Market Discussions

Can we get a source for this?

Even if this is true, there's two fees: the broker fee and the transaction tax.

The broker fee is collected at the point of listing an item.

The transaction tax is collected once the item sells.


So your example would be moot, as the item is already listed. Now, if they could set the transaction tax to individuals, then we got something there.

I have been thinking about this option. There are devious things one can do if one owns a market hub.

If this is even a thing why should anyone trust anybody and sell in their citadel to begin with.

Farmville INC

Well, that assumes citadels are designed to be primarily public structures.

As you all know, station traders create a public good in Eve simply due to their greed and their play style. They provide liquidity to the market. Other players want isk right there, right now, and station traders are there to provide that isk in exchange for an item and a certain mark-down. The item can then be resold for a higher price. Competition between station traders keep the greed in check, more or less. There are the obvious attempts at scams in rare items.

I think this change might lead to a more difficult life as a station trader because these changes may introduce a certain need for arbitrage. I may have to undock, or have alts undock, or employ red frog, and move stock. This is the case if there are competing privately owned trade stations with substantially lower taxes and fees that draw punters there. To be fair, this probably also makes the buyers’ lives more cumbersome because components of fits may be dispersed across several stations.

Because of this, I think that things won’t change that much in the short term. The ease of shopping for the punters at Jita 4-4, which today has everything, and the need to change playstyle somewhat for station traders will conspire to create a price spread that accommodate the taxes and fees. At least that’s my thinking. I may suffer lightbulb moments as I realise something I haven’t thought of. That’s entirely possible.

They key, though, is that it’s a hassle which will be worked around by both buyers and sellers, to a certain degree. Though the bar will be raised for new traders, and trading will become more difficult as these taxes and fees can be quite opaque. This may be CCPs attempt to create isk sinks to combat future inflation now that skill-injectors becomes another plex market where real money enters the game as ISK.

Not directly no. You’re right about that, but indirectly very much so because nullsec ratting fuels the plex market. Short of footing substantial repair bills for the Jita Monument, one can achieve an isk sink for the ratting isk by going after the intermediary in the exchange between nullsec deadspace loot and the end player. Ie station traders like me.

I’ve tried to think of the difference between plex and injectors, and all I can come up with is a crappy Eve simile. Plexes are like damage controls. Passive. Provides a certain hardening. Pretty good, overall. Every ship needs one. One does not need do do anything but to apply it to the ship. This is game time. Always immutable and fixed. One month, one plex.

Injectors are different though. They're active. You have to do something to use them. I think there will be a lot more pressure to use them because they, essentially, are pay to win. If my crappy Eve simile still works, Injectors can make us run out of cap. I've yet to be convinced of injectors, although I've certainly not shied away from using them. Both to earn more isk, and to reduce skill deadweight on my characters.

It’s sad that Eve has gone down this path. Maybe that Jita Monument needs to be repainted quite a few times for it. I think it’s difficult to overstate how injectors will affect the core play. There will be a constant pressure to add injectors to this game which is very famous for passive sp increases. But hey, World of Warcraft imported plexes to their game. Action-directed levelling up has now been imported into this game – except the action required is to enter a credit card number.

Could it have been avoided? I’m not sure. The player base has gone down over the years, and maybe this will give CCP an injection of new players. I’m just afraid it will be a different kind of player. Whale players. Which may be good for station traders, because they'll buy expensive things off the likes of me. I don't know.