These are just some of my initial observations about the Glitch Economy and could be considered applicable to most virtual economies.
As an initial caveat I would say Glitch is a relatively small game. Compared to most MMORPGs Glitch's number of resource items and craft-able items is pretty small. Before I talk about the Auction/Market economy it should be noted a large part of the community make use of barter, player-trading and community donations.
Game economy isn't necessarily as central to the Glitch experience as compared to a game like EVE Online for instance. Glitch is more of a game that rewards social and communal progress.
With that caveat in mind, I'll move on to discussion of the auction/market.
=PRICE FACTORS=
Vendor Prices:
NPC Buy and Sell prices act as a semi-limiter/stabilizer for market prices. Players are unlikely to buy items off the market if they can buy them from an NPC for the same price or less. Items not available from the NPC are unlikely to be sold on Market for less than the NPC will buy them for.
Market Supply & Demand:
Glitch has a supply and demand economy like most games, the caveat being that for most part the supply is potentially infinite. Actual market supply for most common resources are practically infinite as long as Glitch maintains a healthy playerbase.
A sub-factor to Market Supply is Rarity. While most items have an infinite supply or can be crafted by players some items are random or have very low drop rates such as rare music boxes, seasonal items, beta items, etc..
The lower the market supply and the higher the rarity, the higher the price is likely to be.
Time:
Time is a factor in Market prices for non-vendor items. Items that require more time to craft/harvest will likely have a higher price.
Energy:
Energy Cost is a factor in Market prices as well. Simple items with low or zero energy cost to harvest are likely not to include energy cost as a factor however, uber items that have a high energy cost to harvest/craft or have a high chain cost (i.e. refining, crafting ingredients, etc.) will likely include energy cost as a price factor.
=MARKET STATES=
Stagnant:
Items that are highly common, have a large market presence and/or low demand are most likely to succumb to stagnation. This can effect uncommon items as well that may not be viewed as cost-efficient.
This is less likely to effect basic resources, rare items and high-end items but rather items that fall somewhere in the middle that may be viewed as over-priced.
Under-Valued:
Any items being sold at below Vendor buy price are considered under-valued and can yield immediate profit at vendor. Items that are not sold by vendor that are sold below average market sell price (also factoring list and commission cost) can also be considered under-valued although weekly, monthly, yearly averages may vary.
Over-Valued:
If there is a low supply and few or no market lists then the seller is in a better position to over-price such items. Usually you can wait out low supplies however a few items move so fast that you either have to wait or you have to accept the higher prices.
=MARKET STRATEGIES=
Market Cornering:
Rare items that sell fast and are in very low market supply or none can basically be sold within reason for very profitable prices.
Buying out the Competition:
This is really only recommended if the "competition's" item is under-valued, meaning you can sell it to vendor for a profit or sell it on auction at a profit (factoring in list/commission costs)
Undercutting:
If you're just trying to make a quick buck and are willing to make a little less yourself you can undercut the lowest market price. When undercutting you should make sure you're still profiting when factoring list and commission costs.
Be aware of over-selling, since in Glitch all auctions you post are sold as a single unit, i.e. you post 10 quantities of an item for sale a buyer must buy all 10 of them. For less fluid items (i.e. fast selling) you may want to avoid posting too many auctions for sale at once or of posting too many units for sale in a single auction for higher end items.
Price Control:
Having mentioned undercutting it's important to note that it's not always smart to undercut. Undercutting your competition can lead to further undercutting by other sellers. If players continually undercut each other then buyers will end up just buying lowest/last listed items.
Now, if an item is selling for say 500C and you post the same item for 500C and the seller after you posts the same item for 500C then it is more likely that everyone's items will sell quickly.
You can see undercutting occur in real-time in Glitch by watching auction listings for Teal-White Triangle Keys. These items often start at 2500C, average around 1750C and are often undercut to around 1600C with sellers undercutting each other by 1C at a time.
When undercutting like this occurs it can takes hours for a seller to sell just one key.
=CONCLUSION=
Generally, the Glitch economy isn't suspect to a lot of abuse. This is in part due to the fact that you are limited to stack sizes of items you can post and also because all lots must be sold/bought as one unit, i.e. you can't post 500 units of an item and have someone buy just one unit.
Also, with some items being non-auctionable it forces players to trade privately or barter for said items.
I'm not saying that it would be inherently good or bad if such features were implemented but at the moment, it's not a factor.
I'm not advocating serious market manipulating by players and in fact there are nastier ways which players can use to drive prices up or down that I haven't mentioned but, since it is a part of Glitch I felt like analyzing it to an extent and discussing it.
This was just meant to be a very general guide along with observations about Glitch economy. Feel free to comment or add your own insights.