Market Discussions

That was one of the most interesting eve-related things I have read in a long time.

Great job.

Food for thought. For about six months most eve players thought a cn bcs was worth 125m. Once I bought the monopoly I upped that to 165m and there was no decrease in demand. Only a minority thought it was about 95m. So which was the 'correct' price?

95m seems the logical price, after all this was the price on lowest from supply and demand. However the majority of the demand was being redirected elsewhere. Likewise the majority of the supply was going through mailing lists from bulk producers who had no interest in listing hundreds of contracts and playing the .01 game. Controlling the supply was the most important weapon in the WG wars, supply was needed for stock which was needed for saturation, blocking and narrowing of windows. The price lowest market was only ever about twenty contracts deep, there were about twenty contracts for the 'correct' price and then the price soared insanely. That 95m value was completely disconnected from the demand of the market (being met at 165m) and the supply (around 88m cause of bulk discount). Furthermore the impact of people buying off of lowest on the market was overshadowed by rivals in the WG wars who tried to use price lowest contracts to compensate for their lack of supply and build up their own stock. Basically the lowest price had absolutely nothing to do with supply or demand.

165m was a completely arbitrary value set by me. However it was the most commonly used price and the buyers seemed happy with it. If every seller of cn bcs in Jita today decided to set them to 165m then the demand would not change at all. This isn't mere conjecture, there are months of evidence of people happily buying them at that price (incursions + botting tengus/ravens).

My conclusion, market forces have absolutely no connection with anything in EVE. Stuff just happens, people are lazy and clueless, perception of value massively outweighs any relation to the work or cost of making something.

Impressive sir, well done!



That conclusion is however false.

Those market forces you talk about run on knowledge, something the misleading UI prevented buyers from having.
It may have been worth that much to them, but others were willing to sell it to them for less, they just never knew it., had they known it the prices would have gone down (as they will).

This is just as true in the real world. Mortgage-backed securities, anyone? They're rated AAA, so they must be safe, right? They were very, very valuable indeed, so long as they were perceived to be safe. You did a similar thing, in that you controlled so much supply, and so much visibility into that supply, that you could project whatever price you thought.

Interestingly, I think an alternative way to beat your system would have been to setup a trade hub outside of The Forge, and then advertise the heck out of it. At the very least, it would require you to double your buffer.

Btw, that was one of the best PVP reads in a long time.

Well done. When Karah/Warri told me about it long ago i declined any interest as i was to lazy and underestimated the possible ISK to be made. So i'm still kind of torn, you made a huge amount of ISK and i missed it but you also needed a lot time/effort to build and maintain it. I guess i'm kinda jealous i missed the opportunity but i'm glad i hadn't to invest the time and effort you did.

I offered Karah/Warri to help out with some liquidity when you took over West and Grey sort of buy in so i could use your mailing list for my own little shop but before anything was finalized Crucible happened.

And keeping your mouth shut about this is in the Pirate Codex :)

No, that thread existed, except the guy who made it presented it terribly.

The guy who made it was one of kwark's competitors, who made it after kwark made a move on his market.

It seems a bit self-important to be calling this a "scam".

What these people have done is profit from the laziness of other players who couldn't be bothered to wait for a better deal.

You might as well be moving skill books to mission hubs, and call that a "scam" because they can be bought cheaper elsewhere.

Nonetheless, congratulations on the profits, and thank you for artificially inflating the price somewhat, allowing me to move some higher value mods with very little trouble.

Well it was not realy a scam, it was just what every good supermarket around your corner is doing too.
They place the higher priced stuff right before your eyes and when u would just turn your head a bit up and down you would be able to find the same stuff a lot cheaper.
In eve the contract system just made it a bit harder to turn your head ... and some people simply didn´t even knew how to turn it :p

Props :hatoff:

Codos