Price Fixing?

[AeonBlues]

I have searched through the rules, and see nothing pertaining to price fixing. It seems the might of a trade empire is coming down on my character. Facists Cym calls them. Now, I've been RPing this issue out. Trying to negotiate a fair setllement, and I like the debating, and RPing of this.

I just want to make sure that this is an RP issue, and not a server rule issue. I respect the server rules.

Cym doesn't respect people telling him he should sell a 4000 gold enchantmt for 4500, and none of his friends would respect him if he didn't fight this out.

I would love the oportunity to roll play this situraion out.

I fear though that I might have to ask for a CDQ by the time this is over, to make cym into a babbly lunatic preacher.

"The one who speaks is not the one who speaks.
The one who knows is not the one who knows

Blood has cursed a slow poison into your blood.

His venom is greed and hatred"

Aeon Blues

[Weeblie]

Selling a thing for a too low price is against the server rules.

If one person starts to do it, others will follow and the economy will collapse. Like, the second level enchantment rods. A trade company could easily sell them for 600 gold and still make a profit, but that would put all other "lonely" crafters out of busniess.

Generally, doing a deal for +/-20% of the item's "market price" (Lense's price/Zero's price guide/Trade company price) is okay, I think.

[AeonBlues]

Ok, I see.

Well Cym purchased his Level II cold enchantment for 4,500 gold.  As far as I can see, that is a reasonable market price.  Cym is selling his for 4000 gold.  This is about 11% under market, or 4000 gold.  He can’t even sell any right now, as he lost several rods that Cronk traded to him for jewlry  

Cymeran thinks that he should be able to sell for a slightly lower rate for several reasons.  He is not greedy.  He is a kind, giving person.  I sincerely hope that being a kind giving person is not a ban able offence.  I understand that you can’t give things away that are of great value.  Cym definitely sees gold coins as a vise, that corrupts hearts and makes people evil.  Cym currently feels that he is being blackmailed, and just won’t respond well to literally being told IC that he will be run out of town and have the law brought down on him, if he doesn’t raises his prices by 11%.  

OOC a better diplomat might do better negotiating with cym.  You can reason with me as a player, and we can work out any issues, but Cymeran Vrinn will never respond well to threats of legal harassment.

Also, Cym feels a lot of racial hatred.  I enjoy the challenge of roll playing this, as it is a challenge.  It means he needs to work a little harder, so that he can make people happy.

Bearing these points, if you say I need to bump that price up for a sever issue, Cym will do it.  I wold prefer that it could be worked out by roll playing.

I took down any reference of Cymeran Vrinn working as part of a business.  Everyone in that group agrees that as merchants, we work as individuals.  Cymeran Vrinn currently does not have any advertisements posted to sell his wares.  I think his plan is to lay low for a while, and try again later in a more respectful manner.

Aeon Blues

[Olme]

A previous discussion from a few months ago  much along the same lines:

http://www.layonaraonline.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=20808&posts=37&mid=129521&highlight=&highlightmode=1&action=search#M129521

[Dorganath]

It boils down to this:
  One should try to sell for around lens price for all things, at least as a starting point. However, if there are good RP reasons to give discounts or to charge, say, 10% more then that is fine as long as it's kept within reason.
  Making a habit of selling things for 50% of their value or less is bad because it devalues those items and can impact the economy in other ways. Making a habit of grievously inflating prices to several times an items worth is also bad. An old example is the habit people had of auctioning off emeralds for outrageous sums of cash.
  Selling an item for 4000 instead of 4500 is not that big of a deal, especially if there's a good reason for it. If 4000 is the item's value (by the lens) and someone's saying you should sell for 4500, that's because they most likely have a price list set to help ensure their own profit margins. Sound like real-world business to you? It does to me. If some "trade conglomeration" is pressuring you to sell at their prices, whether you do or not is up to you. All we (the GM Team) ask is that you sell goods at a reasonable and appropriate price. The lens is a good starting point for most items. Don't go too far above or below that, again, unless there's a good solid reason to do so.  
  There's no hard-and-fast rule here. What people need to do is to use their best judgement.

[AeonBlues]

Ok, duely noted and respected.

Aeon BLues

[Willowraine]

I remember when things were sold for absolutely outrageously high prices, like double the lens value in alot of cases. My char Suannu has always gone far under these people in selling and when I returned after a long absense was amazed to see people selling around 'lens' value. If Suannu ever bumps into any of this RP she is on Cym's side.

[Hellblazer]

Just want to make this clear.  Does this apllies to all goods or only crafted amterials.  For example an Copper ingot it valued at 160 gp, yet I heard people say that they bought them for 20.  I just want to get this clear as I have quite a few left to sell.

[Dorganath]

All goods, really. Things like copper ingots, while crafted, are more like "supplies" than anything, so typically the market will set their price. Copper's pretty easy to get, so most people won't pay much for it, though they may pay a bit more if they don't have to get it themselves.
  As I said above, keep it within reason and use some common sense.

[Talan Va'lash]

The lens is far off on a notable number of items.  ESPECIALLY intermediate goods (things that aren't end products, like ingots, cut or fine gems, wood, sand etc.)

These things are all determined by:
1) current market value. Supply and demand acctually works for these items since they are not durable goods they're consumables in a manner of speaking.
2) How much the buyer you are negotiating with really doesn't want to go get it themselves. Or if they can't (too low level, no feats to weild tools) and again, if theres good supply and they can just go to someone else that takes away your bargaining power.

But yeah, I'm not sure if I've ever seen the lens be remotely accurate on raw CNR or intermediate products so the +or- 20% guideline should not be followed.

A few other things that have prices way too low or high:

- bow parts.  lens price is orders of magnitude too low. Raven pricing is a good guide.
- Potions.  These need to depend more on difficulty to make and gather ingredients for.  NWN simply looks at the level of the spell they replicate to determine their value.
- Adamantium weapons. Lens price seems to be about 1/2 market price these days
- Leather armors (esp. hide and studded). in my (perhaps outdated) opinion these are a tad high.  Leather armor (2/6) prices being only a tad high while studded/hide (3/4) are quite a bit too high.

[Xandor Loriland]

Yeah I checked the LoP on a mineral emerald the other day and it said it was worth 4 gp.  I must have got ripped off   It is usually pretty good on the finished products like you said.

[foxfire]

Maybe people could do a charisma check when attempting to buy an item from a merchant that would affect the price somewhat.

[Weeblie]

The skill "Appraise" is used for that.