Matthew
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Posted - 2005.10.28 10:35:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: Fire Hawk
I saw another problem recently but it may be an old one. For HAC's, when someone put it at a fair price, immedialtly someone buy it and resell it at 130Mil. How can the prise drop ? So market is pretty ****** at this level for me, and waiting lists on good sellers are so long. That bring me to second Tahira's post and suggest more BPO's to drop.
This all happens because of the supply-demand situation, it is in no way a flaw of the market system. The problem is that there are more people wanting HAC's than there are HAC's avaliable, so there has to be some mechanism to determine who gets them, and who doesn't. The market does this by increasing the price, so that those that want it most (i.e. are willing to make the biggest sacrifice to get one) will get the limited supply. The alternative to this are the waiting lists for the "good" sellers, which turns it into a first-come first-served system. Personally, I feel the market's increased price solution is fairer solution, and more in keeping with the competitive nature of Eve.
People really need to get out of this concept of a "fair price". The only fair price is what someone is willing to pay for it. Mineral cost +X% is only an indication of a minimum viable price. If enough people are willing to pay 10 times that, then 10 times mineral cost is a fair price. Producing and selling stuff is not a public service.
The only thing that will make T2 prices drop without generating waiting lists is an additional release of T2 BPs. That argument then goes down the route of whether the current price for the item is bad for game balance. It does not indicate that the market or production system is broken, nor does it indicate that the producers are gougers or rigging the market.
Another thing about these "good" producers selling at lower rates (with the associated waiting lists). They actually make the free market price worse than it would otherwise be. To see that, lets start with some basic principles. Lots of people want to buy a HAC at 60mill. Even more would want one if they were 40mill. Not very many want to pay 100mill for one. Therefore, the market increases price until the number of people still willing to buy one equals the number being supplied.
Now, lets consider that we actually have 2 market segments, the free market, and the "good" producers artificially low priced supply. Lets say that the total world supply is 1000, and the "good" producer makes up 200 of that. Also, lets say there are only 1000 people who want a HAC at a price of 100mill, but a total of 2000 who want a HAC at 60mill (note this second 1000 will include the first 1000, as if they're willing to pay 100mill, they'll happily pay 60mill).
Now, if the total world supply is put through the free market, the price stabilises at 100mill.
But what happens in the segmented case? First, we put through the "good" producer's supply. They supply 200 units to the group who will pay 60mill or more. There's 10 people wanting every 1 unit, so there will be waiting lists and some won't get through the wait. Assuming random distribution between the population, 100 of these will go to people who were willing to pay 100mill, 100 will go to people who weren't. Which leaves a remaining supply of 800 going to the 900 remaining people willing to pay 100mill. There are now more people wanting one through the market than there is supply, so prices will have to increase above 100mill until only 800 people still want one.
The numbers in the example are arbtrary, but the point works for pretty much any combination of numbers you care to try in there.
So not only has the "good" producers low price meant the producer cheating himself out of profit, it has also caused a higher price to be charged on the general market.
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