what if...

so i was bidding on blessing of the zephyr -kb pieces last night and they were nearing 100m at level 50, so i started looking at the lower level ones and grabbed a few for around 1/2 that price, each. this got me thinking, what if inventions didnt have levels attached to them? what if they just dropped in certain level ranges or to certain tasks etc..? how would that affect the market and the way things are priced? would stuff equalize higher or would prices come down because of higher perceived stock.

i think alot of the cost of IOs comes from people thinking that they absolutely must have a level 50 of any given IO if they want to be the best or whatever. personally, i often just buy whatevers cheapest and that gets the job done.

this thread is not a call for a change or a cry about high prices, i just wanted to poke some brains. i dont usually read this section so let me know if this is asked every week.

Well, the biggest mechanical change would be (I'm guessing) that they would lose the whole "stop working at exemplar below -3 levels" behavior. Personally, I wouldn't miss that one bit, but it would definitely be a change from what we have now.

I would sort of miss the level range spread we have now. On the one hand, it can be a major pain spreading bids over multiple levels trying to net something you want to buy. On the other hand, it presents a wonderful opportunity to get a deal on something. I guess what I'm saying is that removing this aspect would improve the market as a utility for the players, but degrade its facility as a "mini-game" for bargain hunters and people willing to spend time on it.

so i guess what we agree is that simplifying the game might bring more harm than good i guess since there are people who use the markets as more of a minigame and less a tool. its probably better to have some people in the dark, for the sake of the people who put more time in learning.

I don't know if everyone agrees, but it works for me. (And probably a fair number of the regulars in here.)

In my experience with the markets you don't have the situation as described in the OP very often (level 50 proc IO being the highest price available), but quite the opposite. The reason for this, I've always assumed, is that people who want an IO earlier to slot on a lowbie will pay a premium vs. waiting until the toon is at least 47 so a level 50 IO can be slotted.

Perhaps -KB is something that lowbies aren't as interested in as other proc effects? I'm not sure why the level 50 IOs would be selling for a premium, that seems very odd to me.

My general experience is that the max-level IO IS at the highest price, even if rational people would expect otherwise. My reasoning is somewhat convoluted, but here's what I think is happening:

1) High prices are driven by the proverbial BUY IT NAO player.
2) About as many IO's are generated at max level as at all lower levels combined. (I once tried to corner the market on all levels of something. I think Mako's Bite: Dam/End. I still have, like, eighty of them for sale on some dusty character somewhere. Anyway, that was my conclusion from watching my bids fill.)
3) At anything but max level, there are likely to be either very few unfilled bids (small supply, tiny demand, any serious bid gets filled nearly immediately) or very few for sale (small supply, moderate demand, any plausible price gets paid nearly immediately.)
4) If you want to BUY IT NAO, you will end up buying it at max level because that's where there is enough supply and enough demand to "make a market",in the Wall Street meaning. Anywhere else you have too little interest- almost nobody finds it worthwhile to have bids and keep stock on, say, level 36 Numina: Heals because they come up about once a week, and someone's probably going to beat your "standard" price.

Check the realized prices vs. level for any Celerity or Unbounded Leap +Stealth IO to see what I'm referring to.

And yes, I agree that max-level is where the massive supply is, but I contend that I consistently see evidence of significant minimum-level demand on procs that are much in use such as the +Stealth and others.

There are some things where the lowest-level version is the most expensive. However, it's common that the highest-level one sells at a far higher rate.

Some things, though, a lot of people either don't care about exemplaring or they don't understand the (admittedly convoluted) rules, and people go hog wild for the level 50 version.

I don't know many people who combine a desire to have IOs with that sort of laziness. If they're really investing the time in figuring out what to get and slot, nearly every one I've met has taken the time to look for lower level IOs if they understood when doing so was "better".

Now, that's for singleton IOs, things like Numina unique, Stealth IOs, or LotGs. I know lots of people who don't worry about losing their set bonuses when they exemplar. The exception used to be PvPers, who really wanted bonuses in places like Siren's Call. I think the I13 changes and addition of PvPOs impacted this some, but prices suggest some people still care enough to pay a premium for L30-33 IOs.

Are Zephyr -KBs like stealth IOs, meaning that it works regardless of what level you exemp to?

Leveling is so fast these days that I'd rather wait until the 40s or 50 to slot good stuff, just because it's more available and affordable, especially if it's backward compatible.