Topic

Confused by auction pricing

I see that the auction price of Awesome Stew has dropped to 160 currants. At this price, aren't the sellers losing money (when compared to selling Awesome Stew to a Tool Vendor)?

Posted 15 months ago by magic panda Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • Money isn't everything...
    Posted 15 months ago by dopiaza Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Slightly less frivolous answer:

    Lots of players have a surplus of currants, and so getting maximum price for a sale isn't necessarily a priority - especially with an impending reset. I sometimes offload stuff into auction cheap just to free up some space. Sometimes I just do it on a whim. Other times, I'll try to get the most I can - it all really depends on what mood I'm in. 

    Of course, now we have cubimals to squander our currants on, there might be less excuse for selling things off cheap...
    Posted 15 months ago by dopiaza Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sometimes I just want to get things out of my inventory fast (If I'm at my house or something and don't necessarily want to find a vendor.) But that's just laziness and you're right, it doesn't make a ton of sense :)
    Posted 15 months ago by Kira Bajira Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree with all those points, but if you want to offload stuff quickly, it seems like it's easier to teleport to a tool vendor, dump all your stuff, and be done with it.

    As for selling stuff cheaply to be nice / for fast sale, wouldn't it make more sense to price AS significantly lower than 160?

    Also, I've definitely run into times where I'm more interested in being nice than making money, but in those cases, I just go to general chat and say "hey guys.. I overcooked. does anyone want some free awesome stew?"
    Posted 15 months ago by magic panda Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm not hypothesising, I'm describing my actual behaviour :-) I presume other folks have similar reasons.

    It's not easier to to teleport to a vendor - that requires you to stop what you are doing, change location and uses up either energy or a token. It's way easier to switch to another window and ping a few things off to auction at whatever price pops into your head at the time.

    It doesn't have to make sense from a financial point of view, it just need to make a sense from "how do I feel like spending the next thirty seconds of my time" point of view.

    If I want to be generous, I typically go for a walk and drop random things things in slightly out of the way places (up trees, behind things, and so on...). I've been disposing of a few of my cubimal duplicates that way just lately.

    Another fun thing to do is to go into Global chat and announce that you're about to auction off (say) a dozen Earthshakers for one currant each. It then becomes a race for folk to try to get them. That's a bit less fun since sniping tools have increased in popularity though.
    Posted 15 months ago by dopiaza Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Fair enough. I certainly didn't mean to say that your motives weren't your motives!!
    Posted 15 months ago by magic panda Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Actually since most vendors pay out at 70% (or 140 for an Awesome Stew), it's really easier to sell it in the auction for 160 than have to go to a Tool Vendor (the only vendors that purchase at 80%)...though they do lose some on the fees...but still may do better than going to a regular vendor.

    Sometimes, auctions are just easier...you don't have to leave home to post things there...as dopiaza mentioned...it may be a time thing.
    Posted 15 months ago by b3achy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Do tool vendors pay more than other vendors?
    Posted 15 months ago by IxÆoN Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes: tool vendors (just tool, not kitchen tool or anything like that), pay 80% of the listed price for an item, and other vendors only pay 70%.
    Posted 15 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i didn't know tool vendors paid more.  cool.

    also worth mentioning is that you can put stuff up for auction even when you're not in the world.  i've cooked up a bunch of stuff during odd hours when there weren't as many folks playing and then waited til busier hours to auction them off - not entering the world and getting sucked into the game, so i could get my real life chores done.
    Posted 15 months ago by peacefulbean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • for the same reasons one would buy food at auction instead of teleporting to a meal vendor, people will put up auctions instead of teleporting to a tool vendor to sell.

    that said, 160 currants per stew is poor pricing on the part of of the seller. when you factor in commissions and listing fees, selling to a regular vendor is probably better than selling for that low at auction.
    Posted 15 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • well, almost! .. an Awesome Stew sells for 140 to a regular vendor, and selling at auction for 160 incurs 16 currants in fees. so 140 versus 144 currants per stew.
    Posted 15 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink