Yet another instance of price jackingFollow

But how is he hiking the price 10K if the buyers aren't just throwing an extra 10K up there? It seems like it's the buyers that don't care about the other people. The only price shown in the AH price history is the buyers'.

I agree with the above 2 posts. It's the buyers. I have a few examples to prove that.

My fiancee, Vaulout and I have been currently leveling low-lvl jobs in Ghelsba. aka LOTS of fire crystalsdrops. He put 7 stacks of fire crystals up for sale on ah - for 1 gil each. ONE gil! Guess what people payed per stack? Over 10k - each (i think.. i forget the exact amount). That is friggin ridiculous! How many times can it be stressed enough that when you are bidding - start low and work your way up??? It's just pure laziness!!!!!!

Also, I had lots of random drops (cheap items). If something usually sells for 300 gil, I'll sell it for 100 gil, or even 50 gil, just for the heck of it. I figure I'll give people a break and sell it even cheaper than what an NPC sells it for. I went to put up Bind scrolls for sale - and in the history was someone who purchased it for 1k (when it goes for 300 gil) C'mon people? 1k? [cough] lazy [cough]

I don't wana hear the BS about gil buyers/gil sellers. It isn't about that anymore. It didn't take long for us to get stacks upon stacks of fire crystals. Hell, I'm not even going to sell them - not one stack! I'm going to use them to continue my Cooking skill. It'll save me oodles of $$ in the longrun.

I'd say the advice at this point - farm your own stuff. I know that takes time - but just do it. Grab a friend with a lower job and party for a few hours. I'm having a great time - and getting tons of drops.

How many back pieces were up on the AH though. This could just be supply and demand if there was only 1 at the AH.

Also did you really need this backpiece?
If you didn't, YOU raised te price.

It is rediculous to accuse someone in particular of being the bad guy when it comes to price hikes.

The name of the game is INFLATION kids. People charge more for their stuff because why? Let's make it a multiple choice.

A) They are jerks

B) They are noobs

C) They want to destroy the game for you because of a personal vendetta

D) EVERYTHING THEY WANT TO BUY HAS SHOT UP IN PRICE SO THEY NEED MORE MONEY

I'll let my judicious use of caps point you in the right direction on that one.

Edited, Tue Jan 17 11:26:47 2006 by Solichan

I agree with a LOT of what was said, after my reply, 6 posts up. I'm talking about normally cheap items. Stuff you can quest or buy from an npc and not pay the insane AH price. There is NO reason for crystals to have soared in the prices the way they did - but maybe I'm the only one that feels that way. Seriously - it isn't that hard to hop on a lower leveled job and kill mobs and get oodles of crystals. Most of ya'll have mules too - hop on those?

Obviously I know when your crafting, you want to make a profit, if not at least break even. Noone wants a loss. Therefore sell it for a lil more right? I agree... to an extent.

But the price jacking started SOMEWHERE didn't it? I remember when fire crystals were 3k/stack - that was in May when I first started playing and that was my noobish way to make gil. Now they are 10k/stack. Same goes for winds and earths - the prices are now triple what they used to be - when they don't have to be! The AH was put in place to help the person-person trade. But every single item that gets put up for sale is available in some way shape or form, OTHER THAN BUYING FROM AH. There are so many forums that list where items are sold, how it's quested, what npc, nation, etc. I would take advantage of that - heck I printed them all out and keep em in a folder. When I'm going to lvl a craft, or decide to buy some gear for a job - I know what npc/location sells it for cheapest.

Maybe this will cut down some of the costs for everyday items.

Maybe it won't.

I know this is a mini economy, inflation affects everyone. Supply and demand at its peak right now. But eventually, prices will indeed be too high, to buy even the most mundane of items, whether ginger cookies, or a simple lvl 1 sword. I know a lot of you have a lot of money to work with - having had saved it over the past few years you've been playing. Some of us haven't had that much time to save. So my question is what will you do when the cost of "living" is too expensive? (looking for honest answers, not looking to be flamed) =)

Thank you =D

What are you complaining about Bellemithra? If you were a crystal farmer and prices went up to 10k per stack, you would be happy, right? Your profit has more than tripled. But, oh wait! The price of the gear you want has increased similarly! D'oh! Now you're right back where you started!

And that, my friends, is inflation.
I don't know how many times I have to say this, but...

When all money is worth less

then

all prices go up

by

a similar proportion

and

everyone's about where they started

after

a short initial period of upheaval.


Yes, it's a lot more complicated than that, with prices going up much more in ultra-rare drops and synths and less in common synths and consumables, and with prices actually *gasp* falling a lot of the time after self corrections occurr. But while inflation can suck, it is largely insignificant. I can only assume that people are complaining about inflation because they are very set in their ways. It's all a bunch of people saying "omg, crystals should only cost 3k per stack cuz they always have cost 3k per stack and I'm used to that." Nobody's arguing about the value of gil and the worth of an item- that would certainly be a worthwhile thing to talk about (ie "Phantom earring isn't worth 800k because for 100k you can get a cunning earring that's got the same int bonus without the lame 8 mp for 700k extra). But that's not what we've got, it's all kneejerk whining about the way people want everything to conform to their wishes.

EDIT:

I guess I'd also like to add that inflation only ends up being significant for three major reasons in the real world and of these only the first and third appliy even a little bit to the game.

First, wages take time to meet inflation, and sometimes virtually never do (ie teachers, that's why they're constantly going on strike everywhere), so while money in general is worth less, a lot of people don't get paid more to compensate for that. In FFXI, almost everyone does, because inflation pulls up the price on everything from uber 1337 100+ synth items to stacks of rabbit hides. Even your bottom rung noob farmers are making more, so they're not hurt so much.

Second, inflation affects debt: if I owe 10k today, and tomorrow that's only worth half as much as it was before, I win. Debt is virtually nonexistent in ffxi, so that's not a concern.

And finally, there's practicality- if inflation happens to the extent where money is essentially worthless, a system based on paper bills or coins becomes impossible to manage. In Germany post World War Something (I forget which one) for instance, hyperinflation caused the deuschtemark [sic] to become worth about as much as the paper it was printed on, and people had to take a wheelbarrow of money to buy groceries. Now since gil does not take up space, that's MOSTLY not a concern, until prices start to go over 99,999,999 gil. It's impossible to handle more than that amount of gil in a single transaction (or have more that much on your person) because of a hard coded limit. And while there might be that problem on Faerie, Bismarck is still a long ways away. It is very likely that once inflation on ALL servers starts to get as bad as Faerie, SE will be forced to step in to curb inflation or to erradicate the massive massive massive volumes of gil being generated and distributed by RMTers.

PS
I'm not trying to personally slight you, Bellemithra, I just responded to your post cuz it was the last one on the list and made me think. I don't mean to be rude, your comment wasn't a bad one necessarily, I'm just fed up with everyone seeming to miss the point about what inflation actually represents.

EDIT:
Omg, does this thing usually delete the changes you make when you try to edit more than once?

Edited, Tue Jan 17 21:06:13 2006 by Solichan

lol, that was me Bus, I'll tell you why I sent you that very tell, there's no reason to undercut in the market the way it is... I used to try to help people out and give them a break by putting massive ammounts of items up for a lower price and bringing it down(much like the guys with the Scorpion Harness tried to do, though I do it slower), but just like the guys that did the SH thing it doesn't ever work out as planned because other people always come in and reverse the work I was trying to do.

So for now, it's just like:

*********** IT![/b][/lg] There's no reason to try to help people like that.

I feel your pain. I have plenty of gil, and I STILL HATE the price jacking. I have been putting silent oils on the AH for as low as 15k a stack, and people still buy them for 45 ;; I HQ the hell out of them, and am more than happy to lower the price on them so they're affordable(when they damn well shold be)

Have been doing same thing for Prism Powders also

So hint hint, look for my prices on AH :P

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep Sirrogel you are wrong. The people making the money on these snyths are the initial farmers. Mad at those damn cooks for raping you on suishi...... check to see what black sole and rice prices are. Mad at those damn alchemists for raping you on silent oils...... check to see what bee chips and slime oil goes for. The cost for the starting craft items sets a baseline and the price only goes up from there. The problem is that there are too many high level people that have too much money. So just farm the stuff you need to do it yourself. Meat bobs are lvl 36 cooking recipe or something and silent oils are a lvl 24 alchemy recipe. You don't you have to buy this stuff on the AH, its just a lot more convienent to do it that way. That convienence costs you a premium which is only going to go up as the value of gil goes down.