Welcome to Gaia! ::

Duuuddee, we need to create a list of "YKYRIGW..." I know of a bunch that could go on that list!

There's allready a list actually, it came out during the time Aerion made everyone naked.

You know you're too addicted when...

:3 *is guilty for all of them except the undies/boxers one*

It scares me as to how many of those I'm guilty of... eek

I've never heard of obo..
what's it mean??

Gah! Now you've done it!
I've crossed the line into hopeless addiction!

*runs into the Exchange and starts buying massive quantities of Jolly Slippers*
domokun

ahhhh Thats what I figured sweatdrop
Heh, strangely enough I use the marketplace more often now... But only for store items...
Which is usually what I'm after [*pokes sig* I keep forgetting to update this damn thing]

As Aqua already stated, this issue is old as sin. I considered it before becoming involved in the GEN back in October, and MethinX wrote an essay on it sometime in November or December. Not to mention the less polite people who filled hundreds of pages with arguing.

To the point, though. The conclusion I reached - even when GEN was the sole guide - was that yes, a price guide does control the Exchange. People will be unwilling to sell for less than the upper range of an item, and buyers will be unwilling to pay more, thus setting the price ranges as absolute and causing the prices to rise/lower at a far slower rate than they otherwise could - or even stay fixed for eternity. This is due to the mere existance of a price range irrespective of whether it is found in a guide or a rulebook, no matter how much you scream that they are not absolute.
Some would argue by bringing out examples of items which rose to dazzling heights seemingly overnight, but the truth about this is that they were either flukes, or simply the result of a demand putting pressure on a smaller-than-expected supply until it snapped, and are not viable arguments.
The price guides choke up the exchange, counterworking change and forcing the hands of both buyers and sellers until all stand on the edge of ruination. Or so the extremists would say...

All of the above is true, and it is not hard to realize this. The difficulty instead comes in the next step, realizing that this is in fact neccessary. It is neccessary to create a trading climate even enough for people to use.
Some argue that "We did without guides before, why couldn't we now?" which would be an argument with considerable impact if one did not take into account the activity change. The Exchange worked flawlessly without guides when the amount of exchangers could be counted in scores, rather than thousands.
The guideless climate means that every sale or purchase is a fluke, only barely regulated by sellbacks. The only winners would be the few capable of keeping track of the Exchange and recognizing the probability-range that items sell around - something near-impossible with the size of today's Gaia. The losers would be everyone else who dares poke their nose into the business of trading. Trading in the Exchange would be a matter of luck rather than numbers and breaking into it would take tremendous effort, capital and psyche.
The guides do control the Exchange. But the control is not malignant. It is stabilizing, acting like the control rods in a fission processor. It is thanks to this people dare trade in the Exchange. [/rant]

*applauds Laz*

I love your rants heart

As for the Marketplace, I have had little experiance there with uncommons/rares/donation items, as I primarily purchase/sell store items.

But in regards to store items the Marketplace has an economy all it's own. Strange, but true.

* I put up a pair of Violent Mink Pants which have a store price of 400gold. I listed them at 390. I wasn't in a hurry to sell and thought I would try to get as much as possible(I'm poor in the solid gold department =-) I did a search and discovered only one other person was selling this item and she was selling hers for 450 gold...50 gold above the store price.
A few minuets later I get a PM saying that my pants have sold. I glance at the buyer and recognize it as the same user who was selling the other pair of pants.
Out of curiosity I go back to the Marketplace and do a search...and low and behold she is selling one pair for 450 and now a second pair(assumingly the ones she just bought from me) for 425 0_o
It was worth it to waste 390gold on an item she was already selling to erase the immediate competition and hope to make 35gold.

Wether these sold or not, I do not know, but it seemed an interesting observation at the time.

* One time I decided to buy some headwraps...they are only 100gold each at the hat shop and I decided I might as well buy all 3 colors because I liked the one I was wearing at the time(the blue one).
Being a thrifty Gaian I went over to the Marketplace and looked them up to see if I could get a deal.
Surprisingly, I found about 2 pages worth of them in all colors, most with buy it now prices of 500-1000gold.
What was strange was the fact that most of the headbands had been bid up to 300+gold...when they have a store price of 100 0_o
Curious, I bought one of each color and put them for sale: starting bid 100gold(the store price) and buy it now price of 500gold. I set the auctions to go for 14 days and let it run.
2 hours later I had bids of 125+ on all 3 headwraps.
4 days later I had sold all 3 of them at the buy it now price of 500gold a piece - that's 400gold above the store price.
0_o
Despite the fact that each of these items was available in the hat shop and despite the fact it said right in the item description that the store price was 100gold, 3 different users paid 500gold a piece for common, cheap store items.

This particular trend *points up* is one I see often when I go digging through the Marketplace. While headwraps are no longer hot, there are other store items that I see continually getting bids that are more than the store price.

I could make a ton of theories and hypothisize about the why of such trends, but I'm afraid it really just comes down to users not paying close enough attention(and, consequently, wasting gold).

Apoligies for any typos/spelling errors/grammer/mistakes-in-general. wink