My BIGGEST issue in this game..... Guild Traders

treborrealb14_ESO

petraeus1 wrote: »

gw2only1b14_ESO wrote: »

petraeus1 wrote: »

I like the system for how social it is. Coming from GW2, where all player trading goes through the Black Lion Trading Post (yes, not even face to face trading), it is refreshing. I chat with people, I mail with people, I join trade guilds, run around town. Sure it's abusable and not entirely fair, but so was GW2's system, where high level, rich players speculated and invested and manipulated prices every patch and in between. GW2's system is more convenient perhaps, but I like this system better. Reminds me of old school Runescape. I rather get scammed and be able to scam back than let a machine that only smart people know how to manipulate guide trading for me. xD

I wish we had a rotten tomato button "rather scam people back" Gee cuzz i got screwed imma gonna screw another and another and another.

but at least you admitted that you give the reach around with your screw

Lol the 'xD' at the end was intended to signal that I wasn't being serious, but I will edit it for your sake and because I don't like tomatoes. It was intended as a hyperbole to stress how I value player interaction in this system over automation.

LOL or just add the "lol" back that was funny on both accounts

gw2only1b14_ESO

petraeus1 wrote: »

gw2only1b14_ESO wrote: »

petraeus1 wrote: »

I like the system for how social it is. Coming from GW2, where all player trading goes through the Black Lion Trading Post (yes, not even face to face trading), it is refreshing. I chat with people, I mail with people, I join trade guilds, run around town. Sure it's abusable and not entirely fair, but so was GW2's system, where high level, rich players speculated and invested and manipulated prices every patch and in between. GW2's system is more convenient perhaps, but I like this system better. Reminds me of old school Runescape. I rather get scammed and be able to scam back than let a machine that only smart people know how to manipulate guide trading for me. xD

I wish we had a rotten tomato button "rather scam people back" Gee cuzz i got screwed imma gonna screw another and another and another.

but at least you admitted that you give the reach around with your screw

Lol the 'xD' at the end was intended to signal that I wasn't being serious, but I will edit it for your sake and because I don't like tomatoes. It was intended as a hyperbole to stress how I value player interaction in this system over automation. Edit: also I never admitted anything I spoke about the ability of scamming. SoonerLater

For me ?? OHHH thank you

Tandor

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

Tandor wrote: »

But that's my point - unless you're a high level player you cannot travel through all the zones. I don't use the term "elitist", that's your word. What I say is that the trading system isn't open to all, and it should be.

I believe the zone locking will be removed together with the veteran ranks. At least I hope so. Otherwise the system IS open to all - but I've already stated why, so let's agree to disagree.

Tandor wrote: »

As for whether or not it's inefficient, you admit yourself that if you want to buy an item you have to travel to find it. It's inefficient on that ground alone, quite apart from the fact that it depends on the use of optional addons only available on certain servers to make other aspects even remotely efficient.

What you refuse to understand is that it is part of the GAME. Does anyone complain about mobs needing to be killed in order for players to progress from point A to point B, and call it "inefficient" ? Markets being split all over the game world is what makes the system challenging and fun. That you don't like it doesn't make it bad.

As to add-ons, it's UI related, not inherent to the system (already explained that too).

Tandor wrote: »

Again, "organised mafia" is your phrase, not mine. We do know, however, that there are guilds that work together in relation to the trading system.

And... ? So what ? Unless it's malicious (in which case please prove instead of insinuating), I don't see anything bad with it - it's like players coordinating their teams for a dungeon or a PvP campaign.

Tandor wrote: »

I stand by my comment that the present system is not open to all, and favours high level players, those able to use addons, and is only defended by those high level players who profit from it. I accept that not everyone who uses and defends the system profits substantially from it, but those keenest to defend it usually do, and even those GMs who spend countless hours running the system complain about it and want it improved. I don't particularly want an alternative system such as an auction house, I'm perfectly happy for the present system to be opened up so that it is available to all.

And I stand by my comment that you are someone who doesn't want to play the trading aspect of the game and that's the only reason for you to want it removed.

How would you like the current system to be "opened up" ? If by that you mean access to guild traders for everyone regardless of guild membership, and centralized search, that equals to an auction house.

The way I'd favour opening it up is as follows:-

For buyers, I would have a proper search function which would only be available in trader locations, but which would allow all traders to be searched wherever they may be, so in essence a global search board in every trader location. To get around the need to travel and access inaccessible zones, while maintaining the travel for those who enjoy it, I'd have the option to go to the trader and buy the item as at present but with the alternative option of having the item mailed to you at a significant delivery charge. These changes would get rid of the hassle of buying and open it up to all buyers irrespective of level or alliance.

For sellers, I would have a single NPC trader in each main guild trader location (so in cities but not on isolated roads where there's only a single trader) through whom players could sell a very limited number of items regardless of guild membership, at a substantially increased commission with all commission split between the guilds trading in that location at the time. This would open up the system to those casual wannabe traders not in guilds as well as those in guilds that weren't successful in getting a trader at that time, but it would not threaten the trading guilds because you would literally only be able to list a couple of items or so and they would receive their share of the commission paid for those listings.

The NPC traders could be part of an organisation for whom one might have to do a separate quest in order to unlock each NPC trader. That organisation could also be responsible for maintaining the search board described above and which could also be unlocked by a quest.

Lastly, I would ensure that the system was modified in a way that enabled all its functions to be fully accessed through the default UI without the need for addons, so that it was readily available to players of all versions of the game.

Yogizilla

Neverwinter has a very nice marketplace as well, which is fully searchable and has tons of filters and tabs. From the buyer's perspective TESO is not very friendly at all. You essentially have to find guild traders where you find deals on select item types and note them down so you can return. Hopefully, they keep their trading stall and you can find them again.

This leads to the bigger problems here: maintaining guild traders (and not being sniped) and, well, the lack of guild promotional tools. As it currently stands, you can't really support a guild that you like unless they are fortunate enough to keep a trader for weeks on end. If there were common area, perhaps bulletin boards similar to the ones for writs, where people could post hot deals, I bet the marketplace would be different.

That said, I like the way it's set up now because it does favor the seller. Smaller guilds bidding over 100K for their traders on a weekly basis may not even break even. If their wares are open on a larger marketplace, it would actually slow down sales. The way it's set up now, you find trading hubs/posts that you dig and you compare prices locally. At most you may visit two or three other trade areas but you'll usually just buy at the first place you find what you consider a reasonable deal. This gives less popular guilds a chance to be more competitive and self-sustaining.

Perhaps a nice expansion to the current system would be for the sellers to pay extra to list items on a global auction house or marketplace; that way, there's less junk and less lag. This would also help with the issue of repeated insane load screens when travelling between hubs.

I don't see a big issue right now, at least not on the consoles, because there's always a good deal to be found. People grinding dungeons, delves, and trials get tons of drops they eventually just dump at a low price just to clear inventory space. Even when you have access to five guild traders and things move fast enough, it's hard to stay ahead of the curve. That's a good thing but it also means that the market gets saturated with certain things.

I don't think it's fair to assume people are greedy when they price things out. I often sell things dirt cheap but sometimes I'll inflate prices to see who bites. 3% isn't much of a cut for a guild so you need those big-ticket items in there. Thing is, it's not just the noobs buying the over-priced stuff.. There are people sitting on millions of gold who will buy things at any price just to get it quick. An auction house wouldn't necessarily address this aspect of things.

So, as much as I love auction houses in Neverwinter and WoW, I rather think this approach creates an interesting dynamic. There are scenarios where folks will pay shoppers to look for the best prices on things. It creates opportunities. Some folks focus almost exclusively on farming, crafting, and trading because the economy in TESO keeps things interesting and competitive.

An auction house would be super convenient but it would essentially kill off the smaller trade guilds and unions, who'd be force to sell things cheaper. The bigger guilds would have enough cashflow to be able to take the hit on some prices so they could compete on price more. That would suck. There are ways to mitigate this effect, of course. Perhaps have marketplaces across major zones instead of globally. That may be necessary regardless just for performance issues. Think about how much the guild banks and stores lag now. Imagine that x1000. No bueno.

In any case,

ntheogenic wrote: »

Eshelmen wrote: »

My fear is that turning the trading system into anything that offers a global search option will close this window of opportunity and a handful of people will do nothing but hug the search button 24/7 (yes, there are individuals in this game with the resources to do that).

There is evidence of this in the current system - and a global search will amplify the problem.

I might change my mind if ZOS keeps going the Bind-On-Pickup route.
If all that is left to trade are materials and consumables (if they can be farmed), then an AH probably would not cause those problems. Supply/demand would work there.

Agreed. I play on console right now and we're fortunate that we don't suffer from the mods, hacks, and cheats (as much)... I think global search would not serve the common good on any platform. I could just see so many exploits already. Auction houses as a concept have a good premise but there's a better way to execute. Setting up a single point of failure is usually not a good idea, anyway.

If anything, I want to see guild permissions tweaked, as we have been promised. As it currently stands, its' too easy for spies to snipe traders and having any level of success as a guild paints a big target on your back. Open that up to a global market and the root issues are amplified. Those would need to be addressed first, IMHO.

Sav72

Would be nice if there was a Global Trader per zone, where you can look up a item on the global trader, find best price, and location of guild trader selling item, THEN, you would have to go to the guild trader to purchase item.

OR

Find item at Global Trader, if you do not want to travel to pick up the item, pay extra to Global Trader, extra cost will go to guild trader for the convenience for having item mailed to you.

Just a thought

wolfydog

I think a happy medium might be to keep the kiosks as they are now, just speed things up a bit. MAybe if I go to mornhold and I look at a guild trader it will show all the guild traders as once in the city. So if I'm looking for a Crafting mat or something I can just view all 5 traders and once and save time.

Also, the just the entire UI should be better. Maybe theres addons or something I don't know about yet, but why cant I just type in keywords and search for items instead of all these crappy drop down menus.

Plus to add insult to injury, the game doesn't remember so I gotta select everything again even if I just walked right down to the next kiosks ten steps away so I gotta go through like 3 drop downs again if I just wanna search for some ore or something.

Also, I know it takes more work, but I find myself looking in less popular traders nowadays. With addons like master merchant and stuff basically fixing all the prices when you to Rawl or something all the traders are basically the same crappy prices. No deals to be found, cause everyones in the know.

I'm not saying I want total rip off prices, but it is cool to find the occasional kuta for 30 gold on some random traders in a noob zone, but all the popular places are just kinda meh. But its also nice to find items with a small discount sometimes like a real life sale.

I basically am paying higher prices just due to convience of having whatever I want probably in stock since the more popular kiosks are from big guilds and that keep stores full but missing out on deals.

If you could serach all kiosks in a city at once it would make it less traveled places more popular I think and make the stagnant big guilds have to be more competive maybe.

And all the big trading guilds are constantly kicking people who are inactive. Not a night goes buy I don't see a guild in Mournhold recruiting members on my EP toons and that's a great place for anyone to sell noob or advanced player because Mournholds caters to everyone. You can sell tons of low level crap and high end items quickly.

PhxOldGamer68

Convert all Guild Trader locations as fronts to a Global Guild Store aka Amazon Marketplace or Google Shopping.
No Auction. Vet16 Purple Armor for 2K while same one also sells for 20K. Yeah you know which one you'll buy. Healthy competition is good for everyone.
Guilds don't have to bid anymore. Just sign up to have your inventory be part of the Search Engine.
Go to any trader and do a global search of anything you want to buy. Results will show from all Guilds.

Stop the Insanity of limited inventory.
There's so much stuff out there that is found and can't be created. Sell it!
I have Alt characters that need that stuff.
I'm have 50 skill of Armor and Weapons, but sometimes I'm pretty lazy and have the gold to buy.

RealRobD

Current system is pretty terrible. It is right on par with so many other terrible ideas though, so it does make sense.

Sad thing is, no matter how many people dislike it, it will NEVER ever change.

Yogizilla

DesertDweller99 wrote: »

Stop the Insanity of limited inventory.
There's so much stuff out there that is found and can't be created. Sell it!
I have Alt characters that need that stuff.
I'm have 50 skill of Armor and Weapons, but sometimes I'm pretty lazy and have the gold to buy.

Unlimited material space is about as good as it will get there. The game is like this by design because it's an easy way to monetize. It sucks but that's the truth of the matter. Perhaps a future compromise may be to allow more concurrent store listings. Even an increase to 35 would mean a potential 25 additional slots to sell stuff.. But there's arguments against that too soooo...

I like the kiosk system. Like I said, it gives everyone a chance to have steady business. With regards to inflated pricing, so long as there are people with deep pockets, people will sell all sorts of silly stuff at high prices. No bigs because there's always a good deal anywhere you are. 8)

Yogizilla

Also... Magical pockets. We need these IRL!

babylon

There needs to be more kiosks and they would benefit from being centralised. Maybe have a bunch of traders all listed at a kiosk and access them using a global search. Who really cares what guild we buy from anyway? Just let us buy from the people selling things we want at the price we like.

Yogizilla

babylon wrote: »

There needs to be more kiosks and they would benefit from being centralised. Maybe have a bunch of traders all listed at a kiosk and access them using a global search. Who really cares what guild we buy from anyway? Just let us buy from the people selling things we want at the price we like.

More kiosks would be cool. Maybe not so much centralized because sometimes it's nice to find a more one-off kiosk on the cheap. It may not matter to most folks but, without lots of people interested in selling, the marketplace crashes.

Anyway, it would be awesome if it were easier for customers to find kiosks. For the most part, less experienced players just stumble into them. Again, I think an advertising system would be a nice compromise but only in addition to some of the aforementioned. Pay for postings with gold or crowns. Everyone wins. 8)

ComboBreaker88

Yes please put all of the items in a single location so I can buy all of the Temps up and relist them at double the price...

babylon

ComboBreaker88 wrote: »

Yes please put all of the items in a single location so I can buy all of the Temps up and relist them at double the price...

Not single location, several locations still. Just the kiosks would now be shared by multiple guilds and listings would be from all those at the one kiosk. And some locations would still be more attractive than others and command higher flat fees.

Korah_Eaglecry

ComboBreaker88 wrote: »

Yes please put all of the items in a single location so I can buy all of the Temps up and relist them at double the price...

Good luck with that. Too bad you wont get all of them and more than likely quite a few will go through at a far lower price that will motivate players to refuse to buy yours at the marked up price.

The current set up actually enables this sort of market manipulation more than an AH. Knowing damn well players will have to spend quite a few hours looking for a bargain price. Most will opt to buy at the higher marked price that just happens to be a flat asking price at every Guild Trader in the immediate area because all of the Guilds there talk to one another. There is no real competition in this system.

RatedChaotic

ComboBreaker88 wrote: »

Yes please put all of the items in a single location so I can buy all of the Temps up and relist them at double the price...

And I will uncut you and either you or someone else will still buy mine first. Either way its still gold in my pocket and thanks for giving me a bigger profit. Your argument is invalid.

ComboBreaker88

RatedChaotic wrote: »

ComboBreaker88 wrote: »

Yes please put all of the items in a single location so I can buy all of the Temps up and relist them at double the price...

And I will uncut you and either you or someone else will still buy mine first. Either way its still gold in my pocket and thanks for giving me a bigger profit. Your argument is invalid.

You clearly don't understand how an economy works.

RatedChaotic

ComboBreaker88 wrote: »

RatedChaotic wrote: »

ComboBreaker88 wrote: »

Yes please put all of the items in a single location so I can buy all of the Temps up and relist them at double the price...

And I will uncut you and either you or someone else will still buy mine first. Either way its still gold in my pocket and thanks for giving me a bigger profit. Your argument is invalid.

You clearly don't understand how an economy works.

Thats proof you have no idea how to use an AH. So you think people will bypass my lower price and buy yours? LMAO. You clearly stated you will buy up all tempers and relist them at double the price. So what will you do when someone puts tempers in there cheaper than yours? Buy them and relist it at your price again? That will just validate what I said earlier.


Bet I have alot more exp with AHs than you. By the way I'm for the current system.

Elsonso

RatedChaotic wrote: »

ComboBreaker88 wrote: »

RatedChaotic wrote: »

ComboBreaker88 wrote: »

Yes please put all of the items in a single location so I can buy all of the Temps up and relist them at double the price...

And I will uncut you and either you or someone else will still buy mine first. Either way its still gold in my pocket and thanks for giving me a bigger profit. Your argument is invalid.

You clearly don't understand how an economy works.

Thats proof you have no idea how to use an AH. So you think people will bypass my lower price and buy yours? LMAO. You clearly stated you will buy up all tempers and relist them at double the price. So what will you do when someone puts tempers in there cheaper than yours? Buy them and relist it at your price again? That will just validate what I said earlier.


Bet I have alot more exp with AHs than you. By the way I'm for the current system.

I like the Guild Traders because it eliminates the Auction House Game, which is an MMO plague ( ) for anyone who wants to make gold in the game but does not want to play the Auction House Game. Players are persistent and dedicated and they play to win. They know they can win when more people buy stuff from them than the other sellers. If they are not running Auction House intel and automation add-ons, they are not serious enough, and they will just lose money. In an Auction House MMO it is easy because there is one interface, one location, and easy access to everything for sale.

Guild Traders help to create pockets of price differential where items can be listed for different prices, and both prices be valid. Because they are spread out, there is no single location where a Market player can stand. They are forced to travel from kiosk to kiosk, which takes time and makes it impossible for any one player to completely dominate the Market. That which many players feel is a disadvantage (hunting for stuff) is actually an advantage for the same reason.

From the consumer perspective, the more time a low price item, or an uncommon item, sits on the shelf, the better it is. It is the goal of the Market players to find those before the non-Market players so that when the non-Market players go to the Kiosk, they buy the item from the Market player. The person who needs a few more ore for crafting will pay the Market player's price, unless they can get to the deal before the Market player. If there are 1000 people looking for an uncommon item, of which there are only 10 for sale, the longer it takes the others to find what they are looking for, the better chance one person has of getting it. Traveling between kiosks is a good thing for consumers who are looking to buy something, even if it is a task that has to be tolerated.

I prefer the Guild Trader system over Auction House, having experienced them both. It is not perfect. The Guild Store UI works, but it a minimal implementation, particularly on Console. The system is something that ZOS needs to revisit for each platform on a regular basis and fine tune. It is very dependent on server populations, but they designed it to be the same for everyone. It needs to be treated more like Cyrodiil, where they tune the number and size of Campaigns.

Elhanan

Eshelmen wrote: »

I'm going to reference World of Warcraft ONLY to compare their buying/selling system to ESO.

Whoever knows about World of Warcraft, knows the Auction House system is indeed genius. It works and it works very well.
As a buyer, you don't have to spend 2 hours to manually search and find Guild Vendors that have the items/deals you want.
Instead, you visit an Auction House, search the item and BAM! It lists the cheapest to the most expensive in order, every time.
This system works so good, you never have to worry about money. Literally. It's like breathing air, because it works so smoothly.

My idea is this....

If Guild Traders are here to stay , fine. But at least make all items searchable at once. This would save everyone time and money on bid wars, and it makes everyone equal to buying/selling.

Thank you.

You realize that WoW already functions similar to ESO right? Each server creates a smaller marketplace which is analagous to the ESO guild traders (though on a little larger scale). WoW has 100's of servers in the US alone (I counted 100 just for servers named A-F, then realized I didn't want to count them all to Z). WoW auction house is server (AND faction, not not mention the neutral AH) specific, meaning that WoW has probably closer to 600 AH markets in the US servers.

If you want to see the effects of a global market place, as you request, look to GW2 and the deleterious effect it has on a player run economy.

Yogizilla

Elhanan wrote: »

Eshelmen wrote: »

I'm going to reference World of Warcraft ONLY to compare their buying/selling system to ESO.

Whoever knows about World of Warcraft, knows the Auction House system is indeed genius. It works and it works very well.
As a buyer, you don't have to spend 2 hours to manually search and find Guild Vendors that have the items/deals you want.
Instead, you visit an Auction House, search the item and BAM! It lists the cheapest to the most expensive in order, every time.
This system works so good, you never have to worry about money. Literally. It's like breathing air, because it works so smoothly.

My idea is this....

If Guild Traders are here to stay , fine. But at least make all items searchable at once. This would save everyone time and money on bid wars, and it makes everyone equal to buying/selling.

Thank you.

You realize that WoW already functions similar to ESO right? Each server creates a smaller marketplace which is analagous to the ESO guild traders (though on a little larger scale). WoW has 100's of servers in the US alone (I counted 100 just for servers named A-F, then realized I didn't want to count them all to Z). WoW auction house is server (AND faction, not not mention the neutral AH) specific, meaning that WoW has probably closer to 600 AH markets in the US servers.

If you want to see the effects of a global market place, as you request, look to GW2 and the deleterious effect it has on a player run economy.

BAM! =oP

Eshelmen

Elhanan wrote: »

Eshelmen wrote: »

I'm going to reference World of Warcraft ONLY to compare their buying/selling system to ESO.

Whoever knows about World of Warcraft, knows the Auction House system is indeed genius. It works and it works very well.
As a buyer, you don't have to spend 2 hours to manually search and find Guild Vendors that have the items/deals you want.
Instead, you visit an Auction House, search the item and BAM! It lists the cheapest to the most expensive in order, every time.
This system works so good, you never have to worry about money. Literally. It's like breathing air, because it works so smoothly.

My idea is this....

If Guild Traders are here to stay , fine. But at least make all items searchable at once. This would save everyone time and money on bid wars, and it makes everyone equal to buying/selling.

Thank you.

You realize that WoW already functions similar to ESO right? Each server creates a smaller marketplace which is analagous to the ESO guild traders (though on a little larger scale). WoW has 100's of servers in the US alone (I counted 100 just for servers named A-F, then realized I didn't want to count them all to Z). WoW auction house is server (AND faction, not not mention the neutral AH) specific, meaning that WoW has probably closer to 600 AH markets in the US servers.

If you want to see the effects of a global market place, as you request, look to GW2 and the deleterious effect it has on a player run economy.

You realize the Megaserver isn't just one server either right? You realize that you'll never ever have all ESO players in one area all on your screen at any given time, right? Even if you tried.There is an area cap, which is the same concept like any server WoW has or any server in general has.

If the cap is full, you'll be on an other server atleast temporaily.
Hence why some times you join a friends group and you can't see them in front of you. Because they're in a different server....
The cool integration of ZOSs mega server just makes it easier to populate areas and to integrate every player as best as possible with little to nothing extra to do on our part.

I truly believe when they wrote the server script, they hit a bump with integrating some sort of mass wide search/item system. Which is why the guild vendors have been set in place.
Don't tell me it can't be done or shouldn't.

It makes sense to do a per zone trading/selling system. But they took the easier route to make it generally more work for the rest of us.

They sure could have a system like WoW has. Per region/zone. Only difference is the per zone/ region isn't per specific server.

swirve

One of the biggest issues is imo the control over guild traders by the cartel like alliances.

Some of these alliances then threaten to exclude players from being able to sell if they dont either pay an extortion, act in an underhand way to other alliances...so on and so forth.

Some of the leaders of certain alliances are asses as well on major powertrips.

The guild trader system is one of the worst ive seen.

DisgracefulMind

swirve wrote: »

One of the biggest issues is imo the control over guild traders by the cartel like alliances.

Some of these alliances then threaten to exclude players from being able to sell if they dont either pay an extortion, act in an underhand way to other alliances...so on and so forth.

Some of the leaders of certain alliances are asses as well on major powertrips.

The guild trader system is one of the worst ive seen.

uwot O_O

anitajoneb17_ESO

swirve wrote: »

One of the biggest issues is imo the control over guild traders by the cartel like alliances.

Some of these alliances then threaten to exclude players from being able to sell if they dont either pay an extortion, act in an underhand way to other alliances...so on and so forth.

Some of the leaders of certain alliances are asses as well on major powertrips.

The guild trader system is one of the worst ive seen.

I've been in major trading guilds for ages and have NEVER witnessed anything like that.
Back up your statements with some facts or just shut up, because that's all lies.

.

THEDKEXPERIENCE

Wow, you guys really don't understand why the global auction house is bad, huh? Its only upside is convenience. You want something, sort by lowest price and bam, there you go. Great, right? Not so much.

I'll use Tempering Alloys for my example. They are currently going for about 9000 on XBox. I know this because I belong to 3 guild traders and look at all of them before I post anything. If I'm extra worried I'll go to the kiosks in whatever town in in for some more prices. Then I post my alloy for about 7 or 8k so it will sell. I do this almost every day for a variety of products I happen to have a lot of. But now that I have my gold one of two things will happen. Either the person who found my tempers uses them or someone bought all of them and now relisted them at the 9k going rate. So why is this a problem? Millionaires, that's why.

I have about 180k on hand. I can buy anything I want within reason. My main playing partner has 2 million last I checked and he's a hoarder. He could easily have 5 million in gold if he had a sale. Sure he plays a lot, but there are thousands of people who play more. Somewhere out there is most likely a guy with 100 million gold. I don't know who, but he's there somewhere.

If that guy decided one day to buy every tempering alloy available, even if it's in the thousands and put each one up for 100k each, congrats we now have a tempering alloy recession. If he doesn't then congrats, under cutters like me will eventually price this 9000 gold allow for 1 gold each, also ruining the market.

The system we have now creates the most stability of any auction house I've ever seen. If the price of that is that I need to do a few minutes of research first than so be it.