Guild Vendor Cartel + Monopoly

Skoomah

There are a half dozen players in game that are part of a secret cartel that set the prices of guild vendors. If you wish to win a bid and keep your spot, you gotta run it by them first, and get their blessing. But soon, they’ll be able to use their vast resources to fully control the market with an iron grip because they can bid on multiple vendors. Good luck to new players.

Ever wonder why you can’t win that bid after weeks of trying?

Ever wonder why there are empty guild vendors?

What you gonna do ZOS? Secret’s out now! BAM!

tmbrinks

this again?

ManwithBeard9

It doesnt matter how many you can bid on. You can still only win one.

SirAndy

ManwithBeard9 wrote: »

It doesnt matter how many you can bid on. You can still only win one.

The people the OP is talking about have way more than just one guild. And deep, deep pockets.

Skoomah

Yup. They run the market. That’s why they should have just made a global auction house.

Katahdin

its a conspiracy

ManwithBeard9

Skoomah wrote: »

Yup. They run the market. That’s why they should have just made a global auction house.

So the "cartel" can have MORE control?

Chicharron

Skoomah wrote: »

There are a half dozen players in game that are part of a secret cartel that set the prices of guild vendors. If you wish to win a bid and keep your spot, you gotta run it by them first, and get their blessing. But soon, they’ll be able to use their vast resources to fully control the market with an iron grip because they can bid on multiple vendors. Good luck to new players.

Ever wonder why you can’t win that bid after weeks of trying?

Ever wonder why there are empty guild vendors?

What you gonna do ZOS? Secret’s out now! BAM!

Thank you so much for that info.

What am i supposed to do now?

Dark_Lord_Kuro

At least after scalebreaker you wont be able to buy a vendor after the trader reset since it will only make you bid for next week instead so the ghost guild are going to dissapear or at least wont make money at all

Skoomah

Just roll over. The game has been out 5 years. They are now billionaires.

SteveCampsOut

People who value imaginary gold have no imagination.

chuck-18_ESO

People can joke or dismiss all they like, but that doesn't change the fact that the Mournhold Mafia has controlled the so-called 'free market' since 2016 and continue to do so. It's just a fact of life at this point.

ZonasArch

Skoomah wrote: »

There are a half dozen players in game that are part of a secret cartel that set the prices of guild vendors. If you wish to win a bid and keep your spot, you gotta run it by them first, and get their blessing. But soon, they’ll be able to use their vast resources to fully control the market with an iron grip because they can bid on multiple vendors. Good luck to new players.

Ever wonder why you can’t win that bid after weeks of trying?

Ever wonder why there are empty guild vendors?

What you gonna do ZOS? Secret’s out now! BAM!

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot did I just read...? O.o

DragonRacer

Skoomah wrote: »

Just roll over. The game has been out 5 years. They are now billionaires.

I’ll go down swinging and fighting, at least.

“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.”

kargen27

Skoomah wrote: »

Yup. They run the market. That’s why they should have just made a global auction house.

Yeah cause no way can a group who can supposedly control over 200 locations control just one. The better solution is if a guild wins a trader for the week the trader is theirs whether they disband or not. Sure you might get some trolling for a couple of weeks where they bid on traders then leave them empty but it wouldn't last long. Bidding millions to make zero would get tiresome quick.

ZonasArch

What you whiny party poopers don't get is that this system is designed to be evil, aggressive, anxiety inducing, to the point where the gold sink is just inevitable. That's how the economy stays so stable, through the magic of gold sinks, and traders are a major one, if not the highest.

Now... Anyone with half a braincell would be able to argue advantages for both systems, but it does that you need more than half a brain cell to realize that changing systems now would change absolutely nothing to anyone, prices of most thing would plummet, prices of all desirable items would skyrocket, there would be no gold sink and then you, yourself OP, would be the first to come to forums complaining you can't afford anything "and the good old times were so much better".

Here's my tip for you... Face trading as the PvP for the PvE players. That way you'll be more on the winning side than on the crying losing side.

This system is great, btw, and it's about to become better with the multi bidding. Baby and medium guilds will not go without traders, because they'll snatch the ones that would potentially stay open, for only 10.001 coins. Any guild can come up with 100k in a week to bid on ten side traders no one wants and snatch the one they bid without competition. This is brilliant.

zaria

Skoomah wrote: »

There are a half dozen players in game that are part of a secret cartel that set the prices of guild vendors. If you wish to win a bid and keep your spot, you gotta run it by them first, and get their blessing. But soon, they’ll be able to use their vast resources to fully control the market with an iron grip because they can bid on multiple vendors. Good luck to new players.

Ever wonder why you can’t win that bid after weeks of trying?

Ever wonder why there are empty guild vendors?

What you gonna do ZOS? Secret’s out now! BAM!

Trading guilds want to limit the kiosk rent as high rents will be passed down to their members as weekly fees or trade requirements so they organized to limit the numbers of bidding wars.

You can obviosly ignore this and go wild but you will need so high weekly fees few would stay in your guild.

Itzmichi

SirAndy wrote: »

ManwithBeard9 wrote: »

It doesnt matter how many you can bid on. You can still only win one.

The people the OP is talking about have way more than just one guild. And deep, deep pockets.

So they are some kind of perverts? Don't wanna know how you got that intel. I

Ackwalan

In order for the "secret cartel" to win a bid in their non primary location, they will first have to lose their primary location. They are not much of a cartel if they let that happen.

MojaveHeld

It's incredible how many delusional people there are on these forums. No, there isn't some shady cartel behind the trading guilds in the game. At least not on PC NA. There are a few guilds who have multiple guilds associated with each other, but there are plenty of guilds who don't use that model. I'm part of a trading guild that has been in Rawl'kha for years, and has no sister/child guilds. It's just us. We don't collaborate with other guilds. We have a GM and staff of officers who are proactive about different, creative ways to raise the necessary funds for our trader. There's nothing nefarious about it, just good ol' fashioned hard work and good leadership. It's also an incredibly friendly, helpful guild. So I can tell you first hand, all of the morons claiming that the trade scene is ruled by a nefarious cartel, don't have even the slightest clue what you are talking about, and just made this garbage up. I'm not even a big seller in this guild, often do just enough to meet the very reasonable reqs, with a few great weeks every so often. So for all those people who dislike the current system, coming in here and lying to everyone's faces isn't going to make people think there is merit in your argument, all of those who know better just roll our eyes that you have so few valid arguments on your side that you just make stuff up out of thin air.

Cloudtrader

Skoomah wrote: »

There are a half dozen players in game that are part of a secret cartel that set the prices of guild vendors. If you wish to win a bid and keep your spot, you gotta run it by them first, and get their blessing. But soon, they’ll be able to use their vast resources to fully control the market with an iron grip because they can bid on multiple vendors. Good luck to new players.

Unless you can give me some proof, I don't believe you.

DragonRacer

MojaveHeld wrote: »

It's incredible how many delusional people there are on these forums. No, there isn't some shady cartel behind the trading guilds in the game. At least not on PC NA. There are a few guilds who have multiple guilds associated with each other, but there are plenty of guilds who don't use that model. I'm part of a trading guild that has been in Rawl'kha for years, and has no sister/child guilds. It's just us. We don't collaborate with other guilds. We have a GM and staff of officers who are proactive about different, creative ways to raise the necessary funds for our trader. There's nothing nefarious about it, just good ol' fashioned hard work and good leadership. It's also an incredibly friendly, helpful guild. So I can tell you first hand, all of the morons claiming that the trade scene is ruled by a nefarious cartel, don't have even the slightest clue what you are talking about, and just made this garbage up. I'm not even a big seller in this guild, often do just enough to meet the very reasonable reqs, with a few great weeks every so often. So for all those people who dislike the current system, coming in here and lying to everyone's faces isn't going to make people think there is merit in your argument, all of those who know better just roll our eyes that you have so few valid arguments on your side that you just make stuff up out of thin air.

No, PC NA sounded pretty clean.

PS4 NA is a dumpster fire.

MJallday

Ackwalan wrote: »

In order for the "secret cartel" to win a bid in their non primary location, they will first have to lose their primary location. They are not much of a cartel if they let that happen.

Or they do what’s happening on xbox eu where one trading guild now runs Most of the main city locations by creating a multiple guilds with a different number after their name ! I believe they are up to 11 or 12 now

The whole thing is flawed at the
Moment . Prices of stuff is artificially too high so most ppl I know are just stopping using them

Gandrhulf_Harbard

ManwithBeard9 wrote: »

Skoomah wrote: »

Yup. They run the market. That’s why they should have just made a global auction house.

So the "cartel" can have MORE control?

Doesn't happen.

Ever....

Seen the claim hundreds of time, but ONLY ever by people defending this system.

In over 10 years of playing MMORPGs I have not seen even one successful Cartel / Market Corner, because in a system where EVERYONE can be a Seller and Buyer without restriction it is just is not possible... ...end of.

If it happened as frequently as everyone claims why has no one EVER been able to present evidence of it actually happening.


All The Best

Ectheliontnacil

DragonRacer wrote: »

Skoomah wrote: »

Just roll over. The game has been out 5 years. They are now billionaires.

I’ll go down swinging and fighting, at least.

“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.”

Lol did you just quote moby *** to describe your struggle against the unfair market in an MMO?
I mean quote whoever you want but it won't make your cause any less pointless.

Some people get a kick out of the trading aspect of the game, so let them enjoy it.

Edit: ofc the forums censored the book title haha.

bmnoble

Skoomah wrote: »

There are a half dozen players in game that are part of a secret cartel that set the prices of guild vendors. If you wish to win a bid and keep your spot, you gotta run it by them first, and get their blessing. But soon, they’ll be able to use their vast resources to fully control the market with an iron grip because they can bid on multiple vendors. Good luck to new players.

Ever wonder why you can’t win that bid after weeks of trying?

Ever wonder why there are empty guild vendors?

What you gonna do ZOS? Secret’s out now! BAM!

So your saying players with lots of gold are controlling the economic aspect of the game?

Never would have guessed that.

There are plenty of rich guilds out there some have alliances/just general agreements between other big trade guilds in certain locations, basically agreeing not to compete with each other for certain traders, simply to avoid wasting each others gold for their trader bids.

Every now and then another guild will save up the gold and take the spot of one of those big guilds but ultimately are unable to sustain the bid cost to hold onto that trader, considering the last guild will significantly up their bid, not just to get the trader back but for a few weeks afterwards as well to prevent losing the spot again, if they lose their spot too often members start changing guilds to those that have the spots they want.


You know why those big guilds hold onto those spots? Its not because of a handful of super rich players pulling the strings, its because those guilds, usually have "minimum" weekly dues, usually in the form of a raffle, auctions/donations of items for auctions, events etc... to raise the gold and the GM's/Officers put in the work needed to run events/auctions etc..

The reason I say minimum weekly dues is because they are just that, lots of these big guilds have many rich members who donate way over the minimum required to stay in the guild each week. Why because they want to hold onto the location, the locations which allow them to make significant sales meaning large donations barely make a dent in their profits at the end of the week.


For example say you have a trade guild that has close to 500 members, with a min weekly dues of 10K per member.

lets say 200 contribute the bare minimum of 10K a week in raffle tickets and sales tax.

2 Million gold right there.

Another 200 contribute around 30K a week in raffle tickets and sales tax.

6 Million gold right there.

Then you have the top contributors of a trade guild, roughly the top 100 give or take, they can contribute anywhere from 100K each to over a Million+ when they feel like it, via the raffle tickets, sales tax and guild auctions.

Roughly another 10 Million, based on the 100K min

Amounts raised in auction's vary from guild to guild, but assume around about the same amount raised as the min dues for all guild members as a baseline, the top 100 or so in a guild over bid on a lot of stuff put up in the auctions(partly because they can resell what they buy and make some of the bids back and partly because they want to use the stuff put up for auction)

Assume 5 Million as a rough min in auction profits. Some can go a lot higher just depends on how many rich members are online during the auction, I have seen bids in some auctions go as high as 4M on a single lot just depends on what the members have donated/gathered for the auction, I know some guilds that sell 5000 crowns as a lot each week.

That's 23 Million raised for the trader bid. Not all guilds will use all they raised on the bid, but if they lose, their spot you can expect to be up against the maximum amount of gold that guild can raise the next few weeks, which competing guilds may not be able to sustain competing against.

Those are just as an example based on the trade guilds I am in, plenty of guilds raise more than that, some without min dues some rely entirely on a voluntary raffle or auction rather than having set mins.

I know of at least one big trade guild that has put its min weekly requirements up to 100K a week in anticipation of the new bidding changes for guild traders.

Most expensive one I am in has a 25K a week min dues (use to be 10K before news of the bidding changes spread), I usually contribute around 150K a week between sales tax and raffle tickets.

The other 4 guilds I am in are 2 medium and 2 small ones, I give each of those 10K a week.

Varaug_Gaming

The real winners are the tinfoil-hat sellers

Skoomah

I’ve known people who had to go kiss the ring to get the blessing to open up a trading guild out in the middle of nowhere.

I’ve known people who were kicked out of their major city spot because they didn’t get along with other members of the cartel.

Sad but true...

Beardimus

Skoomah wrote: »

There are a half dozen players in game that are part of a secret cartel that set the prices of guild vendors. If you wish to win a bid and keep your spot, you gotta run it by them first, and get their blessing. But soon, they’ll be able to use their vast resources to fully control the market with an iron grip because they can bid on multiple vendors. Good luck to new players.

Ever wonder why you can’t win that bid after weeks of trying?

Ever wonder why there are empty guild vendors?

What you gonna do ZOS? Secret’s out now! BAM!

You don't speak for us all, region / platform? Guessing NA PC

Jayman1000

Skoomah wrote: »

There are a half dozen players in game that are part of a secret cartel that set the prices of guild vendors. If you wish to win a bid and keep your spot, you gotta run it by them first, and get their blessing. But soon, they’ll be able to use their vast resources to fully control the market with an iron grip because they can bid on multiple vendors. Good luck to new players.

Ever wonder why you can’t win that bid after weeks of trying?

Ever wonder why there are empty guild vendors?

What you gonna do ZOS? Secret’s out now! BAM!

The secret that lives in your imagination revealed.

thermatico

lmao