ajqtrz
Chef - loquacious Old Dog
So, if I understand this correctly then I should just offer my scrolls at enough discount that my trades get picked up (and yes, it will probably be cheaper for me than producing unboosted goods myself). But if all offer scrolls at discount then what happens???
All this means is that Lord Fredrick has decided the fair market value of scrolls to him is a 1.5:1 ratio between scrolls and silk. If he has a lot of scrolls and is producing a lot he will maintain that ratio until he feels he has enough silk and crystal and then he will either cut production or start warehousing scrolls. My point is, it's Lord Fredrick who decides the value of his scrolls and if the consumers (those who purchase scrolls) think they are worth even less they will sit there -- until somebody thinks otherwise and purchases Lord Fredrick/s scrolls. Since pricing of scrolls is set not by the game but by trading partners Lord Fredrick has determined that either, all things considered, his supply of scrolls is so high he can afford to unload them at a steep discount OR that since silk is in such short supply and he's having a hard time getting it he must offer what he has (scrolls) at a steep discount. So you can say the Lord Fredrick is either responding to a personal surplus in scrolls or a personal shortage in silk. Either way it's Lord Fredrick who is determining the value of his scrolls.
How do you profit in such a market? When it comes to "profit," the thing is, you won't sell them without an agreement between you and the buyer about what they are worth in that transaction (i.e. the parties situations and what they are willing, in their current state, to trade for) and that agreement is therefore always "fair." Since no one is forced to make the agreement the total agreement -- the aggregate of the goods and intangibles you gain in comparason to the goods and intangibles you give by the trade -- must be, in the view of the traders, even or profitable, and thus "fair." Another way to say it: If you think about it, you may not like the terms of the agreement and feel "forced" by market conditions to make it, but, in the end you make it because you gain the advantage of the goods and intangibles you get in exchange, and those goods and intangibles are, in your evaluation, worth the price.
@The Fairy
Thank you. This is a great example. Goods aren't moving, someone offers a discount, everyone else has to offer a discount...Goods aren't moving, someone offers a bigger discount, everyone else has to offer a bigger discount...and on and on further devaluing the goods.
Discounts don't help the co-op. Solidarity in pricing does. Discounts only move one's own game forward.
*I do see that you are specifically talking about the scroll problem. I hope people are seeing it and that the ones who aren't scroll boosted will, at the very least, stop filling the few scroll orders that are out there.
This is almost correct. "Everyone else has to offer a discount" is the problem. In fact, no one has to offer a discount unless they want their goods to move. The "unless" is important because wrapped up in that little word are the intangibles. Why do they want their goods to sell? And why now? Perhaps they need the silk to finish a quest. Perhaps they need crystal to upgrade a building. All sorts of "secondary" needs are at play and thus if they feel pressured to sell at a discount because they must sell now that's an intangible. I would offer that the general pressure of these intangibles can't be ignored in understanding the "fairness" of any transactions, but it's the traders themselves who determine the value of those intangibles and thus the ultimate value of the goods offered and accepted. That many players have a surplus of goods is not a problem unless some player need other goods and feel they can't wait for the "fair" 1:1 ratio trades to show up.
In addition, your "devaluing the goods" isn't as accurate as you think, though it's certainly commonly used. The goods have no value but the value you and your trading partner give them at the time of the trade. He or she posts them at what they value them to be at the time of posting -- which includes the intangibles of their situation. You come along and if you value them at the same price or more -- again the actual number you assign to the goods adjusted to include the sense you have of the value of the intangibles -- you purchase them. The only valuations that count are the ones the trading partners have made. So the market does not devalue anything since nothing has an intrinsic value -- the "fair market value" is a measure of what the goods are currently selling for -- meaning the average of all the transactions over the last X amount of time. It's not the actual value of the goods but only used to consider what might be a profitable trade. The actual "profit" is what the trade partners decide it is and it might appear on paper that somebody is losing their shirt, but, in fact, once you consider the intangibles, they never lose their shirt without gaining something worth that shirt -- to them -- in exchange.
AJ