Pricing

Is there going to be a item list made when the games comes out for players to guideline their selling/buying with? Basically, a list telling the suggested prices

I'm sure there will be. Early on we will see massive fluctuations in prices however because any good items wont be all over the auction house. They will try to sell for WAY more than they are worth. After a short time has passed and the auction house begins to normalize I'm sure there will be price guides that pop up. But with something like Diablo... it will be difficult. This isn't WoW where all items are set in stone, the randomness of the magical properties will vary the price wildly.

So yea, im sure there will be a guide. But I doubt it will be anywhere near extensive enough to be valuable. Your best option would be to look up other items in the AH of a similar type and undercut that person by a few gold.

I read an article, that Blizzard will take either $1 or 15% from your sales, and then if you want to withdraw your money to PayPal or something, Blizzard will then take another 15%.

So you can expect to see a slight markup that people will want to overcome.

atleast they are making it less illegal lol. i just hope they make a cap on how much ppl can sell items for.. i always thought it was silly selling items for for extream prices lol i saw a magic item going for 100,000,000g in beta....WTF people WTF lol

I think that any item price guides will be very general and are likely to have formulas for roughly calculating values based on specific stats.

As far as maximum sales values, it's not good to put an artificial cap on the sales of items. People will pay what they want to pay for items. It's beneficial for the market as whole to let capitalism prevail. You aren't forced to buy at any given price.

Originally Posted by qattack

I think that any item price guides will be very general and are likely to have formulas for roughly calculating values based on specific stats.

As far as maximum sales values, it's not good to put an artificial cap on the sales of items. People will pay what they want to pay for items. It's beneficial for the market as whole to let capitalism prevail. You aren't forced to buy at any given price.

spoken like a try business man

As someone who is a hobby economist, I'm very interested to see the impact of random-rolled stats on market prices. Think of the huge trade premiums demanded for perfectly rolled runewords in D2 (e.g. 6 BO CTA vs 5). Wondering if Blizz will make item listings with min/max ranges available. I think this would help a lot in establishing market prices.

Agree with qattack on opposing pricing limitations. I've become more and more influenced recently by the concepts of Austrian/free-market economics. Though I'll support Blizz's decision to limit the number of auctions per account. I reconcile this support of intervention on the grounds that the D3 market doesn't follow the natural laws of resource availability (unlimited gold/items) and this step should help stem the tide of unnatural farm/flood.

Originally Posted by Arcaedus

As someone who is a hobby economist, I'm very interested to see the impact of random-rolled stats on market prices. Think of the huge trade premiums demanded for perfectly rolled runewords in D2 (e.g. 6 BO CTA vs 5). Wondering if Blizz will make item listings with min/max ranges available. I think this would help a lot in establishing market prices.

Agree with qattack on opposing pricing limitations. I've become more and more influenced recently by the concepts of Austrian/free-market economics. Though I'll support Blizz's decision to limit the number of auctions per account. I reconcile this support of intervention on the grounds that the D3 market doesn't follow the natural laws of resource availability (unlimited gold/items) and this step should help stem the tide of unnatural farm/flood.

i dont know anything about econ really...but i think there should be a market cieling just so ppl cant sell things for thousads of dolars...plus im sure there will be ppl that use there own way of selling since rmah will have rules but for thoes that do use it it should be fair priced.

Originally Posted by Judgemint

i dont know anything about econ really...but i think there should be a market cieling just so ppl cant sell things for thousads of dolars...plus im sure there will be ppl that use there own way of selling since rmah will have rules but for thoes that do use it it should be fair priced.

Price fixings (ceilings or floors) are ultimately doomed to fail as they are artificial restrictions forced upon the market. As you state, even if Blizz implemented something like this people will find a way (Ebay, craigslist, forums, etc). In the real world you see examples of this in countries that try to control the flow of goods. Black markets inevitably pop up to fill the market demand. Look up the Wikipedia article on prohibition. Its only a single example but illustrates the concept.

From the AH perspective there would be no real value in a ceiling. Either the market will bear the posted price and someone will be willing to buy the item, or it will be considered overpriced and will sit unsold for the posting duration. I wouldn't expect to see too many of these as anyone serious about selling will have to accept the opportunity cost of using one of their limited posting slots on an auction that has a minimal chance of actually selling.

Finally, "fair" is an arbitrary term in the world of econ. Who decides what constitutes "fair". Left alone, the market will determine the market price based on perceived value, supply, and demand.

idk i just dont want to see a $6000 tag on something lol seems really stupid... also this is a game every thing is ruled buy fair...read the gaming rules

Originally Posted by Judgemint

idk i just dont want to see a $6000 tag on something lol seems really stupid... also this is a game every thing is ruled buy fair...read the gaming rules

Keep in mind, people will try it, but nobody will buy it. There will be a "soft ceiling" because there is a limit on how much money people will spend. As has been stated... the economy will decide on fair prices, and people will adapt to them.

Originally Posted by Shimizoki

Keep in mind, people will try it, but nobody will buy it. There will be a "soft ceiling" because there is a limit on how much money people will spend. As has been stated... the economy will decide on fair prices, and people will adapt to them.

yeah I guess your right..I for one wont be using rmah so...

But is any price ceiling really fair? Let's say there is a price ceiling of $250. You find Unique Bracers of Awesomeness that is the only one ever found and is *obviously* worth five times the price tag of the highest item sold at $200. Now I come along and see snap this find up as soon as it's listed...for $250. I go sell it on an external site for $600--a bargain for me and the buyer. In the meantime, the original seller (you), could have made an extra $250 or whatever if there was no price cap.

In addition, someone else may have come along who was willing to bid $500 on the item in the auction house. Is it fair to that person that I was able to snatch it up for $250 (regardless if i resold it or not)?

And yes, in this system, the person with more money will be the auction winner. But if you don't think that is fair, then what about the person who cannot spend more $50 for this item? Would a $50 item price cap be "more fair" in this case? This would just result in more people rushing to try to buy the item and a bigger luck-of-the-draw factor. I would argue there is no set point where a price cap becomes fair to anyone involved.

Furthermore, if there is a price cap in the RMAH but not the GAH, then at some point it becomes more advantageous to list your extremely rare items in the GAH and resell the gold. The likely winner of THAT auction will have purchased 40 million gold from the RMAH.

I don't think a price ceiling is realistic because if someone has the money and wants to buy an item they should be able to at any cost, its their money, not mine haha.



Can you sell gold on the RMAH?

LOL I guess that could be a problem bit then again people buying stuff for that much for a game is crazy IMO but its all good. km sire things will be changed. so I for one will not worry about it