teh Ardent bumhedz Posted:

Ummm… Acid Flux is selling 5-HTP at 4750… and his endo patches go for about 6000 on buyout… ur gonna lose super serious business

That was simply temporary. My normal price is the same as guest42’s. We don’t undercut each other, simply because if the primary Kyoubai Sellers started undercutting each other, then prices would drop to the point where there is zero profit (and potentially negative profit via lost deposits), and then those Sellers would just stop selling. And then one of two things happen; either no one is selling these items in any sufficient quantity to meet demand (which hurts the customers), or the market gets refilled with new Sellers that are less scrupulous than Guest42 or myself, and their artificially inflated prices would then also hurt the customer.

zagerblag Posted:

I Dom with max Frugality, and I’m in the second bracket; it doesn’t seem like that big of a handicap. Of course, Episode 2 probably gives me an advantage. Anyway, you provide a valuable service; keep it up.

I firmly believe that Guest42’s and my own prices are perfectly fair and reasonable. I have almost all of the highest-end Frugality files, but I still had to spend 25 Upgrade Points on Frugality. That’s 5 Levels worth of points, so I’m effectively pwning forums as if I was a Level 30. And for my Alts, that don’t have as many Frugality files as I do, it’s even worse.

We’re trading some of our ‘pwning power’ to bring discounted items to Market, including some items not available in Episode One. And I think everyone is benefiting here.

Now, occasionally, some people like to play with the system and try to disrupt our businesses. And that’s fine, we appreciate healthy competition. But some claim it’s to fight our ‘exorbitant prices’. And that’s just not true.

For example, a L’ORLY Lipstick sells in the Ppwn Shoppe for  321.

The Base Cost of that item is  250.

Guest42 sells it for  225. That’s 10% less than most players can buy it for in the shop. And that’s an item that’s available in Episode 1.

His price on 5-HTPs (which are only available if you have Episode 2) is less than you’d pay even if you had 24+ frugality. You need at least three high-end moar files to get that high unless you spend Upgrade points.

By offering these services, he and I are allowing players to focus their Upgrade points on running combat stats, giving them a more streamlined experience. Also, since most Equipment offers Secondary stat boosts, they can spend fewer points on Douchebaggery, Sexiness & Tears as well. Being able to afford better equipment in about half the time it would normally take is a big deal.

I ran some numbers the other day, and if a player uses our stores instead of buying their gear & consumbales through the traditional stores, they stand to save about 2 Million flezz during their journey from Level 1 to Level 35.

I don’t see a problem with that.