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WhiteWhiskey
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Posted - 2010.08.18 19:47:00 -
[1]
I am just curious if anyone has ever heard of "price fixing" going on in eve? It does seem plausible and since there are no regulating bodies, who's to stop any major corps?
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Utemetsu
Caldari
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Posted - 2010.08.18 19:51:00 -
[2]
 Originally by: WhiteWhiskey
I am just curious if anyone has ever heard of "price fixing" going on in eve? It does seem plausible and since there are no regulating bodies, who's to stop any major corps?
That would require all suppliers of any given item to form a cartel and set a price. The nature of the players, and their unwillingness to do so, is preventative enough.
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WhiteWhiskey
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Posted - 2010.08.18 19:59:00 -
[3]
That is true..but it happens in the real world. Yes, it does seem unlikely, but possible.
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Quazal Atreides
Gallente
Red Ram Foundry
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Posted - 2010.08.18 20:04:00 -
[4]
i have heard of indivdual traders coming to agreement over pricing of 1 or 2 items in an area.
some times more a case of one trader has cheapest order for 12hours, trader 2 then has other 12hours
although not a price fixing it is an agreement to remove competition etc.
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Bernard Schuyler
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Posted - 2010.08.18 20:04:00 -
[5]
Originally by: WhiteWhiskey
That is true..but it happens in the real world. Yes, it does seem unlikely, but possible.
The "real world" has a much higher barrier of entry. In Eve anyone, no matter how clueless, can dabble in any part of Eve.
Anyone can do basic mining or PI with little time or isk investment, etc.
Pick any product in Eve that you'd like to form a cartel around. Now, imagine how are you going to contact all the people who can dabble in that and communicate an agreement?
Also, as you stated, real world controls don't come into play, and that cuts both ways...
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RaWBLooD
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Posted - 2010.08.18 20:05:00 -
[6]
Originally by: WhiteWhiskey
That is true..but it happens in the real world. Yes, it does seem unlikely, but possible.
Even in the real world, this only happens where artificial limits are placed by regulations and other mandates, that is why big corporations lobby for these types of limits.
miners-you can: switch, rob, wardec, nerf, scam them, buy below market, pirate them on their way to sell. mining < trading, ratting, manufacturing from market bought minerals,they still wont go away |
egola
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Posted - 2010.08.18 20:21:00 -
[7]
well there are a few items that are particularly easy to control the market of. Contracts for example, /points at a certain Seller/MD'er's CNR control, we all know who it is.
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israus
Minmatar
Wildly Inappropriate.
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Posted - 2010.08.18 20:51:00 -
[8]
go look at one of the info sights about the history of Miner 2's when they first came out the price for them was fixed for years buy the small number of people who had bpo's for them.
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Thoraemond
Minmatar
Far Ranger
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Posted - 2010.08.19 00:26:00 -
[9]
A long time ago, as a small fry, I participated in a loosely organized price fixing cartel with several other pilots (with whom I had no other contact than a few evemails) to set the price of Phased Plasma S in Heimatar at 15 ISK apiece. Success was mixed (Screenshot of market graph from 2005), but it was definitely fun.
Originally by: israus
go look at one of the info sights about the history of Miner 2's when they first came out the price for them was fixed for years buy the small number of people who had bpo's for them.
Many felt enslaved by the prices of Cap Recharger IIs for a long time, as well.
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Tekota
legion industries ltd
Veni Vidi Vici Alliance
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Posted - 2010.08.19 02:11:00 -
[10]
Edited by: Tekota on 19/08/2010 02:11:46
I've no doubt there are plenty of attempts on one scale or another. Long term few if any are going to be particularly succesful for reasons already outlined, although short term price manipulations ran with the tacit knowledge and cooperation of seperate parties are likely to be more succesful.
As for evidence of it going on - http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1338217&page=3#84
Originally by: cosmoray
There has also been some agreement between some large high sec industrial corps (who own and run large T2 BPO networks) about what they will produce (or more importantly what they won't produce) in PI, and that everything made will be for in house use and not get to market. This is a large experienced group of industrialists.
It has one target keep POS fuels low and not sell commodities used in BPO production.
I couldn't say whether or not the particular cartel implied there is either real or having a significant effect on market pricing and supply however.
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Mr Kidd
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Posted - 2010.08.19 16:59:00 -
[11]
Edited by: Mr Kidd on 19/08/2010 16:59:32
The only cartel of price fixers in this game with any efficacy are the dev team.
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Whitehound
The Whitehound Corporation
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Posted - 2010.08.20 16:47:00 -
[12]
Edited by: Whitehound on 20/08/2010 16:49:43
Yes, there is price fixing - and I love it when people are trying to fix prices.
When I see someone buying my stuff only to sell it for a higher price at the same station (and the same amount), only to have it set to his price, with all his sell orders having a similar modification time (another indicator for price fixing), then you can have some good fun:
I then fly around and find more of the item, for a price less than the price-fixer's value, and start spamming him with the cheaper stuff. I set the seller orders up so that they all beat his sell orders. The greed makes the price-fixer vulnerable and he starts buying it again, and again, and again, to gain control over his fixed price.
Once did I buy items from 3 different regions, and the price-fixer kept buying them whenever I set them up below his sell orders, until I had raised the average price of the items in those regions by almost 40%. Then I told some friends about it and they start producing them just in case I needed more (...). I was trying to sell Piranha Light Missiles for 5.50 ISK while the price-fixer was trying to fix them at 7.99 ISK. He bought more than 10-15 million of them in the end as far as I can remember before he gave up. He then moved on to other missile types, but did not buy as many to make it fun.
So yes, price fixing exists, it is just risky if someone finds out about it and can beat your price. You end up getting stuck with a load of items you just cannot get rid off without making a loss.
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rain9441
Big Head Want Dolly
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Posted - 2010.08.20 16:58:00 -
[13]
You have to be able to lock down the items to price fix. Just about every item has alternative means of being produced.
Now there are some items that are candidates for being price fixed. If all the corps who owned a certain rare moon mineral decided to fix prices there isn't a whole lot anyone could do about it except not buy the item.
But since price fixing requires collusion, they are all under the side effect of collusion which is "one party may not collude".
Try price fixing a rare moon mineral for a month by quadrupling the price. After a month, it will be awfully tempting to just fill up the buy orders that have accumulated at a higher price and destroy the artificially inflated price overnight.
And there is always the basic supply vs demand economic principle. If 5 corps collude on item X and sell only for 5x the normal value, there may be less buyers and in turn less profits to be made.
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