Blizzard really expects to keep people off 3rd party sites by ensuring the price can't drop below a certain point? Ughhh... their short sighted greed/logic is sometimes hard for even a fan boy such as myself to not shake my head in disbelief. That is a hugely inflated cost for such a tiny sum of gold. /complaint
I don't think greed had anything to do with it. The prices have been set like that since before we really saw any D3 gold selling sites. How were they supposed to know what the value of gold would be months later? Just like commodities now working out how they planned, they could still change it.
Ok, so $2.50 per million, with the "black market" selling for less than half that. Honestly, I can see gold selling at that price, but not much higher. Remember, people were willingly spending 10 bucks per million when the game first came out on the black market, and people who would not consider buying gold from third parties would consider doing so from the RMAH.
Spammer hit the forums, advertising 10 million gold plus 2 million for free for $16. By RMAH you would have to pay $30. So yeah, slightly less than double for going the RMAH route, but it's considered "legal" by blizzard's standards.
Wasn't the idea with RMAH to discourage people from buying gold from these dodgy websites? Seems like they now indirectly encouraging it.
You're confusing "competing" and "security". The RMAH isn't meant to compete, it's made as a legit and safe medium for the same transactions that will always exist. I can always buy my fruit and veggies for cheaper from the man in the van on the side of the road, but the risk is higher for countless reasons. You don't go to the grocery store because it's cheaper, you go because it's safer.
Yes, some people have had safe transactions with these websites, but just because someone came back from Africa without Malaria doesn't mean the next person won't.
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"Anything I say can't, and won't be used against me because if they understood my point, they'd have given up theirs." -Christopher Hitchens
Yup $3 for 1 million is terrible. The price you pay for security I guess?
Let's be honest though... buying gold barely even makes sense. Why would you buy gold to then use on the GAH? It makes no sense. You would just use your money to buy the items you want directly off the RMAH. It's different atm because people still use the GAH, but when the RMAH is more popular buying gold will be pointless.
It's only applicable to crafting or if you die constantly and need repair money.
Eventually it seems like most people will avoid GF gear, use the gold they pickup for repair money and just concentrate on finding items and selling them on the RMAH.
Wasn't the idea with RMAH to discourage people from buying gold from these dodgy websites? Seems like they now indirectly encouraging it.
You're confusing "competing" and "security". The RMAH isn't meant to compete, it's made as a legit and safe medium for the same transactions that will always exist. I can always buy my fruit and veggies for cheaper from the man in the van on the side of the road, but the risk is higher for countless reasons. You don't go to the grocery store because it's cheaper, you go because it's safer.
Yes, some people have had safe transactions with these websites, but just because someone came back from Africa without Malaria doesn't mean the next person won't.
Please read my post again.
This miniumum price will actually make people buy more gold from gold websites, only to sell it higher on the RMAH. People will earn real lfie monies on this. Because the RMAH is not competing it is actually making gold websites more attractive, becuase they are not only cheaper.. they can also make you a real money profit.
I think this is really bad and Blizzard should change this. Gold websites will profit from this even more which leads to even more hacked accounts, keyloggers and gold spam in your channels.
And then this discussion will happen between the owners of a gold selling website:
Bob: "You know how we're selling out gold for half the price Blizzard is?"
Mike: "Yeah."
Bob: "We don't have to keep selling it for so low."
Mike: "You're right! Let's bump it up from 50% of their price to 90%!"
Bob: "Genius. We will still retain our customers because we are cheaper but now we're maximizing our profits!"
tl:dr predicting website prices re-zero out according to Blizzard's minimum to maximize profits.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Anything I say can't, and won't be used against me because if they understood my point, they'd have given up theirs." -Christopher Hitchens
Wasn't the idea with RMAH to discourage people from buying gold from these dodgy websites? Seems like they now indirectly encouraging it.
You're confusing "competing" and "security". The RMAH isn't meant to compete, it's made as a legit and safe medium for the same transactions that will always exist. I can always buy my fruit and veggies for cheaper from the man in the van on the side of the road, but the risk is higher for countless reasons. You don't go to the grocery store because it's cheaper, you go because it's safer.
Yes, some people have had safe transactions with these websites, but just because someone came back from Africa without Malaria doesn't mean the next person won't.
Please read my post again.
This miniumum price will actually make people buy more gold from gold websites, only to sell it higher on the RMAH. People will earn real lfie monies on this. Because the RMAH is not competing it is actually making gold websites more attractive, becuase they are not only cheaper.. they can also make you a real money profit.
I think this is really bad and Blizzard should change this. Gold websites will profit from this even more which leads to even more hacked accounts, keyloggers and gold spam in your channels.
And then this discussion will happen between the owners of a gold selling website:
Bob: "You know how we're selling out gold for half the price Blizzard is?"
Mike: "Yeah."
Bob: "We don't have to keep selling it for so low."
Mike: "You're right! Let's bump it up from 50% of their price to 90%!"
Bob: "Genius. We will still retain our customers because we are cheaper but now we're maximizing our profits!"
tl:dr predicting website prices re-zero out according to Blizzard's minimum to maximize profits.
Your scenario works only if bob and mike are only competing with blizzard. There is a reason bob and mike were only selling gold at the price they had it, and it's because that was the point where they were already maximizing profits. There are more gold sellers than bob and mike, and they all have to fight for our dollar.
The spread is large atm, and it can't stay that way. Something will give. The question is if the bots will rise, or the players will fall.
The spread doesn't have to change if Blizzard decides to not change anything. If anything, the spread will get even greater. Until Blizzard either gets rid of ALL the gold sellers other than themselves by legal means (they've been trying to do that for years, good luck) or changes the minimum buyout to less than what they decided, and they decided that minimum for a reason. We may not know the reason, but there has to be a reason they set it.
Step 1: Buy gold from trade chat for $1.2 per million.
Step 2: Sell gold on RMAH for $3 per million.
Step 3: Pray someone buys it.
This. You know people will be buying when it first comes out
And all reports are pointing to....people are not buying gold on the RMAH. I mean to say, supply is far outstripping demand, and to get demand higher the value needs to go up. And the only way to raise the value is to lower the cost, and Blizzard is not allowing us to do that.
The floor effectively limits to players from falling to match the bots so the minimum value for gold is now confirmed. I don't expect the bots to drop in price but it is possible that a surge in demand for legal gold could drive the price up. I parked several sell orders at a few price levels just in case the price starts to rise on RMAH
Edit: On US RMAH trades are going at minimum price (0.25), the average of the last 10 trades is 0.25 and if even one of those 10 are above 0.25, the average will be higher than 0.25. Gold is selling for minimum price atm.
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Yes, some people have had safe transactions with these websites, but just because someone came back from Africa without Malaria doesn't mean the next person won't.
Let's be honest though... buying gold barely even makes sense. Why would you buy gold to then use on the GAH? It makes no sense. You would just use your money to buy the items you want directly off the RMAH. It's different atm because people still use the GAH, but when the RMAH is more popular buying gold will be pointless.
It's only applicable to crafting or if you die constantly and need repair money.
Eventually it seems like most people will avoid GF gear, use the gold they pickup for repair money and just concentrate on finding items and selling them on the RMAH.
One could argue that both of their inventory is unlimited. Let's see who wins.
Round 1. Fight!
Bob: "You know how we're selling out gold for half the price Blizzard is?"
Mike: "Yeah."
Bob: "We don't have to keep selling it for so low."
Mike: "You're right! Let's bump it up from 50% of their price to 90%!"
Bob: "Genius. We will still retain our customers because we are cheaper but now we're maximizing our profits!"
tl:dr predicting website prices re-zero out according to Blizzard's minimum to maximize profits.
Step 2: Sell gold on RMAH for $3 per million.
Step 3: Pray someone buys it.
Edit: Tried to undercut and the floor by the automated AH is 0.25 per 100k. Meaning 2.5 USD / 1m GOLD. It is not possible to sell lower than this.
Your scenario works only if bob and mike are only competing with blizzard. There is a reason bob and mike were only selling gold at the price they had it, and it's because that was the point where they were already maximizing profits. There are more gold sellers than bob and mike, and they all have to fight for our dollar.
-J.W.
The spread doesn't have to change if Blizzard decides to not change anything. If anything, the spread will get even greater. Until Blizzard either gets rid of ALL the gold sellers other than themselves by legal means (they've been trying to do that for years, good luck) or changes the minimum buyout to less than what they decided, and they decided that minimum for a reason. We may not know the reason, but there has to be a reason they set it.
And all reports are pointing to....people are not buying gold on the RMAH. I mean to say, supply is far outstripping demand, and to get demand higher the value needs to go up. And the only way to raise the value is to lower the cost, and Blizzard is not allowing us to do that.
Edit: On US RMAH trades are going at minimum price (0.25), the average of the last 10 trades is 0.25 and if even one of those 10 are above 0.25, the average will be higher than 0.25. Gold is selling for minimum price atm.