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Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
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Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'Some people love "playing the market," buying low, creating scarcity and charging fellow Faunians as much as the richest one among us can afford. There is a certain thrill in trying to maximize your bank account, and it certainly can be safer than risking the family fortune in the less forgiving stock market.
But reading these posts I also see that there is a significant percentage of
Faunians that want to help each other with cheap postings in the marketplace, and I'm not sure these two populations are mutually exclusive.
Here's an idea that might allow both the "profiteering" and "altruistic" ways of using the markeplace to co-exist.
Idea: Change the "Listing for Sale" interface so that there are two buttons to post a listing - the standard "Create Listing" button, and the new "Altruistic Listing" button. There would be a small round question mark that, when clicked, would give the following explanation:
Explanation: "If you create an altruistic listing only Caretakers that have less than $100,000 Lux and fewer than 3 pages of For Sale items can bid on your listing. This feature facilitates the anonymous gifting of items that might be useful to newbies. We encourage you not to bid on these posts unless you really need the item. No one can buy more than 10 altruistic listings in a 24 hour period."
I'm not sure the "24 hour period" criteria can work without slowing down the the entire website. I'm sure a Lux criteria would be easy to implement and would be better than nothing.
Please refine this idea with your replies.
Thanks
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Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'Great idea! I often post things for 1 or 2 Lux to help people out, but am never sure they really go to people who need them. -
Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'It's pretty easy for the kind of cutthroat player who is going to buy up all the cheap stuff anyway in the Marketplace to set up a mule account to buy all the 'cheap' stuff. It's trivial to create a new account, keep it poor, and transfer all the 'stuff' to a richer account. So 'Compassionate Pricing' would never work. This is the Big City now, not a happy little Beta Village. Uncle Joe was moving kind of slow and got run over by the new diesel locomotive, so to speak. You create your 'community' by individual deals and transactions with people you befriend here. Why not use that method to give deals to people you feel compassion toward?
The Marketplace sets the price, we individually have little control over it.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 07/27/2010 08:39:25
This account, 'Aaronny,' is mostly inactive. My main account now is Redmennel -
Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'I sell my stuff for what i think people will buy it for and they do buy them. but i will NEVER under sale again why??? cause those who really over sale buy me out in a flash! and then have the nerve to tell my "thanks for putting those up so cheap now i can make more money re saling them!"
~~ *
LisaJo * ~~
Proud to be Beta Babe
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Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'Dahmom wrote:I sell my stuff for what i think people will buy it for and they do buy them. but i will NEVER under sale again why??? cause those who really over sale buy me out in a flash! and then have the nerve to tell my "thanks for putting those up so cheap now i can make more money re saling them!"
Same here, Dahmom. I used to sell amber for a very reasonable price--not to undersell anyone, just to pick up some extra lux to totem shop. I would also put out some needed happiness items at what I thought were pretty decent prices to help out those that needed them.
I rarely sell at market any more. See the same names with lots of stuff for sale at extreme prices. I know if I put for sale, it will be scooped up by those running the market, not those that need them.
Example: Bloomsponge is 500,000 at the market today. Princess Primrose and Carnelian marble are just as ridiculously priced.
My suggestion: Don't buy those from market. If you need them for a goal or den, use the "what do you need" thread or find a good friend to help you out. Remember-- those items can be found for free if you have the time and patience.
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe. -
Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'Agreed a way to seperate them would be good (i play another virtual game where they have "money trees" but you can only pick from them to a certain "age" and they are all 100% donation driven - lol an egg plant tree perhaps?? you could havethem in your spheres encouraging travel, friending & patronage!), i have seen a fauna i listed for a few bux and its fellow egg at low lux as ive had a good run of dashers and thought they could help someone i was FUUUUUMING last night to see them both listed at 45 bux each (unusual names do help sometimes). I only sell when i have to make back my gene testing money (figured out why im always skint lol) and as thats 90% of the fauna i have its an expensive game.
still play on we do - (and breathe - in with anger out with love)
Yes i do speak fluent typonese, its a dynig art[i] -
Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'I wish they would put a limit on the amount that an item can be put on the market if it is already sold in a store somewhere in the game. So, if something costs 100 bux somewhere, the seller can NOT put it for more than a 100 bux in the marketplace. Now if they want to convert the item to lux, that's a different story - supply/demand rules apply. I think the only time that this rule should be lifted would be for the seasonal items...while it might have originally been 100 bux, if someone stocked up and later sells the item for 200 or even 400 bux, that is fine, since it is now an out of stock item, and the rarity makes it more valuable. I think it is criminal that some items are sold for more than they can be purchased in the regular lux/bux stores, if you know where to find those stores (and have access to those worlds).
Now, other items like happiness items, food items, blocks, eggs are a different story, since they can't normally be bought elsewhere, supply and demand are what cause the market prices and the market shifts. Frankly, this is where it's like a real stock market to me...buy low, sell high is often the case - right or wrong. I'll be the first to admit, that if there are a couple items that are way underpriced compared to mine, I likely will buy them up (to make my items more competitive), and sell them later at what I deem is a more market standard price (ie, if I have a special block (hedge, beach, cake, sky, sunray, flower) listed for 100 bux, and someone prices one at 40 bux, I often will buy it and sell it later - if someone undercuts me just a little and prices it at 90, I'm likely to leave it since it's not disrupting the overall market price for that item, and I hope there is a demand for their item and mine). However, I try to price my items at a relatively fair/standard market price...not anything outlandish like some of the eggs or happiness items I see (a million lux for a non-cold/non heatproof red sniffer egg, is a bit extreme, IMO).
I get that some are trying to help new players, and for me, that is where reasonable, or even cheaper lux prices make sense, since newer players likely have lux vice bux, and maybe not much lux yet. Since bux costs money to buy, I would think this is a more competitive market, and the lux market would be where more compassionate capitalism takes place. However, when I want to help out a new person, I usually try to gift things to them...the market is for those that are trying to sell their items for what they see is a profit to make some lux or bux, but I agree, they don't need to gouge to get ahead.
I do get a bit irritated when the market is way out of sync with the in-game stores...name changers for 10bux, when the standard price is 250 bux is kind of sad...but that's why I don't sell mine, and since it's not more than the game stores, I can't complain too much...but also trying to sell gene test kits for 200 or 300 bux, when you can buy them from the game for 100 bux is highway robbery in my books.
Frankly, I think it's great that some will buy stuff for bux and resell it for lux to help those players that don't have a way to get bux (I have an adult friend who's strapped for cash in this current economy, so they play on a free account and they can enjoy the nicer things of the game because of these great people - it's not just kids that play on free accounts).
The one nice thing about the market is that it is self-correcting...those that way over price their items have to pay a listing fee...and they lose that listing fee when no one buys their items. It can be a harsh lesson for some that are greedy, but I think it is wonderful!
b3achy
b3achg1rl/b3achbaby/b3achb1k3r/b3achk1tty/b3achk1tt3n/ChuckFan/FLg1rl -
Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'I buy at a low price that yes is cheap but ive never resold the items,I am a
Faunasphere hoarder but then i also have numerous
accounts
BOO PUMPKINPATCHES BOO
BETA TESTER READY TO BE A VOLUNTEER TESTER 
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Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'I think these are great ideas and would be happy to help somehow. -
Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'I basically agree with everything Beachy said. In particular I would welcome a mechanism by which items that are currently on sale in the FS Stores could not be resold at prices higher than the store prices. Not only would it stop people from being ripped off, but it would encourage the resale of these items. For example, I usually don't bother to sell my excess rocks, trees, and flowers. Why? Because I can't remember how much they are in the stores. If I could be sure I wasn't going to overprice them, I'd just list them quickly whenever I happened to think of it. -
Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'Beck_Fish wrote:I basically agree with everything Beachy said. In particular I would welcome a mechanism by which items that are currently on sale in the FS Stores could not be resold at prices higher than the store prices. Not only would it stop people from being ripped off, but it would encourage the resale of these items. For example, I usually don't bother to sell my excess rocks, trees, and flowers. Why? Because I can't remember how much they are in the stores. If I could be sure I wasn't going to overprice them, I'd just list them quickly whenever I happened to think of it.
So where would the FB items come into this? They're free for some players, yet others can't get them because they don't want to connect their accounts to FB. A situation that I would say is similar to not being able to get to certain stores because you haven't done the goals to unlock that world yet.
If we put a cap on the price of items in the market that are available in stores then there should also be a cap on FB items, so that those who can't access them don't have to pay hundreds of lux or bux for an item a fellow caretaker is getting for free. -
Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'i kind of agree with amber - well i can see where your coming from lol - but the FB stuff - egg boosters included i give away or leave as paton gifts. Shucks i sound too nice dont i lol im not i can be a real .......... uhm sniffer lol
Yes i do speak fluent typonese, its a dynig art[i] -
Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'I really feel bad for the newbies since i was once one myself and know how it's like to be one. When i first visited the marketplace as i started playing faunasphere i was shocked at the high prices and wasn't able to afford anything. You know how difficult it's to collect a lot of lux in rock garden or frozen village. And I don't understand why amber is being sold at such a high price since one can collect it oneself in three worlds. Is it that players don't know that and thus buy it at these high prices?
I'd definitely contribute to the market with compassionate pricing if this idea was ever implemented. I usually give away almost everythingi have anyway when people ask and in most cases the requests are from newbies. This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 07/28/2010 13:46:55 -
Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'I sell cheap and it if i have something rare i gouge! what does it matter??? if you dont like it dont buy it. put an add in the what do you need or the trade thread to get it! i have sold the new hats for 20 to fifty thousand in lux which is cheap on there but if i have a rarer item i will put it up for alot and if i loose that commision oh well. but normally it sales.
~~ * LisaJo * ~~
Proud to be Beta Babe -
Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'metulj wrote:And I don't understand why amber is being sold at such a high price since one can collect it oneself in three worlds. Is it that players don't know that and thus buy it at these high prices?
As someone who collects and sells the amber, I have to confess I don't understand it either. I usually only sell a couple sets of 10 or 20 a day (when I'm in game) and in about 4 months of doing this I've never had a set of amber not sell. I guess some people really don't like digging it up themselves and are happy that others are taking the time to do so. -
Re:Idea/Solution - Marketplace Gouging vs. Compassionate Pricing
Back to top'There isn't anything sold in the Marketplace that newbies even need, except for maybe some eggs to liven up their genome. Many of us work hard for what we have and sell what we don't need in the Marketplace for a good return. Nobody is a 'victim' who buys, because there's nothing there that anyone is forced to buy.
Amber is easy to harvest, Happiness Items are easy to get in the Secret Cave. Blocks are everywhere. If you want Metal blocks work around in the Swamp. Ice Blocks, the Floes is a great place to zap. It just takes some work. I would advice new players to just not mess around too much with the Marketplace. It's a pretty boring part of the game. Explore! Discover the places where your faunas can scavenge valuable stuff with just zaps. The good stuff is out there to find.
This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 07/28/2010 18:17:50
This account, 'Aaronny,' is mostly inactive. My main account now is Redmennel
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