insane baz people *lil rant*

[Elyssanda]

:deadhorse:

Cost of celestial essence using scent of marr & concentrated solvent
1p7g4s Each

Current price in baz on no less than 6 traders: 9 or 10P each. (thank goodness I make a couple thousand up at a time and keep them on the other account.)

Spider silks: easily farmable in the hundreds per hour: baz cost currently:
20-25p each.

we have insane baz people.. on expensive things they all compete until the prices they sell at are less than the cost of making whatever the item is, but on the cheap stuff, they all want to charge 10x the cost of making.

Oh and we have resellers that will RACE to buy out anyone who sells at a reasonable price so they can jack up the prices.

And :further vent: I refuse to even LOOK at the wares of someone who briadcasts they are the cheapest in the baz when all they have done is price their items 1 COPPER below the next lowest person. Come on really... if you want to say you are the lowest in baz, give a real discount. Yes, you technically are the lowest in the baz, but I will always got to the trader with the whole number price.

--------------------

Meanwhile can I just say I love the person who sold me a whole STACK of storm Volaas hairs at 1k each. With the stack my sweet loveable hubby farmed for me, my drakkin now has a full set of Master's silk armor waiting for her to get high enough to wear it.

[Flehmen]

G'day,

Well, good old supply and demand.

The people who price down expensive hard to make stuff(or even easy to make but time consuming) value their time less than you do. Their prices reflect that. (Qeynos afternoon tea in my case, I suspect forage bots of driving down the price 'cause it was flying off the shelf faster than I could forage at my insanely high price. So I wait, they'll leave eventually as it's just not a good time to money ratio at their prices unless you bot it.)

On the other side, my wife makes CE for the baz... makes a nice profit at it. Prices it about 8-9 pp if I recall correctly and is constantly exclaming how tough it is to keep in stock. Those people value thier time more highly and can afford to pay to save time...

Only thing to do is hold your price, either everyone else will sell out, or you end up storing your item for later. <shrug> The race to the bottom is just unproductive.

Now, don't get me started talking about wally-mart!

[Maevenniia]

Well, I understand how you feel ....BUT....

1) If the items sell well at that (higher) price, then so be it. Supply & Demand, and all that jazz...PLUS, EQ markets are weird, and vary by server. It's just possible you have a lot of rich, busy people on your server willing to pay high prices for the convenience of not having to combine CEs or farm silks themselves.

2) If you price something at say - 5pp - and you get bought out by a reseller - at least you got the price you felt was sufficient reward for your time and effort. Let the reseller take the chance at the higher price...esp if you can easily make more (ex: CEs)....there's nothing like having a guaranteed customer, hehehe...

3) If you are concerned about fellow tradeskillers, use your server forum or the Marketplace forums here to try and hook up with people who need what you are selling, and sell to them at your more reasonable prices - This way you will get some regular customers who will be happy to pay lower than bazaar prices - you win, the tradeskillers win, and the resellers sit in the bazaar with unsold goods.

[Itek]

I'm going to agree pretty much 100% with everyone.

Elyssandra -

Yep the mark up on the basic materials is insane. You can thank people saying "if you want to make plat fast, take advantage of tradeskillers" for the last few YEARS.

Race to the lowest price ... I dunno about that. I'd consider my server to have a mature market and there doesn't seem to be too much undercutting from the buyers perspective. DoN armors etc still seem to be priced to be profitable.

As for people /ooc or /auc (or worse /shout) advertising in the bazaar ... if the list something useful or informative like "I make all DoN GM gear on request, /baz me for price estimates" or "now selling all LDoN chest / trap spells" I might check them out. "new trader up" and "I have the lowest prices" type ads I just can't be bothered.

And if someone has an item 1 plat lower I'll make a judgement call. If someone has 14 clarity potions at 17 plat while someone else has 200 at 18 plat ... I'm more likely to buy at 18...

But if someone has a Rank Two spell at 25000 and someone else has one at 24999 .... someone will still have one at 24999 after I buy the one for 25000.

Flehmen / Maevenniia -

Yeah "supply and demand" is a powerful force. But more people should realize this is a non-zero-sum game. I have no objection to you pricing your time making CE at 9 plat. I don't buy it at that price, as I'm not forced to, nor would I ever sell it at that price as I don't want to (though it would be a big money maker... hmm)

I still think my old saw about bazaar pricing goes ...

"That is not THE PRICE, or The Bazaar Price ... it's the NOT SELLING price. That's the price at which it is NOT selling. That's the desired price. If I think it's reasonable, or at least not likely to fall suddenly, I'll pay it. If not I won't. So what if someone else does."

Also, this kind of discussion makes me SOO glad I have trouble keeping a Trader up. I can sit in Guild Halls for hours AFK. But 30 minutes or less in Bazaar and I'm disconnected. /sigh But at least I don't have to worry about the going price for stuff I want to sell. I just don't sell stuff. (Which is probably why my TS is hovering around 1500 club level.)

[Maevenniia]

Oh, I don't sell CEs in the bazaar, I combine CEs for myself only, and sometimes I buy them instead (if teh price is 10p per I will combine my own, 5-6pp or less and I will likely buy em, depending on how many CEs I need.)

And I totally agree - most bazaar prices are the price that something does NOT sell at (otherwise it wouldn't be sitting there on a trader for days or even weeks )

[Bara]

Yep, my rules of thumb for selling: My time collecting drops is worth something, it IS reflected in the price. Likewise the time I spent raising my skill to be able to make combines, and the price of any components bought from players.
After I consider these, then I decide if I can sell at a reasonable price. If I can't answer yes then I don't sell it. You will never lose if your bringing in more than your spending to make stuff. Selling 5 items at a fair price beats the heck out of taking 4 weeks to sell one item at a gouging price.

[Flehmen]

Actually, sometimes I think baz people are insane....

On several pieces of lowbie gear I've done the following:

1. loot it
2. set a price in the baz with respect to similar items, probably a bit lower as I like the quick sale....
3. Wait 4 weeks
4. Set the price to triple what it was
5. Sell before 24 hours is up. (about 60-70&#37; of the time)
6. if it doesn't sell at the higher price vendor it/find deserving newbie

Also, what gets me is that people DO pay 9pp for CE... even now you can make three at a time.... and as for DoN augs/armor cost is the best you'll get on my server for woodelves.... think that is highly dependant on what race/deity you are.


I agree with Bara about value for my time. If I can't get my value I try not to do it, better off farming plat.