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### Topic

#### The auction market is irrational.

Prices for dairy products just at this moment:
Milk: 5,80
Butter: 9,50
Cheese: 5,00
wtf...

Posted 13 months ago by Brianbrainerz | Permalink

### Replies

- The real world market is irrational.
  Posted 13 months ago by Black Francis | Permalink
- people get to set their own prices.
  people are irrational.
  you can't force rationality.
  life goes on.
  Posted 13 months ago by Lord Bacon-o | Permalink
- that isn't irrational.
  there are more uses for the unprocessed butter than for the cheese, and so there is more demand for it.
  Posted 13 months ago by striatic | Permalink
- i mean, there's a ton of irrational stuff going on in the Glitch auction market, sure .. but this isn't a particularly good example.
  think about ..
  car frame : 5.80
  car [frame with engine installed] : 9.50
  used, broken car only good for scrap metal: 5.00
  a ton of energy and effort went into using and breaking that car .. doesn't make it more valuable.
  Posted 13 months ago by striatic | Permalink
- @striatic You might be right, but yet again, why are people handing out cheese for more currants if it takes more effort to make it?
  Posted 13 months ago by Brianbrainerz | Permalink
- Don't try to figure out the economy of the game. It will drive you mad. No economy makes sense on any game I have ever played. Just play.
  Posted 13 months ago by Eye Wonder | Permalink
- Any game and any life. It´s the same. Here we have the laissez faire rule.
  Posted 13 months ago by Amnesia Lee Dohn | Permalink
- you mean, why aren't they charging more?
  probably because there isn't a market for it. maybe they got the cheese in the process of doing a quest or something and want to sell it. or maybe they irrationally made the mistake of making cheese in the first place but are selling it on a rational price because that's the only rational thing they can do with it.
  Eye Wonder, thanks for the directive. i'm not following it.
  Posted 13 months ago by striatic | Permalink
- sell lol
  Posted 13 months ago by LtlBoyBlue | Permalink
- The invisible hand of the free market strikes again :)
  Posted 13 months ago by Honda Prefect | Permalink
- Well, anyway... it's just kinda bizarre.
  If there ain't no explanation, that's ok for me :)
  Posted 13 months ago by Brianbrainerz | Permalink
- At any given time, someone might have bought up all the reasonably-priced stuff or dumped a bunch of low-priced stuff for quick sale.
  Has anyone hacked up some graphs to show average prices over time? That'd be pretty interesting, particularly spikes like paper costs during Zilloween.
  Posted 13 months ago by Biff Beefbat | Permalink
- "Has anyone hacked up some graphs to show average prices over time? That'd be pretty interesting, particularly spikes like paper costs during Zilloween."
  i believe zoggish has those charts regularly updating.
  Posted 13 months ago by striatic | Permalink
- http://zoggish.appspot.com/auctions/stats-paper
  the displayed archive doesn't go back far enough to provide the information you want.
  Posted 13 months ago by striatic | Permalink
- SELL MORTIMER, SELL!!!
  www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8H...
  Posted 13 months ago by agent86 | Permalink
- I've asked this basic question before, but in the context of food.
  In the old days, awesome stew (200 energy) would sell for >200 currants. Sometimes as much as 250. Meanwhile, meat tetrazini (192 energy) would sell for 160 currants. It made no sense.
  But with tools like zoggish or tylersaurus.com/glitch/ , food prices have come more or less into equilibrium at around 0.75 currants per energy.
  Moral of the story is that lack of volume and the PITA factor of looking up various prices for various alternatives causes the market to be imperfectly efficient. Greater volume + better information will make the market more rational over time.
  Posted 13 months ago by magic panda | Permalink
- There is a massive oversupply of food in the game.
  Posted 13 months ago by WalruZ | Permalink
- Irrational markets? John Corzine must play glitch. ;-)
  Posted 13 months ago by Hunter Gathers | Permalink
- Actually, if you had the time/knowledge to create a greasemonkey script, I bet you could create a pretty awesome futures market w the glitch economy. Just think, an open interest contract on AAA blocks, which will definitely have a higher value in the future when glitch allows home upgrading and more projects.
  I cant be the only finance nerd here? #OccupyAndra
  Posted 13 months ago by Hunter Gathers | Permalink
- The thing that bugs me the most is that many things seem to sell for more at a vendor than they do on auction, that just doesn't make any sense.
  Posted 13 months ago by Dexiro | Permalink
- You also have to take into account at what level and how long ago a pricing war may have started. I undercut your price, a few minutes later you dump more on the market at cheaper prices to get noticed and sell it ... and the price war begins.
  Given enough time and the determination I bet you could make enough food, dump it on the auctions, and bring the .75 down to .70.
  Supply and demand at it's basics ....
  Posted 13 months ago by BlackWolf | Permalink
- As for the prices being cheaper on auction than what they can get at a vendor - Laziness !
  A lot of the products are made while in your house. A few simple clicks and it's posted and out of your inventory, who wants to lug all of that out to a vendor,sell it, then go home and make more.
  Posted 13 months ago by BlackWolf | Permalink
- If you set a teleport point at one of the tool vendors, selling to vendors is EASIER than selling at auction. Fewer clicks, and you don't have to wait for your stuff to sell, with the possibility of it expiring.
  Posted 13 months ago by magic panda | Permalink
- Yeah you can manipulate the prices downward but it's more interesting to try pushing them the other way. :-) Often with the right combination of price+quantity, there's no need to undercut...
  Posted 13 months ago by Marka | Permalink
- Manipulating prices upward is fun.
  Posted 13 months ago by BlueZed | Permalink
- +1 BlueZed
  Posted 13 months ago by scottj | Permalink
- It's also awesome how even if you are able to sell things above 80%(if you don't get instantly undercut) the fact that they take a commission actually negates any profit you would have made so selling to tool vendor is always best choice.
  Posted 13 months ago by Crocen | Permalink
- True, Crocen, but something inside me won't allow me to dump vitally useful items like cooked food, or living creatures (seasoned eggs or piglets/chicks/caterpillars) into a shrine or a vendor. It just seems wrong to throw them into the abyss. I'd rather sell them to players that might make good use of them, even if I'm losing currants that way. I would, however, prefer it if sellers could actually get something positive out of using the auctions as opposed to selling to vendors.
  Posted 13 months ago by Shepherdmoon | Permalink
- Auction selling costs a 9.5% commission -- what the seller gets is almost 10% less than what the buyer pays.
  Selling to a Tool Vendor requires time or teleportation to get there and back again to wherever you are gathering raw materials.
  The vendors have a set price they pay, auction prices go up and down. Sometimes one way is better and sometimes the other.
  Posted 13 months ago by Vocable | Permalink
- Perhaps it's just me but all the vendors pay the same price now.
  Posted 13 months ago by BlueZed | Permalink