PLEASE do not remove the blind auction system

[shameless]

You could wait a long time for that sale to happen. I am concerned that the Walmart mentality will permeate the game and create constant downward pressure on pricing until only a few players with many accounts can afford to produce items since they will have the ability to sell more at less profit per item. Unless it is a must have item the buyer holds all the power to wait for you to lower your price or someone else to offer the item at the lower price. Like many others I am a small scale producer and rely on making some profit from my econ. I am not a big pvp gamer and like the complexities of econ but want to maintain profitability without having to resort to having 10 or so accounts.

[Sidian1626]

Originally Posted by shameless You could wait a long time for that sale to happen. I am concerned that the Walmart mentality will permeate the game and create constant downward pressure on pricing until only a few players with many accounts can afford to produce items since they will have the ability to sell more at less profit per item. Unless it is a must have item the buyer holds all the power to wait for you to lower your price or someone else to offer the item at the lower price. Like many others I am a small scale producer and rely on making some profit from my econ. I am not a big pvp gamer and like the complexities of econ but want to maintain profitability without having to resort to having 10 or so accounts.

its already happened now shameless...now its simply a reverse bidding war to see who can lower the price the most which makes the whole thing hardly worth it. the blind auction system was simply the best way to do it...not even sure why they call it an auction house still.

makes me so mad that now i have to work twice as hard to make less money.

[DerHuhnTeufel]

Funny, I am actually having a harder time keeping things stocked charging exactly what I always have for them.

[CaptainWallace]

Originally Posted by Sidian1626 now its simply a reverse bidding war to see who can lower the price the most which makes the whole thing hardly worth it. the blind auction system was simply the best way to do it...

^ This.

I used to sell newbie ships and gear in bulk and I have found that is now near impossible to do unless I am selling for literally what I produced it for (sometimes not even then if my eco port levels are lower than competitors).

For example under the blind system I could dump 30 Van Hoorne's at Bartica and watch the bids fall in price (I don't sell at 300% like many others exploiting newbie's lack of price knowledge). Now I dump 30 on and within minutes somebody dumps a small number on at 1db less than mine and I sell nothing. My choice is:

a) Remove and re-list, costing me what little profit I would have made (or selling at a loss if I listed very close to cost).
b) Leave them up in the hope that whoever is under-cutting me runs out of stock.

My profit margins went from about 10-20% to near zero. At best I can join in the 1db bidding war but only list small numbers to reduce re-listing costs. Jenny bay is the nearest warehouse I have so I constantly have to sail from TB to JB to Bartica every day or so to re-list stock.

Result: I no longer sell stuff at Bartica as the tiny profit isn't worth the hassle. I hardly make anything unless it's for me or somebody I know and I only sell raw mats from ports I produce them at as the profit is almost comparable and requires no effort. Every once in a while I will run off a few outfittings or ships to sell at PR out of boredom but even then the profit is next to nothing in most cases.

Shame as it used to be fun to find a particular item that was being hugely overpriced, dump a load massively undercutting and watching the bids get lower and lower.

[sneakdoggiedog]

Originally Posted by CaptainWallace ^ This. I used to sell newbie ships and gear in bulk and I have found that is now near impossible to do unless I am selling for literally what I produced it for (sometimes not even then if my eco port levels are lower than competitors). For example under the blind system I could dump 30 Van Hoorne's at Bartica and watch the bids fall in price (I don't sell at 300% like many others exploiting newbie's lack of price knowledge). Now I dump 30 on and within minutes somebody dumps a small number on at 1db less than mine and I sell nothing. My choice is: a) Remove and re-list, costing me what little profit I would have made (or selling at a loss if I listed very close to cost). b) Leave them up in the hope that whoever is under-cutting me runs out of stock. My profit margins went from about 10-20% to near zero. At best I can join in the 1db bidding war but only list small numbers to reduce re-listing costs. Jenny bay is the nearest warehouse I have so I constantly have to sail from TB to JB to Bartica every day or so to re-list stock. Result: I no longer sell stuff at Bartica as the tiny profit isn't worth the hassle. I hardly make anything unless it's for me or somebody I know and I only sell raw mats from ports I produce them at as the profit is almost comparable and requires no effort. Every once in a while I will run off a few outfittings or ships to sell at PR out of boredom but even then the profit is next to nothing in most cases. Shame as it used to be fun to find a particular item that was being hugely overpriced, dump a load massively undercutting and watching the bids get lower and lower.

I also argued against dumping the blind auction system and I agree with many of your points.

HOWEVER:

1. Making ships in TB and selling is Bartica is a system set up that is problematic. To make small and medium ships, you don't need a DNH. Somone can make the ships in the new player areas and not have to travel like you do and be able to adjust their prices every 15 minutes. So your argument lost validity the second you mentioned this.

2. Raw materials are simply no where to be found. For weeks I have been looking for lignum in large quanities across the Caribbean. My ships hauls almost 3300 units so I refuse to make a big trip without a full load. The same with teak, limestone, etc. Or the prices are more than 100% above cost. So something is broken and I would suggest that anyone reading this could make some serious money producing raw materials and hauling them where they would sell.

Simply making oak logs in bluefields or bridgetown and not hauling them won't make anyone dbs, but hauling them to the center of the map will.

Anybody that hauls oak logs to Jaqueme will get it sold if the price is under 15 dbs. Same with other products. Same with Santa Domingo. I mention this because these ports (like PR) are not often completely in the red.

I used to be able to get large orders filled. Now, no one is listing. Opportunity is there for those that pay attention.

[Joseph Fletcher]

The new system really brings market forces into play. As said above, if you're not making money selling ships because the market is flooded, but there is a shortage of raw materials then it's time to start producing raw materials.

Sure, I appreciate that you may not want to make raw materials, but a working economy has to be based on what people what to buy, not what people want to sell.

The new system makes it easier to see where a profit can be made, which is an advantage to the individual willing to chase that profit and an advantage to the economy as a whole as supply fits more closely to demand.

[CaptainWallace]

Originally Posted by sneakdoggiedog 1. Making ships in TB and selling is Bartica is a system set up that is problematic. To make small and medium ships, you don't need a DNH. Somone can make the ships in the new player areas and not have to travel like you do and be able to adjust their prices every 15 minutes. So your argument lost validity the second you mentioned this.

Local competition has always had an advantage in the area as you say but on Roberts Bartica was almost bare for a long while and I spent unused labour filling in the gap. I made decent money (selling 30 Van Hoornes in 24h was not uncommon) and brought the average bids for some ships down from ridiculous levels which helped newbies stay a bit richer (though newbie shipwrights probably hated that they couldn't list at 200-300% markup anymore).

My point was that the new system makes it much more difficult to sell items in BULK in an almost empty market, not problems selling in a flooded market. As soon as you put a large number of items up somebody undercuts by 1db and puts only a few items up every day or so and nobody buys your items. Either waiting for the listing to expire or re-listing costs you a second fee which is obviously a lot higher than it would be for just 5 items. As price competition is now so close you can end up actually losing money due to listing fees.

I used the Bartica example as that is where it hit me the hardest. When the blind system first went live I had a lot of items listed and due to the 1db undercutting I had to re-list several times and lost money. Now I only put up listings in small numbers to minimise the re-listing fees and I rarely sell at faraway ports anymore because I have to sail to and fro far more often or keep a ship there at the regional warehouse. Given the extra trips and reduced profit I probably would make more money filling out buy orders for raws.

Ah well, markets change as you say and all we can do is adapt

[Truth]

Remove the Blind AH system!

[PaulG]

They already did.