Low level common salvage really high?

First, and foremost, those prices are highly volatile and vary immensely, even
over course of a few minutes, let alone days... If you don't like the prices you
see, throw in a bid you're willing to pay, and let it sit -- if it is at all reasonable,
it will fill (probably in a few minutes).

Don't assume the last 5 is in any way representative of the average price.

Also, before we get too complacent attributing things to blatant stupidity, keep in
mind there are several other possibilities (some of which are actually rational)

Here are a few, just off the top of my head...

* Just got a nice recipe drop that will sell as is for 3M, but once crafted, would
sell for 20M... So, if I look at that 150,000 Circuit Breaker as a function of the
18M profit (after fees) I'll get for the sale, that salvage is 0.8% of cost -- ie. insignificant

* Just dinged a level, got a new power and I want an IO for it before I start
the tf my team is planning to run next. Normally, I'd put in a low bid, and get it
tomorrow - but they're waiting for me now - so, I'll overpay to grab it NAO.

That Circuit Breaker may overpriced currently, but... how much inf will I get
from just that tf? Will my new power help? As a point of interest, even substandard
L50's will make more than 1M an hour (not counting drops)... Most probably,
I'll make that 150K back easily in ~10 minutes or so in the tf even on a non L50.

* Some of us have made a LOT of inf over time. I'd conservatively guess I have ~20B
on hand (and I'm a lightweight compared to some folks)...

In that picture the 150K overpay is 0.00075% of my holdings, not only insignificant,
but barely even measurable.



Obviously, it all distills down to the value of your time in relation to the amount
of inf you can make in that same time.

More often than not, you'll lose (ie. miss out on) far more inf stewing over that
Circuit Breaker than you would if you bought it, and got back to killing things.

Of course, using other avenues (ie. AE tix, building up base storage over time etc.)
to obtain stuff is smart also, but I definitely wouldn't assume the person who
paid 150K for that Circuit Breaker did so purely because they're a moron...


Regards,
4

But none of that provides a convincing rationale for the Must Have It Now point of view. There are very few, if any, cases I'm aware of in which a new IO or two will make such a significant difference in the immediately upcoming gameplay that IT MUST BE HAD RIGHT NAO.

And I don't get this whole "play time vs. inf cost" comparison. How does it consume "valuable playing time" to just drop in a buy order and then go off and continue doing what you were doing? Go pick up the item when the buy order is filled and get on with playing again. What's all this about waiting around for low bids to be fulfilled? That's completely unnecessary since the game doesn't stop, or prevent you from doing missions while you have outstanding market transactions.

And if you are trying to coerce fast purchases of particular bits of salvage in order to craft an IO that has a momentary, unusually high selling price, then one can hardly claim to regard inf as meaningless "play money" with no value. Playing the market in this manner is hardly the behavior of someone who values their playing time above petty inf-accumulation concerns.

The market. When I go shopping, I put a low bid in for all the salvage I need, and swap toons and continue leveling other chars. When I level that toon, and want to IO it out, I repeat...bid low, swap toons. By the next time I play, I usually have all my salvage purchased and I didn't have to pay those ridiculous prices.

Patience is a virtue.

There seems to be a lot of hostility for people that overpay for stuff on the market. I don't really understand why. If I don't care why should you? I regularly pay 1,500,000 for all my salvage even if it is currently selling for 10. I'm not breaking the market. I just don't care. Why let the inf just sit? It doesn't do me any good. I figure at least some of the time some low level early player will get a nice surprise. I know I got one back when I started my new account. I thought it was the best night ever. Shrug, toons I dont use sitting on hundreds of million or in a couple cases a billion plus. Why would I not over pay?

There is always flipping going on when a niche is profitable enough, but the main reason it can and does spike is as others said, very low supply.

With the speed people blaze through the lower levels, only so much low level common salvage gets generated, and even then, it's likely many don't even put them on the market.

Issues with low level common salvage:
A) People tend to blaze through the levels

B) People tend to just 'let it remain full' and continue working towards their next level without unloading/selling salvage

C) A lot of it regularly and almost always sells for less than vendor price because their is no demand, so they get in a habit of just vendoring low level salvage. Myself, I often just delete it, unless I know the price is spiked on something, to save myself time.

D) Even when the price is high, it's often less valuable to try and sell 1-2 pieces of 50k salvage than being able to use that market slot for something else. 50k inf or leave a bid on a IO or piece of salvage I need for my build. Myself, I usually have all of my market slots working for me, and tend to either dump all my salvage quick on the market for 1 inf just to clear it or I vendor/delete it.

Anyways, those are some of the reasons, many of which others have stated too.