Pokemon Pricing (Mostly for Fun)

[Miles]

38698 Yeah, and then you'll also need to compare a market price.

Say a sneasel thats worth 100k - is being sold by a player for 70k.

Anyone selling a sneasel worse than it for 70k will be judged harshly and the entire market will have to adjust downward to make room for that ONE players choice of price.

Now Say that player is KNOWN for insanely cheap prices and spends all their time collecting rare/good pokemon and selling them for less than the market.

Nobody but him will be truly making a profit because everyone will buy from him over anyone else.

That's why things like this don't go very far in a community based economy.

You can fork up a calculator, but all your doing is separating smart businessmen from dumb ones.

 

I'm sorry, did you just imply the actions of ONE outlier's sale systemically pervades throughout an entire economy? Because in your example, it's just one person, and if so, it discredits the entire point you're trying to make. It takes much more than one person to permanently influence an economy like this one. For having played with markets before, you couldn't have chosen a more incomplete example, which puts all of your logic into question.

 

Consider this: Like money, Pokemon are a resource and the seller that sells for cheap will not always have them in stock. You said everyone buys from that seller, right? That means the demand increases for those Pokemon sold by that seller; now a sizable number of buyers are now competing for these cheaply market-adjusted Pokemon, of which the seller only ever has a limited amount, looking for deals. Naturally, the price increases because buyers are much more likely to outbid each other at lower prices (I refuse to use a citation for what should be common sense here). The point at which most buyers choose not to compete for the Pokemon is probably around whatever the average market price for that Pokemon is at the time. For numerous reasons, not all buyers will absolutely drop out there, and any that don't will raise the bid for that Pokemon even more. At any point down the relative line of cheap/average/expensive, the Pokemon is sold. Once the person doesn't have that specific Pokemon, what now? Buyers have no choice but to wait or purchase from other sellers, whose prices can and will vary, thus reinforcing those seller's prices within the economy on an individual level.

 

That's the other side to the coin which you've completely neglected, and both sides certainly influence the economy to an extent on a microeconomic level... but microeconomics are not the same as macroeconomics, and you're clearly conflating the two in your example.

[Pinknblack]

38759

38698

 

That's the other side to the coin which you've completely neglected, and both sides certainly influence the economy to an extent on a microeconomic level... but microeconomics are not the same as macroeconomics, and you're clearly conflating the two in your example.

 

Well yes I chose one SMALL point to embrace in what I was saying due to the fact the broader meaning of the attributed message should be carried across to the reader.

Did you not get what I mean? If not let me re-explain it for those that have never taken part in a community controlled economy.

 

 

Three people have the same pokemon.

Two of these pokemon sell it for a higher price than the first.

The first sells out - the next two sell out.

They all sell out.

Truth.

You are limited to the resource you can produce at the set amount of time.

But -

Those three get the pokemon again, maybe theirs a simple little adjustment, one of them might have more of that one pokemon than the other two - lets say he has 3 of the one pokemon, while the other two only have ONE of that pokemon.

He can monopolize the pricing game towards making himself a larger product.

BUT All of them should sell out at the end of the day since the community seems to not put that much effort into going after ONE pokemon to sell.

 

But form what I have observed, The community is reaching a point where there are quite a few dedicated 'hunters' that seek out good pokemon to sell instead of personally use.

 

Honestly my statements are in thought and experience towards many games where the community controls the economy, I enjoy this type of game.

Now with that said you can't honestly sit down and draw out EVERY action and reaction that could and would happen within a community.

We might have one of the UTTERLY best communities in the world when it comes to finances and fair pricing - but more often than not theirs usually an insane cliff within a financial status of a games community.

 

People tend to monopolize, People tend to take over the game when it comes to pricing.

My statement was not that this calculator was useless, but it was in regards to that thought and I failed to express it heavily enough.

 

Say Player A sells his sneasel for 100k - Say player b sells his sneasel for 80k.

Player A buys Player b's sneasel and sells both for 100k.

NOW nobody gets the cheaper sneasel.

 

Now you can say that won't happen here - you can say we'll have a fair economy.

But whats to stop a group of players or a 'guild' from taking this into consideration? Say with rare items - they see players selling rare items and they snatch them all up and monopolize the market for said-items.

Quite a few items are rare to even get or see someone selling them, what would happen if one large guild- which their is already two that I KNOW of who are practicing this, decide to buy up all the items and sell them for insane prices just because they know the players will be forced to either grind the items themselves - or pay their insane prices for the items.

Macro versus micro economics now - Since we do not truly have a large economy - and there is no true 'businesses' that sell large amounts of rare items/pokemon at a time (yet they are starting to appear) You can assume and accept that considering the economy as a whole AS IT IS would not be the SMARTEST option.

 

One must consider that the micro, the small majority of players selling on their own - have the individual standing of prowess in this economy for the moment. They don't have rules or regulations or a guild to limit what they do. They can charge what they want if they know people can't match them -

Aka someone tried selling me a shiny stone for 60k versus someone else who sold it to me for 20k

VAST difference in price. There is no whole macroeconomics theme as it is right now, but I am making these statements to warn that trying to set an average price to help people understand what to sell at - would only enlighten people who wish to monopolize the economy.

 

There IS guilds and players out there that are starting to buy up rarities to hold and resell as they deem appropriate.

That is not bad, but that will influence the economy. You can't fight it either if the person is smart with finances they can easily take out anyone who tries to oppose them with fair prices - and if it's a guild of five or more people working together for this singular goal - then you will never truly gain a foothold.

 

Now these monopolies are not bad - If we look at phone service providers and how US Cellular&Verizon bought out altell - Altell couldn't compete with them, but due to the larger two phone service providers buying them out - THEY still got money.

 

My statement does not equal anything bad, it is just defining the economy that is to come with the way of freedom that most players have as of now.

[Pinknblack]

38759

38698

 

That's the other side to the coin which you've completely neglected, and both sides certainly influence the economy to an extent on a microeconomic level... but microeconomics are not the same as macroeconomics, and you're clearly conflating the two in your example.

 

Any questions regarding my statement? Because you decided to question my original one since you could not understand the topic nor the warning I am simply providing.

 

It would be best if you thought of ways you might prevent a monopoly, because I can assure you - I'm a fan of trying to monopolize aspects of a games financial structure. I tend to do it not with the thought of making a profit ,but with making it fair to a general public rather than a select few.

Aka

I bought that 60k shiny stone and resold it for 30k.

It was more fair to others, I didn't make a profit from that instance, yet It was more fair.

[Miles]

No, I understood the central message, but a whole is not greater than the sum of its parts; one of yours was broken. Did you really have to space everything out and stretch the page? Then double post? Thanks for bumping my friend's thread, but I really wish you would've condensed it into neat paragraphs. I'm also incredibly satisfied with the personal reaction and kneejerk conclusion that I've never dealt with a player-run economy before--I kind of get off on it. With that, I know exactly the kind of person you are, so you'll probably be surprised to hear that I'm not fundamentally disagreeing with your message, if you'd just let me clarify before you have at it again.

 

Yes, eventually players can and will monopolize any free player-run economy; the most important word in that sentence was eventually. It's actually even possible and likely that there are already small monopolies, as you've stated. I'm not disagreeing with that. Granted, you're making it seem a lot easier than it actually is at this point in PRO's economic development; the economy is still very young, and it takes a lot of money to buy out all of your competition and efficiently monopolize. Once any monopolies considerably pervade throughout the macroeconomic level, his calculator will inevitably be bound by those forces.

 

It's also worth pointing out that the title itself states "Mostly for Fun." Either you missed that as you leaped at the chance to flex your MMO economics degree, or you noticed and wanted to point out something self-evident anyway.

[Slate]

Hey maybe I'm missing something, but how do you know what values to put in for rarity? I.e. is a dratini rare or uncommon? Is it just an estimate?

[Gradiusic]

42363 Hey maybe I'm missing something, but how do you know what values to put in for rarity? I.e. is a dratini rare or uncommon? Is it just an estimate?

 

It is just an estimate based off the current market, I used a few Pokemon as examples and tried to set though as static values. I still need to add an inflation adjustment as well.