In diablo 3 there will be automatic bidding options on both auction houses. This means that you could theoretically use a second account (common on eBay auctions) to raise the bid of your item and catch the automatic bidding of people interested in your auction.
eBay has not tried to stop this type of activity because it's nearly impossible to do so. Will blizzard ignore it as well?
Will players try this?
I came up with the idea thanks to Rag on the d3 gold forums: http://bit.ly/qj58e5
eBay does not care because they get a percentage. The more it sells for, the more they make.
Blizzard's flat fee makes it so they care more about a fair and useable system than the actual prices of things sold. Tracking IP's to stop this would be simple enough since everyone has to be logged in to begin with. They cam even go through and log IP's that bid on each sellers listings to see if there is always 1-2 IP's that keep bidding on their items. Given the anonymous feature, this would raise a flag of suspicion.
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yeah but same ip bidding will probably 1) be a non/insignificant issue compared to big (important) issues, 2) be fought for, as many households will have more than one player and people can use the excuse it's a family member or friend on the other end.
Shilling is a very finicky game to play, usually you would do this to push up price to above your reserve price(minimum your willing to sell for) but diablo provides a option for this, pushing things that little bit too far would mean you sell to yourself.
I believe this will be a rare occurrence, alot of players if they want something they see, they generally want it now, and would opt for the buy now price instead of playing the bidding game
1. the listings are anonymous. So if there's multiple at around the same price, you may bid on the wrong one and pay for something you don't need.
2. People don't know which limit others have set for a certain item, which may also make them win the auction and pay the deposit fees without actually having profit.
Since listings are anonymous, how would a fake bidder know whether he's bidding on his own item or someone else's?
simple actually, you know the actual price of the item you put on the AH, ones you see on one account that your item has raised from the previous time, you just look it up on the other account and make a fake bid.
If there are multiple items up for approximately the same price, you wouldn't want to throw another into the mix (unless its perfect or something). Once your shilling raises your item above the others' prices, the buyers will shift to the other items.
Chances are it'll be unlikely for the same item to be going at the same bid price with the same buy out price with the same remaining time. It's only the same in that screenshot because it's manufactured. And it's easy to bypass IP. Go to a friend's house. Or a computer lab at school or something. That being said, I doubt this will be a problem. Sure, some people will try it, but then they'll find out it doesn't work well and stop.
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When I grow up, I want to be a frill-necked lizard.
I don´t see any problems whatsoever, unless it is the only item of its kind on the AH, which will probably only happen in the first few weeks.
Then it would mean checking IPs and account information based on redemption of cash ... eg. having 10 players in cahoots with each other is possible, but if their earnings all go into 1 paypal account then that would definitely smell fishy.
BUT if there is more than 1 of the particular item on auction..... there will be no worries, as it is was stated that auction sales details are anonymous.
Sure players will start upping prices between themselves but at 1 minutes remaining, watch them drop like flies!
Scammers in the end will be paying the unwanted paypal fees and we get to know that they are the ones investing in the future of the game.
Standard economic theory would suggest that regardless of how much someone games their own auction, the price dictated by overall supply and consumer demand will dictate where it sells in the long-run. That isn't to say they can't scalp someone short-term with an item that may be (temporarily) in short supply, but that's really just normal exaggeration of price due to the buyer's eagerness to have that item.
In other words, I don't think this will have a significant effect on price. It would take, quite literally, thousands of accounts working in concert to make a significant price distortion and if it were successful, chances are other suppliers would enter the market post-haste and slake that demand before the cartel had a chance to cash out their huge stockpile.
Standard economic theory would suggest that regardless of how much someone games their own auction, the price dictated by overall supply and consumer demand will dictate where it sells in the long-run. That isn't to say they can't scalp someone short-term with an item that may be (temporarily) in short supply, but that's really just normal exaggeration of price due to the buyer's eagerness to have that item.
In other words, I don't think this will have a significant effect on price. It would take, quite literally, thousands of accounts working in concert to make a significant price distortion and if it were successful, chances are other suppliers would enter the market post-haste and slake that demand before the cartel had a chance to cash out their huge stockpile.
If selling is completely anonymous blizzard can easily create items and insert/offer them in the AH.
if the item is very very sexy it has very rare stats so you can easily identify it in the AH also you know the insertion time and the duration.
They could, but it would violate the player-driven market premise and ultimately trash the economy they are trying to foster.
can some one please explain to me why bidding on your own items is wrong ?
I suppose it could be argued that it's unethical, but like I explained before it has little impact on the larger market. Chances are if you are bidding your item up, another of the same item (or similar) will become a better deal. If that isn't the case, then it would only appear that you listed the item intentionally below market value which makes the whole process a waste of time and effort. If there are no peer-items on the market and the item has an ambiguous value, it doesn't really matter where you set the price and contiuously bidding on your own item simply moves the price point along a non-existent graph. You -could- be getting a better price because of the upward motion, but there's really no telling (in the last case) wether you couldn't have gotten a better price. Thus it's redundant.
If selling is completely anonymous blizzard can easily create items and insert/offer them in the AH.
if the item is very very sexy it has very rare stats so you can easily identify it in the AH also you know the insertion time and the duration.
They could, but it would violate the player-driven market premise and ultimately trash the economy they are trying to foster.
Not sure why you would think they'd do this.
to make money? if you cannot retrace the owner everything is possible. But who cares?
Unless they did so on a large scale they wouldn't make much money for their effort. And if they did so on a large enough scale the number of player transactions would tank. Essentially there's no use in engineering the elaborate player to player trading system if they intend to do this kind of thing instead.
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eBay has not tried to stop this type of activity because it's nearly impossible to do so. Will blizzard ignore it as well?
Will players try this?
I came up with the idea thanks to Rag on the d3 gold forums: http://bit.ly/qj58e5
Can almost guarantee, super epic rare items aside, nobody will find the time to play this game for very long.
Blizzard's flat fee makes it so they care more about a fair and useable system than the actual prices of things sold. Tracking IP's to stop this would be simple enough since everyone has to be logged in to begin with. They cam even go through and log IP's that bid on each sellers listings to see if there is always 1-2 IP's that keep bidding on their items. Given the anonymous feature, this would raise a flag of suspicion.
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
I believe this will be a rare occurrence, alot of players if they want something they see, they generally want it now, and would opt for the buy now price instead of playing the bidding game
2. People don't know which limit others have set for a certain item, which may also make them win the auction and pay the deposit fees without actually having profit.
I don't think that's going to be an issue tbh.
If there are multiple items up for approximately the same price, you wouldn't want to throw another into the mix (unless its perfect or something). Once your shilling raises your item above the others' prices, the buyers will shift to the other items.
Then it would mean checking IPs and account information based on redemption of cash ... eg. having 10 players in cahoots with each other is possible, but if their earnings all go into 1 paypal account then that would definitely smell fishy.
BUT if there is more than 1 of the particular item on auction..... there will be no worries, as it is was stated that auction sales details are anonymous.
Sure players will start upping prices between themselves but at 1 minutes remaining, watch them drop like flies!
Scammers in the end will be paying the unwanted paypal fees and we get to know that they are the ones investing in the future of the game.
In other words, I don't think this will have a significant effect on price. It would take, quite literally, thousands of accounts working in concert to make a significant price distortion and if it were successful, chances are other suppliers would enter the market post-haste and slake that demand before the cartel had a chance to cash out their huge stockpile.
Cheers, great response!
They could, but it would violate the player-driven market premise and ultimately trash the economy they are trying to foster.
Not sure why you would think they'd do this.
I suppose it could be argued that it's unethical, but like I explained before it has little impact on the larger market. Chances are if you are bidding your item up, another of the same item (or similar) will become a better deal. If that isn't the case, then it would only appear that you listed the item intentionally below market value which makes the whole process a waste of time and effort. If there are no peer-items on the market and the item has an ambiguous value, it doesn't really matter where you set the price and contiuously bidding on your own item simply moves the price point along a non-existent graph. You -could- be getting a better price because of the upward motion, but there's really no telling (in the last case) wether you couldn't have gotten a better price. Thus it's redundant.
Because you are obtaining money in an unfair/deceptive way and without the knowledge of the other bidders.
I've got a feeling this wont be a huge problem in D3 though.
"One does not simply rock into Mordor."
"There's no I in Team America!"
Unless they did so on a large scale they wouldn't make much money for their effort. And if they did so on a large enough scale the number of player transactions would tank. Essentially there's no use in engineering the elaborate player to player trading system if they intend to do this kind of thing instead.