[Perfectly Wicked]

I don't like where this has gone. xD

Only so much can be controlled. I was that annoying person back when Tris opened who wouldn't sell Runes for less than 2.5k and people where buying them. They were also buying from cheaper sellers first, that's what a competitive market is all about.

While I would rather invest my own cash into Trisphee than spend 3-5k on a Donation Item, I'm not judging someone who is willing to put that much aurum into one. That just encourages activity and aurum into the system.


Everyone needs to be thoughtful when it comes to shops/buying/selling. It is something that everyone is passionate about and can be easily offended or feel judged.

Currently my shop is in an offer taking limbo. I have the items I'm selling listed but no asking prices. It isn't an auction, there is no time limit and I am not pitting people against each other.
I will go in and edit the prices because I am selling, not auctioning the items. I dislike that I have to post prices. I enjoy getting the most I can or cutting deals based on the situation.

Done for now. ;<

[Coda]

Nobody ever said that taking offers wasn't allowed. Lucid mentioned it IS allowed. You just have to say you're taking offers. All I said was that, in my personal, unofficial, opinion, taking offers is a weird thing that I, personally, have trouble wrapping my head around.

[Hermes]

Taking offers is just a lazy auction XD That isn't an insult :P

[Nightmare]

I like the way you put that, Hermes.

[Perfectly Wicked]

I like lazy. 8]

[17th]

I have no idea what is going on but I will answer the first question - yes inflation is necessary. As someone who usually donates an avi sites, if there is no inflation I'm not gonna feel inclined to donate and/or sell to people. It sounds greedy, but why should I sell an item for 4k today when it was 4k a year ago? o.O

[Suzerain of Sheol]

From what I gather, the problem isn't gradual inflation based on rarity and age, but immediate inflation of items as soon as they're released.

Since, despite there being theoretically limitless resources, said resources (donation items) are only available for a finite time and cost actual money (for the most part) meaning that, after the month (or year) is up, there will be a finite quantity of them in existence on the site.

So, if some sort of plutocracy is formed by the extremely wealthy on here, buying donation items for extremely high prices because a.) they want to make sure they get the items and b.) because they have so much money that it's still mere pennies to them, it makes the acquiring of donation items by less well-off posters (who can't afford to donate real money to the site) extremely difficult, if not impossible, as even if said plutocracy does decide to sell the items, as you said, why would they sell for less than they payed? And since they've effectively created a monopoly, the price of the item in question is driven enormously high.

Not that that actually seems to be happening here (at least not to a really concerning degree, from what I've seen) but it theoretically can happen, and would make the site seem unfriendly to casual posters who can't amass those kinds of funds.

I don't really have much of a personal stake in it, as I don't mind donating and the site's prices are more than reasonable. But, on the other hand, I can't quite wrap my head around the idea of selling something I payed real money for, for fake money, no matter how much was being offered, unless I felt like I'd wasted my money on the donation item in the first place, which hasn't been the case yet.

[Coda]

Very nice analysis, Suzerain. ++.

[17th]

On somewhat of a different note, I'm surprised prices on some things aren't higher considering how much aurum we can earn per post. But then, if there are usually less than 40 people online at a time I can kinda see that as a reason. o.o

[Ginger]

Originally Posted by Suzerain of Sheol

From what I gather, the problem isn't gradual inflation based on rarity and age, but immediate inflation of items as soon as they're released.

Since, despite there being theoretically limitless resources, said resources (donation items) are only available for a finite time and cost actual money (for the most part) meaning that, after the month (or year) is up, there will be a finite quantity of them in existence on the site.

So, if some sort of plutocracy is formed by the extremely wealthy on here, buying donation items for extremely high prices because a.) they want to make sure they get the items and b.) because they have so much money that it's still mere pennies to them, it makes the acquiring of donation items by less well-off posters (who can't afford to donate real money to the site) extremely difficult, if not impossible, as even if said plutocracy does decide to sell the items, as you said, why would they sell for less than they payed? And since they've effectively created a monopoly, the price of the item in question is driven enormously high.

Not that that actually seems to be happening here (at least not to a really concerning degree, from what I've seen) but it theoretically can happen, and would make the site seem unfriendly to casual posters who can't amass those kinds of funds.

I don't really have much of a personal stake in it, as I don't mind donating and the site's prices are more than reasonable. But, on the other hand, I can't quite wrap my head around the idea of selling something I payed real money for, for fake money, no matter how much was being offered, unless I felt like I'd wasted my money on the donation item in the first place, which hasn't been the case yet.

This is exactly the reason why I am quitting Trisphee. Monopolies drive me INSANE. I hate Walmart for that reason, which is why I no longer buy anything there.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I can see that. I've been getting annoyed a little lately, finding I spend much of mu time here posting for the sake of getting aurum for things. I've just decided I'm going to ignore the market for a while once I wrap up some of the outstanding items I'd like to buy.

What concerns me about prices going up is that most price guides I see are based off of selling prices in the market, and if selling prices go up arbitrarily, it will eventually raise the prices in the price guides too, and since those are used as an estimate, it will drive prices up further because the base-line will keep getting higher. It will become a circular thing.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Well, then all it takes is some enterprising soul to start selling low and getting all the business from people who are fed up with price-gouging, then the whole trend will reverse itself. ;)

[Illusion]

Originally Posted by Suzerain of Sheol

So, if some sort of plutocracy is formed by the extremely wealthy on here, buying donation items for extremely high prices because a.) they want to make sure they get the items and b.) because they have so much money that it's still mere pennies to them, it makes the acquiring of donation items by less well-off posters (who can't afford to donate real money to the site) extremely difficult, if not impossible, as even if said plutocracy does decide to sell the items, as you said, why would they sell for less than they payed? And since they've effectively created a monopoly, the price of the item in question is driven enormously high.

THANK YOU. That's a almost perfect analysis, one real factor that is that not a lot of people are donating to the site to begin with , which is understandable not everybody has real life money to spend like you said...

(Everything posted below here is to everyone, not you xD. You get a cookie for being smart! *Hands over*)

For the last 3 months Fenris has been telling us that Trisphee have been just making enough money to get the site going.
So of course Runes are going to cost a lot, a lot of you are complaining that people with a bunch of aurum are jacking up the prices but really if you paid any close attention, the price of runes have been going up gradually sense the beginning of 2011.

(And if you want proof on that, just ask. I'm glad to take my time to make a small badly made chart on price increase on runes for 2011.)

I'm annoyed that people are complaining about prices that have been going up by real inflation, its not freaking artificial like everybody thinks it is. And even more annoyed (pretty much pissed) that they have to blame other people for not selling runes they bought with their own real money to give them something they want. Sure they might hoard them for themselves or sell hoards of them to other people. ITS THEIR MONEY, DEAL WITH IT!

Just think of it this way, the site is slowly dieing because lack of money. People are deciding to quit because they can't get a monthly item in a few short days. Maybe some of those people donate, so now the site is losing more money. And then prices increase even more, then more people leave. By the end of it all the site is gone because it couldn't have ends meet.

Woah that took a load off of my chest.. *Whips face*

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I'm not sure how runes factor into this. I thought it was more talking about Aurum prices. RDI's I can understand being more expensive given that they are rune prices and it's always an estimate of sorts when it comes to aurum equivalents, but when the ADI's start costing a bundle that's then it gets confusing to me. The aurum donations items haven't gone up in price have they? The there's no real money involved since aurums largely come from posting. No one needs to buy runes to get aurumn items so I don't see how it's necessary that rune prices need to affect those items other than rune items.

Aurum comes from posting, it's not related to real money, so I don't why there should be inflation at all. One of the concerns I have for the aurum pricing going up is not that the prices will be beyond reach but that quality of posts may drop because people feel the need to get aurum faster and more of it just to afford the items they want. I'd rather aurum remain a perk of chatting here rather than something that makes posting seem mandatory in order to have a spiffy looking avatar.

[Fenris]

Well a good bit of news is actually the site is doing better this month than it has in awhile. We still would be much better off if we were making more but for the moment things seem to be on the rise.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Originally Posted by Quiet Man Cometh

I'm not sure how runes factor into this. I thought it was more talking about Aurum prices. RDI's I can understand being more expensive given that they are rune prices and it's always an estimate of sorts when it comes to aurum equivalents, but when the ADI's start costing a bundle that's then it gets confusing to me. The aurum donations items haven't gone up in price have they? The there's no real money involved since aurums largely come from posting. No one needs to buy runes to get aurumn items so I don't see how it's necessary that rune prices need to affect those items other than rune items.

Aurum comes from posting, it's not related to real money, so I don't why there should be inflation at all. One of the concerns I have for the aurum pricing going up is not that the prices will be beyond reach but that quality of posts may drop because people feel the need to get aurum faster and more of it just to afford the items they want. I'd rather aurum remain a perk of chatting here rather than something that makes posting seem mandatory in order to have a spiffy looking avatar.

It's because they're a finite resource, as I mentioned above. Granted, there ought to be more ADIs than RDIs floating around, but they're still gone from the normal market after the month is over, meaning that they're discontinued and rare, after that.

And I imagine, for the worry in your second paragraph, that if it came to that, the admins could always either step in to regulate the market if they really had to, or change the amount of aurumn gained from posting.

I empathize with that concern, since for me personally, I spend a lot of time per post, and mine tend to be lengthy, meaning I don't end up posting as much on here as the chattier people. At the moment, I still feel like I make enough aurumn to get by with my posting style, but I can see that becoming a concern if prices go up that much that the only competitive way to earn aurumn is to more or less spam.