Is this . . . ebil?

No, this isn't a screenshot of how much Inf I have.

Let's suppose for the sake of argument that I am working on the Sharpshooter badge and have just created 5 level 50 Recharge IO's.

Let's say I go to sell them on the Market and notice that there are 9 bidding and 5 others for sale.

Now the Law of Supply and Demand says that if the Demand (ie number bidding) is higher than the supply (ie number for sale) then I should be able to charge a higher than normal price.

But if I put my 5 Enhancements on the market, then the supply will be now be higher than the demand, so I risk having to sell at a lower than premium price.

(Now here's where I might be getting ebil.) However, if I make 5 other bids - at say 1 Inf, so there's no chance of me actually buying anything - I can artificially increase the apparent demand, therefore hoping that I can charge a premium price. (On the assumption that buyers will see that Demand is higher than Supply and will therefore - hopefully - be more willing to pay a higher price.)

Is this ebil?

Illegal?

Immoral?

Against the game rules?


>.>


<.<


Have you ever done it?






No, I have never done this. Stick a needle in my eye and all that. But what I have done is, if I had a lot of a particular thing to sell, and there were just a few for sale and only a few more bidding, is put one thing at a time on the market, then just watch until it sold, then add another, watch until it sold......etc.

I liken it to wondering if it's immoral to kill off a character in a story you've written. It's just a little inconsequential.

Wow. I didn't know CounterStrike Junkies had the patience for marketeering.

To the OP: I'm honestly not sure it would have that much effect on pricing. It's not like most people bother looking at supply and demand of what they want. Or the last 5, for that matter.

Does anyone else find the new forums' "ignore" feature much less convenient than the old one?

To the OP: It's a little ebil but not much. I've seen items with 200 bids, last 5 prices in the millions, and no bids over 50K. Someone thinks it's worth it to try.

Yeah, kinda. Specifically, I can't seem to find it.

I do just the opposite of the original poster to get recipes and enhancements for cheap. If I find a good recipe that has 0-10 bidding at one of the levels, I'll inflate the bids so people DON'T bid on it because there's so many bids and a seller may be more likely to sell it for 10 million instead of 100 million thinking they'll get a good price because so many are bidding.

With standard IO's, the only time I really worry about supply vs demand as a part of the equasion, is when they are way out of sync ( and way out of sync is 75+ for sale and 0 demand). The demand for standard IO's fluctuates and is a very much a "buy it Nao!" product. Having 10 up for sale, and 5 bid, isn't worth paying attention to. Boosting bids has little to no impact on their sale.

So, the word I'd use, isn't Illegal or immoral or any thing like that. The word I'd use is "pointless"

I think it depends on the article in question and how you do it.

For example, I have too many AH slots spread among too many characters to manage. I might do something like grab a non-market-using alt and place 150 bids on LotG +Recharge at 50.

Why? Well, it's expensive enough for people to speculate on it. On any given day it can cost anywhere from 150m-250m. Artificially inflating demand increases the apparent value to a speculator, so if I'm selling it may push my sale price closer to 250m.

For most stuff it's probably pointless - people who buy generic IOs and salvage aren't necessarily market-savvy enough to understand it. Probably only worth doing if you expect a lot of speculation and are planning to sell.