Alanix
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Posted - 2006.03.11 16:34:00 -
[2]
 Quote:
As to the guy who says he will buy all ships below the market average; well if i had a print I would make 24/7 and put em on the market for 200 mill and sell em all to you.
I mean no offense, but that shows a very poor grasp of economics. What is happening is not "price fixing"; what is happening is the interaction of supply and demand. Consider this:
The very first hulk builders were putting them up for sale at 300m each on the sell orders forum. Within DAYS they had 3-4 MONTHS worth of backorders. Now if in a few days, you sell several months worth of product, what does that tell you? This happens IRL too and there is nothing illegal about it. If Ford makes a new car and puts 100,000 units on the market at $10,000 each, and in two WEEKS all 100,000 are sold, Ford is going to raise the price to a point where supply can keep up with demand. It should take about a week to sell a week's worth of production--if it takes a few hours, that means your price is far too low. That's what caused the gas lines in the '70s...a week's worth of production/imports were selling out in a few hours, due to the price ceiling (sellers were not permitted to raise the price to seek the proper price point between supply and demand).
I'll give you an example from my life. My grandfather is an excellent contracter, and right now is scheduling jobs about TWO MONTHS in the future. That's right, if you want a drainage system put in, your foundation leveled, etc., it will take him two months to get to you. He has THAT many customers, and it is constantly stressing him out. I told him to increase his profits by 20% and he'll reduce the backlog from two months to two weeks AND increase his profits.
One final example: go into any American town and set up a barber shop, and charge the same price as the barber who has been in town for 40 years. You think you'll get any customers?--if you've ever been in a barber shop, you know that people are incredibly loyal to their own barber. But, I guarantee that if you undercut his price by 30%, you'll undercut some of that loyalty and start getting customers.
My point is simply this: in economics, the supply curve an demand curve meet to form a price point. If you put a week's worth of merchandise on the market and sell out in five minutes, that tells any intelligent businessman that he is charging too little for an insanely popular product. He will change the price accordingly. You would be incredibly profitable selling your ships at 200m each, but in the course of a year the other producers, who cater to the open market (WITHOUT price fixing) would make almost triple your profits. If that's what you want, so be it. But businesses, in game and IRL, are out to make money, and to make as much of it as they can without extortion or cheating. I do not consider catering to demand on the same level as extortion or cheating.
I do not own a Hulk blueprint and do not sell Hulks or any other ship. But as a soon-to-be MBA student IRL, I just wanted to comment on the economics of the situation.
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