Mules

[Kyzan]

How would you deal with mules on your server. we have one right now that is from qeynos that has a mule in our fine city of Freeport. Jackin up all our prices and such. Any suggestions on how to deal with a Mule?

[Elyana]

How would you deal with mules on your server. we have one right now that is from qeynos that has a mule in our fine city of Freeport. Jackin up all our prices and such. Any suggestions on how to deal with a Mule?

How can they jack up your prices? Do you mean they are selling things for less than you are?

Honestly it is not worth the time and effort it would take to resupply a mule with stuff and go to the opposing city to sell unless the opposing cities crafters are outrageously overpricing stuff to the point where I could still sell for more than I would make in my home city and undercut them. Even then I am not likely to do that since the black market is readily available to those who are looking for bargains =P

As for "dealing" with a mule, afraid your going to have to suck it up. There is no way to legally get rid of them. The only thing you can do is undersell them and make it unprofitable for them to have a mule there.

[Kyzan]

My bad, there competing with our prices. only way I see how to deal with it is to dramaticly drop our prices till they leave. that might throw the market into chaos but ya got to do what ya got to do :P

[Dafydd]

My bad, there competing with our prices. only way I see how to deal with it is to dramaticly drop our prices till they leave. that might throw the market into chaos but ya got to do what ya got to do :P

It sounds to me like this would NOT throuw your market into Chaos but bring your market back down to where it belongs.

I play primarily Good races but I do have a Troll ... and on Mistmoor the Evil side has WAY over inflated prices. Its cheeper to buy off the black market then off the regular market in Freeport on Mistmoore server.

[Kyzan]

And just were does my market belong for Velium items and gold items for that matter?

Not to be rude but Im sure each server has its own prices set differently. If ya look at my server you would see that there are a hella lot more goodies than evil players.

[Torval the Harvester]

Umm, yeah. I hate to point this out, but no one is selling deliberately at a loss just because they hate you. What nefarious scheme do you believe you've uncovered here, exactly? Whether this person selling stuff is a main or otherwise, what are you accusing them of doing, selling for less than you?

Sorry, but there isn't any way to deal with it other than live with the reality that you don't get to dictate the market for what you want to sell.

[Kyzan]

Umm, yeah. I hate to point this out, but no one is selling deliberately at a loss just because they hate you. What nefarious scheme do you believe you've uncovered here, exactly? Whether this person selling stuff is a main or otherwise, what are you accusing them of doing, selling for less than you?

Sorry, but there isn't any way to deal with it other than live with the reality that you don't get to dictate the market for what you want to sell.

Well you are on my server and a goodie at that. What would ya think if us Evils came over and planted a few mules there. I realize you have like 3 times as many crafters as us evils but dont think takin your wares to our side and competeting with the evils is fair. But I dont see a problem with outsourcing. If I needed something from Qeynos say Tier 4 tempers I would run my ass over to Qeynos and pick them up. just as long as Goodies goods dont make it into the evil market.

[Moock]

So what is the problem here? A crafter from the other city is selling in your city? Is that it?

[Kbern]

Since there is no shared bank accounts for good and evil, the person has to truck the goods to the mule somehow.

It seem to be a pretty pain in the butt if the person did not think they would make a profit from it.

The person is a good business person. He/she found a market, and now is taking advantage of that market and probably making a nice profit selling at a decent price.

Nothing wrong with that at all.

If they are selling at a loss or no real gain, I am sure they wouldn't do it for long.

I am curious how you know it is a mule of someone from the good side of the server and not just a crafter locally that is selling for cheap?

[Sigrah]

...I am curious how you know it is a mule of someone from the good side of the server and not just a crafter locally that is selling for cheap?

My guess is that the mule probably didn't go "ANON". So, when people saw all the goods he had on him that were probably too high for his level, people got suspicious and/or are just assuming he's a mule unless he came out and said it.

Anyways, I personally don't see anything wrong with the concept of someone hauling their stuff to the opposing city and fencing it off. Might not be in line with most role-playing aspects, but I see no reason he "needs to be dealt with". All the player has done is effectively started his/her own Black Marketing Network. It's not like they can just use shared bank space or anything to get goods easily into the other city, they have to actually travel there themselves and spend whatever amount of time it takes getting there.

You folks can do whatever you like of course, but the only problem I really see out of this is that one city has too many people and/or crafters while the other city has a shortage that makes it worth-while for players to run their own black markets.

[Sherish]

What I can see from reading is that "allegedly" a player from Good is running over stuff to Evil, putting them on his Evil mule and selling them for a profit, but still cheaper than in Evil, thus deflating the pricing market in Evil.

The poster even acknowledges we have more Good tradeskillers than Evil, but on that note, we also have more Good players than Evil, so the market kind of evens out eventually.

Lets take Tier2 items, just as an example. I know how much I make them for, considering I can make tempers, and I can harvest my own goods, so I know how cheaply I can sell them for and make a profit. In fact its quite a low number.

Tier 3 items, I buy my tempers/resins/oils for a max price (I scour the market daily for this). I also buy some of my resources for a max price, so knowing all that, I know how much it costs me to make a tier3 item and again it is still quite low, and thats from BUYING the resources, ALL including the gold/gems/carbonite (therefore making a bigger profit if I harvest stuff myself). And the base cost for making a tier 3 item is still quite low and a profit can still be made, considering Good's "flooded" jewellry market.

So if someone from Good can head to Evil and sell for a better profit than selling in Good, I can only dread to imagine the cost of items in Evil and how inflated they must be.

So I will have to agree with the earthy comments, that perhaps your server is now hitting the reality pricing rather than what it is inflated to.

If the come-back argument is that buying the sub items is expensive, then do as you said you do, head over to Qeynos (or use a mule to do it and meet halfway) and buy it cheaper there, knowing you will be selling it for a better profit in Evil, even if youve had to reduce your prices. Doing that also means that the players making your subitems will have to reduce their prices if they are failing to shift them at their high price.

You actually have the power as a crafter, although it may take some strength of will and perhaps some time, to do it, to help control and lower the cost of sub-items, but you can.


Sher