently i sold most of my gear.. (except the jobs i really wanna lvl).. when putting stuff up on auctionhouse i check what the last few sold for.. and check how many are up at that time..

say theres 10 of that item up.. selling for 2k each.. the price will stay pretty steady.. EVERYONE undercuts by a few gil.. because ppl want to sell their stuff.. and NOW.. (the lowest priced item sells first, no matter how much the bidder bids).. anyhow.. 10 items.. 2k each.. its gunna stay probably the same.. maybe go down a little..

50 of that item, at 2k each.. prolly going to go down to about 1k or so.. if not less.. (example: earth crystals used to be like this)

if there are no other items of the thing im trying to sell up on ah.. i usually raise the price say. 5k? depending on its last sale pice.. hey its the last one on ah.. if ppl desire it.. 5k is NOTHING for the last one on ah..

so.. say i am putting an item up, that sold last for 20k.. but mine's the only one going to be on auctionhouse.. so i raise it 5k.. bam.. 25k.. that one sells.. yay i got my 25k right? next person comes in.. decides to sell the same item.. see's the last bid at 25k.. notices there are no items of the thing up on ah.. he raises 5k.. BAM 30k... why should we lower the prices? right? took time and money to get that item.. how valuable is your time? :/

~nib

You could've just said "Supply and Demand"

 

[chrono fantasy]

Yeah, crystal prices have gone up, but lately I've noticed that prices of most other things have gone done. For example, scroll prices have gone down. I bought some of my scrolls for higher prices a few weeks ago, quested them and wanting to sell them to find that they've gone down -.-

 

[Sculli]

You could've just said "Supply and Demand"

Actually, the Law of Supply and Demand doesn't quite apply to FFXI. Somewhere in that law it states (paraphrase) "in a market of rational buyers", or perhaps the rational buyers are implied or a prerequisite or something, been a while since I sat in a lecture about this.

Anyway, the point is "rational buyers", which there are not all that many of in an online game, mainly because no real world currency is at stake most of the time, and because the value of gil is not the same to each member of the population.

Of course one could argue that the value of the Dollar is not the same for each individual in the US, but in real life there are more poor or middle class people than there are rich people.

In the game it's quite opposite, many of those who have been playing since the beginning just doesn't know what to do with their gil. They don't mind paying 10k for a stack of carp just for shitz and giggles (in fact, they would likely even pay more if asked to pay more), while those who are on their way up essentially "suffer" from the oversupply of gil.

Again, it's the same in any MMO that has been running for a while.

 

[Taruwaru]

Yeah, crystal prices have gone up, but lately I've noticed that prices of most other things have gone done. For example, scroll prices have gone down. I bought some of my scrolls for higher prices a few weeks ago, quested them and wanting to sell them to find that they've gone down -.-

Say that to the 1 million gil people are paying for melody +1 earrings right now. They were 400k a little over a month ago.

Try the 220k that I ended up paying for my NQ melody earring last month. That's come back down to ~40k, but still... 220k?!

Singing and Wind earring have both jumped up 1 mil. Check virtually any sought after item that costs over 2 mil. You'll see, in most instances, a steady increase in price.

Hold onto your scrolls; the price will go back up. Or it could be that the price went insanely high when you paid for them, and now they're back to normal prices, but still higher than they were a few months ago.

Sculli: While I agree that you can't apply all economic principles to an MMO economy, basic S&D does apply. As supply goes up, prices tend to drop. Now this doesn't account for the occasionaly f-tard that sells his gold ores at 3k under the going rate, just because he wants to sell his stuff first. But I guess you could say that those guys are somewhat like a black market. They're trying to get rid of their items as quickly as possible, even if it ends up diminishing their returns.

The problem, is MMOs "black market" and "regular market" are the same, so one has a much more profound effect on the other.

I also believe most people treat their in-game money similar to the way they treat their out-of-game money. The difference is it's very easy to attain in-game money, so most people are filthy rich. Throwing away 100k or 1 mil is easier to do, not because it's not "Real Money", it's because getting 100k or 1 mil is easy. It's equivalent to $5-20 in real world money. I could care less if I throw away $20 in the real world. I'd rather not obviously, but it's not a big deal if I do. If I lose 1 mil in game, I can just go make more. That's not always the case in the real world though. Most people are obviously limited in how much money they make IRL.