Catagories of Market Users?


Adeon Hawkwood

 

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Originally Posted by Heraclea View Post
A level 25 Damage or Healing enhancement costs 30K from the in-game store that sells them. (60K at level 50, IIRC). The max you can hope to get selling one, assuming you were lucky enough to get one to drop at level 25, is 40% of that (12K at 25, again). Now, a lower level character is unlikely to need a Nevermelting Ice; but generally, the most in demand low level salvage seems to tend even higher than the 41-50 stuff. Even if you sell your drops, a character relying on her own resources is going to find 20K too steep of a price to pay regularly.
A character of any level who relies purely on selling drops is going to be hard pressed to make large quantities of inf unless you farm a lot. On the other hand my latest alt hit level 17 last night and he's currently sitting on over 50mil inf (excluding the values of the enhancements he's currently listing to sell). I deliberately didn't give him any assistance from my other characters because I wanted to see how long it took for him to build a decent bankroll just through buying and selling on the market. Now I admit I haven't played him that much (I made him two weeks ago) so his level is rather low for the amount of marketeering that he's done but even with basic salvage flipping a low level toon can easily make enough to afford any 20K salvage he needs.

Quote:
This may not be the most efficient use of time or resources, but it's more or less the regime that the current state of the markets have forced on me. I wish that salvage were available at the market for prices that my low level characters could afford to pay with the inf they get defeating mobs, but that seldom was the case and currently is not.
This is why I classed you as a non-user. I would like to state that there is nothing wrong with that and I apologize if I gave any impression otherwise. But the market prices are set by what the market users are willing to pay. When I'm trying to get the ingredients to craft an enhancement that will sell for 5+million profit paying 100K for a piece of common salvage is perfectly reasonable. Would I prefer not to? Sure, but time is money, market slots are limited and the opportunity cost of not listing the crafted enhancement overnight is greater than the amount saved by placing a lower bid on the salvage and waiting overnight. The reality is that under the current supply and demand conditions most common salvage is worth between 5K and 100K depending on the item and how long you want to wait.


 

Posted

I honestly wonder sometimes if people are playing a completely different game than I am.

Bottom Tier Common Salvage:


Technogical: Human Blood Sample, Inanimate Carbon Rod, Computer Virus, Simple Chemical, Boresight, Brass

Arcane: Ancient Artifact, Luck Charm, Clockwork Winder, Spell Scroll, Spiritual Essence, Runebound Armor.


Placed bids for 10 of each salvage item at 1k Inf, both sides.

Blueside: After 30 minutes, all bids on the Tech pieces had filled (most of them filled almost immediately). Ancient Artifacts also filled. On the remaining 5 Arcane pieces, I upped the bid to 5k. After another 30 minutes, 4 of 5 remaining items were filled. Only Luck Charms remained unfilled (big surprise).

Redside: After 30 minutes, all bids were filled, with the single exception of Luck Charms. After 60 minutes, Luck Charms were also completely full.


For the record.


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Originally Posted by BBQ_Pork View Post
I'm trying to understand how various types of Market-Users affect the Market. So first I would have to catagorize the types of users.
That's where I need your help, oh Ebil Geniouses!

I'm not trying to define thier effects yet, so please bear with me.
Here's what I got so far.

1. Vendorers. Buy Salvage and Recipes at less than what a vendor will pay, sell to vendor, repeat.

2. Flippers. Buy an item (or stack thereof) when they can get it cheaper than usual, repost for a higher price to profit the difference (minus listing fees).

3. Farmers / Drop-Farmers / Wealth-Farmers. Run missions primarily for the drops accumulated, sell the drops, repeat. XP gains are secondary to the main goal, which is wealth. If thier inventory gets full mid-mission, they will consider whether to delete something (the least valuable) to make room for more, or to leave to sell. Often will team only with thier other accounts, so that drops aren't split between them and strangers.

4. Power-levelers / "XP-Farmers". Run missions primarily for the XP, usually not leaving a mission for a full salvage/recipe/etc. tray because leaving would jeopardize the main goal: XP. They might delete a low-value item from inventory to make room for better, if they remember or are willing to take a few seconds off of DPS/XP-HR.
Usually prefer teaming with as large a team as possible, despite most of the drops going to others.

5. Lazy-Casual Users. Not concerned about maximizing profits or getting into the complicated details of how every part of the market works. Not likely to pay attention to market trends. They will post thier stuff low for quick sales, and only bid as high as they feel something is worth to them personally. If thier bid isn't high enough, they will either let the bid sit as they wander off to a mission, or pull it to buy something else. They usually won't pay "Buy It NAO!!!" prices, but will seek other, cheaper wares instead. (RL equivalent: The guy who puts money into CD's and a 401K, but never bothers to read the business/financial section of the newspaper, but reads the Comics and Sports instead)

6. Frantic-Casual Users. Similar to the Lazy-Casual Users. However, they will pay "Buy It NAO!!!" prices if they can. Sometimes prone to posting angry rants about how they HAD to pay 1 Million $Inf to get a Common Salvage they wanted, and unwilling to hear any advice or disagreement from the viewpoint they already have. Sometimes they will post some of thier wares at very high prices, trying to recoup thier earlier losses, but if thier sales don't go through they will likely blame the Market, Flippers, Marketeers or pretty much anyone other than themselves (for posting higher than the other players would buy it for).
(RL example: same as the RL guy above, but writing angry letters to the editor about "Those durn fat-cats in warshingtoon!", and investing his money in lottery tickets.)

7. Crafters. They buy (or recieve as drops) Recipes and Salvage and compare it to how much the crafted product will go for. If the crafted product will sell for more than the Salvage+Recipe+CraftingCost, then they craft it and sell it for the profit.

8. Badgers. Working on Crafting Badges (to get more Inventory slots and perhaps even the grand poohbah of crafting badges, the Field Crafter Accolade Power), they fit with the Crafters above. Except they might be willing to craft items for a loss, if those items are what stands between them and thier goal, MOAR BADGESSES!!

9. Non-Users. Playing the game presumably using only SO's and maybe crafting drops.

Okay, Marketeers.....Who did I miss?
(Also, feel free to correct my names and descriptions)

I think I fall neatly into the LCU (Lazy Casual User) category. Maybe with a touch of Non-user.I don't use IO's very often except the occasional costume or temp power recipe. Once I've gotten the few items I need for base items, I sell off my salvage to finance my SO's.
I sell far more than I buy, and usually my sales are for whatever I think I can easily get for an item. For example: if luck charms are steadily selling for 15K, I'll place one up at 15K. Usually one of those will finance a lowbie character into the teens.
When I do buy, I do place my bid at a price I think is worthwhile. I cannot see anything on the market worth bidding multi-millions on. I know that in certain situations there are recipes that are far superior to SO's but I'm rarely in those situations. SO's work for 99.9 % of everything I do in game.
Will this make me an ebil marketeer? Nope. Not trying to be either. Do I think folks are wrong for wanting to be ebil? Nope. If that's your thing then more power and good luck to you.


Writer of In-Game fiction: Just Completed: My Summer Vacation. My older things are now being archived at Fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/~jwbullfrog until I come up with a better solution.

 

Posted

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Originally Posted by Hydrophidian View Post
I honestly wonder sometimes if people are playing a completely different game than I am.

Bottom Tier Common Salvage:


Technogical: Human Blood Sample, Inanimate Carbon Rod, Computer Virus, Simple Chemical, Boresight, Brass

Arcane: Ancient Artifact, Luck Charm, Clockwork Winder, Spell Scroll, Spiritual Essence, Runebound Armor.


Placed bids for 10 of each salvage item at 1k Inf, both sides.

Blueside: After 30 minutes, all bids on the Tech pieces had filled (most of them filled almost immediately). Ancient Artifacts also filled. On the remaining 5 Arcane pieces, I upped the bid to 5k. After another 30 minutes, 4 of 5 remaining items were filled. Only Luck Charms remained unfilled (big surprise).

Redside: After 30 minutes, all bids were filled, with the single exception of Luck Charms. After 60 minutes, Luck Charms were also completely full.


For the record.
A lot of people only look at the buy it now price for salvage. The reasons for that vary from player to player. For me the savings by low bidding on common salvage are minimal compared to low bidding on recipes or a stack of rare salvage (and even rare salvage savings are minimal compared to recipes). If I'm going to be playing a character for a few hours I will often low-bid on a few stacks of common salvage at the start of my play session but if I'm just logging on to check and refresh my auctions then low bidding common salvage is a waste of my slots.


 

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Originally Posted by Adeon_Hawkwood View Post
A lot of people only look at the buy it now price for salvage.
Oh, I'm well aware of that.

What I was addressing is the assertion that low level common salvage is prohibitively expensive for low level characters.

I don't consider 1-5k prohibitively expensive.

Of all the bottom tier salvage, Only Blueside Luck Charms were not obtainable at that price range. But that's nothing new. While I was doing this experiment, they were going for 30-75k.

While I didn't want to contribute to a threadjack, misinformation makes me a little twitchy.


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Posted

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Originally Posted by Hydrophidian View Post
What I was addressing is the assertion that low level common salvage is prohibitively expensive for low level characters.
By my recollection, a level 10 character gets around 10-15 influence per even level minion defeated; this may vary by faction. At a generous estimate of 15, to pay 1K inf that character must defeat 66 minions. For 5K, 333. Assuming normal play as intended, common salvage is prohibitively expensive for low level characters at current prices.



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Posted

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Originally Posted by Heraclea View Post
By my recollection, a level 10 character gets around 10-15 influence per even level minion defeated; this may vary by faction. At a generous estimate of 15, to pay 1K inf that character must defeat 66 minions. For 5K, 333. Assuming normal play as intended, common salvage is prohibitively expensive for low level characters at current prices.
It really isn't. Because, as you know, you also get enhancements, salvage, and recipes to sell. Not to mention the two tier 3 inspirations you can get from doing the tutorial. Defeating minions is not the only source of Inf.

Also, I set my minimum bid at 1k. On several of the items, I could've gone lower.

I mean, honestly, just how much salvage is a low level character going to need, anyway?

In any event, 1-5k != 100k.


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Posted

Not a bad list, but I'd seriously take a second look, based on your labeling of the "casual" and your descriptions of them. Terms like "lazy" and "frantic" carry negative weight that not only would annoy some people, but also color your own judgement... as your further descriptions tend to illustrate.

LAZY CASUALUsing your description, a "lazy casual" person essentially doesn't care about PLAYING the market. He just uses it. He gets what he needs from it and then goes off to play the game that he enjoys. ( "apathetic casual" would be a good neutral term).

You say that he won't pay "Buy It Now" prices. I disagree. He'll often pay it, because its more convenient than wasting more time doing something he's apathetic about rather than doing what he LIKES in the game.

For example: An ingredient for a desired recipe is too expensive. The apathetic person could a) pick another recipe and have to search for & price 3-4 more ingredients or b) pay up and get on with paying. A lazy-casual person does a quick comparison of "cost vs time saved," factors in current mood heavily, and then, I think, pays more often than he waits.

FRANTIC-CASUAL, on the other hand, is how I'd characterize the people that WANT min/max rewards at a casual-level investment of time/energy. They're not selling low- they look at the HIGHEST going rate for the item and price at that, ignoring market behaviors & the fact that there might be a few dozen listed at that price that will be going first. When it doesn't sell within a whoppin 24 hours, they pull it, losing the commission, and ***** about the market as you mentioned.

Frantic-casual would expect the LOWEST rate they can remember an item going for, regardless of other market forces, but if they can't get that, they'll grudgingly pay the going rate between alt-tabbing out of the game to gripe-post on the boards.

Ok, my prejudice for the frantic-casual still shows through, I guess...

FINALLY:

Quote:
...They usually won't pay "Buy It NAO!!!" prices, but will seek other, cheaper wares instead...
People can be rather casual market-players but still be damn hardcore when it comes to speccing out their build. (You can even more easily be a very hardcore marketer but be ridiculously casual about your character build). Don't mix those priorities.

A casual-market, casual-build player could just look for a cheaper recipe
A casual-market, hardcore-build player would likely stick to his guns (and become a frantic-casual marketer ******** the whole time...)


 

Posted

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Originally Posted by Heraclea View Post
By my recollection, a level 10 character gets around 10-15 influence per even level minion defeated; this may vary by faction. At a generous estimate of 15, to pay 1K inf that character must defeat 66 minions. For 5K, 333. Assuming normal play as intended, common salvage is prohibitively expensive for low level characters at current prices.
No, it's not. Simply because that same low level character is receiving drops while playing as well. They don't earn inf in a vacuum. OK, so Salvage A costs 10K on the market. Joe Player needs Salvage A, but doesn't have 10K inf. He sells Salvage B for 10K inf. Voila! Success!


 

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Originally Posted by Neogumbercules View Post
The catagorization of casuals in the OP got a little ranty and off topic.
I apologize for that. What I described as "Lazy-Casual" describes my own Market behavior most of the time. (although I've dabbled in Vendoring occasionally and Flipping a tiny bit.)
I'll take "Apathetic Casual" as the new term when I re-do my list.

I suppose that the Apathetic-Casual would be hard to pin down, as there would be a bit of varience within the group. Yes, some would settle for lesser sets and some would not. And some would pay the buy-it-now, while others would not.


 

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I think it depends on wether they're apathetic about slotting or influence. The former sort would choose a cheaper set because they want to save the inf while the latter would pay higher prices since they want the best set and they'll accquire more inf eventually.


 

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Originally Posted by Heraclea View Post
A level 25 Damage or Healing enhancement costs 30K from the in-game store that sells them. (60K at level 50, IIRC). The max you can hope to get selling one, assuming you were lucky enough to get one to drop at level 25, is 40% of that (12K at 25, again). Even if you sell your drops, a character relying on her own resources is going to find 20K too steep of a price to pay regularly.
Ouch.

And this is sort of an agreement with Adeon_Hawkwood as well. One thing Squez brings to the table is an unhealthy attachment to doing Field Crafter. I have 9 so far (not as good as some, more than others). I also have many sheets of paper tracking a bunch of others that are in various stages of progress. I play on all servers, so the odds of my being able to twink another character were extremely low pre-I9. And post I9 I don't have a reason to bother.

(For the record, my style of play doesn't show up in BBQ's initial take on categories. I showed up on LJHalfbreed's old schema where I think I had high degrees of lazy along with my marketeering.)

In the above example, it's just plain painful. I often around level 10 start working on 25/30 badges since they're practical (increased salvage inventory). Level 25 heal recipes can be bid on in cheap stacks, and I hazard I could get them for around 2,000 (especially if bid overnight or so); damage is a bit less since they drop more. Damage won't sell well, but level 25 heals will actually make a little cash (should be able to get over 50K). The salvage can be similarly obtained (though by level 10 I have a few of the salvage laying around already).

If I had to pay 30K + full salvage price + crafting cost + expecting to sell at a huge loss = crazy broke Squez on every server. As it was, in my most extreme examples my lvl 19 scrapper ended up with over 30 mil when all was said and done (mostly crafting a few key 35/40s) and my recent level 17 stalker at over 100 mil (added a little ebil flipping in there).

A little above this reply is someone (edit: Hydrophidian) who went and tested some 1K bids across the salvage board. Totally matches what I've seen over and over again.

For my money, you really can't beat Baloo the bear's take: If you're running around like that, you're working too hard. Over 100,000 people twinking you is a much more laid back way to go. I love those folks.


President of the Arbiter Sands fan club. We will never forget.

An Etruscan Snood will nevermore be free

 

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To Heraclea:

I was in the EXACT same boat as you are in now... my one personal base was getting over-ran with salvage racks, mainly nothing but commons.

Then I had a stroke of genius during Double EXP. Run a random AE Arc, and use the tickets to roll for the common salvage on whatever recipe you are looking to craft. You've got a 1 in 6 odds of getting it, provided you understand what tier and arcane/tech class it is. Yes, this method sometimes burns me, and fills my salvage with 15-50 unwanted pieces... oh, wait, the Market still has a demand for those commons that I don't need. I take ALL the excess, list them for 11 inf per, and then laugh.

The same issue you have with paying 100K/common can be turned to your benefit, at the cost of 45 min to an hour in AE.

I clued my girlfriend onto my little scheme, and developed her inner marketer. She's a little more relentless than me, and will actually list in the range of some of those sky high bids. She's since broken 70 million Inf in one week of casual marketing on the toon.

Yes, it's prohibitive to purchase common salvage from the market... So don't! Let it work for you, and find it elsewhere. AE is a boon to me in that regards, and there's more than enough Arcs out there that I won't have to repeat any as I randomly grab tickets. And yanno, some of them are fun! *is an AE Farm hater, BTW, it's retarded how easy it is to PL there*

But, again, your mileage may vary, not valid in any of the 7 continents, read at your own risk.


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Posted

Inspired by a certain company's way of looking at things, here I'll attempt to present...uh, a non-magical segmentation of a box:



I think all of BBQ's examples can be plugged on here. Obviously, someone like Smurphy is probably off the grid in the upper right square.

I think I fall dead center (or up the dead center line a bit). I badge, but not the 45/50 band. I flip, but not a lot. I am an adept patient bidder and know price points for a lot of items by heart. I hoard certain things as I go along until about level 27 or so, and I do enjoy plowing through DA and running certain challenging AE missions from time to time.

And all along the way, I'm so pleased I don't have to scrimp, save, and debtload to afford a first set of SOs anymore. Really, really glad.


President of the Arbiter Sands fan club. We will never forget.

An Etruscan Snood will nevermore be free

 

Posted

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Originally Posted by Panzerwaffen View Post
No, it's not. Simply because that same low level character is receiving drops while playing as well. They don't earn inf in a vacuum. OK, so Salvage A costs 10K on the market. Joe Player needs Salvage A, but doesn't have 10K inf. He sells Salvage B for 10K inf. Voila! Success!
But Heraclea will not sell salvage to other players for 10k because she feels it is unethical.


 

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Originally Posted by Corebreach View Post
But Heraclea will not sell salvage to other players for 10k because she feels it is unethical.
Well that's easily solved with a moral compass-ectomy


 

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There's no other way to say this...

If you play the game, shoot the bad guys, and sell your stuff on the market and you can't afford common salvage then you are an idiot.


 

Posted

If there is truly a perceived ethics dilemma, list stuff for what you feel is ethical. You will still make more than enough to deal with the current market costs generally speaking.

Anyway, /threadjack

The biggest problem I see with the categorizations is, does anyone really fit neatly into any of these categories? I mean, I know that's not the point, but to define them in what seems like such "black and white" terms is lending itself to oversimplification imo.


 

Posted

Starting up on a new server with friends and an empty wallet is always a good feeling. The first time I pursued all the crafting badges on a character was on a new server with no rich uncle. Simple patience in my bidding and making sure all my market slots were productive got me every crafting badge (save fabricator), a good 100 million, as well as me and my two private SG mates fully up to date IO's, all before level 30.

I suppose that would make me a badger and slightly less ebil for it by this strange measure. I can see how a brand new player could be intimidated by the market and not squeeze every opportunity out of it, but certainly any player that grows to understand their own needs and desires can find a way to capitalize on those same areas in others on the market.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Squez View Post
Inspired by a certain company's way of looking at things, here I'll attempt to present...uh, a non-magical segmentation of a box:



I think all of BBQ's examples can be plugged on here. Obviously, someone like Smurphy is probably off the grid in the upper right square.

I think I fall dead center (or up the dead center line a bit). I badge, but not the 45/50 band. I flip, but not a lot. I am an adept patient bidder and know price points for a lot of items by heart. I hoard certain things as I go along until about level 27 or so, and I do enjoy plowing through DA and running certain challenging AE missions from time to time.

And all along the way, I'm so pleased I don't have to scrimp, save, and debtload to afford a first set of SOs anymore. Really, really glad.
If certain types of farming become extremely profitable (how's the PVP business?) then does "ability to use the market" place those farmers above the marketeers?


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Posted

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Originally Posted by Fulmens View Post
If certain types of farming become extremely profitable (how's the PVP business?) then does "ability to use the market" place those farmers above the marketeers?
As I understand it, the knock on a certain company's way of doing this is that basically everyone wants to be in the upper right hand box; if a company can do that, its sales go up. Then it leads to boxes like this.

But since people were bandying about several ways to look at it, the box seemed to do the trick. I could do a dry categorization like we used to do back in philosophy, but drawing divisions isn't as much fun (nor as quick) as drawing boxes.

Edit: as I re-read, I think I can answer the question even. If farmers realized they could make money quicker strictly via the market, they might stop farming. They don't for a variety of reasons; the market remains just a place to cash in their chips. The hardcore farmer may well be at the far right intersection of marketeer and farmer (smart farmers need to know what gets deleted immediately, what gets sold to move, and what gets sold for gold (but not so much to induce 'slot clog.')).


President of the Arbiter Sands fan club. We will never forget.

An Etruscan Snood will nevermore be free

 

Posted

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Originally Posted by Fulmens View Post
I don't think "Casual" players remember what 72 different items of salvage "Should" go for, never mind several hundred recipes over twenty-plus levels each. I think that's why most of the "buy at the last 5" happens.
That's why I stressed the "that they can remember" part, which you might have missed.

The "buy it now" is handy, but a frantic-casual WILL notice that something frequently used- a rune, for example that he once bought for 5,000 is now going for 100,000. He doesn't have to remember exact numbers to be filled with righteous anger at being ripped off!

Heck, the frantic ubercasual will just ***** that ALL common don't go for relatively the same price! They're COMMON after all...


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Squez View Post
Inspired by a certain company's way of looking at things, here I'll attempt to present...uh, a non-magical segmentation of a box:



I think all of BBQ's examples can be plugged on here. Obviously, someone like Smurphy is probably off the grid in the upper right square.

I think I fall dead center (or up the dead center line a bit). I badge, but not the 45/50 band. I flip, but not a lot. I am an adept patient bidder and know price points for a lot of items by heart. I hoard certain things as I go along until about level 27 or so, and I do enjoy plowing through DA and running certain challenging AE missions from time to time.

And all along the way, I'm so pleased I don't have to scrimp, save, and debtload to afford a first set of SOs anymore. Really, really glad.
I think there needs to be separate 'profit motive' and 'effort' axes. I'm not sure whether the 'ebilness' axis is supposed to represent one or the other, or both combined, but I think they need to be separate. For example, 'performance artists' and 'ebil marketeers' would fall on the same place in 'knowledge' and 'effort', but differ in 'profit motive'. On the other hand, you could have two identical users who craft/sell for profit, but one only checks the market once per week, while the other once per day. Here the difference would be along 'effort'.

Of course, that would make it a 3-d box instead of a nice easy 2-d square, but whatever.


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Originally Posted by Stray Kitten View Post
If there is truly a perceived ethics dilemma, list stuff for what you feel is ethical.
The Golden Rule says that you should treat other people the way you'd want to be treated yourself. "Buy low and sell high" violates the Golden Rule. You can figure out why; it's not hard.

The problem with underselling on the market for moral reasons is the likelihood that whatever you sell will end up in the hands, not of someone who's going to use the salvage, but someone who will relist it for closer to the going rate to make an unethical gain. I'd rather vendor the surplus myself.

The devs really need to shore up the value of inf currently by adding stores that sell common salvage directly at a fixed price. I'd suggest a base cost at the current specialty ratio of 2.5:1; so that salvage that vendors for 250 can be bought for 625, 1000 for 2500, and so forth. Perhaps a special mission or even a task/strike force could be added to open up each of the three level tiers, and access to the store based on the badge it awards. This would fix the problem.



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