Fluitare
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- Posted: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 23:36:37 +0000
Introduction
Let's start with a disclaimer: I'm not an alchemist, so I'm not approaching it from that angle. Rather, I'm a vendor, wondering how I can profit from this trade and the sudden explosion of Philsopher's Cache.
For a tangent on the ethical implication of what I do, clicky on the spoiler.
Oh, hello. This is where I justify what I do as actually necessary, rather than greedy and amoral. Congratulations for being a morally responsible enough person to read it.
Let's use one particular Cache item as an example. Garnet Caches go for about 4k, and one of their components (read the Garnet section if you want to see which) goes for, on average, about 50k. Why is this?
It's actually a mixture of failure of information and laziness. One type of person sees Cherub Feathers, which are tagged with the keywords "philosophers" and "cache" but not "garnet", and doesn't know which cache they come from, and thus buys them on the Marketplace anyway. The other type is the sort of alchemist who has money to burn and wants what he wants when he wants it. He might not even notice the tags, and just buys whatever his formula dictates.
So what am I doing?
I have both the information and the willingness to work. I'm correcting the 46k imbalance, at least in part, by opening Garnets and selling components. This raises the price of Garnets and lowers the price of the component. If many people did this, the price of Garnet Caches would rise to the "appropriate" level (my guess is the 25-30k range), and the price of components would drop to the "appropriate" in much the same way that this month's Monthly Collectible Letters are about the same price as the Collectibles themselves.
In essence, I'm leveling the playing field. I make it more profitable for people who gets Garnet Caches, and cheaper for people who need components. Without such vendors, Garnets would be even lower (1-3k, probably), and that particular component would be even more expensive (probably 70-90k), further widening the gap between the rich alchemists and the poor. Instead of that, my work gives more the the sellers and takes less from the buyers.
That seems reasonably ethical to me.
Let's use one particular Cache item as an example. Garnet Caches go for about 4k, and one of their components (read the Garnet section if you want to see which) goes for, on average, about 50k. Why is this?
It's actually a mixture of failure of information and laziness. One type of person sees Cherub Feathers, which are tagged with the keywords "philosophers" and "cache" but not "garnet", and doesn't know which cache they come from, and thus buys them on the Marketplace anyway. The other type is the sort of alchemist who has money to burn and wants what he wants when he wants it. He might not even notice the tags, and just buys whatever his formula dictates.
So what am I doing?
I have both the information and the willingness to work. I'm correcting the 46k imbalance, at least in part, by opening Garnets and selling components. This raises the price of Garnets and lowers the price of the component. If many people did this, the price of Garnet Caches would rise to the "appropriate" level (my guess is the 25-30k range), and the price of components would drop to the "appropriate" in much the same way that this month's Monthly Collectible Letters are about the same price as the Collectibles themselves.
In essence, I'm leveling the playing field. I make it more profitable for people who gets Garnet Caches, and cheaper for people who need components. Without such vendors, Garnets would be even lower (1-3k, probably), and that particular component would be even more expensive (probably 70-90k), further widening the gap between the rich alchemists and the poor. Instead of that, my work gives more the the sellers and takes less from the buyers.
That seems reasonably ethical to me.
Essentially, the Marketplace is having an imbalance of information. Some people know how much a given Cache can be bought and sold for and the likelihood of getting one from a basic Philosopher's Cache. Some people know how much a component costs, but not that it come from a Cache or what kind of Cache. And some people know what is in a given Cache and what kind of price you can expect for a component.
For a tangent on the economic reasons for this, clicky on the spoiler.
Because Caches have no inherent value (they're only useful for the components) and components have no inherent supply (most of them must come from a Cache; a few are gold-shop items in the Bifrost, but that's not important), the price for Caches are too low and the prices for components are too high. People with Caches sell them too cheaply, because their actual value (the value of the components) is too far removed, because they don't bother to know the types and values of the components. People who want to buy components pay too much, because they don't know the supply. As a result, the supply (the actual opened Caches) is restricted more than it should be, which drives the price of the Caches down and the price of the items up.
Because many seller of Caches don't know to open them and sell them as components, and many alchemists and buyers of components don't know to purchase Caches and open them themselves, there are a great deal of wasted, unopened Caches floating around, undervalued.
This waste is your opportunity to make a profit.
The various Caches and their components up through Diamond are listed below in approximate order of price (Platinum and Gold are expensive enough that I have not personally played with them. I may add them in later.)
