Guild Wars 2

Wazabi.1439:

Even if everyone is doing it in ignorance, and eventually everyone learns to sell it at a higher price…a trash loot is still a trash loot. You will probably end up at near the profit of selling directly to vendor after the transaction cost.

A good amount of the time, yes, you won’t be able to sell that blue shortbow that you looted, but that doesn’t change that I was able to sell even blue loots for a couple silver a large amount of the time.

Also, a “market” in your context is not a real-world economic factor.

Of course it is. Firms choose where to advertise and where to open locations based on where they’re most likely to extract value. There’s an economic model that explains why fast food restaurants and car dealerships almost always open across the street from eachother.

If everyone is making a higher profit, you’ll also be spending more to purchase things, hence your real purchasing power doesn’t change. It’s just an illusion. Think of it as having $100 in a world where a McDonald burger cost $10, and in another world having $10 where a burger cost $1.

This is also incorrect. Not only were crafted items selling for higher prices, fine crafting materials were conversely selling for lower prices. Crafting was profitable before the TP went up. This isn’t a case of the profit margin going down, profitability is non-existent as second tier crafting items cost a little under 2s a piece, while the finished product will typically sell for about 88c (which needs 3 of those materials, iron ore, wool scraps and spools of thread…)

Again, I think the trading post is working to the overall disadvantage of the GW2 user base. One immediate solution would be to establish a separate TP for each server. As I said, there’s just too many participants that it creates a race to the bottom, where sellers are actually selling for less than they could get from NPC merchants. Admittedly, buyers of final equipment are benefitting from this, but it also makes speculation the only other real reason to participate, and I think that’s also a bad thing.

The problem isn’t that it’s following real-world economics models. The problem is which model it’s following.

You suggested in the OP that because there’s so many buyers and sellers (all servers on one TP) that price naturally falls to the cost of production. You admitted later on that it doesn’t.

GW2’s economy takes on the unfortunate “race to the bottom” model. I’m assuming everyone tried to beat each other’s prices until they hit 1c above Merchant price and now everyone thinks that’s just the norm. It’s not. For one, they’re probably losing money because of the listing price and sales tax. Second, there should be a convenience premium on these items, because otherwise the player would be relying on random loot drops to get that specific item that they want. Sometimes economic models produce situations where everyone loses.

Ironically, I was actually happier when the TP was down for maintenance. It brought me back to that old school MMO feel of having to wait for a PM and then negotiating a price. I love that one-on-one dynamic in the bartering context. I was also making more money. I was selling loot drops and even my own crafts for 3-5s a piece.

But it also adds in a real-world economic factor that the TP is missing – markets. You’re not going to sell a level 15 sword in Lion’s Arch. At the same time, you could probably get more value out of it to the players who are just about to move out of Queensdale as opposed those who have already moved on to Kessex Hills. It’s all about that sweet spot where how much the seller wants to get out of it meets where the buyer is willing to pay for it. Right now we’re losing a lot of profit.

Obviously MMO’s have evolved past this now-antiquated process, but I think everyone was better off when it was the only option in GW2.