Why is everything so expensive? (PC NA)

edward_frigidhands

The prices won't come down while people continue paying.

LordRukia

Easy to make millions, but also easy to spend it. I like how active the traders are on PC as opposed to them being dead on consoles due to no addons or even a global search option. In 4 years I haven't really noticed much change other than the numbers being inflated .. lol

FrancisCrawford

I've tried to keep all the materials I think I'd ever need for crafting hanging around in my craft bag. (Or in some cases indirectly hanging around in my piles of crafting surveys.) That reduces stress about prices quite a bit.

That said, I had the patience to do crafting writs for quite a while, and the patience to log in for hireling emails longer than that. At the moment I have neither -- but, again, I have most or all of the mats I need, along with ~100 million gold.

As for selling stuff: I pick a category of goods that looks like it might be profitable. I check pricing/supply/demand in multiple ways -- my own guilds, other guilds in the same cities, guilds in other tiers of city, Master Merchant, TTC. That gives me a sense of what I can charge ... unless the same thing is already available cheaper in the same guild, or seems likely to be in the same city. Then I make quick sell/no-sell/pricing decisions about that kind of stuff for weeks or months, while putting little or no effort into rechecking my original data. Eventually the whole thing stops working, so I go through the analysis again. Or a category that I dropped before looks like I should get into it again.

Tip 1: If something is handed out as event rewards, its price may fall in connection with the event and then rise again as time passes.

Tip 2: Look in a guild store at stuff that's been unsold 5-10 days or more. That's the stuff that's presumably overpriced.

notyuu

it's quite simple

1: due to the increase in the number of players as well as the increasing ease of getting a solid gold the demand for mats and plans has gone up

2: supply of mats and plans has remained constant (or if the rumours are to be beleived, actually reduced via drop-rate nerfs) to the point where it's falling far behind the demand

result: Prices for the goods go way up

possible soloution: add in a weekly vendor that sells random upgrade and furnshing mats and furnshing plans for gold, this would both increase the supply of the mats and plans in question as well as reduce the amount of gold floating around due to being a gold sink.

JKorr

kargen27 wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

M0ntie wrote: »

Supply and demand. ZoS need to increase drop rates (increase supply) in the game so that people can get what they need for less time. This operates very obviously during motif drops during events. Initially the price on them will be high for the people who want them right now, then the price lowers and how much it lowers is proportional to how high the drop rate is.

Things ZoS could increase are for example to return more gold mats when refining raw materials and increase the drop rates of harvesting raw materials.

Tbh. All they need to do (if ZOS cares about in-game economy) is to add an option for guild traders to also buy stuff (just like you have cod system & post items you are selling you could also post an items you want to buy & for how much).

Imagine how it would boost item supply on the market. Guilds would be able to buy stuff relatively cheap from all eso players & all players with surplus items (solo or with guild) would be able to contribute to in-game economy in some way.

Even if traders would flip items & sell for more gold - even then the final prices would be lower, but the income from "flipping" would be the same.

I always thought that trading in ESO should be based on competition between guilds - who will offer lowest price - "wins", as players will buy from them rather than from someone who offers higher price. Meanwhile it seems like nowadays we have a different situation and trading guilds actually don't care about offering lower price than competition. Almost like a "Price fixing" (yeah, I know it is probably not that, but this is the impression I am getting) lol.

The modern system has nothing to encourage that. A noble idea, but not practical in an MMO.

JKorr wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

JKorr wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

JKorr wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

JKorr wrote: »

DagenHawk wrote: »

sinnereso wrote: »

We also have the issue of guild trader being rediculously expensive due to inflation and guild masters slave driving theyre members to sell / pimp themselves out to meet quota's. Players are no longer treated with any respect within these guilds, theyre just sheep for them and theres no discussion anymore. Its theyre way or the highway and the player left with nowhere to sell anything.

[snip]

THATS how the guild traders are run now!

[edited for naming-and-shaming]

You are right but take heart Auction houses are coming

Maybe not this year but soon.

And you can thank the abdominal way players are treated within guilds for making it happen

Question from curiosity; if that is how guilds [your guilds, none I've ever been involved with, around, or even barely acquainted with are like that] why on Tamriel are you and the other guild members stupid enough to put up with it? To the best of my knowledge, there are no legally/magically binding contracts signed in player blood that say YOU MAY NEVER EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE LEAVE THE GUILD. Why would people who are being exploited, scammed and abused stay in those bad guilds? And please don't say "Because they are the only option", because they aren't. Nothing is stopping anyone from dropping a guild and finding another. If enough abused and mistreated players leave, they could even...:gasp: create their own guild. set up the way they want to run it. If they don't the choice of finding a different guild, one that has no dues, or sales requirements, and they do exist. My no dues no sales needed TRADING guild has a trader consistently. My no dues no sales needed SOCIAL guilds have traders. No one dictates what prices I put on anything I want to sell. I don't consider myself or my guildmates treatment to be abominable. Works quite nicely, actually. Even with my "only when I get ambitious and really want to" selling habits my bank balance is 14m. If I actually put some effort into it, belonging to 1 trading guild/4 social guilds with 30 slots to sell at each one, that total would be higher.

Why would Auction house happen because some mentally challenged masochists enjoy being exploited, abused, and treated abdominally? [which doesn't mean what you think it means....unless it was an honest mis-chosen word on your part]

You make that money because of the very imperfect guild trader system. Information is very effectively hidden, even with TTC.

That means that a few profit really well at the expense of most users.

A "few" profit... You don't have to be in a TRADING guild to trade. My social guilds that are not focused on trading get traders, so the pool of a "few" expands again. Even if no one is ambitious enough to try for a trader the option of the guild store is still there. It isn't that hard to make gold in this game. Before the traders existed, getting gold was a LOT harder.

The thing I can't get past is simply this; no one is being forced to pay exorbitant prices. Everything that you can buy at the guild trader you can farm yourself in-game IF you are willing to spend the time to do it. TTC is, in my opinion, personal opinion only, worthless for pricing anything. TTC shows the price someone listed an item for; it does NOT show what the item actually sold for. Someone could list a blue beginner motif for 250k, and its uploaded to TTC, that is the price that will show. When you check MM prices in the guilds you belong to it shows it sold for 50 gold. Again, people are free to list items at whatever price they want to ask for, and the players are equally free to "Nope, not paying *that* much" and leaving the buying screen.

You completely missed my point. I have no way to easily find what is really a fair price, especially on the PS4. Yes, I don't have to buy anything, but finding things for comparative prices or gear to purchase is a very difficult process. You benefit because of this, but it is a very poorly designed system for most players.

My point was "post your own prices". Common sense and a look at even one trader will show you a ballpark amount.

If you go too high, your items won't sell. If you go too low you'll know because your items will instantly sell, so you can go a little higher next time until you find the balance point. Asking guildmates for a price check might work; people even ask in zone chat. It doesn't have to be as difficult as some people [who may have personal agendas] make it out to be.

That point does not work well.

How much is a specific purple ring worth? I may not be able to find many on the market. If I list it for 5K gold maybe it would be bought to get flipped. If I try 100K gold maybe I way overpriced.

A good market would let me find out prices no (at the least) so I could price accordingly.

Is there a reason you absolutely positively have to know an exact price to sell an item? Are the selling opportunities so limited for you that you have to make the max amount of gold on every single sale? Is some great cosmic balance threatened if you list an item for a reasonable not exorbitant price and its bought and flipped? Even if it happens you would then have an example of the price you could have asked, and know it for the future.

Looking at how you see trading makes it look like a full time real world job, scrambling to get the best prices and beat out any competition. My personal opinion only, I couldn't play that way. My casual "when I feel like getting ambitious" trading, with whatever prices I think will let stuff sell quickly has worked, and allowed me to keep playing the game for fun/enjoyment, instead of working another job finding prices and worrying someone will buy my stuff and sell it higher. I'm satisfied with what I have in my bank at this point; there is nothing in the game I need gold for anyway, beside picking up lower level mats once in a while to craft low level gear for my guildmates/random new players.

How would I have any idea what it was relisted (and possibly sold) for, especially on console? Why must I have no information about how much it is valued at? Why would so many areas of life have "price guides" and such if knowing good prices is not important?

The current system is horrid for that. The game should at least have TTC-type information built-in if you want a system without a Central AH. That would allow all players to find things out, not just those who make trading their job.

Why do you need to know at what price an item might have been resold? You got your asking price. If you aren't happy with the price list it higher. Sometimes I post something and it is gone a few minutes later. That tells me I list the next one a good step higher in price. Something sits for more than five days I might decide to yank it and post at a lower price. For rare items I visit several vendors to see if I can find some prices to consider.
During an event the Ancient Orc style motif. I had no idea what I should price it at. I held onto it for a while and looked for one in the traders. Didn't see one anywhere. Asked friends and guild mates and none of them had seen one. I looked at individual pages and kind of guessed a price. Eventually I listed it at 5.7 million. It was gone in around an hour. If I get lucky enough to ever find another I would probably list it between 7.5 and eight million gold.
Tracking your own sales will give a good indication if you are pricing high or low. That works for most items. The other stuff just look around some first.
I wouldn't mind a price history being available in game if it didn't negatively impact performance but I don't see it as anything that is absolutely needed.

Yep. Basically, that's it. List an item for what you think it might be worth. If you get your price quickly, it was a reasonable price for someone. If it doesn't sell, no one else thought the item was worth your asking price. Neither Nirn nor the real world will end if a flipper buys an item and resells it.

FlopsyPrince

JKorr wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

M0ntie wrote: »

Supply and demand. ZoS need to increase drop rates (increase supply) in the game so that people can get what they need for less time. This operates very obviously during motif drops during events. Initially the price on them will be high for the people who want them right now, then the price lowers and how much it lowers is proportional to how high the drop rate is.

Things ZoS could increase are for example to return more gold mats when refining raw materials and increase the drop rates of harvesting raw materials.

Tbh. All they need to do (if ZOS cares about in-game economy) is to add an option for guild traders to also buy stuff (just like you have cod system & post items you are selling you could also post an items you want to buy & for how much).

Imagine how it would boost item supply on the market. Guilds would be able to buy stuff relatively cheap from all eso players & all players with surplus items (solo or with guild) would be able to contribute to in-game economy in some way.

Even if traders would flip items & sell for more gold - even then the final prices would be lower, but the income from "flipping" would be the same.

I always thought that trading in ESO should be based on competition between guilds - who will offer lowest price - "wins", as players will buy from them rather than from someone who offers higher price. Meanwhile it seems like nowadays we have a different situation and trading guilds actually don't care about offering lower price than competition. Almost like a "Price fixing" (yeah, I know it is probably not that, but this is the impression I am getting) lol.

The modern system has nothing to encourage that. A noble idea, but not practical in an MMO.

JKorr wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

JKorr wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

JKorr wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

JKorr wrote: »

DagenHawk wrote: »

sinnereso wrote: »

We also have the issue of guild trader being rediculously expensive due to inflation and guild masters slave driving theyre members to sell / pimp themselves out to meet quota's. Players are no longer treated with any respect within these guilds, theyre just sheep for them and theres no discussion anymore. Its theyre way or the highway and the player left with nowhere to sell anything.

[snip]

THATS how the guild traders are run now!

[edited for naming-and-shaming]

You are right but take heart Auction houses are coming

Maybe not this year but soon.

And you can thank the abdominal way players are treated within guilds for making it happen

Question from curiosity; if that is how guilds [your guilds, none I've ever been involved with, around, or even barely acquainted with are like that] why on Tamriel are you and the other guild members stupid enough to put up with it? To the best of my knowledge, there are no legally/magically binding contracts signed in player blood that say YOU MAY NEVER EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE LEAVE THE GUILD. Why would people who are being exploited, scammed and abused stay in those bad guilds? And please don't say "Because they are the only option", because they aren't. Nothing is stopping anyone from dropping a guild and finding another. If enough abused and mistreated players leave, they could even...:gasp: create their own guild. set up the way they want to run it. If they don't the choice of finding a different guild, one that has no dues, or sales requirements, and they do exist. My no dues no sales needed TRADING guild has a trader consistently. My no dues no sales needed SOCIAL guilds have traders. No one dictates what prices I put on anything I want to sell. I don't consider myself or my guildmates treatment to be abominable. Works quite nicely, actually. Even with my "only when I get ambitious and really want to" selling habits my bank balance is 14m. If I actually put some effort into it, belonging to 1 trading guild/4 social guilds with 30 slots to sell at each one, that total would be higher.

Why would Auction house happen because some mentally challenged masochists enjoy being exploited, abused, and treated abdominally? [which doesn't mean what you think it means....unless it was an honest mis-chosen word on your part]

You make that money because of the very imperfect guild trader system. Information is very effectively hidden, even with TTC.

That means that a few profit really well at the expense of most users.

A "few" profit... You don't have to be in a TRADING guild to trade. My social guilds that are not focused on trading get traders, so the pool of a "few" expands again. Even if no one is ambitious enough to try for a trader the option of the guild store is still there. It isn't that hard to make gold in this game. Before the traders existed, getting gold was a LOT harder.

The thing I can't get past is simply this; no one is being forced to pay exorbitant prices. Everything that you can buy at the guild trader you can farm yourself in-game IF you are willing to spend the time to do it. TTC is, in my opinion, personal opinion only, worthless for pricing anything. TTC shows the price someone listed an item for; it does NOT show what the item actually sold for. Someone could list a blue beginner motif for 250k, and its uploaded to TTC, that is the price that will show. When you check MM prices in the guilds you belong to it shows it sold for 50 gold. Again, people are free to list items at whatever price they want to ask for, and the players are equally free to "Nope, not paying *that* much" and leaving the buying screen.

You completely missed my point. I have no way to easily find what is really a fair price, especially on the PS4. Yes, I don't have to buy anything, but finding things for comparative prices or gear to purchase is a very difficult process. You benefit because of this, but it is a very poorly designed system for most players.

My point was "post your own prices". Common sense and a look at even one trader will show you a ballpark amount.

If you go too high, your items won't sell. If you go too low you'll know because your items will instantly sell, so you can go a little higher next time until you find the balance point. Asking guildmates for a price check might work; people even ask in zone chat. It doesn't have to be as difficult as some people [who may have personal agendas] make it out to be.

That point does not work well.

How much is a specific purple ring worth? I may not be able to find many on the market. If I list it for 5K gold maybe it would be bought to get flipped. If I try 100K gold maybe I way overpriced.

A good market would let me find out prices no (at the least) so I could price accordingly.

Is there a reason you absolutely positively have to know an exact price to sell an item? Are the selling opportunities so limited for you that you have to make the max amount of gold on every single sale? Is some great cosmic balance threatened if you list an item for a reasonable not exorbitant price and its bought and flipped? Even if it happens you would then have an example of the price you could have asked, and know it for the future.

Looking at how you see trading makes it look like a full time real world job, scrambling to get the best prices and beat out any competition. My personal opinion only, I couldn't play that way. My casual "when I feel like getting ambitious" trading, with whatever prices I think will let stuff sell quickly has worked, and allowed me to keep playing the game for fun/enjoyment, instead of working another job finding prices and worrying someone will buy my stuff and sell it higher. I'm satisfied with what I have in my bank at this point; there is nothing in the game I need gold for anyway, beside picking up lower level mats once in a while to craft low level gear for my guildmates/random new players.

How would I have any idea what it was relisted (and possibly sold) for, especially on console? Why must I have no information about how much it is valued at? Why would so many areas of life have "price guides" and such if knowing good prices is not important?

The current system is horrid for that. The game should at least have TTC-type information built-in if you want a system without a Central AH. That would allow all players to find things out, not just those who make trading their job.

Why do you need to know at what price an item might have been resold? You got your asking price. If you aren't happy with the price list it higher. Sometimes I post something and it is gone a few minutes later. That tells me I list the next one a good step higher in price. Something sits for more than five days I might decide to yank it and post at a lower price. For rare items I visit several vendors to see if I can find some prices to consider.
During an event the Ancient Orc style motif. I had no idea what I should price it at. I held onto it for a while and looked for one in the traders. Didn't see one anywhere. Asked friends and guild mates and none of them had seen one. I looked at individual pages and kind of guessed a price. Eventually I listed it at 5.7 million. It was gone in around an hour. If I get lucky enough to ever find another I would probably list it between 7.5 and eight million gold.
Tracking your own sales will give a good indication if you are pricing high or low. That works for most items. The other stuff just look around some first.
I wouldn't mind a price history being available in game if it didn't negatively impact performance but I don't see it as anything that is absolutely needed.

Yep. Basically, that's it. List an item for what you think it might be worth. If you get your price quickly, it was a reasonable price for someone. If it doesn't sell, no one else thought the item was worth your asking price. Neither Nirn nor the real world will end if a flipper buys an item and resells it.

Things wouldn't end if a bunch of other things happened as well. That doesn't mean those things are good. Losing money because you have no way to know what something is really worth, only to benefit a flipper shows poor design choices, not a good system.

People will still list things too cheaply even with good information, but then it would be for other, valid reasons. The current system is very bad in this way.

Many of those who sell too cheaply could use the gold far more than the flippers.

I am not saying flipping is bad, I am saying a system needs enough information to be available without having that be a job in the game.

xXSilverDragonXx

Inflation happens because of flipping. It has always been flipping. I have known flippers who spend a chunk of their game time going to different traders and searching all the inventories, buying up many items then selling them often double the price. This, over time causes the price to creep upward. Yes, you have the lower price that they bought it for, but when they sell it double, it also creates a higher price point. Keep doing that and over days or weeks depending how much the item is bought and sold, it will shift the prices upward.

I have seen items vanish and reappear at traders in a matter of minutes. Reasonably priced items gone and then reappear at significantly higher prices. I suspect people sit at the bank and surf the inventories of all their guilds and grab anything they think they can resell for enough more to make a decent profit. It's like playing the market but the market is a MMO where you get to thrill yourself with your millions of gold.

And the thing of it is that people blame the writs, but the writs aren't really where flippers come from nor do they enable them on any level nearly as much as all their flipping does. People start doing this with smaller items then keep moving up to more expensive items. They start with some mats and move up to other things. Other games have it but not nearly to the extent here because with auction houses it is harder to mess with prices and to buy and sell items much higher due to the vast amount of items listed in one location. Traders, the way they are designed in this game, are fundamentally flawed because they enable flippers.

FlopsyPrince

xXSilverDragonXx wrote: »

Inflation happens because of flipping.

No, inflation happens because more money is in the system. Flipping is just an issue since good information is very hard to find.