Guild Wars 2

As you can see, someone bought 2.5 million thick leather sections in less than 2 hours. Any ideas?

Probably more speculation rather than manipulating.

I’m building something super secret in my guild hall with it all.... shhhh

thats not price manipulation, its just like any market investment.

someone saw that there was about 50k or 500k i don’t remember leathers at like 1.55s. thats the last “price wall” next closest is like 5k selling at 5s, then the supply really drops and prices go up quick.

so someone saw this opportunity, spent the up front golds, and is preparing for the prices to go up to 5s and beyond. then they’ll start putting them back on the market at the prices that are more appropriate for how much leather everyone is buying these days.

they will likely be rewarded for their investment.

Yes- its because I bet someone knows what is coming for the legendary armor…

I can take a few guesses:
250 Deldrimor, 250 Elonian, 250 Damask, 250 Xunlai Electrum Ingot (any of these 3) + 250 legendary insights.

… This is then put in the mystic forge to give you a random armor piece.
Should keep us playing for a bit longer.

Unless I’m reading the chart wrong, the ‘manipulation’ failed spectacularly.

Obtena.7952:

Unless I’m reading the chart wrong, the ‘manipulation’ failed spectacularly.

The chart is from here, you can check it:

https://www.gw2bltc.com/en/item/19729-Thick-Leather-Section

Milkshake.4038:

Obtena.7952:

Unless I’m reading the chart wrong, the ‘manipulation’ failed spectacularly.

The chart is from here, you can check it:

https://www.gw2bltc.com/en/item/19729-Thick-Leather-Section

Chart just showed that if it was a manipulation attempt, it failed.

Milkshake.4038:

As you can see, someone bought 2.5 million thick leather sections in less than 2 hours. Any ideas?

Someone? Or some people? Why does it have to be sinister? I’ve definitely purchased in bulk when I see supply for something go below a certain threshhold, when I see an ANet employee post about an upcoming change, when I start running short on something (and realize it’s because the sources are less than my demand), and so on. Yet another possibility is that people are finding they are running out of leather and taking their listings down (something else I’ve done more than once).

Periodically, markets move “suddenly” because a lot of people come to the same realizations at roughly the same time. That movement itself inspires (or fears others) into action.

tl;dr a drop in supply (suddenly or otherwise) by itself doesn’t mean manipulation by a single person or even a consortium

Jaxom.7310:

thats not price manipulation, its just like any market investment.

someone saw that there was about 50k or 500k i don’t remember leathers at like 1.55s. thats the last “price wall” next closest is like 5k selling at 5s, then the supply really drops and prices go up quick.

so someone saw this opportunity, spent the up front golds, and is preparing for the prices to go up to 5s and beyond. then they’ll start putting them back on the market at the prices that are more appropriate for how much leather everyone is buying these days.

they will likely be rewarded for their investment.

It is a really risky investment, putting 50k gold into 1 item. My biggest problem with this speculation is that people have stacks of thick leather in their banks, and it is really easy to farm them. But who knows?

The only thing concerning is that there are people who can afford buying 2 million

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Someone? Or some people? Why does it have to be sinister? I’ve definitely purchased in bulk when I see supply for something go below a certain threshhold, when I see an ANet employee post about an upcoming change, when I start running short on something (and realize it’s because the sources are less than my demand), and so on. Yet another possibility is that people are finding they are running out of leather and taking their listings down (something else I’ve done more than once).

Periodically, markets move “suddenly” because a lot of people come to the same realizations at roughly the same time. That movement itself inspires (or fears others) into action.

tl;dr a drop in supply (suddenly or otherwise) by itself doesn’t mean manipulation by a single person or even a consortium

This is why I asked a question, because I don’t know why this happened. 90% of the supply has gone in 2 hours, from 2.8 million to 300k. It is a record low supply in the past 3 years.

I doubt that a lot of people are checking thick leather price and supply 24/7. Most of these stacks were on the tp for months or even years, because price was lower than 1.9s before this.

Milkshake.4038:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Someone? Or some people? Why does it have to be sinister? I’ve definitely purchased in bulk when I see supply for something go below a certain threshhold, when I see an ANet employee post about an upcoming change, when I start running short on something (and realize it’s because the sources are less than my demand), and so on. Yet another possibility is that people are finding they are running out of leather and taking their listings down (something else I’ve done more than once).

Periodically, markets move “suddenly” because a lot of people come to the same realizations at roughly the same time. That movement itself inspires (or fears others) into action.

tl;dr a drop in supply (suddenly or otherwise) by itself doesn’t mean manipulation by a single person or even a consortium

This is why I asked a question, because I don’t know why this happened. 90% of the supply has gone in 2 hours, from 2.8 million to 300k. It is a record low supply in the past 3 years.

I doubt that a lot of people are checking thick leather price and supply 24/7. Most of these stacks were on the tp for months or even years, because price was lower than 1.9s before this.

Your question implies an answer. The neutral question would have been “why did the supply of thick leather suddenly drop?”

Of course there’s a lower supply on the TP now than ever before: no one ever wanted a ton of rangers, engineers, or thieves in their dungeon parties nor much in fractals or WvW. Now, with raids (and new builds), there’s actual requests for condineers & druids. The supply sources for leather are just as limited as they are for cloth, but the requirements are lower, so it just took longer for leather to reach an equilibrium similar to that for cloth.

tl;dr The question should always first be: what market forces caused this? Manipulation only needs to be discussed if there’s no other reasonable explanation.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Milkshake.4038:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Someone? Or some people? Why does it have to be sinister? I’ve definitely purchased in bulk when I see supply for something go below a certain threshhold, when I see an ANet employee post about an upcoming change, when I start running short on something (and realize it’s because the sources are less than my demand), and so on. Yet another possibility is that people are finding they are running out of leather and taking their listings down (something else I’ve done more than once).

Periodically, markets move “suddenly” because a lot of people come to the same realizations at roughly the same time. That movement itself inspires (or fears others) into action.

tl;dr a drop in supply (suddenly or otherwise) by itself doesn’t mean manipulation by a single person or even a consortium

This is why I asked a question, because I don’t know why this happened. 90% of the supply has gone in 2 hours, from 2.8 million to 300k. It is a record low supply in the past 3 years.

I doubt that a lot of people are checking thick leather price and supply 24/7. Most of these stacks were on the tp for months or even years, because price was lower than 1.9s before this.

Your question implies an answer. The neutral question would have been “why did the supply of thick leather suddenly drop?”

Of course there’s a lower supply on the TP now than ever before: no one ever wanted a ton of rangers, engineers, or thieves in their dungeon parties nor much in fractals or WvW. Now, with raids (and new builds), there’s actual requests for condineers & druids. The supply sources for leather are just as limited as they are for cloth, but the requirements are lower, so it just took longer for leather to reach an equilibrium similar to that for cloth.

tl;dr The question should always first be: what market forces caused this? Manipulation only needs to be discussed if there’s no other reasonable explanation.

Did you just try to rationalize this blatant manipulation by saying it’s equilibrium ?

I’m sorry but 2.5million leathers or ~55,000g over the course of 2hrs is not the market reaching an equilibrium. That would require far more time than 2hrs and lets consider the following, those classes wanting or needing said gear hasn’t changed in the 5 months HoT’s been out. This rules out the entire premise of “Equilibrium” as the market was already at said equilibrium prior to said shock.

Blatant manipulation? Care to explain how it’s manipulation? How does the manipulator benefit from this?

Ayrilana.1396:

Blatant manipulation? Care to explain how it’s manipulation? How does the manipulator benefit from this?

Removing well over 90% of the supply in under 2 hours is the most blatant form of market manipulation there possibly could be.

How do they benefit ?

Simple the market wait for the price to increase as the sudden shortage will create that to happen then slowly drip parts of the supply onto the market and overtime increase your profit.

I must be on some other planet right now if it’s not painfully clear that the market was manipulated.

TexZero.7910:

Ayrilana.1396:

Blatant manipulation? Care to explain how it’s manipulation? How does the manipulator benefit from this?

Removing well over 90% of the supply in under 2 hours is the most blatant form of market manipulation there possibly could be.

How do they benefit ?

Simple the market wait for the price to increase as the sudden shortage will create that to happen then slowly drip parts of the supply onto the market and overtime increase your profit.

I must be on some other planet right now if it’s not painfully clear that the market was manipulated.

That’s not manipulation. Buying supply in anticipation for something in the future to cause prices to rise is speculation.

Milkshake.4038:

Jaxom.7310:

thats not price manipulation, its just like any market investment.

someone saw that there was about 50k or 500k i don’t remember leathers at like 1.55s. thats the last “price wall” next closest is like 5k selling at 5s, then the supply really drops and prices go up quick.

so someone saw this opportunity, spent the up front golds, and is preparing for the prices to go up to 5s and beyond. then they’ll start putting them back on the market at the prices that are more appropriate for how much leather everyone is buying these days.

they will likely be rewarded for their investment.

It is a really risky investment, putting 50k gold into 1 item. My biggest problem with this speculation is that people have stacks of thick leather in their banks, and it is really easy to farm them. But who knows?

I had many stacks and I blew through them. I’m not sure what your comparison is but they are not easy to farm at all since there is no node for them.

Ayrilana.1396:

TexZero.7910:

Ayrilana.1396:

Blatant manipulation? Care to explain how it’s manipulation? How does the manipulator benefit from this?

Removing well over 90% of the supply in under 2 hours is the most blatant form of market manipulation there possibly could be.

How do they benefit ?

Simple the market wait for the price to increase as the sudden shortage will create that to happen then slowly drip parts of the supply onto the market and overtime increase your profit.

I must be on some other planet right now if it’s not painfully clear that the market was manipulated.

That’s not manipulation.

Okay so what do you call 90% of the market supply going away with no rational ?

Okay so it’s now speculation, wait hold on lets examine how speculation (flipping) is in part manipulation.

You create a false scarcity ….. manipulating the amount available. You then take your stock and slowly re-add it to the marketplace at a slight increase (flipping) or you hold onto it for a larger profit (speculating). It all starts with manipulating.

Done here.

TexZero.7910:

Ayrilana.1396:

TexZero.7910:

Ayrilana.1396:

Blatant manipulation? Care to explain how it’s manipulation? How does the manipulator benefit from this?

Removing well over 90% of the supply in under 2 hours is the most blatant form of market manipulation there possibly could be.

How do they benefit ?

Simple the market wait for the price to increase as the sudden shortage will create that to happen then slowly drip parts of the supply onto the market and overtime increase your profit.

I must be on some other planet right now if it’s not painfully clear that the market was manipulated.

That’s not manipulation.

Okay so what do you call 90% of the market supply going away with no rational ?

Speculation.

Oh you edited your post. What are prices at currently? What were they before? Does that person stand to make a profit?

Speculation and flipping are not the same.

If you really want to know the buying up spree started a few days ago.
It’s been consistent that supply is dropping.

There is also another factor :
PvP Legues !

Why?
The normal PVE routine of these players have moved into PvP which means less supply (as they are loosing many matches). Supply generated for mats will go down for a bit as people spend more time in PvP (lower fauchet rate).

It’s all about math.

Tell you a funny story…Oil was speculated at 150 USD/barrel that it would keep going up.
So tankers were held around the coast of major countries with full loads of oil.
They didn’t dock and were not allowed to until oil hit $150/barrel.

Many tankers are now offloading at $30/barrel- why?
Increased supply dynamics. Oil is now starting to reach its floor price.
I would now consider buying oil futures in real life IMO.

Now we have many players hoarding this material (leather) who can cash out whenever they want. I have made about 300-400G from the leather which I bought up a few years ago at 9c/piece. Listed many stacks at random prices just for giggles knowing it would never stay at the floor price forever.

I thank everyone who has bought my leather – I hope it brings you much happiness and clothes your body in the finest armour money can buy.

If it keeps going up – I will make even more money,
If. Leather looks like it hits a new lower floor price I’ll probably buy some more (eg 20copper) and speculate it will hit a much higher ceiling and just place random bets on what price it will hit.

TexZero.7910:

Ayrilana.1396:

TexZero.7910:

Ayrilana.1396:

Blatant manipulation? Care to explain how it’s manipulation? How does the manipulator benefit from this?

Removing well over 90% of the supply in under 2 hours is the most blatant form of market manipulation there possibly could be.

How do they benefit ?

Simple the market wait for the price to increase as the sudden shortage will create that to happen then slowly drip parts of the supply onto the market and overtime increase your profit.

I must be on some other planet right now if it’s not painfully clear that the market was manipulated.

That’s not manipulation.

Okay so what do you call 90% of the market supply going away with no rational ?

Okay so it’s now speculation, wait hold on lets examine how speculation (flipping) is in part manipulation.

You create a false scarcity ….. manipulating the amount available. You then take your stock and slowly re-add it to the marketplace at a slight increase (flipping) or you hold onto it for a larger profit (speculating). It all starts with manipulating.

Done here.

But it seems he only created scarcity for players who intended to buy more than the 300k leather sections that are available atm. For those that need less tha n300k leather per day, there still is enough supply to go around. So its no manipulation, just speculation.

I don’t even know the difference between manipulation or speculation.

It’s like saying aggressive investing is being smart or evil.

laokoko.7403:

I don’t even know the difference between manipulation or speculation.

It’s like saying aggressive investing is good or evil.

I guess manipulation is something players think shouldnt happen.

Is impossible to manipulate the GW2 market (through means of stopping supply, crewing patch notes which will increase demand etc): the players create supply and are not OPEC or another cartel which can just turn off the supply taps.

But it is possible to speculate on what the price will be – buy it lower sell higher etc.
Manipulation is not speculation. Speculation is not manipulation.

Malediktus.9250:

The only thing concerning is that there are people who can afford buying 2 million

I’m having trouble parsing this myself, but I am a chronic pauper so it all seems like voodoo

So what is 2 Million X 1s99 ?

Hint: 40K Gold

So it’s not that much.
there are some traders who make that amount monthly just from flipping.

TexZero.7910:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Milkshake.4038:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Someone? Or some people? Why does it have to be sinister? I’ve definitely purchased in bulk when I see supply for something go below a certain threshhold, when I see an ANet employee post about an upcoming change, when I start running short on something (and realize it’s because the sources are less than my demand), and so on. Yet another possibility is that people are finding they are running out of leather and taking their listings down (something else I’ve done more than once).

Periodically, markets move “suddenly” because a lot of people come to the same realizations at roughly the same time. That movement itself inspires (or fears others) into action.

tl;dr a drop in supply (suddenly or otherwise) by itself doesn’t mean manipulation by a single person or even a consortium

This is why I asked a question, because I don’t know why this happened. 90% of the supply has gone in 2 hours, from 2.8 million to 300k. It is a record low supply in the past 3 years.

I doubt that a lot of people are checking thick leather price and supply 24/7. Most of these stacks were on the tp for months or even years, because price was lower than 1.9s before this.

Your question implies an answer. The neutral question would have been “why did the supply of thick leather suddenly drop?”

Of course there’s a lower supply on the TP now than ever before: no one ever wanted a ton of rangers, engineers, or thieves in their dungeon parties nor much in fractals or WvW. Now, with raids (and new builds), there’s actual requests for condineers & druids. The supply sources for leather are just as limited as they are for cloth, but the requirements are lower, so it just took longer for leather to reach an equilibrium similar to that for cloth.

tl;dr The question should always first be: what market forces caused this? Manipulation only needs to be discussed if there’s no other reasonable explanation.

Did you just try to rationalize this blatant manipulation by saying it’s equilibrium ?

I’m sorry but 2.5million leathers or ~55,000g over the course of 2hrs is not the market reaching an equilibrium. That would require far more time than 2hrs and lets consider the following, those classes wanting or needing said gear hasn’t changed in the 5 months HoT’s been out. This rules out the entire premise of “Equilibrium” as the market was already at said equilibrium prior to said shock.

I didn’t “try” to justify “blatant manipulation” — I tried to explain (and apparently failed) that just because there was a huge purchase doesn’t mean there was a single entity involved. If 500k people play each week and each buys half a dozen sections, that’s 3 million. Obviously I don’t think everyone bought a few; the point is that the market can switch suddenly when there’s a tipping point — those are points in time in dynamic systems when the equilibrium changes from one steady state to another.

In other words, “equilibrium” isn’t fixed; just because prices have been steady at X silver doesn’t mean that the market can sustain that pricing. Usually, when demand is steady or increasing and supply is starting to drop, there will be a number of spikes to price as the market finds a new equilibrium better suited to the new supply:demand ratio.

tl;dr again is: manipulation shouldn’t be the first thing people consider; it should be the last, after ruling out any common (and some less common) market forces.

I think my idea of manipulation is not the same as yours. I would like to tell the difference between manipulation and speculation in my opinion:

- Speculation is when you sell, not sell or buy something, waiting for a price change. Every investment you make is a speculation.
- Manipulation is when you greatly (try to) distort the market. For example when anet makes a new patch and there are new recipes that create huge demand for some items. Or when you buy 90% of the available supply to artifically raise the price. Or when you make false information about future changes to change price.

Maybe these are not precise definitions, I will appreciate if someone tells me the real difference.

I’m not calling it manipulation simply because the price didn’t really significantly change and anyone in their right mind, who has that much gold, would not try to corner items like thick leather.

Manipulation is where someone tries to influence market prices in a way to profit/gain from it. If I were to go now on the TP and buy up all of the low supply miniatures from sets 1-3, and then turn around to sell them at a marked up price, that would be manipulation.

Speculation is just making an investment on something which you believe will provide you profit, or larger gains, in the future. Buying up a lot of leather because you feel that their value may go up in the future is speculation. It’s like if I were to have bought up all of the silk scraps when ascended weapons were released. I wouldn’t be doing that to manipulate the market but to instead invest in the scraps in hopes that their value would go up with ascended armor crafting.

the person might think the price is wrong. i sold all my leather at 80 copper. that’s not the equilibrium price.

since the price is climbing. he might think it have more upwards potential.

Ayrilana.1396:

I’m not calling it manipulation simply because the price didn’t really significantly change and anyone in their right mind, who has that much gold, would not try to corner items like thick leather.

Manipulation is where someone tries to influence market prices in a way to profit/gain from it. If I were to go now on the TP and buy up all of the low supply miniatures from sets 1-3, and then turn around to sell them at a marked up price, that would be manipulation.

Speculation is just making an investment on something which you believe will provide you profit, or larger gains, in the future. Buying up a lot of leather because you feel that their value may go up in the future is speculation. It’s like if I were to have bought up all of the silk scraps when ascended weapons were released. I wouldn’t be doing that to manipulate the market but to instead invest in the scraps in hopes that their value would go up with ascended armor crafting.

So, if I am right: speculation → when you have no control over supply; manipulation → where supply is really low or you can control it (because you are anet).

My guess is, that either someone rich belives that thick leather will be a main component for ad infinitum (release @next quarter update) or someone has a little inside information for the next quarter update.

But at such an early time (I mean next quarter update is not before april 18th) my closest bet is on a rich person speculating that price will raise for ad infinitum / new legy’s / anything else new.

It’s me I require the leather for more minion fleshcrafting. I’m also building all my bone minions little tiny trenchcoats and I have ALOT of bone minions.

Just found it on reddit, so no idea if it is true (can’t check it ingame).
It seems that anet added/increased the needed leather for the patch you need for medium ascended armor.
If that is true, there is the reason for this extreme fast supply drop and we can be sure that the price will raise over the next weeks/months.

So just wondering here, how much bank space would you need to store this volume?

It’s entirely possible that someone started buying out that stuff, and some other TP players noticed the trend and decided to follow suit, just in case (starting a chain reaction). In the end it didn’t affect the prices, it seems, so whoever did that likely lost on it.

Bomber.3872:

Just found it on reddit, so no idea if it is true (can’t check it ingame).
It seems that anet added/increased the needed leather for the patch you need for medium ascended armor.
If that is true, there is the reason for this extreme fast supply drop and we can be sure that the price will raise over the next weeks/months.

Interesting… can’t check this at the moment, though.

Mosferre.1246:

So just wondering here, how much bank space would you need to store this volume?

0 if you don’t pick them up. Of course you won’t be able to trade anything else on that account.

Guys they have said there is no market manipulation, insider info, or trading post bots in this game so it must be true. Don’t worry about things like numbers, trends, or videos the market is definitely not rigged….

how is it rigged?
anything on the market is available for purchase by anyone else.

Milkshake.4038:

Ayrilana.1396:

I’m not calling it manipulation simply because the price didn’t really significantly change and anyone in their right mind, who has that much gold, would not try to corner items like thick leather.

Manipulation is where someone tries to influence market prices in a way to profit/gain from it. If I were to go now on the TP and buy up all of the low supply miniatures from sets 1-3, and then turn around to sell them at a marked up price, that would be manipulation.

Speculation is just making an investment on something which you believe will provide you profit, or larger gains, in the future. Buying up a lot of leather because you feel that their value may go up in the future is speculation. It’s like if I were to have bought up all of the silk scraps when ascended weapons were released. I wouldn’t be doing that to manipulate the market but to instead invest in the scraps in hopes that their value would go up with ascended armor crafting.

So, if I am right: speculation -> when you have no control over supply; manipulation -> where supply is really low or you can control it (because you are anet).

Not quite. You can still manipulate prices other ways. For example, I could post a thread about beryl orbs that could cause the prices to temporarily go up or down. I could then benefit from this and make some profit. Getting the price to artificially rise is commonly referred to as pump and dump which is a form on market manipulation.

Not quite – as the price went up due to other reasons.

The price spike of orbs has been minor and resets quite quickly.
Pump N Dump is not that viable in GW2- it may cause a minor blip but over the medium term (week or two) prices will be normal again.

TPMN.1483:

Not quite – as the price went up due to other reasons.

The price spike of orbs has been minor and resets quite quickly.
Pump N Dump is not that viable in GW2- it may cause a minor blip but over the medium term (week or two) prices will be normal again.

I wasn’t suggesting it as something that just happened. It was simply an example of someone doing something to cause a scare to temporary drive up prices so that they could make a quick profit. It may not be viable in the long run but you can make short term gains from it.

It doesn’t work though as there are enough players holding supply of items to bring to market to correct it very quickly.

Try it with 2-5 Million of one thing …you’ll make a big loss.

TPMN.1483:

It doesn’t work though as there are enough players holding supply of items to bring to market to correct it very quickly.

Try it with 2-5 Million of one thing …you’ll make a big loss.

So if someone were to create fake patch notes that appeared credible and showed ascended crafting for jeweler. This caused everyone to buy up silver and gold ore and lasted until Anet came out and said the notes were fake. Whoever sold their ore during that time stands to make a profit. Again, this is just one example.

Manipulation isn’t simply only one person (or a group) trying to corner a market.

Ayrilana.1396:

So if someone were to create fake patch notes that appeared credible and showed ascended crafting for jeweler. This caused everyone to buy up silver and gold ore and lasted until Anet came out and said the notes were fake. Whoever sold their ore during that time stands to make a profit. Again, this is just one example.

Manipulation isn’t simply only one person (or a group) trying to corner a market.

I’d honestly be surprised if many people didn’t already have a Silver nest egg.

That said, what’s considered market manipulation is really up to ANet. I doubt they’re going to say that pulling the supply of a commodity from a market, allowing the price to rise and then re-listing the items is manipulation; at least, an unfair one.

Sarrs.4831:

Ayrilana.1396:

So if someone were to create fake patch notes that appeared credible and showed ascended crafting for jeweler. This caused everyone to buy up silver and gold ore and lasted until Anet came out and said the notes were fake. Whoever sold their ore during that time stands to make a profit. Again, this is just one example.

Manipulation isn’t simply only one person (or a group) trying to corner a market.

I’d honestly be surprised if many people didn’t already have a Silver nest egg.

That said, what’s considered market manipulation is really up to ANet. I doubt they’re going to say that pulling the supply of a commodity from a market, allowing the price to rise and then re-listing the items is manipulation.

When it comes to whether they take action against players, yes it is up to Anet. However, they don’t decide what is manipulation.

Sarrs.4831:

Ayrilana.1396:

So if someone were to create fake patch notes that appeared credible and showed ascended crafting for jeweler. This caused everyone to buy up silver and gold ore and lasted until Anet came out and said the notes were fake. Whoever sold their ore during that time stands to make a profit. Again, this is just one example.

Manipulation isn’t simply only one person (or a group) trying to corner a market.

I’d honestly be surprised if many people didn’t already have a Silver nest egg.

That said, what’s considered market manipulation is really up to ANet. I doubt they’re going to say that pulling the supply of a commodity from a market, allowing the price to rise and then re-listing the items is manipulation; at least, an unfair one.

This is speculation…. the above.

Manipulation is something completly different –
You would need to hold the supply itself and the generation of supply.
e.g. need to be a monopoly or cartel with 90% of the supply going via yourself.
Lookup OPEC.