why do cheap items suddenly "dry up"?

[AKB0048]

diet otaku

so the price of the item is no longer indicative of its supply? if the supply is shrinking, why isn't that resulting in people selling them for higher prices, rather than just not selling at all?

The supply of an item has never been indicative of it's price. It's always been demand that determines the price. Even if the supply is scarce, if the demand for it isn't very high, then the price isn't going to go anywhere.

The exception is Artificial Inflation, but it's always pretty easy to tell when someone's trying to pull something like that.

[hornworts]

Lack of popularity? No matter what price you list it at, if little to no people know of its existence because it's either ancient, ugly, or overlooked, there will be little market supply.

[Hi-Potion]

MistressMinako

Hi-Potion

MistressMinako

Hi-Potion

MistressMinako

Alchemy.

Also the above explanation. The fail!RIG sold horribly and can still be bought on the MP, unopened, a year and a half later, for around 100K.

What was it called again?

Ivan's something or other. Found it by accident searching for SDplus dolls.

Anyways, the Fail Rig should come back at, like 99 GC or less and should be a perma-fixture into the CS.
Pricing it higher would make it less than desirable

Anyone is welcome to argue for it in ATA, and there is, supposedly, some changes coming to Alchemy in 2013.

Personally, I do not participate in Alchemy and I spent quite a lot of time and effort arguing with the staff for even the smallest of adjustments that would improve the system. So far, they've refused to do much of anything and I frankly don't care anymore.

So good luck to anyone who does argue for another fail!RIG.

I semi-participate in Alchemy?
Prices have dropped, but not by much. For some reason, the components (the non-item ones) are drying up and becoming more pricey. The prices of the high-end caches have gone up a few hundred K for no real reason. But I basically buy items for formulae I am trying to complete, then higher an alchemist. But I only do this is the item is more expensive than the formula cost, which isnt often. The system is broken by requiring real items. They... need to remove those. Some of the items they require to make other items are already rare (like the Fantasy Kitten Star for Aurora Kitten Star)

[Krissim Klaw]

diet otaku

so the price of the item is no longer indicative of its supply? if the supply is shrinking, why isn't that resulting in people selling them for higher prices, rather than just not selling at all?

The supply is only one part with newer items. You could have the only piece of poo on the planet but if no one wants it you aren't going to make anything. I think the other problem is people forget the items exist. There are so many items these days that little side items can easily be lost in the shuffle. I can't imagine searching for something in the vend I didn't already know I wanted.

[okrichie]

diet otaku

on more than one occasion i've noticed that a relatively cheap, non-store item will just... stop being sold. something that has consistently been in the 250k or less range, so it's not that it's particularly rare and all the available copies are in the hands of owners who want to hold on to it (e.g. angelic halo). but there are no listings on the marketplace, nobody in the exchange is selling it or has even mentioned it in months... it's like it stopped existing. how does this happen with relatively common items?

Duck hat.

[Kitalia_OHara]

For me it's Green Intention. I really want to finish this one Alchemy formula, but not without 10 of those stupid green intention items, but , alas, they are not in the marketplace. I'll try to hold out hope for a month or so, but after that I'm giving up.

[diet otaku]

okrichie

diet otaku

on more than one occasion i've noticed that a relatively cheap, non-store item will just... stop being sold. something that has consistently been in the 250k or less range, so it's not that it's particularly rare and all the available copies are in the hands of owners who want to hold on to it (e.g. angelic halo). but there are no listings on the marketplace, nobody in the exchange is selling it or has even mentioned it in months... it's like it stopped existing. how does this happen with relatively common items?

Duck hat.

NON-store items. also there's a ducky listed on the MP right now.

Sweet Angel Mary

okay, to get specific, i am thinking of sdplus odanodan. i sincerely can't imagine anyone selling that back to the store for 20k when they could sell it on the MP for 250k or even 500k.

[jellykans]

hoarding to raise the price - once the item disappears from the charts, you can set your own price

[Sweet Angel Mary]

diet otaku

okrichie

diet otaku

on more than one occasion i've noticed that a relatively cheap, non-store item will just... stop being sold. something that has consistently been in the 250k or less range, so it's not that it's particularly rare and all the available copies are in the hands of owners who want to hold on to it (e.g. angelic halo). but there are no listings on the marketplace, nobody in the exchange is selling it or has even mentioned it in months... it's like it stopped existing. how does this happen with relatively common items?

Duck hat.

NON-store items. also there's a ducky listed on the MP right now.

Sweet Angel Mary

okay, to get specific, i am thinking of sdplus odanodan. i sincerely can't imagine anyone selling that back to the store for 20k when they could sell it on the MP for 250k or even 500k.

well that specific doll, people will hold onto for st. patty's day. it probably hasn't shown up much in recent rig either. i suspect that you'll see more in march.

[cosmere]

Personally I struggle much more to sell off items in the range of 15-50k than higher priced, more popular items. RIG fails don't really generate a lot of interest once the RIG is out of the CS, and the graph really shows it. I mean...who actually wears or even remembers items like Quadruplet in the Willows and The Gator? If I listed items like that at a very high price, no one would buy it, no one wants it even 2k over sellback price. Chances are they just keep getting destroyed.

[bluewingz55]

Sir Black Tea

Lack of popularity? No matter what price you list it at, if little to no people know of its existence because it's either ancient, ugly, or overlooked, there will be little market supply.

i pick unknow of its existence. i barley can keep up all the new items that come out these days. there are new items being announced everyday when i log in. i gave up trying to know what items are new.

[Darksp]

Weirdly enough, I had an experience with this with "Fluff n' Stuff"

I noticed there were rarely any listings, and I wondered if it was rare, so after I managed to buy one, I set the price for 1 mill, and waited for people to sell it for cheaper. I didn't mean to try to raise the price or anything (it went up 5-6x original price) I just wanted to see if people would sell it if they thought they could get a decent price for it.

Hopefully for all the people who wanted that item, it will soon drop in price, but with a higher supply.

[Pengaana]

diet otaku

okay, to get specific, i am thinking of sdplus odanodan. i sincerely can't imagine anyone selling that back to the store for 20k when they could sell it on the MP for 250k or even 500k.

Well there's your problem
dolls are a fickle mistress in the MP

Apparently they're hard to sell and unreliable
so there's near zero supply for them from venders and exchangers
leading to most people not wanting to touch them with a 9' pole

All I can say is watch the marketplace; someone someday's gotta sell one
it's just not something most people look to buy or sell so listings get rare
even if the doll is normally cheap

[diet otaku]

Konan Tatsuhiko

diet otaku

okay, to get specific, i am thinking of sdplus odanodan. i sincerely can't imagine anyone selling that back to the store for 20k when they could sell it on the MP for 250k or even 500k.

Well there's your problem
dolls are a fickle mistress in the MP

Apparently they're hard to sell and unreliable
so there's near zero supply for them from venders and exchangers
leading to most people not wanting to touch them with a 9' pole

All I can say is watch the marketplace; someone someday's gotta sell one
it's just not something most people look to buy or sell so listings get rare
even if the doll is normally cheap

i SO wish there was a "notify me when this item is listed" option on the MP.