Guild Wars 2

Here’s the problem in a nutshell.

1) Game rewards players who log in every day to prime the economy with raw materials and make the game have an active zone population for new players.

2) The requirements are low enough that a casual player can get them in a relatively low amount of time if they are actively going after it or simply get the reward every once in a while by simply playing casually.

3) But for players who are more than casual yet do to RL commitments simply can’t play daily, they simply won’t get the same number of daily rewards as a daily casual player.

4) Now this wouldn’t be a huge problem except one of the daily rewards has a dual purpose, one which is very attractive to non-casual players, ascended items.

Now I believe the devs motivation was pure. They were providing a means for everyone to earn ascended items. What the devs should have also done is allow an alternative cost for those items in FotM only currency. One way, a faster way for those who like to play in the Mists and one slower way for those who will never/rarely venture there.

Of course they may have also done this to get players out of the Mists and into the world to help up the zone population on a daily basis but I refuse to believe that a hefty enough of the game’s active playerbase is tied up doing FotM.

John Smith.4610:

When considering changing the fees (it’s not a tax) there are side effects that we must think about. For example, if we shift how the fees function between instant sell and sell later how does that effect the demand for buy orders? Small, seemingly innocuous changes like this can have a profound impact on how players interact with the market and change the nature of what’s happening on the trading post. In a live game you need a really good reason to make changes like this, and a lot of work making sure you know EXACTLY what’s going to happen when you do.

Fees/Taxes – Potatoes/Potatoes

But what would you suggest to the unfortunate lucky bloke who got a Precursor dropped on them that they could sell to someone right now for an enormous win fall if only then had the rather substantial listing fee? In the 3 plus months I’ve been playing I’m now sitting on 50 gold and maybe spent another 15 gold in game on equipment and Gems but for someone who just got into the high levels, buying rares or cultural pieces, unlocking assigning trait points above 10 then 20, they may only have 10g on hand on that lucky day.

So are you suggesting it’s better to hold on to a precursor they can’t use until they saved up the money over the next few months, buy Gems for cash and convert, or post it for as much as their bank account can afford as a fee (I don’t even know if you can do that?)? While buying gems for cash and then convert them into gold is best for ArenaNet, that idea is likely to be anathema to some just as saying “to bad, you have to settle on selling a 600g item for 200g”.

This discussion is simply examining suggested ways to grant them their just reward without knocking over the apple cart for all.

Thank you for chiming in.

@CH

We aren’t “punishing” them because they are poor. From my POV, treating the TP as a simulation of a TP, the extra 1% is just as I described, interest on a short term loan. The TP is advancing you the listing fee for an additional 1% of the selling price.

I know, you want a “penalty” free option to back end the listing fee on immediate sales. I’m suggesting that in the “rare” cases a player doesn’t have the listing fee due to the sell now price of an item a “sin/sumptuary/Pigovian tax” to insure that this use will remain “rare” and not develop into a popular way to sell to the market. I believe that’s also Pengy’s motivation behind his 10% tax Vs my 1%, to discourage this usage from becoming a standard modus operandi of market mavens who may be able to figure out a way to exploit it in some way (they are rather clever folks).

There doesn’t appear to be any green chef recipes below level 50 so it’s up to armorsmithing.

According to GWSpider, there are a number of mastercraft recipes for chain pauldrons that can be crafted for less than 1s apiece. Here’s the healing one. For some reason the price is for 5 of them.

Geikamir.6329:

“We just don’t want players to grind in GW2.” (Pure marketing talk or lies when talking about ascended gear, one of the two)

Once again you took it out of context. The entire quote in context.

“‘I swung a sword. I swung a sword again. Hey! I swung it again.’ That’s great. We just don’t want players to grind in Guild Wars 2. No one enjoys that. No one finds it fun. We want to change the way that people view combat.”

It about the combat system. Whether they are talking about the lack of rooting, the dodge mechanic/AOE hint, the interactions between the various weapon skills, the ability to swap weapons on the fly in combat, the lack of the standard MMO trinity or all of the above, the point being it’s not just standing still spamming your attack while depending on others to keep you alive. THEY, the devs, defined combat in other MMOs as grindy. It’s YOU who chose to read what you wanted by “sound biting” that one line.

Geikamir.6329:

Behellagh.1468:

People have different definitions of grind and fun. They assume the devs have the same definitions as they do. Those who are upset ignored the context where those words were used in the manifesto (in reference to quests and combat).

Well if the terms are subjective then if I think they are a lie, they genuinely are lies (to me) right? If the terms are objective, then what is their predefined definition?

Why use subjective terms to market for any other reason except to be able to back peddle when the bottom line needs it?

The developers were quite specific in the manifesto video what they meant by grind. It’s not their fault that specificity was omitted or ignored when the word was circulated. They called simplistic combat systems found in older MMOs a grind. They said in older MMOs you had to go through the “boring grind” before you got to the “fun stuff”.

I keep hearing how the devs promised “no grinding for gear” yet there was nothing in the manifesto about gear.

Who cares about mounts when you can speed dial any found, uncontested asura waypoint in the world for a few silver at Level 80.

Karizee.8076:

In GW2 you can do this:

http://i.imgur.com/dvC9gfG.jpg

Ha! Great Sailor Moon outfits.

99.9% of the time it’s a full mailbox. Since Fine Transmutation Stones are another popular Gem Store Item (due to the spike in the exchange rate) I’m expecting to see similar posts all day.

People have different definitions of grind and fun. They assume the devs have the same definitions as they do. Those who are upset ignored the context where those words were used in the manifesto (in reference to quests and combat).

I love it how a reward for hitting certain goals is considered a punishment.

“Okay Johnny, for every A I’ll give you $20”
“Why are you punishing me!?!?!”

Thank you.

15charr

I just started with my Weaponsmith crafting and so far I have yet crafted anything that isn’t profitable. Yes, I’m probably going to come across a range where profit and crafting XP won’t coincide but I haven’t come across it yet. And yes I’m in my early stages of leveling that skill (spitting difference of 75).

Only tools I’m using is GWSpidy to provide me a list of items that are profitable for my current crafting skills and GuildWarsTrade to make sure the current selling price is way above historical levels.

And for the Six’s sake don’t craft so called “profitable” items where supply is already 2x or higher than demand and expect them to sell overnight. Supply and Demand people, look at items that demand is higher than supply if you prefer a quicker turnaround.

Is there diminishing returns if you are playing the Mystic Slot Machine (Forge)? Reason I’m asking is I either had a really good stroke of luck last night getting three rather sellable items at a good price from crafted greens (going for my monthly) out of five “spins” (same good item all three times) while today I get bupkis out of 25 “spins”.

takkattak.1974:

And finally – Mesmers!

/agree! a strong feminine class

I’m curious, why do you think it’s a feminine class? Because illusions shatter into butterflies?

And OP you are overlooking the fact that some players may have intentionally set sale prices 1c above market vendor price. Just because this “breaks” the flipping market or practically discourage selling items that are under 18% of their vendor price, so that you are earning less money than you can get at a vendor (due to the tax), doesn’t mean it wasn’t intentional.

Just as some items that can be crafted are selling for much less than their crafting materials, there is no guarantee or rule that says all crafting will be profitable.

1) Rares more common since end of Feb patch due to chests

2) Average player told ectos are usually worth more than rares so they salvage those rares

3) End of day/week average player decide to sell their ectos for big bags of silver

4) Average player being generally impatient sell now if the ga kitten mall or make the gap small if it isn’t

5) Result is Ecto prices sea-saw as seen in the 3-day version of this graph

Remember sellers prices can have a rather large gap between current low sell price and the next clump up. The low price ones sell out, the price is now noticeably more expensive. Next seller decides to undercut but try to squeeze a few more copper above the will buy now price and the price plummets again. Rince Repeat

If money is no issue get a Titan or 690 but I’m sure you aren’t willing to go up to a grand for a video card.

The GTX 670 has nearly the same performance as a GTX 680, within 10%. An overclocked GTX 670 can come close to a stock clock GTX 680 while saving you around $100 (bit under $400 Vs bit under $500).

If they raise the level cap expect howls of “grind” from those who thought they maxed out their character. You thought the noise about ascended gear was bad just wait.

NCsoft is a big MMO company in Korea. Had sales of roughly $670 million last year. They bought ArenaNet in 2002, years before GW came out.

Here if you want to check out the latest two of those. They were still forecasting an uptick in sales income in 3Q/4Q this year due to an expansion but didn’t mention it in their most recent post.

Charismatic Harm.9683:

Behellagh.1468:

Vol.5241:

Charismatic, I totally understand your reasoning behind removing the 5% fee, but just thinking from Arenanet’s perspective, it makes things worse removing it

That’s 5% more gold in the economy that can influence inflation. Players right now are already content with this.

He’s not talking about removing it, just moving it to the back end only when you already have a buyer. You still will loose 15%, you just won’t need 1/3rd of it up front.

That’s exactly what I’m talking about. I guess I just haven’t been able to explain it well enough. I’ve tried a couple of times, but can’t think of a better way for people to understand my thought. I know some people get it right away and others get it a little later, while others never will. That’s ok….and maybe that means it shouldn’t be done as it would add a layer of confusion to the process.

There are a number of others that simply think the 5% fee is stupid so it’s understandable that others lumped you in with them without grasping your intent.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

My argument from a different thread is that the 5% up front fee is a normal, acceptable amount. If you can’t afford it, you then get the incentive to play and earn it, or not sell.

To add to that, Behellagh suggests a higher percentage (16%) charged to players who can’t afford the up front fees. My opinion is that if a system is in place to allow players to bypass the up front fees, the percentage taken should be 25% off the back end. That way, if you really want to sell something you can’t afford to sell in the first place, you make the choice to get less. Sorta like real life Payday Loans, where people pay insane interest rates for a short term cash advance. You can call it a “penalty” or an “opportunity cost”.

And my point the additional 1% represents a 20% increase in the posting fee for the seconds it takes before they are able to “pay” the posting fee with the profits of the sale. That’s would be a rather significant APR if one bothers to crunch out the numbers. Tripling it from 5% to 15% is grossly excessive “punishment” if someone simply got lucky and had Dusk dropped on them, they didn’t want it but didn’t have the 30g to post it on the TP. Remember this option is only available if they don’t have the money to post the item to an immediate buyer. Not sure if how a day trader could exploit this.

Shayne Hawke.9160:

I could go back to GW and start a fresh character in Prophecies right now and have maxed out gear in less than a day. I could even shave a few hours off that if I permitted myself access to the expansion.

Show me how to do that in GW2, and I’ll stop believing that Ascended material and time costs aren’t absurd.

Ever considered that capability you had in GW was intentionally left out of GW2 because it’s dumb in terms of retaining players who spend real money in the cash shop?

ANet is in business and need to pay the bills and would like a steadyish cash flow so they can do more work and keep the servers up. Having a whole bunch of players insta-max level/max gear doesn’t lend toward that goal you think?

I just think most players are ignorant of the abilities of various siege weapons when they make them. I’ve found them pointing point blank at walls inside a fortification totally useless.

Vol.5241:

Charismatic, I totally understand your reasoning behind removing the 5% fee, but just thinking from Arenanet’s perspective, it makes things worse removing it

That’s 5% more gold in the economy that can influence inflation. Players right now are already content with this.

He’s not talking about removing it, just moving it to the back end only when you already have a buyer. You still will loose 15%, you just won’t need 1/3rd of it up front.

I haven’t heard your opinion Pan on my suggestion of a “payday” loan for sellers who don’t have the up front fee but is looking to sell to an existing buyer. Total tax of 16% back end instead of 5% up front, 10% back end. But only possible if selling immediately.

Pandemoniac.4739:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Pandemoniac.4739:

And it’s not because that’s how it’s done in the real world, because I just gave you an example of eBay taking its escrow fee from the transaction proceeds.

Read my post again. Focus in on the example of buying stocks. You’ll have your answer.

That’s not an answer, that’s an example of someone else charging the fee up front. I gave an example of someone taking the fee from the proceeds. It’s done both ways. Why would someone choose to do one over the other in a system where the fee is just there to delete the money, and not to collect the money to use for something else?

From the Selling Tax thread

Calae.1738:

A tax on the seller serves multiple purposes.

-Money sink
-Avoid players from using TP as storage
-Reduces asset speculation by increasing risk
-Makes large volume trades more risky (reduces leverage)

I’m sure I could think of others but those are the main ones I can think of.

So you did a quite a bit better than the 0.9 if it has the same average as the Master Kit.

I only have acquired only 50-55g in the three months I played. So imagining someone tying up 100g just to prime the over cutting behavior of buy orders to run up the price a few copper each so they can then sell those items seems to be a tedious way just to scrape a few extra copper per item.

What is a fake buyer? If a seller clicks on the current top buyer’s price it sells to that buyer. How is that fake?

Do you think players are putting in large numbers of low buy orders just to suggest that there is high demand for an item? What good does that do if there are always a buyer listing at a much higher price?

Buyers commit the funds in their totality when putting in a buy order. That’s money out of their pocket and tied up at the TP.

Someone please explain the logic behind ginning up the demand with loads of extremely low offers.

It sounds like you won’t be satisfied unless you hear from John Smith. So this is sort of a passive/aggressive way of calling out a dev without calling out a dev.

A quick survey of other MMOs (DDO, WoW, EVE, LotRO) I’ve only saw EVE having a no listing (broker) fee for immediate sale. Otherwise you pay to list, it’s not refundable.

Pandemoniac.4739:

Behellagh.1468:

Why did they do it? Anyone sell items on eBay? There it’s called an insertion fee, also paid up front and non-refundable, usually based on opening bid or reserve amount. And since net savvy individuals have been using eBay since the mid 1990s it was THE model of an online marketplace that everyone decided to use but with their own twist.

Why invent from scratch when you have a real world example of what works to draw upon.

Because you’re building a virtual world, not simulating the real one.

So, people post orders for things they’d like to buy for a certain price on Ebay, and the folks that want to sell those items for that price have to put up a percentage of the sale price in cash to finish the transaction? Wild. I thought people just auctioned stuff off on eBay. I haven’t looked at eBay for a really long time though.

No, if you have something to sell, setting up an auction costs you money up front, non-refundable PLUS a cut of the final selling price. Even if they item doesn’t sell, lets say you had set a minimum price that wasn’t reached, you don’t get your insertion fee back.

Buyers don’t have a fee.

And why not make a system recognizable? Just because it’s a virtual world doesn’t mean something as simple as a player trading system should be new and unfamiliar to all.

My main and only character. Level 80 Norn Mesmer

1) Age – 332 hours over 3 months
2) Deaths – 253
3) Titles – 2
4) Achievement Points – 2005
5) Legendary Weapons – None
6) PVP Rank – Rabbit
7) Tournament wins – None

I heard that in the early weeks of the game you could but in bids for less than vendor and they have yet to flush them all from the TP.

Pandemoniac.4739:

Basically, what you’re saying is “You have to pay the fee up front both when you’re filling buy orders and posting sell orders, because that’s how it works.” I know how it works, I’m trying to figure out why it would be designed that way.

The ANet folks don’t seem to do much arbitrarily, so whether it was a decision to leave it that way because it made the code easier, or it was a decision to require folks to have 5% of the value of what they’re selling in cash, I think it’s likely that it was an intentional decision.

Regardless, we’re all just guessing and I’ve realized that it’s unlikely at this point that anyone will improve on the “it was easier to code that way” guess. I was hoping that forcing sellers to have gold to make a sale would have some intended market impact. I have a niggling feeling that there’s something there, I’ll have to let it stew for a while.

Why did they do it? Anyone sell items on eBay? There it’s called an insertion fee, also paid up front and non-refundable, usually based on opening bid or reserve amount. And since net savvy individuals have been using eBay since the mid 1990s it was THE model of an online marketplace that everyone decided to use but with their own twist.

Why invent from scratch when you have a real world example of what works to draw upon.

Well 1% is 20% of 5%, it’s not too oppressive yet relatively large. This additional fee really shouldn’t be thought of as a “penalty”. Why penalize someone just because he got a real expensive item dropped on him that they can’t afford to sell it to an immediate buyer who is offering a big chunk of cash. The would be seller is already “losing” money by not selling it for as much as he could get for it. I think that fact is penalty enough.

(Scene: group of adventurers sitting in a tavern, another adventurer enters the tavern)

Entering Adventurer: Hi guys!

Tavern Adventurers: Hi Norn!

Bad jokes and 80s TV reverences aside, welcome. The thread on only if you knew tips is priceless. Seemingly everything in this game can grant you XP. Since the game adjusts your level downward to match the local content where ever you are, if you want you can take your time exploring the world without the necessity to relocate to a higher level zone. I think I hit 80 while still strolling about in a level 30-35 zone (after I had done all of the lower level zones for all of the races, including their cities).

But the neat thing about this is you can pretty much play however you like. There is no fix quest chain to follow. If you don’t want to battle vicious hungry tackle bunnies so you can go on a Jackalope hunt, you can skip it. If you have the coordination of a medicated 5 year old just back from the dentist then feel free to skip the jumping puzzles if you stumble upon then. Join a party or go solo and pitch in on a fight you run across, doesn’t really matter. No class trilogy required, no must have builds so you can join so big group event. It’s all good.

Just enjoy yourself.

As I’ve come to realize from the other thread on the fees/taxes that the problem deals with being the recipient of a fortuitous drop of a precursor weapon, or other very marketable and expensive item, that you don’t want yourself but to simply “go for the gold” so to speak. I thought it was some kind of scam to allow a market trader to simply use all their capital instead of maintaining a reserve, until I thought a bit on it and realize that was utterly wrong.

The problem is when you can sell a drop for 600g and not having 30g to use the TP to sell it to someone with a 600g offer already on the table. What’s interesting is this could also dovetail into the thread about loans.

What we need here is some kind of “payday” loan at the TP, administrated by the TP and only used for the 5% bid fee. If a player does not have the cash to pay said bid fee they would be given an option, only if they choose a ready buyer, to have the bid fee taken at transaction time plus an additional 1%. So you will end up having 16% taken in the end.

It’s an additional gold sink to fight inflation of the money supply. A seller with a spot of luck but low on cash can sell that expensive item and still end up with quite the windfall. And since it’ll only work on an immediate sale to someone with an existing bid on it there isn’t the problem with canceling the sale and making sure the seller isn’t getting a much longer term loan. That might actually be a great addition to the TP.

So this is about not having enough cash on hand to post a precursor you don’t want?

Or an equally expensive, high in demand item with ready buyers.

kenshinakh.3672:

Go try developing games first before saying that games are only made with profit in mind… Video game developers put their heart into their creations, and they all work very hard. Have you heard about how people said the pay for a game developer is low for the amount of stress and time put it? They make games because it’s their passion.

Well, nearly all games are developed for profit. The developers themselves may be quite passionate about their work but at the end of the day they are working for money that has to come from somewhere to at least keep some of them fed (while some can survive by feasting on the bitter tears of distraught forum posters).

Of course it doesn’t need to work that way. It’s just code. But it was how the devs chose to implement it, whether or not they thought of the same reason to do so or not.

My question to you is have you played a major MMO where the posting fee could be deferred? The few I’ve played with markets/auction/consignment houses all had posting fees up front, no exceptions.

Anyways this thread is about the need for taxation at all.

bpphantom.8243:

kKagari.6804:

Changing tooltips is a very difficult task.

Ba ha ha ha ha! Oh wait…

Not difficult, just grunt work.

What’s more important to get done today, fix bug or update tooltip text? (but that’s what interns are for)

Zosk.5609:

It would be nice to have an MMO where the design team made clear what their goals were for systems and changes to those systems.

Example: We believe the purpose of the dailies is X. We think our initial attempt fell short of these goals in these ways, so we’re making the following changes.

(In this example, I try to fill in the answers for them and I come up short, it almost seems like the designers are throwing darts at a wall. Nothing was really accomplished by the new daily system except change for change’s sake….as far as I can tell)

Unfortunately, no MMO team has seemed to be willing to be so forthright and honest with the players, perhaps because they know how whiny they get if they found out the developers were pursuing design goals they didn’t agree with….

Well the folks at the late Paragon Studio, who were in charge of City of Heroes for the last 5 or so years were very open with the players. From how the combat system works to actual numerical data on every power and effect in the game. They adjusted the XP curve, reduced the death penalty significantly and provided means in game to give players hard numbers versus descriptive prose about the effectiveness of this power over that.

Yes sometimes they didn’t heed our concerns only to have some new much touted feature blow up in their face (user generated content, “new” PvP rules) but it was a two way street. Costume part suggestions were taken seriously and a lot of times they were implemented.

Plus they and the forum mods had a sense of humor with forum posters when it came to discussions about aspects of the game. You felt listened to.

Offense then Defense
Come on Hit Me

Believe me the forum would be alive with outrage if they raised the fees.

Yes, the purpose of the fees, in a virtual world, is to act as a gold sink for the virtual economy.

But the Trading Post is a simulation of how such a institution works in the real world. Just as damage done is a simulation of bashing someone wearing armor with a weapon. Yes in that case it’s a lot more abstracted simulation of effects from causes but still a simulation. Which is my point. A real world trading post is just easier to simulate along with the rational why it would be handled that way.

Here’s my question to you. Why the fuss? When have you ended up with a valuable item to sell but no cash on hand to post it? I could see the extended time in the field and not watching your purse or paranoid about keeping a lot of cash on you but it sounds like it’s something else. I admit I haven’t played the game for long or tried all the content available so I may be missing some obvious case where this is a major problem. I’m curious.

Sort of, but if you are cutting the margin fine or with a low cost item you should do the 5% and 10% calculation separately to take into account rounding up the fees when the fractional part of the fee is 0.5c or greater.

It’s more exacting than my 20% mark up but I can do that calculation in my head quickly.

Near the end of it’s life, City of Heroes implemented a system where different players saw different things while in the open world depending on what they’ve accomplished. Two players, not teamed with each other, standing next to each other could have one see rampaging mobs tearing up an area in flames while the other sees a peaceful scene of citizens going about their business.

I’m not sure how much of a strain tracking the world status for each player had on the server infrastructure. It also brings up the problem of when teaming whose world view do you see. Also if you are in a “saved world” and you come across a group running an event on an “unsaved world”, do you see them fighting nothing? Do you see them at all? Do they see you?

It’s all a very many-worlds interpretation nightmare.

Charismatic Harm.9683:

Iruwen.3164:

When you list it, simply include the fee, problem solved. The buyer will pay all of it.

This isn’t the question at hand.

Currently, no matter how you sell something on the Trading Post, you’re required to have 5% of the sale price in your inventory to cover the listing fee.

Several of us feel that when you fulfill and existing buy order, instead of placing your item up for sale as a sell listing, you shouldn’t need to have that 5% in your inventory and it should be taken out of the sale price.

When fulfilling an existing buy order, you’re making the sale instantly. There won’t be a listing you could cancel and avoid the 5% listing fee.

This is particularly important on very high price items, like precursors.

Let’s say that someone gets lucky and has a precursor drop for them. They don’t want it, so they decide to sell it. In this example, I’ll use numbers that don’t correspond to any specific item.

The current lowest sale price for this item is 500g.
The current highest buy price is 400g.
The player has 5g to their name.

So….they don’t have the 25g they need to cover the listing fee if they want to sell it for 500g. They should have the option to sell to the current highest buyer without having to pay the 5% up front since they will be making an immediate sale.

The situation should be this when selling items on the Trading Post:

Selling to the highest bidder: 15% taken off the back
Selling at any other price: 5% up front to create the listing, 10% off the back when the item sells.

When selling to the highest bidder….the sale ALWAYS happens.

You need to look at the other thread discussing the posting fell.

Short version from my POV. The TP is a simulation of how it would work in the real world. Assume that there’s two clerks. Clerk A who accepts the item for sale, takes the fee and gives you paperwork about the sale while Clerk B takes the paperwork, checks to see if it sold and who dispenses money’s to the seller if it was.

You are still using the market as a match maker. The TP may be virtual but it’s simulating how such a business works.

Seller: Hi, I would like to sell this Vermicious Do-Hickey of the Knid.
TP Rep: Yes sir/maam, for how much?
Seller: What’s the going rate?
TP Rep: Well, I have someone looking for 4 of them at 22s each while the lowest price another seller is asking for is 35s.
Seller: Fine, I’ll sell it to the chap willing to pay now at 22s.
TP Rep: Very good sir, that’ll be 1s10c right now so we can start the paperwork.
Seller: But what for? You already have a buyer?
TP Rep: Yes but sir you are using this service to ascertain that information and the same amount of paperwork is done if it’s sold immediately or is sits in the warehouse for 6 months. And the fee is required in advance before we are allowed to get the ball rolling so to speak. If you don’t want to use our service feel free to sell it to the traveling merchant across the street for 1s67c.
Seller: So take it out of money you are about to pay me right now!
TP Rep: Sorry, rules are rules. We can’t start the process without payment from you up front. The accounting department would be most miffed if I didn’t follow strict procedures. Also I’m not the person who will be paying you.
Seller: Who do I see then?
TP Rep: That gentleman wearing the Level 80 Apocalypse Heavy Armor behind the golem proof glass. He’s the one paying you and he is closely watched to make sure he only takes 10% from the price. So his hands are also tied.

Yes I’m being a bit over the top there but it’s true, even though you are selling it “instantly” to a buyer the matchmaking and exchange of goods for gold is still being done. A fee must still be paid up front and that knowledge isn’t hidden from players so it shouldn’t be a surprise.

So simply don’t drive your cash on you too low if you are going to be clearing inventory out in the field. It’s not like some games where other players can loot your body so you are afraid to carry too much of your cash with you. Find someone you can sell your blues or greens to for a little copper. Up grade your carrying capacity so you don’t have find some to off your more worthless stuff to as frequently.