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Fix the exchange by tuning it around

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
I've seen a lot of talk about the exchange lately. I would like to perpose that the real problem those who dislike the exchange are encountering is not one of supply/demand, or infaltion so much as it is "me too pricing".

Rather than go into a lot of detail about what I mean by that and how to fix it i will instead point to and example of an exchange system that impliments what my sugestion would be rather well:

the poxnora rune trader:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PoxNora

the rune trader doesn't the "seller sets the price" model. Instead the seller creates an auction with an item or group of items up for bid. Then users on the trader place bids consisting of items, which the seller can review and accept/reject. buyers can see other bids placed on an item, and provided their bid has not been rejected can add to it (so if someone else adds a better bid you can sweeten yours to compensate). Also it's important to note that _ITEMS_ can be placed in your bid as well as curency.

The advantages of this model over the curent exhange model for STO:
1. the seller gets feedback regarding the user base's perception of the value of their auction (they can see that lots of people bid but none bid as high as expected)

2. sales can occure at the margin more easily (an item may be "worth" 100,000 but someone is willing to pay me 90,000 now so maybe I'll take the offer rather than waiting for a less discriminating buyer)

3. there is less "sticker shock", because the "price" of an item is the highest curent bid the casual browser doesn't see "that guy is asking what for this?" instead they see "wow, those p[layers are willing to pay that much for that?"

4. casual exchange users can sell high value items with confidence (if the item is valuble than it will get lots of bids, and the seller doesn't have to be fully aware of it's value to take the highest bid they've seen after a week).

5. market value for any given item will fluctuate more as bids containing different items of equal "market value" will not nesesarily have the same purchasing power in a given auction. (since the seller may be able to use one item, but would just resell the other. This should make gaming the exchange more interesting as assesing a perticular seller's desires can give you an advantage over the raw market)

The only dis-advantages are:
1. easier to use for storage (the seller can refuse any bid so there's no risk of someone buying your item without your consent)

This could be mitigated by making it imposible to de-list an item before the auction has ended (either with a sale or the time expiering). Thus the exhange can only be used for long term storage. and fully eliminated by allowing players to buy more storage space.

2. no instant gratification (the buyer doesn't get the item until the seller accepts their bid which in the case of smart sellers will be at roughtly the time the auction expires)

I don't have a fix for this one, but I'm not sure it's a terible problem either.
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