Feeding Frenzy

I've inadvertently given myself quite an interesting window on human behavior ever since I set up this Bargain Bin account.  I thought I would help take care of the stagnation in the item listings by buying up stuff that has been sitting around and making items available at affordable costs.  It's not making me a profit, but I can afford it and it's fun, and if it can help some new player to get the treats and tack they need to succeed, then it's worth it to me.

But I'm noticing that every time I drop some cheap, upgraded tack in the item listings, inevitably someone comes in and just goes on a shopping frenzy.  It doesn't matter if they even have horses that need that tack.  They buy it all, in mass quantities.  Hundreds of pieces of tack, many more than their horse limit!  And it's not even people that are rolling in money.  Often its someone with a basic account, with less than a million in the bank, cutting deep into their savings to buy more tack than they would ever need.

I'll admit that it kind of annoys me, because most of those pieces of tack cost me upwards of a grand to buy and upgrade, and I intended it to help people who needed it, not to get hoarded up where it won't get used, or worse, resold at someone else's profit.  But I knew that was the risk when I put it out there.  Mostly it just mystifies me.  What is the motivation, to buy so much that you won't even be able to use?

I'm hoping the feeding frenzy will calm eventually, but at the time being, I can't keep anything but endurance and racing tack in stock, and even that is getting worn down.  Everything else sells within an hour, easily, even if I post over a hundred pieces in a sitting.

Oops, I spoke too soon about the Racing and Endurance tack.  I am officially out of all tack (for now.  I have plenty more I can post, but it's time consuming.  Plus I don't want to do it all at once, in hopes that occasionally someone who actually needs it might get it.)

I've bought some tack from you, but was just tack I needed. I converted my riding school tekes (endurance) to racing and my riding school DWBs (dressage) to show jumping. Maybe bought some dressage tack for my Trakes from you too, can't remember.  

I do tend to buy 5/5 tack whenever I see it though as long as it is < cost to upgrade + original tack cost; just to have it. I also give away/sell (@ cost) lots of tack to new players whenever they don't have the ability to upgrade it themselves or to basic players who want a quicker upgrade. 

The only tack I don't keep on hand is Dressage Tack, don't know why honestly lolz. 

Buy all you want, Aglet!  But I'm talking 40 pages worth of purchases on my bank page from one person who has something like 70 horses.  Consider my mind boggled.

Well as you said it is mystifying! But I also want to say I really admire what you are doing and I do feel it will help to move the market forward, bravo!

o.O
I don't get the idea of your post.

You wanted to help stagnation on market so you decided to sell your inventory cheaper than others, right?
So...why you're complaining that people buy it? I just don't understand.

I stated that I had two purposes - to get the market moving, and also to provide affordable items to players who need them.

I'm doing this at CONSIDERABLE expense to myself.  Both to buy the tack that was at General Store prices or lower so that my lower prices won't make it impossible for others to sell their stuff, and to upgrade all that tack.  For example, to bring a saddle from level 1 to level 5 costs over $2000.  I have literally already spent several million on this.

When someone comes buy and literally scoops up millions of dollars worth of tack that they will never use, yeah, I find it frustrating.  

If no one bought a single thing from me, I wouldn't care - I already stimulated the market by buying everything that was for sale for a reasonable price.  People have had stuff sitting for months.  From now on, nothing is going to sit for more than a couple days.  Mission accomplished.

It should be a win/win.  People who want to sell, have their stuff sell quickly.  People who need to buy have plenty available for an affordable price.

But when someone comes along and hoards all the stuff that they will never use, now there is nothing out there for the people who need stuff at a bargain.

I'm hoping that's clear enough for you to figure out why it's not actually a good thing for all my tack to get bought up.

I am with Royal Storm on this. I don't understand how you can complain about people buying from you? I get what you said that your purpose is but here is how I see it; I think this idea of selling stuff cheaper than its value is contributing to ruining the economy. (The whole idea that people need to have their hands held for everything is disgusting to me, just my opinion.) If you can't practice basic good money handling practices in a game, then how are you going to fair in the world? (I mean this in general, not pointing fingers at anyone.) In my opinion, you, BargainBin, are offering "hand outs" to "poor players." The same players who have WAY too many horses for just starting the game. Have 0 breeding goals but see fit to breed a 3 year old stallion 50 times then flood the economy with his poor quality foals. Then complain they never have any money... They don't have money because they keep [censored] it away, making poor spending choices. General Store treats are not out of their price range, they simply are not a priority. Why should players who make poor spending choices get a hand out? I just don't get it. (Disclaimer: this does not apply to ALL new players, this is a broad generalization of what I have seen happening over and over in my gaming experience.)

I simply don't see how giving people handouts is supposed to help the economy... $40/treat is not an outrageous price. This game takes minimal strategy to make money (a player can get over $20k per day from game alone, that does not include the fountain, rides, bank interest, etc). Just to be clear, I don't resell items I buy from you.   ;)  What would be the point?

I know, bit of a rant. These are just my thoughts/opinions. People don't have to agree with me. Just wanted to drop my 2 cents into the jar.  :)

Last edited on 2018-04-25 at 20:10:35 by ⇜ĐeadpooⱠ⇝

@Deadpool I have an understanding of what you are saying until you say, "I have bought some stuff from you. Stuff I will never use."
Who would you buy items that you would never use if there are players, poor or not, that would use them? The way you phrase it makes it seem like you just bought them because you don't want others to be given a "handout". Poor player or not, someone else could have actually used those items but now they are sitting in your inventory collecting dust. 

You're welcome to your opinion.

Oh, I highly doubt I'm ruining the economy.  The economy was well and truly a mess long before I ever hit on the idea of my little stimulus package.  Anyway, the whole point of the item market is so people can find a deal.  Otherwise, why not just buy things at the General Store?

I could see how I could be negatively impacting the economy if I was just throwing a bunch of low price stuff in there, undercutting everyone else so no one else can sell anything.  But that's exactly why I started buying up the stuff that otherwise would just sit and stagnate.  As long as a piece of tack isn't overpriced (because why would I reward that?) I'll buy it, fix it up, make it better, and put it back where it can do someone good.  That's value added to the system (generally considered to be a very good thing, when it comes to economics.)

I, personally, don't share your disgust for people who may not be so successful at the game.  We were all new once.  We all struggled at one point.  It takes a while to figure out the ropes.  It's amazing how much a little bit of help can turn someone around, though.  It could just be a bit of advice, or it could be a bit of upgraded tack that they couldn't afford before.  Sometimes all someone needs is a little boost when they're getting discouraged.  You may think that boost is a bad thing, but you won't find me agreeing with you.  Anyone who wants to find a way to succeed at showing is going to find an ally in me.

And I hardly think a few low-stat foals from a newbie player is damaging the economy in any real way.  The people who care about stats or conformation or whatever aren't going to look twice at them.  And the people who will buy them probably weren't in the market for a $100,000 champion.  Just like how the shady used car dealership across the road isn't going to affect the sales of the Porsche dealership facing it.

At the very least, no one is going to be harmed by some new player getting some good tack for cheap.  Where's the damage?  It's not losing someone else a higher-priced sale, because they actually got that sale - from me - when they likely wouldn't have a sale at all, otherwise.  It's not going to cheat someone else out of a show win, because that tack isn't going to make up for a horse that hasn't been raised properly for showing - it's just going to enable a good horse to be competitive.  If a player is going to play without goals or direction, owning good tack isn't going to fix it for them, but if a player is willing and capable of becoming a top breeder, that little break along the way may be just what they need to keep from becoming discouraged and leaving the game.  And any society benefits from having more willing and capable members, who can cooperate with others to produce real value.

And that, in the end, is the goal.  That's what makes a healthy society and a healthy economy - cooperation, and collaboration, and that includes making the tools available for someone with potential to actually achieve that potential.

Well, so if I were you I would put those items on trades instead of item listings so that you can control who buys your stuff :). 
Or left only forum post and let people PM you/reply in your topic :).
Or offer people that you'll upgrade their tack for symbolic 10$. Or no money at all.
Win-win.

I don't wanna sound rude or something but your post sounds for me like "So I see you hit 4th level? Then go away and buy things at general store. Or no, wait. Come and buy those overpriced stuff, see this 1/5 tail guard for 900 evd? Go ahead, it's yours. This 600 EVD one use of red apple? Take it."

I rarely visit item sales forum.  I saw your topic after I bought your stuff.
And I always buy the cheapest things I find when I need something and pay no attention to seller nickname. Actually, from time to time I buy all tack in my horses' disciplines that is cheaper than in general store/upgrades.

And yes, it does have negative impact on the market. So do 1$ studs and 50$ horses. Because then people don't want to buy 1000+ stat horses for more than 5000$ and 5/5 tack for more than 1000$.
I sell things for less than I paid for them but not that less.

I was forced to put all my various breeds to rescue center.
They were all trained every day, all treated every day, schooled every day, just to convert. 
Literally no one wanted to buy them for less than 7000$, they had their base stats in public notes (foundations), were in age to breed 2-8 foals. Stats range 500-900+, depending on the age. The youngest horse was 13yo.
Dumped into RC? ALL horses were grabbed within one day, even lined "farming" ones with absolutely crappy non-spec stats (over 90).

By the way I feel awkward after reading this topic so I'll return all stuff I bought from you if you want it back.

Last edited on 2018-04-26 at 07:48:30 by Royal Storm

Yes, the horse economy is broken, but not because of new players breeding their horses "too soon" or "too much."  It's broken because there is no demand for lined horses.  And there is no demand for lined horses because "top" breeders all seem to want their lines to be "clean" and "rare."  And buying other people's horses puts them at risk of ruining that.  That's why you can put amazing horses up for sale for bargain prices, and they won't sell, while all those $300 low stat ones sell just fine.  The people who buy $300 low stat horses don't usually care about "clean" or "rare."  So, that's a problem with demand, there.

And as for supply, well, what horse is more "clean" or "rare" than a foundation?  And, guess what?  They're super-cheap, and you can get them at unlimited quantities!  There's your real culprit, not the newbie players who everyone seems to want to blame.

Last edited on 2018-04-26 at 13:35:30 by Confessor

Uhm, I don't see in my post anything about new players being an issue for horse market.
I blame too various prices of things and horses - both way too high and way too low.

And here I've been trying to instigate the market going by completely upgrading tack and selling it for a very slight profit to help it become productive instead of just a throwaway place :P 
My goal is to also provide reasonably price upgraded tack to new players, but not at a loss. Could be those players also have similar ideas.

Also some people just like to hoard things to make life easier, I bought hundreds of tack items in the past and haven't had to worry about buying more since.

ahhh lol sorry I’m def guilty. Bought quite a lot of SJ and dressage tack. Have big upcoming breedinf/showing projects that I need the stuff for! :)