Go to Redside.

Several days ago when this thread kind of exploded into the mess that it is now, I decided to actually test the assertions of the marketeers posting here.

I placed bids on a number of odd level (17, 23, 27, 29 etc) recipes. I chose recipes that would be useful for frankenslotting, but avoided the high demand quads and such. All bids were placed at reasonable prices, in that if it had a consistent history I matched it. If there were large price spikes, I placed bids reflecting the median price.

Every bid is still sitting unfilled.

Odd, I've never had any bids or items sit in the market for longer than a few hours, and I don't even really do the whole "marketeering" thing.

And I just recently managed to fully frankenslot my Dominator (sitting at level 34 at the moment) with only 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 infamy, and I didn't spend more than ~30 minutes at the market.

I bought many "odd level" pre-built enhancements and recipes between level 26 to 35 (I was 32 at that moment).

Not only that, but I also lack the patience in the market. I'd rather pay high and get something NOW and avoid crafting the item myself. So chances are, I could have saved a couple of million infamy if I had less of an "I WANT IT NAO!" approach.

If we want to use personal experiences as basis for our arguments, then that's mine. And now you see why doing so is just silly.

I think the whole red side vs. blue side debate is some unfruitful, silly discussion. However, please don't blame your inability to utilize a system efficiently on the system, other users, and your 'casual gamer' status...whatever that means.

EDIT: Post removed

Nevermind. This has long since degenerated from amusing to just pathetic.

Bidding on stuff that there was 0 supply for and then complaining about it hardly proves the point - after all, the exact same thing happens blueside. Ditto if you made 'reasonable' bids on stuff for which there was actually supply and still didn't get them (ie, what you consider reasonable and what the sellers do is out of sync).

You know... if you perceive a hole in a market somewhere, such as recipes or a certain type of salvage or whatever, you can always get a toon to that level, turn off XP and make out like a bandit while you keep providing recipes for the market there. These sorts of 'problems' in markets are just problems of comprehension - don't think of them as problems, think of them as opportunities.

Things are only as broken as you think they are.

My only major complaint about the market is you cant bid on something thats never been posted for auction before. For example, I need 3 explosive strikes for a toon. the level range is 10-20. As far as rareity goes, I dont believe they have low drop rates, pretty sure they are common as far as uncommons go. However, most toons will never need the set, so no one has ever sold level 20 peices of it. This bites for me because now I have to try for even lower level peices of a crappy set that I really really need. I would buy it with merits but the vendors dont offer that set. So instead, Im stuck trying to get it on my lowbies or something.

And by the way, I posted bids well over the other previous payed amounts for the set. This was easily a month ago and Ive only gotten one peice from the set...and its level 12 or 17. So yeah, I definately see issues with the market redside, but I also play redside 90% of the time so really its notthat big of a deal.

It most definately has holes in the levels the way I have it (default.) Itll have levels 10-13 and then wont have 14 or 15, have 16 and 17 and then no more. Thats not exact, but you get the idea yeah?

I also doubt GR will have any effect on it. At least, I dont see GR haveing a much greater effect on the market than issue releases do.

Alright, since this has become a discussion of markets now, let me describe what I feel is the "issue" with the red side market.

The "issue" is that there is no issue. For any economical system, there is a source of buyers (Demand) and a source of sellers (Supply). In City of Heroes, and City of Villains, the Demand is provided by people bidding on items they wish to obtain. Similarly, the Supply is provided by people selling items they wish to turn into raw cash.

As stated above, the Supply and Demand, in both markets, are provided by the same people. As a result, both the Supply and the Demand, are directly proportional to one variable: Number of users of the market.

The higher the number of users of either market, the larger the supply, the larger the demand. From basic economics, if the ratio between these two quantities remains constant, and there are no outside influences in the system, the price will also remain constant, in an ideal situation.

That is why there is no issue.

However...

If the supply of a market is limited, then each individual supplier in the market has more control over the prices. As a result, because of the lower supply on the red side market (and hence the lower demand), people who profit on pure price manipulation can do so with more ease, as there is less competition.

Which means that the only reason people believe "red side market is broken" is because "ebil marketeers" can profit more easily, due to lower supply.

In the end, however, because of the lower demand, it doesn't make a huge difference. The only difference it makes is that you, as the semi-casual buyer, need to wait a little for a price manipulation to subside before hoping for successful bids. The end.

Therefore, either market is only 'broken' if you WANT it to be broken, TO YOU, as someone else in the thread already mentioned.

Then going rogue came out and everyone was a praetorian.

I only wonder what color-side it will be.

Greyside?

All I'm saying, I Better not see dirty villains in my base.