Guild Wars 2

http://i.imgur.com/pZYXNxu.jpg

Why are items like this still in existence, not from a game design point of view- but from a human interaction point of view?

Who would hold on to a single tiara for 6 months only to sell it for 1 copper, while paying a 1 copper fee? And while I can imagine there being 1 guy out there doing this, I’ve bought over 500 of each item over the past 2 days for effectively 0 copper.

Giving time a value, the people selling to me are actually losing money. And why would you sell for 0c when you could just type in 2c and end up with 1c?

I’ve seen this in many markets, items that should realistically have no supply coming in, yet people are still selling in to buy orders that make no economic sense.

Other markets exist where supply should be zero, but buy orders are still being filled as if someone is magically getting the items from something, but this particular market is just the most absurd example.

I think many people don’t know they arn’t making any money. And some people might just want to clean up their bag.

A better question is why am I responding to such unimportant issue, and why are you posting about such an unimportant issue =)

I might be wrong, but I’m pretty certain that if you sell an item for 1 copper, the 1 copper listing fee and sales tax is actually waived. So they ARE getting 1 copper for the sale, and to some players, 1 copper is still better than nothing.

laokoko.7403:

I think many people don’t know they arn’t making any money. And some people might just want to clean up their bag.

A better question is why am I responding to such unimportant issue, and why are you posting about such an unimportant issue =)

Because it’s weird.

Why do people have 1, 2, 37 tiara’s sitting in their bank?

Why are they choosing now, 6 months later to cash in their items? What could they possibly be using that 67c on? Why are they selling it instead of just deleting it?

The item has never been low enough for them not to of lost 70% of their money, if they need the inventory space why not sell it for 6c, you’d atleast recoup some of your costs.

Do they need those 67c, or that 1c right now in order to purchase something else?

Why are there so many of these people? I’ve gotten over 250 of each. That’s around 70 people all in this very unique position.

Is working this out somehow less important than the 50th nidjit complaining that the gem price is too high, or about how ANet not allowing hyperinflation is a ruse to force people to buy gems, or how ANet not doing something about inflation is a trick to force people to buy gems?

One of my friends would always sell stuff to people on the trading post even if it matched the vendor price because he thought it was better to give it to another player rather than just vendor it or destroy it. I am sure there are other players who feel the same.

Considering I have tiaras, dresses and the other item from last year in my bank collecting dust, I would say, yes, people just have them sitting around.

My guess is that people are just realizing they have it and are getting rid of it because April is coming and hopefully the next SAB.

And then some save stuff in hopes it will come back in a later update.

• 10c – Item Vendor Value
• 11c – Buy order for item
• 1c – Listing Fee
• 1c – Sales Fee
• 10c – Displayed Projected Profit (does not include listing fee)
• 9c – Actual coin gained from selling the item

Result: 1c loss on the sale.

The point is, Projected Profit does not include the Listing Fee, only sell price minus 5% sales fee. In the above example you are actually paying 1c to get rid of the item instead of vending it. Scale these values higher and the loss is even greater.

Before listing an item, be sure to manually subtract the Listing Fee from the Projected Profit to find out the real amount of coin you’ll get from the entire transaction.

• Sell If:
  Projected Profit – Listing Fee = Higher than Vendor Value

• Vend If:
  Projected Profit – Listing Fee = At or below Vendor Value

This is if you have no interest in salvaging for Luck or Materials.

Some people might not care about the copper.

Usually in other games I often just sold something (basically for free) with the idea, well if someone can use it – good for him.

The general notion here seems to be different, I wonder if the game design nurtures this behaviour.

Risingashes.8694:

Giving time a value, the people selling to me are actually losing money. And why would you sell for 0c when you could just type in 2c and end up with 1c?

selling for 2c will actually net you 0 income. at least for low number of items each.
2c x 0.05 = rounds to 1c listing fee
2c x 0.1 = rounds to 1c tax when item sells
so it costs you 1c to list, and you get back 1c.

if they sell 250 at a time, however:
2c x 250 × 0.05 = 25c listing fee
2c x 0.1 = 1c tax each x 250 = 250c sales tax
you get back 250c, but it only cost you 25c = 225c profit (would be more if people buy in groups larger than 1 each)

A few months ago I was buying a Leeks off the TP for 1-6c each (a couple dozen a day), then selling to a merchant for 7c each. couldn’t place buy orders for under 8c, but people could list them for under that for some reason. Was more of a funny bug than profitable (pretty sure they fixed this – or at least Leeks stopped being so cheap).

explanation:
people get in the habit of just selling everything, not even taking the time to notice that they are making less money. In all honesty, that’s not a bad strategy – I do similar when flipping.
think about it this way: the more time you spend thinking about if something should be posted, the less time you spend champ farming, for example. So someone spends 1 second per item and doesn’t think about maximizing their profit vs. someone spending 3 seconds per item to compare to merchant value and be sure they are getting the most copper. after 100 items, that’s 100 seconds vs. 300 seconds, and the 300 second person will have saved maybe 30c. that’s 3 minutes to save 30c. that extrapolates to 5s40c per hour. meanwhile, the 100 seconds person has farmed 5g in that hour.

For as long as I’ve been playing the game, this sort of thing has been a pet peeve for me… there are thousands of units of multiple items selling for 1c above vendor price, even if they do someday sell it’s a loss vs. vendoring them. But math requires thought, and a lot of players automatically match the lowest price or sell to the highest bid even if it means they lose money doing it, because they can’t be bothered to spend five seconds thinking about it.

Myself, if the lowest price will be a loss vs. vendor price (115% or less of vendor) then I salvage or vendor the item, and if I can’t do either when I get a stack of worthless items like princess tiaras I list them at like 10c each or something. It costs less than a silver to do this so I don’t miss the listing fees, it gets them out of my bank and if they ever do sell, hey, pennies eventually add up to dollars.

1g x 1.15 = 1g15s
1g15s x 0.85 = 97s75c
so if you sell for 15% above vendor price, you’re selling at a loss
that darn math!
the number you’re looking for is 117.647% or less of vendor price (100 / 0.85)

That’s why I use a 20% markup as a rule of thumb. It’s easy to do in your head and has a tiny profit of 2%.