Are there any risks to joining a trade guild/auction house guild?

crush83

When I first saw the Auction House/Trade Guilds being advertised in zone, I thought to myself, that seems like a good way to scam people. Under that impression, I've so far stayed out of any of these guilds.

Now, reading online a bit about them, it seems they are fairly popular, and encouraged. This is the replacement for an Auction House system.

I've read the argument for them. Basically, since supply is limited, demand can keep pace. This keeps the value of items worthwhile because the market isn't flooded.

Overall, I want to support the idea. However, I have a few concerns that I'd like answered first.

What happens to my items if the leader/creator of one of these guilds quits the game, deletes his character(s), gets banned, or disbands the guild?
I'm concerned that I might not get my items back in this situation. Is this a legitimate fear?

Can a guild leader/creator access my items that are for sale in his/her guild's store?
By this, I mean, could he/she potentially steal my items, or adjust their price?

What happens to my items if a guild leader/creator boots me from the guild while my items are for sale?

Are there any other risks of which I should be made aware?

Thanks

Shimond

The only risk that's preventing me from joining any of them is giving them all my login name.

dannomite82

Shimond wrote: »

The only risk that's preventing me from joining any of them is giving them all my login name.

If you talk in trade, and someone right-click ignores you, they can see your loginid, so I wouldn't worry about it. (It says @XXXXXXX has been ignored where XXXXXXX is their user id not their character id. Try ignoring a spammer, and you'll see what I mean.

Shimond

Good thing I have zone off then :P

KerinKor

Shimond wrote: »

The only risk that's preventing me from joining any of them is giving them all my login name.

A bit paranoid? What do you fear?

crush83

So, there's no way for a guild leader to steal my items. And there's no way for a guild to disband, taking my items with it?

dannomite82

Would be better practice to hide them, but this is a case of hiding in plain sight. Plus, they'd still need to brute force your account, and I'd hope Zenimax has measures both in game and web to flag/block those attempts.

CodingSquirrel

Shimond wrote: »

Good thing I have zone off then :P

Good thing you're avoiding the forums too. I'd hate to have someone get your login info from some innocuous post.

Oh, oops. Well I guess now all they'll have to do is figure out your password and get access to your email and you're as good as hacked. Should be a simple task at this point.

Shimond

dannomite82 wrote: »

Would be better practice to hide them, but this is a case of hiding in plain sight. Plus, they'd still need to brute force your account, and I'd hope Zenimax has measures both in game and web to flag/block those attempts.

Exactly, paranoia not required but I appreciate all the attempts at making me look crazier than I already know I am :P

dannomite82

It'll all be moot if they implement authenticators.

wrlifeboil

I notice that no one answered the OP's question. ZOS should have a guild faq page.

crush83

@wrlifeboil‌ Thanks! I was wondering when someone would draw attention to that...I'm still waiting for those answers by the way.

bedington

For the OP, I quit a trading guild because there was no actual trading going on, and the items that I had posted (but had forgot to cancel) were mailed to me in game. I'm not sure if the same thing would happen if the guild was disbanded, but I assume it would.

Overall my experience with the trading guilds has been good. NA Trade Alliance and Imperial Traders are working well.

crush83

@bedington‌ Thanks. That answers most of the questions I think. Now, I'm just wondering if they have any kind of access to manipulate my sales. I'd suspect no, but I don't know for sure.

Thesiren

Shimond wrote: »

The only risk that's preventing me from joining any of them is giving them all my login name.

Tantamount beyond all of the OP's concerns is that our accounts could potentially get hacked if the wrong person sees and then uses our login info. And as there's no way to screen anyone in any guild for potential problems (and as anyone with a chat window can see, there are tons of gold farmers/hackers all over ESO already), I just stay away.

Jadeviper1974

dannomite82 wrote: »

It'll all be moot if they implement authenticators.

Yep, I have the authentication from SWTOR and I love it.

Jadeviper1974

The trade guild system is basic free market capitalism. Say you are looking for Wood and you belong to 5 guilds with a guild store. If Wood is 100 gold a stack in Guild A, but only 500 gold a stack in guild D, well you buy from guild D. Maybe the price of ore is better in guild C so you buy that from them and so on and so on. I think it is a great idea. Also all those bots that folks worry about are going to have to join a guild to sell their stuff so it makes them subject to the competition of the marketplace since there is not centralized Auction House.

Greydog

Jadeviper1974 wrote: »

The trade guild system is basic free market capitalism. Say you are looking for Wood and you belong to 5 guilds with a guild store. If Wood is 100 gold a stack in Guild A, but only 500 gold a stack in guild D, well you buy from guild D. Maybe the price of ore is better in guild C so you buy that from them and so on and so on. I think it is a great idea. Also all those bots that folks worry about are going to have to join a guild to sell their stuff so it makes them subject to the competition of the marketplace since there is not centralized Auction House.

Free market capitalism would require the ability to know what your competitors prices are so you can set yours accordingly. This mish-mash is not free market capitalism

@Op No, a leader cannot access your stuff.

Aiiane

crush83 wrote: »

@bedington‌ Thanks. That answers most of the questions I think. Now, I'm just wondering if they have any kind of access to manipulate my sales. I'd suspect no, but I don't know for sure.

No, guild leaders have no access at all to your listings.

baratron

Jadeviper1974 wrote: »

Say you are looking for Wood and you belong to 5 guilds with a guild store. If Wood is 100 gold a stack in Guild A, but only 500 gold a stack in guild D, well you buy from guild D.

100 gold vs 500 gold? Pretty sure I'd be buying it from Guild A .

wrlifeboil

Jadeviper1974 wrote: »

The trade guild system is basic free market capitalism. Say you are looking for Wood and you belong to 5 guilds with a guild store. If Wood is 100 gold a stack in Guild A, but only 500 gold a stack in guild D, well you buy from guild D. Maybe the price of ore is better in guild C so you buy that from them and so on and so on. I think it is a great idea. Also all those bots that folks worry about are going to have to join a guild to sell their stuff so it makes them subject to the competition of the marketplace since there is not centralized Auction House.

Trade guilds do not represent free market capitalism. The very word "guild" disqualifies it.