Understanding

[SellerOfSouls]

I am seriously curious.

All the time, folks jump others for what they consider price gouging.

And yet, folks allow other folks to price gouge when it comes to Premium Points (PP's).

Here's how:

Folks offer/accept silvers for premium points.

Let's make the assumptions that that 1) the price per PP is 10K silver, and 2) that silver is $7 per million silver.

Now, if someone wanted say 5,500 PP's. At 10K silver per PP, that is 55M silver, or $375 for the PP's.

Most know SIMU will allow you to cover any gaps in premium service at $39.95 per month, so $39.95 for every 100 PP's. This would then mean that 5,500 PP's through SIMU would cost $2,197.25, or 313.893M silver.

This is a savings of 258.893M silver, or $1,822.25.

It should be noted that 5,500 PP's is an accumulation of 4 years, 7 months of points.

Most also know that large pools of PP's are diminishing. The more time that passes, the more deals are made, the fewer large pools of PP's there are.

With a diminishing market, and a competitor with a very high price tag, why would folks allow other folks to gouge the seller of a large pool of PP's? I simply do not see how folks can jump others for price gouging, and then turn around and allow other folks selling PP's to be gouged.

I assert that folks that do/allow this should stop being hypocrites. Further I assert that anyone selling PP's should be allowed to place a reasonable price tag on their large pools of PP's. Hell, even at $20.00 for every 100 PP's, that is one helluva deal for the buyer, compared to what they would get from SIMU.

Simply food for thought.


Respectfully,


SoS

[Pereus]

This guy and his fuckin 5500 points...

[Maerit]

You're valuing your premium points at the same amount as the ENTIRE SUBSCRIPTION. That's your flaw. You get more than just 100 PPs for $39.95.

So no, PPs are not worth $2.50 each...

[everan]

This is a spurious argument. Simu does not sell PP outright. They may allow people to bridge a gap but that is a concession, not a true value sale. And, I can't envision a scenario where it would be worthwhile to do such a thing for such a length of time. While I agree that 10k per PP is undervalued, that's true only at the high end of the spectrum. 5,200 PP will allow you to add heavy crit padding to an 8x armor, which as you estimate would be the equivalent of 52m silver. This seems like a reasonable value, whereas 258m does not. The value comparison to determine gouging should be against market prices, not against overlord prices that are merely a concession and not an outright sale. At the lower end of PP, adding something like flares to a 4x item would be a tragic use of PP. It's all relative.

[Archigeek]

10k per point is not the norm. The norm ranges from 5k to 10k per point based on a number of factors. The patient buyer can usually buy at around 6500. With the precipitous drop in silver prices, I suspect that the price of PPs will go up. That's how inflation works, and in the Gemstone economy it's all relative. If you've got nothing else to spend your silvers on, the price of everything will go up and the value of silvers relative to US dollars will go down. Supply, demand, all that sort of thing. In a deal for premium points, the buyer also has to trust the seller with an item that is undoubtedly quite valuable. This means that if you are not known to be trustworthy, you're going to get a lower price for your PPs.

To add to what others have said, the buyer CAN'T price gouge. Only the seller can.

[gilchristr]

OK so your idea is someone should auction 5500 pp at a mb of closer to 258.893M

[Crime]

Auction them. You could start 5500 pts at 1 silver and the demand will tell you what they are worth.

[Aaramon]

Gotta agree with Crime on that one. The value of something is what the market will pay for it. It might be higher or lower depending upon who is active or needing points for a project they are actively working but you cannot know ahead of time.

[Xred]

Crime and Aaramon are right. Prices of goods are created by buyers and sellers as they make a transaction. In otherwords, prices are continuously discovered via triail and error.

To be able to know the price of something a priori (before-hand) - you have to know how each market participant values the good. But there is a problem. Values themselves are not just subjective but often non classifiable, nonlinear or not even articulable by consumers. Simply, you have to know the minds of your customers to know a priori what they will do. And minds - can only be judged by the actions they take, hence you can only know what a customer will do ex-post. (after the fact) Here is a quick list of some consumer values which are difficult to know, always changing and never complete:

Functional Value: This type of value is what an offer does, it's the solution an offer provides to the customer.

Monetary Value: This is where the function of the price paid is relative to an offerings perceived worth. This value invites a trade-off between other values and monetary costs.

Social Value: The extent to which owning a product or engaging in a service allows the consumer to connect with others.

Psychological Value: The extent to which a product allows consumers to express themselves or feel better.


Sum it up:
If businesses could know what price of a good would sell for "a priori" -no startup would fail, or only by mismanagement.
If businesses could know what price of a good would sell for by experience - no company would ever make or sell a product for a loss because they would be able to deduce what each product would sell for before making it. Or fail only by mismanagement.