I think it really depends if the item you are priceing. If somthing is worth two gold and your priceing it at fifty, thats just not right. But if you buy somthing for one and price it for three thats normal. You need to make money somehow. But going overbored isn't right. I try and find the item being sold somewere to gade what the price range should be then go with my gut from there. Sad thing is if you keep your prices up and someone else is chargering less your gonna end up loseing money and customers fast. Find the half way point.

It's only not right if someone else isn't willing to pay the 50. For me to buy it and then relist i am taking the risk people will think i am crazy and not repurchase the item.Granted i usually only price items and twice what they would normally cost me at the highest point of the mats, however I usually have a set price on what I will pay for mats, and try to buy anything less to keep prices stable....at least in my opinion.

Only people who dont understand free market economies complain. If there is a huge profit in an item others will in time step in to make more of that item and the price will drop to whatever is reasonable. If you buy things off an AH in an attempt to corner a market and make a big profit off an item you are still taking a risk. Another person who is actually making or farming the item can easily step in and just put another such item up for sell and continually undercut you untill you eventually have to sell at a loss.

Profits only exist if the supply is less than the demand. This can happen naturally because people are too lazy to produce an item or it can happen artificially by the devs restricting the production of an item through game code.

The same can be said for the "Real World" too.

Hmm I guess I cant edit my comment.

In any case I wanted to add I personally do not believe in the existence of gouging as a valid principle unless it is caused by A goverment encacting laws which restrict the flow of the free market causing prices to be unreasonable.

You can spend many days discussing micro and macro economics inside a MMORPG environment. In the end it comes down to personal opinion on the matter as Maelkor was hinting at I believe. Free trade economies levy themsleves on the concious and subconcious levels. My stance is that "price gouging" simply preys on the uninformed and unknowledgable.

Its true that gouging could be said to those preying on the uninformed and unknowledable, however, I would have to say in this day and age its almost impossible to be uninformed or without knowledge unless you are either to lazy to become informed or simply have no desire to become informed.

In game terms especially in regards to what the devs have said will be in Alganon there will be auction houses which tract a variety of buy/sell stats that any player will be able to look up to see what an object is selling for. The ability for a player to gouge in this system will be 100% dependent on what kind of crafting systems the devs put in place and if there are any arbitrary rules which makes something rare.

With regard to the last two comments (by Veritas and Maelkor), I think about my oft answer when people who haven't done any research, or attempted to learn about the thing they complain about:

What is the root word of ignorance?  Ignore!

Now, I do think there is a balance here, as fundamental ethics should still govern a people and an economic system, but if a person doesn't take the time to become knowledgeable in the thing they are going to purchase before purchasing, then they have just volunteered to become a sheep to be guided by the shepherd's staff, so to say.

I have no problem with someone choosing this (and I choose it often, if I wnt an item badly enough), but perhaps that individual should accept the responsibility for him or herself, and for his or her own choice.  One can choose ignorance by choosing to ignore.

A fool and his money are easily parted.

shame it's me usually ;0

To an extent I agree with Mhantra, in the fact that ethics does need to be taken into consideration. I'll use copper ore as an example. If I have been buying copper ore for about 1 silver a piece, and someone decides to undercut that 1 silver to 95 coppers, and of course the undercutting continues say down to 5 copper apiece, I may be inclined to buy all the copper priced for under a 1 silver and relist and relist a portion at 1 silver, while using the rest to make items with at a bigger profit. I see nothing wrong with that because to me it is worth 1 silver a piece.  However if someone believe it to be worth 1 silver but instead buys all the copper listed and then relists it at 1 gold...assuming 100 silver =1 gold, then to me that would be unethical.

Hmm as to llucids comments..I dont view that so much as unethical as potentially stupid from a business perspective. If silver ore is easy enough to get that you think listing it at 1 sp is economical for you...then for someone to try to buy out the supply and relist for 1gp will only encourage you..the original listee to go out and get a bunch more silver ore to sell at 1sp. The person trying to resell at 1gp will never sell their ore as they will always be undercut by you. People with some small knowledge of the overal market will know all they have to do is wait and you will list more ore for a reasonable price.

Now this person trying to raise the price could try to keep buying the silver ore, however, eventually they will run out of money unless they actually sell some of the ore. In the meantime the person going out and getting the silver ore will probably end up making more money selling it at 1 sp through quantity of sales than the one trying to corner the market. Eventually the person selling at 1gp will give up and move on to something else probably after losing a bit of money.

all taht person would have to do is sell 1 ore for 1g for every 100 he bought to break even. you get one person taht only needs 2 or 3 ore and doesn't want to take the 15 or 20 minutes..and the profits roll in.....as long as you can keep the lower priced ore off the market at the right time. so while potentially risky the profit margins are still there.....believe me I have been on the end of spending that few gold to save 15 minutes plenty of time. but taht is the risk the buyer takes. by relisting for so high. while I don't agree maybe they find it ethical in their eyes.

Aye i dont consider it unethical but merely risky. You take a big risk buying all the ore in the hopes of getting a big gain. I would consider it unethical however if they used an exploit to prevent people from listing ore on the market for several hours thus forcing people to buy from them or having a dev manipulate the system in their favor or something along those lines. So long as an individual is playing by/responding to the rules that are in effect and they dont harm other people(I do not consider an individual using thier own free will to buy something harm) then I do not consider it unethical.

Most people that complain about prices are the ones NOT out there gathering for hours at a time. In all my game play, the only ones I have ever heard complain are the players that want everything and want it right now, but do not want to work for it.

i hate inflated prices, In fact i played a game for 3 years had all the crafting you could get and hunted in all the places that the best stuffed dropped and I never sold a single thing i gave it all away. I was one of the poorest end game playersthere was in the game i think  but I  had a lot of fun along the way and made a lot of peoples day which made me happy.

 But if you can sell your wares for your chosen price then good on you. If it is to expensive then they will take longer to sell but if its all thats there and  someone wants it bad enough then they will pay for it . If you sell your stuff for to much then people dont have to buy it they can  go and try to get/make it themselves it really is thier choice.

 But  when you do artifically inflate the prices and limit supply then  make stuff to expensive then  its bad for the game. I think  it opens the door to gold sellers and other negative things.

how do i log on

it will not let me play