Hiya, so I had put up some blueprints for sale and found to my utter surprise that people bought them. O.O Don't know why that surprised me so much, since when I needed them I bought mines too, but I knew (especially in the case of new players) that you could easily get them for free on the forums. 

So then I had the completely unoriginal idea to buy all the blueprints in item trades under 3K and sell them all for 3K each.

For obvious ethical reasons I dismissed the idea quickly and gave myself a mental scolding. Not only would that be pretty mean, but it's mostly new players buying the blueprints so I would be preying on the newbies and giving them a not so favorable opinion of the site.

But I am curious. What if someone did start a monopoly on some items? Especially if said item was something only newer players had to worry about? How would you guys react? Would you ignore it? Get together with others to stop it?

I guess you could say if they wanted blueprints they would come to the forums, but remember, Angel has said that the game was designed so that if one wished to play solo, they could. Not to mention those that would feel shy about not knowing anyone and jumping right in to ask for free stuff and generally those that don't like asking for freebies.

Any thoughts? Am I making a big deal out of something that probably wouldn't affect anyone? Vote and say something, please. ^^

Interesting question. There are so many people offering free blueprints on the forums that I doubt it would work for those items. Some people might insist on either buying or farming them themselves, but the option will always be available. Other items primarliy needed by newbies, such as wood, clay, and stone, might be easier to exploit, but those are so widely available that it would be hard for one person to corner the market. 

For a strictly solo player, all necessary items can be found in Explore without much difficulty. A good pet can be bought for a few thousand silver or less that makes Explore relatively painless. Get a female, use the males on Breeding Offers a few times, and you have a handful of good pets. Sure, it's easier if you collaborate with other players, but the same could be said of a lot of games. 

If I were aware of a monopoly (and I don't go to the Item Trades often, so realistically I probably wouldn't be), I could respond by undercutting them. Whether the monopolizer or another player bought my item, I'd profit either way. If enough people did this, it would cost the monopolizer more to buy out the competition than they would profit. 

So in short, I can't see this realistically happening. 

I know I would try to find a way that I could give the item to newbies for free/a low price. I remember that it wasn't very fun being a new player; I had no idea how friendly the community was and I didn't want to impose on anyone. It was also hard to get all the things I needed to succeed.

EDIT: Sorry, Sumatra_Echo, I didn't see your post. But I do still believe that this is what I would do.

@Sumatra_Echo Thanks for the well thought out post. But I'm afraid I don't understand how undercutting would hurt the monopolizer? Wouldn't it profit them if you lowered your price? I guess I'm assuming the monopolizer has an abundance of coins and time. But yeah I do agree that anything needed can be founded in explore with enough patience for an extremely solo player.

@SusanWellsworth Yeah, I remember when I first started how I would avoid fighting monsters on islands so I could get the most out of my pet's energy. And I do remember when I started off, someone randomly sending me free golems and when I pm'ed them thinking it was a mistake, they offered me a free unicorn. It had degeneration but was GP3, which was a huge blessing and I still struggled, so I can imagine someone without any help. 

I suppose a part of my curiosity stems from he fact that I experienced this with two other games I used to play, WolfPlay and SmallWorlds. Not the reason I stopped playing those. The latter because of the unfriendly community, and bullying is all too common.

But yeah...anyone else wanting to share their opinion?

From your post I assumed the monopolizer was dominating the market by buying out the competition, rather than underselling them. If I were selling items at a lower price, people would buy from me instead of them, ergo there wouldn't be a monopoly anymore. If they responded by undercutting me, then the value of the item would gradually drop until one of us gave up, and I don't know that anyone would profit from that except the buyer. 

Yay the free market!

And I'd hate there to be bullying here. I love this community. Even the competition is friendly, and the really good players are always ready to give advice.

@Sumatra_Echo I would assume the monopolizer would have a lot of time, and triggers on the item. So wouldn't just buy your items, mostly by auction sniping- if there's no set price. Sure one or two would get by their claws, but if the monopolizer managed to catch the majority, well yeah... Correct me if my thinking's wrong. But on another hand, I do believe it would be extremely difficult to pull something like this off. Especially if a bunch of players (like you said) flooded trades with the same item.

@arete :D My email provider sent your reply notification straight to spam. I'm assuming it was because of your first line. I don't know why that amuses me so much.

I think I'm still not quite understanding what you're saying. So, the method I think you're describing is that the monopolizer would need to flip all items below a certain price to maintain the monopoly. But there's no way of knowing whether enough people will buy at the new price for them to profit. Let's say for instance the monopolizer has to buy out around 5 other lots every day, and raises the average price by 20%. They'd need to make at least 4 sales every day just to break even. I don't know how active the Item Trades are, but I wouldn't count on that happening, and they'd just start losing money. 

From what I've seen it actually does seem like the market is largely controlled by a small number of individuals, especially one player in particular. But it's not due to an aggressively maintained monopoly so much as the player is willing to sell so many items at a relatively low price. Anyone else could undercut them, but few people have enough resources to profit from selling at such a low price, so the player usually remains at the top of the board. Just an interesting observation.

Yeah, that is what I mean. It would be a risk, but I do believe if the monopolizer stuck out long enough people would start buying. The problem would mainly come- and this goes back to preying on newer players, when they come onto the scene not knowing what the prices used to be. Like many businesses, yeah there would be loss in the beginning but over time, I imagne profits would begin and grow. 

But yeah, I don't know why I'm saying this, I actually agree with you, this happening would be highly unlikely, but I don't know, I guess I want conversation?

And the market is controlled mainly by the same people, just as the buyers of certain items are usually the same people. This is definitely not an underhanded shade thrown at them :D I'm completely fine with that because usually these people are either spread out in their sales, or they make multiple trades and then take a break. And the person I believe you're referring to, I really appreciate what they're doing. I do believe they have the ability if they wanted to hold the market hostage but they choose one item to focus on at a time and, from what I've seen since starting playing again, usually they sell out so fast they don't have an impact on market value.

Possibly. Again, I'm not heavily involved in the Item Trades, so I don't know how often people buy things. Personally, I prefer to farm things I need myself, especially since you can gain money in Explore at the same time. But I imagine not everyone's willing to spend that kind of time. 

Can't blame you. There's not enough happening on these forums anyhow. 

I've noticed that with the buyers as well. I lurk in the Pet Trades sometimes, and it almost seems like the only thing keeping deviant prices so high is one or two certain people willing to shell out a lot of money for them. 

I'm sure the player in question makes just as much already by grinding Explore as they could be taking control of the market, if not even more. Honestly I'm impressed by their dedication more than anything else. People who pour as much time into this game as they do should be successful. And their prices help me determine an approximate value for items when I otherwise wouldn't have much idea, especially when comparing the value of one to another. 

Well, I guess I have nothing else to say. Pretty sad about that.