Market griefing - enough already

Having seen it happen plenty of times, I'm basically sick of the scenario where some small number of persons with a lot of resources and a lust for lulz decides to buy up all of (whatever) and relist them at higher prices. This especially applies to common salvage bits like Ruby or Nevermelting Ice. I'm sure it's fun for them, but I don't know why it's more tolerated than any other form of griefing.

What I'd love to see: some kind of account-wide market throttle on purchases. Basically, do some data-mining. Figure out what is the maximum possible number of X salvage that a person might need to fully equip a level 50 character, all at once, no matter how strange the combination of inventions and sets. Then set the throttle: your account may buy no more than 2x or 3x of that thing in a 24-hour period. Maybe that means a maximum of 50 or 100 Fortunes per day. As an IO manufacturer, I could live with that.

Yes, craft badging would take a little longer. Been there, would be fine with that, too. So maybe it takes a full week to get all the craft badges. You can spend that same time getting the Day Job for Went's, so it works out.

If that's too big a technical challenge, then administratively punish accounts that engage in market griefing with temporary bans. It should be pretty easy to identify the accounts and even distinguish them from badging, since they involve a huge number of Buy transactions and I'd suspect little or no corresponding crafting, along with the commensurate resell transactions and drastically-diminished supply.

But, no. Instead, we have a transaction throttle. So if I sell a full selection of 22 items, and I click the "Get All Inf" button, I'm automatically locked out of the UI for ten or twenty seconds because the "Get All" collection exceeds the transaction threshold. Cool.

The market is a Dev declared Mini-game. Won't happen sorry.

Do you have actual *proof* this is happening, as opposed to "Hey, there's demand for this now, I'm listing higher!" going on?

Besides, you have alternate means. Go play in AE for a bit. Use tickets, roll the random common salvage at the levels you want/need, sell what you don't need either at the vendor or the market. The market's not the only game in town.

See my Guides and Tutorials

That's not market griefing. That's playing the market. If you have patience and put your bid down for a price you think is reasonable, it will be filled, eventually.

I used to create items that sold for a high amount of money and only sell them at 6 influ each. I would dump about 30 to 40 of the same item to knock the sell prices down to a lower amount. It would work for a while. Is that griefing as well?

Gonna have to /unsign this one for reason already mentioned by others.

/unsigning with the others.

Bid what you want to pay for, wait, poof...ordered filled. Simple and doesn't pay IWANTITRIGHTNOWOMG!!!!! prices.

I know this won't "prove" anything to some but I think it somewhat funny (in a sad way) when some say "just set a price and then just be patient"....okay sure that's all fine and dandy...

I've had a bid (canceled it yesterday I think) for 1 Alchemical Silver for I think 50k or 75k (too expensive for my tastes I think but it was 'cheaper' than the "buy now price" of 150k to 500k).

Never got it...even after I did at least 2-4 runs (which is about 2-3 salvage 'full' trips with my toon to the market) with my Claws/SR Brute getting ~1,300 AE tickets in a few mins and doing all common arcance salvage rolls in the 26-40 range and selling everything I got for 11 influence; again, the cheapest I ever saw the Alchemical Silvers being bought for was ~150k.


Yes, I did just email the silver to myself but...how long should people 'wait'? Glad I wasn't bidding what I would expect to pay (25k at the most).


/grabs popcorn...no wait...I don't like popcorn....*grabs chips*

Given the howls of protest that will arise over any restrictions on the market I'd prefer to see it just made easier to transfer salvage between my alts - the dreaded common account based storage vault (i'd even be happy with it being restricted to the server as well).
Yes I know I can mail salvage to myself, piece by piece, but that is decidedly tedious and requires a lot of alt swapping to find which character has what I want

Sorry. /unsigned

As has been pointed out, this is part of the market mini-game. It is an intentional part and won't get touched. Nobody ever guaranteed you the ability to find the stuff you want, pay the lowball price you want AND have it fill for you immediately (if not sooner).

People who are experts at this portion of the game stress patience as well. And no, going out and running "a couple of missions" and expecting it to fill it at lowball price is NOT "patience"!

I can pretty much buy anything I want in this game. I can even pay the stupid "buy it NAO" prices. But I don't. Remember, a sizeable number of rich people are rich because they are not stupid with their money.

Impatience is a form of stupidity on the market. Don't be stupid.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

So what part of the rules are they breaking? None.

Only letting you buy what someone else has determined should be your maximum need seems like a bit of a loss of freedom to me on something that should be a free market.

So you either did not notice that his actions were adding to the supply and people were getting the itmes they wanted for the bids they put in or my sarcasam meter is broken.

I'm sorry that you do not know how to "play the game" when it comes to the market.

However, I have no sympathy for you. Throttling transactions per day is about as useful as using sandpaper in the bathroom. You're not going to effectively do anything but leave yourself and a lot of other players butthurt.

If you're having trouble getting some of the highest dropping common salvages such as Ruby and Nevermelting Ice, then I suggest you dust off a Lvl 50 if you happen to have one and run a couple mishs. You may also want to run a few AE Mishs for tickets and roll for commons.

Gee, here's a thought. Maybe you could run your 50 if you have one and then sell all those wonderfully "griefed priced" salvages that drop for you and buy what you really want.

In any event, I have to strongly disagree with anything that was spilled from your fingertips in an attempt at communicationg a sane and rational remedy to an irrational assumption on your part. If this were a standard questionaire where 5 is happy slobby bobbleheaded Yessiness and 1 was Hell to the Mother Chucking Diety Damned S to the FU, I would have to bury the needle so far into the subzero that popsicles would solve the issues and bring peace to the middle East.

Good Day!

To follow up on Forbin, IME, overnight covers the vast majority of my bids. A couple days a bit more for things like rare salvage. For me, I have waited months for some stuff. I have not come across anything in the game that is showstopping that you can't play a toon while you wait.

Hey, I'd love it if the Suggestions and Ideas board had well thought out suggestions and wasn't used as the complaint department.......but that's not gonna happen, either.

When you are a new player, you feel shut down by the market. I don't know about griefing, but when you are new, there is really no point to show up at the market house.

Unless you get really lucky.

Other than that, as a returning, new, sort-of player who's account was long gone, my new account seems dismal when it comes to funding. The market is a tuff nut to crack.