- BrickPlanet Forum
- General Discussion
- Economy pause? (Essay)
Great job. The new system flags sales as legitimate or illegitimate, and my sales are deemed illegitimate. It might be time for a soft pause on the economy from me.
Crates and items I am selling hundreds of times above their value repeatedly at the same price mean nothing for their value now, as the system thinks it isn't a legitimate sale. But other users selling an item for 4 credits repeatedly does affect its value by setting its value to 4 credits (no different from what I do, just in the opposite direction, but these are considered legitimate sales?). And now we can have users just set values to 1, from what I would assume is the offer system, so if I now sell that item for 2000, it will average out between the 1 and 2000 to 1000 value, because the sale of 1 credit is totally a legitimate sale right?
In its current form, I get little return from selling items like my thousands of crates and common crate items. Previously, I sold slightly above an item's value to increase its value slightly and get credits. Now I don't get anything from that sale except credits, which I am not desperate for, so what is the point of it?
The only way I win is by raising my prices rapidly between each sale. No more always selling for the same price, but every sale has to be an increase from the last sale- hyperinflation, if you will. I'm sure no one would like paying a rapidly increasing price.
I am very much on the fence on what to do here, but it seems like right now I am better off just sitting on it all, and markets can only move based on what everyone else sells (and let's be honest, no one is selling the way I am selling)
TL:DR Sterncross believes Isaac has been granted permission from France's government to deforest the oldest forest in the world.
I am now removing small-value, large-owner-count items, mainly common crate pulls, from being sold. The liquidity of these items will be worse off now. The only person it really hurts is you. I was always selling cheap and had the lowest prices, selling for like 10-25. Now you can trade among yourselves for 100 credits for a 2000 owner common crate reward.
User that joined a month ago: Hey, this item is selling from Sterncross for 20 credits, and the next user is selling it for 100. I'll buy some credits or Astro to get into the market, use the trading system and participate in this site.
User that joins now: Wow, everything is being sold way out of proportion for its value. There's no point in buying Astro or credits; it's a pointless system.
https://www.brickplanet.com/shop/21223/red-winter-scarf There was a time when I would sell my 1500 copies of this for 15-20 credits, or maybe even lower, depending on the lowest price I was always selling at the lowest price, undercutting the last user, giving great prices Now you guys can pay 200 credits for it because that's the lowest offer Because when Sterncross sells repeatedly at low prices, it means nothing
How good is this for the economy!
To clear up how the new model handles this:
Our main goal with this updated system is to show an item's organic market value: one based on actual, community-wide sales rather than individual price movement. Repeatedly selling items slightly above their value to gradually push their calculated price up is exactly what the new model is designed to prevent. Under the new algorithm, using sales to intentionally swing or raise an item's net worth is seen as artificial price manipulation, so those transactions get flagged and filtered out of the calculation.
Because of this, the system is actually working as intended. The new algorithm and the trading strategy you're describing are in direct conflict. We can't have a model that protects against price manipulation while simultaneously allowing individual players to manually drive up item values through repetitive pricing/sales. Allowing one directly undermines the other.
When items are repeatedly sold or offered way outside the regular market range, the system filters those outlier sales out on both sides. That means no single player or price point (whether it's a 1 credit sale or a high-priced bulk sale) can single-handedly move an item's value. You still get your credits for every sale you make, but individual trading can't be used to manually control or drive up market values anymore.
So in a site with 50 active users, with only like 8 of those people having the funds to buy in larger quantities. There is no point in people with stock moving said stock because it won't change its value, something that is fundamental to the economy...
Well done!
At this point, it only affects the wider community that only have 50 credits to spare and want to buy items, because now I won't be selling my large stock items for 15, as it's pointless in doing so. So the users who only have a few items will sell for high amounts that won't get sold, and nothing will move. My value stays the same while the wider community stay poor, as their value doesn't move based on what I sell to them and their current holdings.