It is possible to have a centralized trading hub while still supporting guild traders.

IronWooshu

One spot in all 3 major cities that pulls all items from every guild trader. In order for people to list stuff their guild would still have to win a trader but now for the buyer it's all in one place at their fingertips but comes at the cost of a extra fee from using it. Say a percentage of the sale.

To further incentivize people going to individual guild traders to buy, said guild trader could offer something of value like no extra fee that the centralized hub would charge the buyer and the guild would receive that credit towards the renewal bid towards their current trader.

I'm just spit balling but I'm sure others could iron out some extra details.

hafgood

No

IronWooshu

hafgood wrote: »

No

Why?

hafgood

Because this is just another attempt to get an auction house into the game.

So no

Gythral

Sounds like another

"One spot to flip them all"
Auction House by the 'back door' to me!

IronWooshu

Gythral wrote: »

Sounds like another

"One spot to flip them all"
Auction House by the 'back door' to me!

It doesn't decentivize needing guild traders or people going to their trader. It's beneficial for the buyer and the trader for people to shop at guild traders but the hub makes it easier for buyers who want to do a quick grab but at an extra cost.

Blinx

because the majority of us players enjoy wasting 30-45 minutes, going from zone to zone to compare pricing, so we don't get ripped off/s.... I loathe the trading system in this game!

there is nothing on consoles to help us out, compared to pc

I'm resigned to the factthat if I want something, I have to waste an half hour maybe to look for a decent price, and hope that when I've decided, that the item is still available where I found the best price

BlueRaven

Going to various market stalls to see their wares is much more immersive then a central wow auction house.

Just doing a search on a single vendor sometimes gets bogged down, searching multiple vendors might be a server side nightmare.

There is no need to change what we currently have.

VaranisArano

Edited, because I've gone and confused myself with what exactly the OP was asking for. Sorry!


As far as ZOS is concerned, the benefit of Guild Traders is not just in terms of listing items, but also in the decentralized nature of their sales.

Unfortunately, that's exactly the part that Auction House proponents don't like.

It's worth noting some of the development of Guild Traders.

1. Here's a specific Dev Comment about why there is no Auction House from an Ask Us Anything in 2014:

What's your purpose in making guild stores for guild members only? Why not make them for everyone? – sliyerking

"Our goal is to make the economy more player-based, but not to have a system that allows you to find anything at any time because there are so many players involved on a megaserver. With extremely large communities, low-percentage drops can become highly available in auction houses. It ends up harming the “gear chase” portion of the game."
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/947


2. Guild Traders used to be in Cyrodiil, predominantly. As in, your Guild needed to capture a keep and hold it so that people could buy stuff from you. So for those complaining about the current system, it used to be much worse.


3. Update 3 added Guild Traders across Tamriel.
Here's a Dev Comment about how their choices for Guild Traders reinforce Guild Identity below the spoiler for length.

https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/1087
(Bold is mine for emphasis)

"Guild traders from the Gold Coast Trading Company will offer another new way to get your guild out there. More than 120 traders will be distributed throughout Tamriel. They’ll be located conveniently in places you’d expect to find traders—major cities and smaller centers of civilization. Every week, your guild can choose one to bid on. If you win, the trader will don your guild’s tabard and begin selling goods from your guild store to the public. This gives your guild a sense of place in the world, and will expose it to more players than ever before. Every player on your megaserver will see your trader and your guild’s name at that location, and your guild will receive a cut of every sale, making having a trader very attractive.

There were, of course, plenty of development decisions to make for guild traders, too. We had to choose good locations that were still convenient to make sure that they’d be accessible. Most of them are located near a Wayshrine, and in one instance (Mournhold), we actually moved a previously-inconvenient Wayshrine to a better location to make player access to the town and traders easier. We also had to determine what bidding process we’d use. We didn’t want guilds to feel like they needed to camp and watch bids from minute to minute, so we elected to use a blind bidding process. Your guild can only bid on one trader per week, and you won’t see the bids from other guilds. This means that bidding wars will play out over weeks and months instead of minute-to-minute. This was another difficult choice that saw lots of internal debate.

The trader system offers opportunities for inter-guild competition, incentive to stock up your guild’s store, a new stream of profit, and a chance for guilds to establish themselves in the world. We’re excited to see how the traders are received."

4. In a series of questions in 2015, ZOS Devs repeatedly indicated they did not intend to add an auction house despite requests.

MercyKilling: Okay, no auction house. Ever. How about removing the guild membership requirement in order to sell at kiosks?
"Player guilds are an integral part of our world and trader access is a key benefit to guild membership. We have no plans to change this at this time."

Quote from: April 28, 2015 : ESO Live "Ask Us Anything" @37:40 The transcript: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/1760019#Comment_1760019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N17KZ_ZCK0&list=PLZng8hzxXSt6-402bM1G2UuZbtnlrMn0z&index=23

5. In 2019 with Scalebreaker, ZOS majorly updated the Guild Trader system with multi-bidding. Notably, their answer to the "ghost guild" issue on console was not to do away with guilds, but to double down on the Guild bidding model.


Conclusion:
So all that is to say that while the Devs might change their mind, everything they've said thus far argues against them choosing to implement the OP's suggestion.

TL;DR
"Our goal is to make the economy more player-based, but not to have a system that allows you to find anything at any time because there are so many players involved on a megaserver. With extremely large communities, low-percentage drops can become highly available in auction houses. It ends up harming the “gear chase” portion of the game."
https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/947

Varana

IronWooshu wrote: »

a extra fee from using it. Say a percentage of the sale

100% more expensive would be a generous starting point, I think.
Something that costs 10k at the trader will cost 20k at the hub.
Or something like that.

This will be a field day for all the people flipping items.

Amottica

A dual system would not work. Players would go for the easiest or less costly and that doesn’t mean better.

I don’t know the history but it’s clear Zenimax chose this system be the simplistic means some other games utilize. So the issue isn’t of both can work together or wanting a central trading system vs what we have. It’s figuring out what argument would be effective in getting Zenimax to change their mind. They seem content with the current system.

_Zathras_

IronWooshu wrote: »

One spot in all 3 major cities that pulls all items from every guild trader. In order for people to list stuff their guild would still have to win a trader but now for the buyer it's all in one place at their fingertips but comes at the cost of a extra fee from using it. Say a percentage of the sale.

To further incentivize people going to individual guild traders to buy, said guild trader could offer something of value like no extra fee that the centralized hub would charge the buyer and the guild would receive that credit towards the renewal bid towards their current trader.

I'm just spit balling but I'm sure others could iron out some extra details.

Personally, I've always hated the trading system in ESO. It was horribly done in DAoC, and they thought it should carry over here, but with fewer houses/traders to visit. You're still running around, clicking and searching, so there is very little improvement on an experiment that people didn't like then as well.

That is, unless you were one of the rich guilds that could afford a house near the entrances to the housing zone. Which is similar to what it is now: only the super rich get into the main hubs, and everyone else gets whatever they can find in the middle of nowhere. Or, more often, they get nothing, and have to settle for limited in-guild trading/sales.

But I digress.

To your points: people will just use the central vendor, and will gladly pay the increased fee to save time. BUT, this idea, and its variations, have been hashed and re-hashed here since launch. You'll get about a 50/50 split on the community, and nothing will change. It's just something we have to deal with.

NerfSeige

Varana wrote: »

IronWooshu wrote: »

a extra fee from using it. Say a percentage of the sale

100% more expensive would be a generous starting point, I think.
Something that costs 10k at the trader will cost 20k at the hub.
Or something like that.

This will be a field day for all the people flipping items.

Whales would still buy and just list at an even higher price. For more rare items, a single person can even manipulate the supply if they are using the auction house, so yeah… no to auction house.

spartaxoxo

Blinx wrote: »

because the majority of us players enjoy wasting 30-45 minutes, going from zone to zone to compare pricing, so we don't get ripped off/s.... I loathe the trading system in this game!

there is nothing on consoles to help us out, compared to pc

I'm resigned to the factthat if I want something, I have to waste an half hour maybe to look for a decent price, and hope that when I've decided, that the item is still available where I found the best price

We also have a dramatically better economy on console. Seeing how much better it is, I definitely wouldn't trade it now.

jedtb16_ESO

after all these years the poor auction horse is still getting thrashed.

no.

PrimusTiberius

I think ZOS should add additional trader locations and lower the guild requirements to bid on a trader.

I don't mind going from trader to trader searching out deals, there are out there, you just have to find them.

AJones43865

Something I haven't seen another poster mention yet is that guilds use their guild trader as a recruitment tool. The better the trader location, the higher the fees the guild can charge/must charge, and the more sales people can expect to get from their guild trader.

I'd guess we'd all appreciate the convenience of a central auction house. But at the same time, it's safe to say we all would not appreciate the higher prices we'd have to pay for items listed there.

Chips_Ahoy

I think the trader system is fine, but we need a tool that shows the estimated price of the item among all traders.

You can see the lowest price, but you still have to find out which store has it at that price.

Castagere

Blinx wrote: »

because the majority of us players enjoy wasting 30-45 minutes, going from zone to zone to compare pricing, so we don't get ripped off/s.... I loathe the trading system in this game!

there is nothing on consoles to help us out, compared to pc

I'm resigned to the factthat if I want something, I have to waste an half hour maybe to look for a decent price, and hope that when I've decided, that the item is still available where I found the best price

this 100 % but sometimes it's fun to find that item for say 7k when another vendor has the same thing for 300k. The pricing doesn't make any sense to me.

RicAlmighty

Castagere wrote: »

this 100 % but sometimes it's fun to find that item for say 7k when another vendor has the same thing for 300k. The pricing doesn't make any sense to me.

What doesn't make sense? Prices are set by individual players, especially on consoles. Most players have no idea what the "average selling price" is for an item so they just list it. The default selling price for an item when you create the listing is laughably low, so a lot of players just raise it without really understanding how rare or in demand something is. That to me is part of the allure of the guild system and something that would be completely destroyed under an AH model

Drammanoth

Uh... no.

HyekAr

hafgood wrote: »

Because this is just another attempt to get an auction house into the game.

So no

But anyways there is addons, and webpages which already do that.

So U just legalize it

HyekAr

Blinx wrote: »

because the majority of us players enjoy wasting 30-45 minutes, going from zone to zone to compare pricing, so we don't get ripped off/s.... I loathe the trading system in this game!

there is nothing on consoles to help us out, compared to pc

I'm resigned to the factthat if I want something, I have to waste an half hour maybe to look for a decent price, and hope that when I've decided, that the item is still available where I found the best price

Really U do that? Why dont u download an addons for that, or find a webpage.. there is also an android aplication

Sylvermynx

HyekAr wrote: »

Blinx wrote: »

because the majority of us players enjoy wasting 30-45 minutes, going from zone to zone to compare pricing, so we don't get ripped off/s.... I loathe the trading system in this game!

there is nothing on consoles to help us out, compared to pc

I'm resigned to the factthat if I want something, I have to waste an half hour maybe to look for a decent price, and hope that when I've decided, that the item is still available where I found the best price

Really U do that? Why dont u download an addons for that, or find a webpage.. there is also an android aplication

Because as he plainly states, he's on console, and perhaps he doesn't have a laptop he can pop a webpage on, or a phone ditto. Jeez.

HyekAr

What the economy of the game needs is ofline trading with limited slots(4 or 5) for trading in a specific area of each city, with limited places, let say 20 chars per city.(this will be very immersive economy system, "private property") I would add some city taxes( depending on city and political situation "alliance wars-storyline")

Leaving the guildtraders for guilds with more than 30 trading slots, 50, or zos could make it to upgrade with crowns

Create an auction but limited to only guildtraders/and region. This will be the bonus to be in the a trading guild.

In this case, ppl could still travel from region to region to consult the auction of guilds, it would be for browseing only, so after checking -travel to the shop in that region.




Leaving ofline traders for those who wants trade but not go into a guild. But as anti-bonus they wont be inside of the auction.

U will see ppl gethering their traders in X city for trading X-similar material, and this will be repeated for every city. Like when ppl gethering in alikr to pvp.

Sometimes giving liberty to gamers it wont harm but improve the game.

Some talks abt auction, but lets be honest ... I am playing less that 1 year and I know webpages/android apps/ addons, which already works as auction&price comparative tool.. and U who plays since 2014 dont know abt it?

I am playing on Stadia, I cant use any addons.. but I know abt them, U dont?

Elsonso

VaranisArano wrote: »

Conclusion:
So all that is to say that while the Devs might change their mind, everything they've said thus far argues against them choosing to implement the OP's suggestion.

Another reference...

"Auction House. There's been some questions about whether that's something we're ever going to consider. It's not something that we plan on considering. While global auction houses would be convenient, they are not ideal for the economy of the game, so it's not something that we're planning to do."
--Jason Leavey, ESO Live #15, April 10, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D0_q6cfhsE

hafgood

Look.we don't want an auction house, Zos don't want an auction house, there will never be an auction house.

I play on console and don't want one. I am more than content with the system as it is, if I really want to track something down then I will spend the time visiting the guild traders, I don't have access to addons and don't care.

insane_lycanthropyb14_ESO

We need a centralized auction house system, the guild trader system is garbage and full of flaws. Literally *everything* the guild store is supposed to be a benefit for the centralized system already does. Both are *player* driven economies, unless devs set in stone the prices of something.......players control the economy . Guild stores require you to go from trader to trader all over the zone to find something, if something isn't there then you have to go through LOAD SCREEN AFTER LOAD SCREEN going from zone to zone and then guild store to guild store, that is a horribly flawed system. Then there is the stupid guild dues to be able to stay in the trade guild just to be able to sell things which is idiotic. You literally cannot play the game because you have to treat this game like a job just to make enough money to remain in the guild instead of being able to sale stuff at your leisure. The guild store system is garbage for people with limited play time that just want to sell things when they get them - people with jobs and people with babies that don't get to play enough as is so we don't want to have to *work* for a guild we want to pve/pvp.

PeacefulAnarchy

What about if, instead of charging a fee this central trader only listed things 48 hours after listing?

That would limit the issue with flippers since anything reasonably priced will already have been bought at the individual traders and it still makes traders important since a lot of things get sold within 48 hours. But it would allow people to buy less cheap stuff or rare slow moving stuff without having to hunt through dozens of traders.

Blinx

HyekAr wrote: »

Blinx wrote: »

because the majority of us players enjoy wasting 30-45 minutes, going from zone to zone to compare pricing, so we don't get ripped off/s.... I loathe the trading system in this game!

there is nothing on consoles to help us out, compared to pc

I'm resigned to the factthat if I want something, I have to waste an half hour maybe to look for a decent price, and hope that when I've decided, that the item is still available where I found the best price

Really U do that? Why dont u download an addons for that, or find a webpage.. there is also an android aplication

I just looked in the google store, I found 2 whole apps, one is paid for @ .99, the other hasn't been updated in a while both have lousy reviews. I did find a website that's xbox specific searching on my pc tho, has an app they expect me to side load, but if it's not in google store, it isn't getting downloaded by me, and checking out their pricing, and comparing to what I see in game, I think I'm better off to continue what I have been doing, annoying as it is.
Every so often I do manage to get something at an amazing price

kargen27

Entire guilds are based on the current system. A large portion of the player base treats trading as their end game. Any kind of central solution takes away their reason for playing. Guild traders work well. If you are in a hurry you can hit the major hubs and buy the first item you find. If you want to spend time looking for a bargain you can do that.

It is easy to find everything you need and with a bit of looking around you can find most of what you need. Two or three players sitting on one location can't dictate prices on rare items. With over 200 trader locations manipulating the market isn't an easy task. What we have works very well.

A few minor changes could make it even better but it works as is. Don't need to make any drastic changes.

"Then there is the stupid guild dues to be able to stay in the trade guild just to be able to sell things which is idiotic."

Dues are not required. I am in a social guild that gets a trader maybe every four to five weeks. That one week we have the trader I load it up and easily clear a million gold coins. The trader we get is not in a prime location. Even without a trader you can still list items for guild members to purchase. The guild never asks for dues.

I am also in a guild that gets a trader every week. Dues for that guild is 3,000 gold. If you don't want to pay the gold they have events that you can participate in instead. A couple of hours a week and you are good to go. Many trading guilds will wave the dues if you sell a certain amount of goods. Plenty of ways to get into a guild with a trader and not pay any dues at all.