Traders and Their Flawed Supply and Demand

plasmasword

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Sep 2005

Ok, lets say you have a shop and your selling something for 100g. That certian item is selling out within 1 min you put it in your shop and you run out of stock. What would be the right thing to do? Raise the price right? Because that is how supply and demand works, if there is a high demand for something your allowed to raise the price on it. So after 4 days of non stop selling out of runes the traders STILL sell them at 100g for majors and only a few plat for superior (screenshot at the bottom). I have witnessed people stand next to rune traders, spam clicking them and buying any assasin/ritualist rune they can get their greedy little hands on. What do they do with these runes? THEY SELL THEM RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE NPC TRADERS FACES FOR PROFIT! But the traders still insist on ripping themselves off and letting greedy people win. If traders raised their prices it would discourage the people who sit around rune traders all day selling new runes from buying them and then the people who ACTUALLY NEED THEM get some for their new characters. So please anet, fix your traders. Raise the prices on runes so I can actually buy one.

rancidgoat

rancidgoat

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2006

[XoO] [AX]

N/Me

he he..i made 15k doing this last night. click faster buddy. oh ive got some maj. vigors for sale if ya need one.and all that happens if the trader price goes up, my price goes up.i hope it does go up cause i bought them when they were pretty cheap.

if it makes you feel better ill change my name to "Rune Trader".

Omega X

Omega X

Ninja Unveiler

Join Date: Jun 2005

Louisiana, USA

Boston Guild[BG]

W/Me

I think that this was discussed before, and I agree with you. The prices should rise and fall with supply and demand like its supposed to on both ends of the spectrum.

plasmasword

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Sep 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by rancidgoat
he he..i made 15k doing this last night. click faster buddy. oh ive got some maj. vigors for sale if ya need one.and all that happens if the trader price goes up, my price goes up.i hope it does go up cause i bought them when they were pretty cheap.

if it makes you feel better ill change my name to "Rune Trader".
Click faster buddy??? What is this Counter Strike???

lyra_song

lyra_song

Hell's Protector

Join Date: Oct 2005

R/Mo

The material trader is much more accurate i think.

rancidgoat

rancidgoat

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2006

[XoO] [AX]

N/Me

YOU MEAN THESE ARNT THE CS FORUMS .....aww crap i gotta stop drinking..

makosi

makosi

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Mar 2006

"Pre-nerf" is incorrect. It's pre-buff.

Requirement Begins With R [notQ]

Me/

What concerns me is the state of the text at the trader - its all overlapping.

EternalTempest

EternalTempest

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

United States

Dark Side Ofthe Moon [DSM]

E/

Anet talked about this situation and the traders in the past
http://www.guildwars.com/press/inter...e-friday61.php

Quote:
Players often wonder why we allow prices to float on the traders, and this is fundamentally the reason. Traders are not vendors; they don’t offer an unlimited supply of rare items. They’re just there to facilitate trade between buyers and sellers. If the traders quote buy and sell prices that are outside the range of what players think the true value of an item is, then players simply stop using the traders and switch back to using chat to find trading partners. Of course, for any given type of rare item, we could theoretically stop treating it as a rare item and instead put an unlimited quantity on NPC vendors for sale at a fixed price. But this tends not to be a good idea for two reasons. First, player perception of the value of items tends to change over time; if the vendor sale price can’t adapt, then there will be times when the item seems undervalued and times when it seems too expensive and no one will buy it. As specific character builds go in and out of favor, the items that support those builds can experience wide swings in their perceived value. Second, Guild Wars will always have a player-driven economy because the game uses randomly generated stats on weapons and equipment. Those items can't effectively be sold by vendors, and the more we pull other types of items out of the player-driven economy by placing them on vendors and giving them fixed prices, the more we focus all price swings and inflationary pressures on the few remaining items that players still bid for, potentially pushing their prices far out of the reach of normal players.

Unlucky Slayer

Unlucky Slayer

RAGE INCARNATE

Join Date: Apr 2006

Sitting at The Guild Hall 2, being happy.

Nerd Clan [NK]

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by makosi
What concerns me is the state of the text at the trader - its all overlapping.
Expand the window. It's only overlapping because the text is too big for the size of the window itself.

Jetdoc

Jetdoc

Hell's Protector

Join Date: Jul 2005

The Eyes of Texas [BEVO]

D/A

I sold a minor vigor to the trader last night (which was sold out) and noticed that 2 seconds later that had been purchased as well.

I was just too plain lazy to spam it. Too funny.

Count to Potato

Count to Potato

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2006

Imagination Land

I Swear She Was Eighteen [Gwen]

W/

If u read the Guild Lord's description of material traders it says

"Based on supply and demand"

SpeedyKQ

SpeedyKQ

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

E/Me

The traders should adjust prices to always keep say 100 of each item in stock. If a trader has less than 100, slowly raise the price over time. More than 100, slowly lower the price.

It is such a simple algorithm, and would so much better than whatever the hell it is doing now.

Swinging Fists

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Mar 2006

W/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by plasmasword
I have witnessed people stand next to rune traders, spam clicking them and buying any assasin/ritualist rune they can get their greedy little hands on. What do they do with these runes? THEY SELL THEM RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE NPC TRADERS FACES FOR PROFIT!
Well, I assume you've seen their adverts over their heads, because I'm sure there are many, like myself, clicking the rune trader like crazy just to get ONE assassin rune, major vigor, or whatever. I completely understand there are people trying to buy low and sell high and I have no problem with it. It's part of the game. Eventually, hopefully soon, the assassin runes will be more easily available at the rune trader and I will buy what I can afford, whether from the trader, or another player. As to those spending time at traders just to make a profit - more power to them, but I'd rather spend my time fighting mobs and having fun.

Anatari

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: May 2006

I just started playing Factions and traders really annoy me also. Especially the rune traders. Unlike what they claim, the rune traders seem to have no concept of supply and demand. Assasin runes should clearly be sold for me than a few hundred gold right now, but they are still priced incorrectly. At first, I thought it just takes time for them to adjust for the demand, but its been a few days now and they are still priced incorrectly SIGNIFICANTLY.

And whats the deal with black die. I'm new to this game so maybe i'm just missing something on this one, but it seems to me that the price for black die has been inflated, caused by the traders being stupid. Why does black die cost close to a 100 times more than an Assasin rune?!?

RTSFirebat

RTSFirebat

The Humanoid Typhoon

Join Date: May 2005

UK

Servants of Fortuna [SoF]

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anatari
I just started playing Factions and traders really annoy me also. Especially the rune traders. Unlike what they claim, the rune traders seem to have no concept of supply and demand. Assasin runes should clearly be sold for me than a few hundred gold right now, but they are still priced incorrectly. At first, I thought it just takes time for them to adjust for the demand, but its been a few days now and they are still priced incorrectly SIGNIFICANTLY.

And whats the deal with black die. I'm new to this game so maybe i'm just missing something on this one, but it seems to me that the price for black die has been inflated, caused by the traders being stupid. Why does black die cost close to a 100 times more than an Assasin rune?!?
Black dye is the rarest dye drop of them all, they have always been expensive, even before Factions came out.

LordMahal

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

Germany

R/Mo

And black was waaaay more expensive last year than it is now. OMG did I make gold off of black dye drops. Even now they are worth selling. In my GW time, Ive never seen a trader run out of what I need, but to be honest, I rarely use them anyway. But hey, if there is something wrong with the traders, lets all bitch a lot and see if we can get it changed.