Guild Wars 2

Instead of a system where I am inclined to list things at even a vendor price for other players. I am faced with a system that discourages me from putting up decent leveling gear somewhere anyone who could actually need it could get it.

Heck I’m not even looking for a profit on the TP anymore, I’d be happy getting vendor value for this trash and knowing it was going to a player who could use it.

Dogan
The guy whose account has no heavy armor users.

If there are more supply and demand, rest assured that the guy who needs it is going to get it at the cheapest possible price. If you are really that altruistic, just post it in chat to give it away.

No one ever trade for zero profit…trading will always be a zero sum PVP game. Is this post really to demonstrate/encourage altruist behavior or just another looking for excuses for not able to withstand competition in the market?

Zero-sum is an obviously inaccurate description. Strictly in terms of money/item value, the TP is negative-sum, not zero-sum, due to the 15% tax.

However, in terms of utility, which is the more important measure to either player, both players can benefit from a trade – a player can get rid of an item which is useless to them and obtain money, which is not, while the other player may in fact benefit from having that item. Indeed, if it is not the case that both players benefit from the trade in some way, the trade shouldn’t occur in the first place. Granted, in the real world, and perhaps even more so in GW2, such trades are often the result of irrationality, a mistake, or lack of knowledge on the part of one participant.

But most player thinks that selling at vendor -15% is a lost, not a profit.

Dogahn.8265:

I am faced with a system that discourages me from putting up decent leveling gear somewhere anyone who could actually need it could get it.

Heck I’m not even looking for a profit on the TP anymore, I’d be happy getting vendor value for this trash and knowing it was going to a player who could use it.

The reason the TP doesn’t allow you to help players in need of your armor while making a profit, is that a bunch of (mathematically challenged?) individuals are (unknowingly?) taking a loss to help the players in need of armor.

It’s a shame that crafting is not profitable, but the current state of the TP very much allows players in need of gear to get it at a decent price.

As a note, there are two valid reasons in addition to being mathematically challenged that someone might list things at vendor+1 and “lose” money;

1. They are lazy/impatient, and happy to dump everything on the TP from wherever it dropped and not have to run to a vendor. Particularly if they just got a Bag Full message mid instance, and they already dumped their collectables. With 2 million players, that probably happens to hundreds every minute.

2. They value XPs or learning a crafting skill higher than money, and after they make a Widget of X, toss it up there to get rid of it.

Both of these rationales are, in fact, reasonable for a game where you don’t actually need money much, even for the best gear.

Seems my point has sailed over the heads of the audience here.

I don’t care about profit… as in I’m not looking to win vs other players here. I just look at my good but unusable to me vendor trash as something another player could actually use while leveling. If I can sell it for a silver to a vendor; then why won’t anyone buy it for a silver and fifteen copper from the TP? Any actual profit I make is based on the fact that it dropped for me. Can players buy these items cheaper than a Vender selling them?

Dogan
Perhaps I am just looking at the trading post all wrong.

I think what you’re missing is that there are 1000+ copies of almost any piece of armor available on the TP for vendor + 1c. The market is completely flooded with with equipment being sold at a loss. You can join all the others in selling your drops at a loss, but there’s no way you can make a profit, or even break even.

Dogahn.8265:

I don’t care about profit… as in I’m not looking to win vs other players here.

If you don’t care about profit why not sell for a small loss on the TP? You get the drops for free basically, so any money is good. I don’t understand your question/problem.

Dogahn.8265:

Can players buy these items cheaper than a Vender selling them?

No, but they can buy them for vendor+1c from hundreds of other sellers. Why would they buy from you for vendor+18% (the price you’d need to charge to get the same value as vendor price, approximately), when they can buy the same thing for vendor+1% or so?

The only way that the price is going to get driven back up is by removing the surplus from the economy. If you are going to make more value by selling to a vendor (or salvaging it), do so. If people wanted your item they would have purchased one of the underpriced ones. It therefore is rather clear that there isn’t actually a demand for your item. Just get it out of circulation, it will drop for sombody else…

Removing the surplus won’t necessarily increase the price. If the demand is so low, removing surplus won’t change anything at all. Also, changes in surplus only affects the supply stock of the item, not the supply rate. That will only lead to at best a price increase for a short term before price moves to near/around equilibrium again. If you want the price of an item to be higher in the long run, the demand/supply rate needs to change…not the supply stock.

meloncash.6798:

Dogahn.8265:

I don’t care about profit… as in I’m not looking to win vs other players here.

If you don’t care about profit why not sell for a small loss on the TP? You get the drops for free basically, so any money is good. I don’t understand your question/problem.

True. I think my problem is the golden rule thing you know, treat others how you’d like to be treated. I buy things off the market at Vendor + 20% so apparently I’m doing it wrong on that end too.

Dogan
Stop placing orders below vendor people, its impossible to fill