The Flipper: Hero of the Markets

"Flippers are the highest bidders and the lowest listers" is equally true as "Flippers raise prices." Both are technically true under teeny tiny circumstances. I simply want understanding that players in this thread are making statements on equal level with the people they love to mock.

But they're not. "Raise prices" is in general false -- the overall trend of prices due to flipping is necessarily downwards due to market fees. It cannot be otherwise.

Highest bidders and lowest listers is true on every single occasion. Raising prices is not usually true, or even often true.

I don't comprehend how flipping raises the average price of goods. Here is how I create a train of thought on that matter. Let me know which specific point you disagree with...

1) Players make a certain amount of Inf over time on average.
This amount is unchanged whether flippers exist or not.
2) Players use an amount of Inf to bid on items and compete with each other to obtain items.
This amount is unchanged whether flippers exist or not.
3) Therefore, whether flippers exist or not, players will essentially be using all available funds to compete against each other to purchase items.

Are you making an argument that if flippers didn't exist players would stop competing against each other to bid on items? This would mean that players who want items are intentionally not spending their Inf on items and saving Inf for no purpose other than allowing someone to buy an item for less.

The only argument I can comprehend about flippers and the average price of goods is that by running an item through the market multiple times and incurring multiple market fees the average amount of Inf in the system is lowered, players have less Inf to compete with each other, and the average price is somehow lowered.

I would like to hear your explanation on precisely how flippers cause the average price to rise. I would especially like to hear how the three points above are not applicable.

"Lowest Listing Price/Highest bidding Price" is in general false -- the overall trend of prices is to exist within the boundaries set by flippers. Flipping essentially setting a "price ceiling" and a "price floor" and any transaction that occurs in between is one where the flipper is NOT the lowest list nor the highest bid. Also, transactions where the Flipper is the Lowest List he is NOT the Highest Bid and also transactions where the Flipper is the Highest Bid he is NOT the Lowest List.

Raises the Price is true on every single occasion. Lowest List/Raising price is usually not true, or even often true.

I said essentially said the same thing you did but reversed one topic for the other and the accuracy of the statements are equal. One set of statements is equally as moronic as the other. You provided a sound counter to my first paragraph and I provided a sound counter to your first paragraph.

Good luck with that. Most people on this board are more interested in posturing and being right than actual understanding. Sort of like playroom politicians.

I flip salvage and I also sell crafted items. They're both fun things to do. It's also fun to have billions of inf!

No really. Its good stuff.

I vaguely recall you once saying something about anything the game's mechanics allows to happen is therefore a legitimate action, or something to that affect?

I cut up your cheese and make this.

Swiss cheese is dull and boring. I prefer the tastes of mozzarella, provolone, feta and parmesan.

American cheese just totally sucks.

Then you're pairing it wrong. All cheese is nummy!

Did you know that Brie takes disturbingly similar to cheese from a can?

Cheese

OM NOM NOM

this train is off its tracks.

Srsly. I'm hungry now

And dinner isn't for over an hour. I has a sad.

Oh, REALLY???

eww

Oh please do, I'll be glad to do everything I am able to promote this venture.

that's not cheese. its worm poop.

I stand by my original statement

Same.

I started thinking of all the things I could have with cheese in or on it and that made it worse.

'raising' the price from, say, 20 to 500 creates a minor burden for the purchaser.

Eliminating the need to pay a hundred K+ during a supply crash provides a benefit for the purchaser.

Without dev numbers there's no way to know how that plays out, but from my time observing volatile commons price spikes in unflipped goods are relatively frequent and people drop a lot of inf during periods of insufficient supply. When I bought out all the cheap NMIs the other night people were paying 500k-1m each for them, and I didn't do anything except replicate the effect of one impatient badger or crafter looking to fill up their SG's storage bins. Had I been flipping that salvage rather than deleting it the price would never have approached those levels. One player dropping a million on an Ancient Bone balances out a lot of people who paid a few hundred more than they would have otherwise.


And, of course, the flipper still paid more than anyone else wanted to and sold for less than anyone else wanted to. =)

No, it's fly babies digesting. They don't call them cheese flies for nothing!

Cheese flies eat cheese. You're in denial!

and the end result of digestion is....?

My argument stands.