I think removing NPC shops was a mistake

[Johnwarosa]

Many MMOs that have auction houses also have NPC shops. Why? Because those are useful for two things:

- Getting rid of stuff nobody wants on AH so at least you can get some money out of it
- Getting your hands on stuff that no one seems to sell on AH.

Another thing is that they keep AH prices in check. What stops me from being a scalper, buying every item of certain kind and selling it for 200x the price? That little NPC shop that has seemingly infinite supply of item for a reasonable price, that's what.

 

[Gearz]

Many MMOs that have auction houses also have NPC shops. Why? Because those are useful for two things:

- Getting rid of stuff nobody wants on AH so at least you can get some money out of it
- Getting your hands on stuff that no one seems to sell on AH.

Another thing is that they keep AH prices in check. What stops me from being a scalper, buying every item of certain kind and selling it for 200x the price? That little NPC shop that has seemingly infinite supply of item for a reasonable price, that's what.

The boards in the marketplace allow you to sell items without putting them on the AH. I always compare board prices with AH prices before I sell anything.

 

[Mur]

Yeah I think you are missing something, if you go to the marketplace boards, you can sell stuff on them and that is your NPC. If you push "," that brings up the market and that sells / buys from players.

 

[Johnwarosa]

No, I meant BUYING.

 

[Salbris]

No, I meant BUYING.

You'll never buy all the things in the auction house. Anyone can craft that thing and sell it for a lot less than 200x it's value. You would just end up with a thousand items you can't sell.

And if items could be bought from NPCs you would be setting an upper bound on the price. No one would but anything from the auction house of it's over that value. Why is that necessary? The auction house will always have everything as someone will find the missing item and start to make a profit on it.

 

[Johnwarosa]

You'll never buy all the things in the auction house. Anyone can craft that thing and sell it for a lot less than 200x it's value. You would just end up with a thousand items you can't sell.

And if items could be bought from NPCs you would be setting an upper bound on the price. No one would but anything from the auction house of it's over that value. Why is that necessary? The auction house will always have everything as someone will find the missing item and start to make a profit on it.

Again, what stops me from being a scalper, buying every item of certain kind and selling it for 200x the price? Without NPC shops that used to be there, the answer is "nothing".

 

[Mur]

Again, what stops me from being a scalper, buying every item of certain kind and selling it for 200x the price? Without NPC shops that used to be there, the answer is "nothing".

1) When you put an object on sale, you pay 10% of its cost in tax
2) You run the risk of anyone putting the item down for a better price and then you bought a bunch of stuff that will never sell.

So if you pay but a bunch of stuff and then put it on sale you are running dual risk of getting undercut on the bottomline and undercut due to tax so its really risky to do this kind of thing.

 

[Salbris]

Again, what stops me from being a scalper, buying every item of certain kind and selling it for 200x the price? Without NPC shops that used to be there, the answer is "nothing".

This strategy only works if you have enough money to buy all the items constantly, no one else sells that item for a "while", and people are willing to buy your overpriced items. You might be able to get away with 2x expensive for some items (people already seem to have an issue with understanding cost) but most people will simply just not buy the item.

Anything cheap you're going to see dozens of players posting items for constantly. Anything expensive you won't be able to buy out. And anything common people will know when you try to overprice it that much. Not to mention that the AH UI is horrendous so good luck buying and selling hundreds of items in the span of minutes.