As a preface - I plan not to engage in any form of "debate", disputes, or arguments in this thread. If you feel that this post constitutes an accurate reflection of your experience, please feel free to chime in. For brevity's sake, I will not be going into events preceding July 6. While I believe blulev uses anti-competitive practices aimed to boost his business' profile, and aggressive pricing strategies are tough to deal with, this is not why I'm writing this post. Better prices and stiff competition are generally good for a market and its participants. There are many paths towards success, and for the most part the server at large has managed to pursue profits while remaining respectful of each other. To put it simply, blulev's apparent strategy has become an attempt to corner markets by repeatedly buying out shops to keep them out of stock, and applying a markup (!). He does not make an attempt to arrange for wholesale-to-retail deals. Instead, he is removing goods already set up for sale and artificially introducing scarcity. There are three main problems I have with this: It deprives end-users of the prices which could obtained if vendors were not preoccupied with an antagonizing party. The behavior can only be effectively defended against by raising prices (thus the market becomes cornered). It creates an artificial crisis of supply/demand imbalance. So far, about a dozen people have been called upon to respond to an "urgent shortage" of items. People whose main goals were to help build an efficient market and enjoy their time in-game find themselves suddenly embroiled in a political situation. Even those three things I would normally chalk up to a sadly pervasive outcome of profit-seeking. However, the toxic dynamics of this situation far exceeds anything I've experienced thus far, and I feel compelled to speak out. Seriously stiff competition and effective marketing are entirely separate matters from abusing/haranguing people who volunteer their time and energy trying to make the server a fun community to be on. Choosing to adopt destructive practices (refusing to stop when asked), engaging in endless bad-faith arguments, and unnecessarily diminishing the game experience of other players is wholly against the spirit of rule 2 - respecting other players. I believe the fundamental abuse here is disrespecting the time, energy, and efforts of others. The tactics which can be used to accomplish this are, frankly, far too numerous to list here and may already be familiar to the community. If others are willing to contribute their experience to help give an accurate representation of what's going on, please feel free to do so. Conversely, if you are feeling drained by the drama, just take a break and enjoy your life. However, I do request that people try to avoid "feeding the troll" and derailing the thread, as that may cause it to be locked and deleted.
wow ANOTHER thread about me? really?? really???? regardless i will now address each of your points and why you have came to the wrong conclusion. i applaud you for your use of economic resources, truly! however, there are some key factors you are leaving out that i will address below: this entire prelude was completely unnecessary and disrespectful. i dont use red hearings and i have never "sealioned" in my life. additionally, linking the wiki for grandiosity is completely inappropriate. just because i like my shop and doesnt mean i think less of people that dont have one.............. that was not cool. regardless, i will still respond to the rest of your post in sincerity. /thread this is completely false. i dont buy out other shops to KEEP THEM OUT OF STOCK. i buy from other shops to stock loam. there is a chance that during this purchase the shop becomes OUT OF STOCK. i am not purposely buying out product and then sitting on it like you, enelis, and cos are trying to do with my shop (i see ur plan and it wont work but nice try). i am buying it for my own use. if the persons shop im buying from has low stock THAT IS NOT THE CONSUMERS FAULT. its not on me to make sure i dont buy out your shop..... false. i bought bones, the nether logs, and many blocks in bulk. i do not buy wholesale for the mob drops from enny because SHE IS NEVER ON. if she cant service that shop section, IT IS NOT ON ME TO NOT BUY IT! regardless, my diamonds shine just as bright as any other customer that wouldve otherwise bought. i shouldnt have to need to make wholesale deals cause i buy at the same price as everyone else REGARDLESS! ummm excuse me???? why did you link to the wiki page for price gouging? i have not bought out other shops to sell at a monopoly price at loam. in fact i have done THE EXACT OPPOSITE. every single offering at loam is EQUAL or BETTER than the price offered at desert warp. how exactly am i price gouging the consumer by OFFERING THEM A BETTER PRICE??? the only item i undercut is my wool price 1:512 is less than desert which i buy from chiz. literally the ONLY reason its not equal or better was because i ran out of dropper space on the floor, literally. REGARDLESS, it doesnt even matter because i pay the same price that chiz charges everyone and chiz's shop isnt even sold out. chiz cannot dictate who does and doesnt buy from his shop. that is LITERALLY DISCRIMINATION. we talking about irl comparisons here??? how about the human right of not being discriminated against when you walk into a paying establishment???? this is completely not cool. both sentences for this first point are false. it does not deprive end users because like i said above, im not sitting on the product. they can buy that exact same item for the exact same price at loam. i am making 0 profit. whoever i bought it from is making 100% profit. and the consumer has a centralized location for all their item needs. you linked to rent seeking wiki which again is not relevant here AT ALL as i am making a 0% profit on the items that i sell which i didnt produce myself (about 30% of all stocked items at loam). there is NOT a misallocation of resources and the economic outcome was EFFICIENT. these 2 facts disprove any notion of rent seeking. it is not an artificial imbalance if i am a genuine consumer. i am not buying it and then sitting on the product (again like ur crew is doing with my shop) i am immediately taking that product and stocking it at my shop for the same if not better price. what is important to note here is that lets say i buy out a shop that sells slime balls, just an example. there is only 64 slimeballs in this other persons shop. i buy out all 64. i take that stack and now sell it at my store for the same price - THE INVENTORY AMOUNT OF SLIMEBALLS - FOR THE ENTIRE SERVER - REMAINED THE SAME AT 64 SLIMEBALLS!!!!! there is no artifical scarcity at all as the inventory wide amount of slimeballs NEVER. CHANGED. also, if you click your own link for artifical scarcity a prerequisite is for there to be monopolistic attributes (which LOAM does NOT have, as u are literally complaining about me buying an item YOU stock, so this entire point was just patently wrong). and as for the urgent shortage, all they have to do is stock it 1 time. i told cos this same thing. if i buy from your shop and loam gets stocked, all you have to do is stock it ONE more time and it will stocked side by side with loam (who is selling YOUR product)!!! the WIN is very easy here its really not my fault u guys dont wanna grind for the items the server needs. also linking to emotional exhaustion there was inappropriate. that is like a medical state and your correlating it to stocking a shop in a block game. that is my EXACT same goal as well! funny how that works out! and stealing the credit? really?...... really?..... when have i ever said that i stock ALL THE ITEMS. everyone knows i source from other shops. (heck ur making a thread about it!!!) again i think that was inappropriate to post. there has not been a single market failure because of my actions. in fact, the exact opposite as happened. since i started my loam empire, i have equalized the price of logs to 1:128. before you couldnt even find it at that price. i started stocking it (taking LOSSES for the benefit of the community) and now there are THREE DIFFERENT SHOPS that stock 1:128. call it grandiosity idc that all happened because of the work i put in to MAKE it happen. i knew shops would spring up to meet the price threshold i set. i am proud of the economic work i have done for this server. if you dont see that then it sucks. excuse me? im not ABUSING anyone..... how dare you say that? no they are not separate matters this is stiff competition your dealing with and your entire desert crew is mad. stop labeling me these abhorrent things because youre pissed my shop is doing really good. if youre asking me to purposely let my shop sit empty while your shop sits full, then your darn right im going to refuse that. thats literally business malpractice. you have no right to ask me to do that and getting offended when i declined is not cool. you cant force me to do stuff like that. oh here we go again you dont agree with what i said that means you are disrespecting me. horus, i say this genuinely - PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE!!!! if me buying out your shop at the PRICE YOU SET is "disrespecting your time" then its your fault for stocking it at that price!!!! if its not worth it for you then dont stock it!!! dont tell the consumer not to buy........... i cant believe i have to actually write that out this thread should already be locked and deleted for the brazen misrepresentation of my actions, the underhanded comments littered throughout, and bad faith attempts as trying to paint me like im doing something wrong when LOAM has benefited the server in incalculable ways. peace - this was not cool.
I would like to caution people from attributing the recent urgent shortage of items mentioned in this post to the actions of a single player. I know of several players who are currently buying out sell-side stores to earn a profit by reselling those items to my buy-side stores. While harassment and disrespect are obviously separate concerns which I cannot comment on, I would just like to remind everyone that the economy is a complex system and attributing every negative aspect to a single player is dangerous. As a more general note, if the gap in pricing between my buy-side store and your sell-side store is negatively affecting your game experience, please let me know in game and I'm sure we can work something out. The most important thing is that everyone is having fun!
Yo, Blulev, I like you and I like loam, but your actions are likely going to make that exact thing you are fighting against (creeper farm) more likely to happen in other areas of the economy. I encourage everyone to just try be respectful of other peoples shops - competition is great, As you know I love me those 1:64 bottles of enchanting, but the aggressive nature of all of this is going to effect the server in more ways than just getting cheaper prices for stuff. While people are getting what they ask for, there is also a social aspect to the shopping experience on this server. Its more of a service than just a shop, its very fulfilling, socially, to know that you are making other players happy for the effort you put in stocking/managing your shops/mall. Please consider your actions carefully going forward. I hate seeing people getting banned & Id hate to see staff being more involved in controlling the economy. I cant see anything positive come out of this ;-; Kanna~
thank you kanna i like you too ur super nice these 2 things are not even related in any capacity at all i must say. the GP thing has to do with decisions made by people in charge and a shortage of creeper eggs on the server. there is nothing about loam that has any type of monopoly on ANY of my sections. products generated by me can be produced by ANYONE else on the server. all you have to do is put in the grind like i have done. the GP thing cant happen in other areas because the economic environment is not such where that is even possible to occur. i genuinely believe that me liking a shop so much that ill stand there and BUY IT OUT shows nothing but respect for the shop owner. i am paying the exact same price anyone else would pay and the shop owner is receiving 100 PERCENT of the expected profit they wanted to receive. they made a good priced shop and i as a consumer am purchasing it. what, are my diamonds dirty? haha i know very well LOAM is very grateful for your patronage kanna . and of course itll effect it more ways, but i think getting cheaper prices for EVERYONE will be worth it. at the current state every single player on the server now gets to enjoy some of the best prices for items in SERVER HISTORY because what ive been trying to do at LOAM. 1:64 xp bottles was unheard of, in fact u might remember 1:16 was getting sales just a little while ago. these low prices benefit the server greatly and yeah sure now theres like 4-5 people on the desert team that are mad, but why should that stop the benefit i am giving for EVERYONE? the benefit the entire server gets outweighs them being mad (for unjust reasons too as i explained above). what im doing is not wrong its just basic "game theory", as its called. this is a completely valid point and i understand why someone could think this, and i respect if we disagree on this part. this is how i see it: theyre not there to see who is and isnt buying at their shop. all i had to do was simply lie and say "nope i dont buy from your shop" and the desert team wouldve never even known. i chose to tell them and it is not a secret. if i did keep it a secret they wouldve just thought "oop looks like we got a lot of buyers on the server!" and this thread wouldve never been made and they wouldve gotten that "fulfilling" feeling you talked about (falsely). also is ME buying the shop not "fulfilling" for them? am i too not a player on the server? in fact if i was them i would consider it quite flattering that i think their price is so good its not even worth me starting my own farm for each item. this service you describe is also making ME happy, is that not enough for them? i have considered kanna and i know in my heart of hearts this is the right thing to do for the good of the server. if 4-5 people want to be mad at me so be it, i cant control their feelings. the benfit to the whole playerbase outweights what they feel about me, which is misplaced to begin with. and yah id hate to see that too.
What is wrong with buying out a competitors shop? They get paid for their stuff dont they? Please buy out BigMamaMoos shop at desert warp. I am beggin ya for her!
Fleabag, there's nothing wrong with buying out someone's shop if you need the product, but if you're buying it out specifically so that you can then ask in chat "where can I buy product, all my competitors are out of stock", that's stealth advertising for themselves while also making the other player look bad for being unable to keep stocked. There's other concerns also that have already been expressed either here or in other threads, but I'll just mention that at least one person completely gave up their shop because of this behavior.
Depending on the product, that's not necessarily easy or possible. And especially for things that are normally low-demand items, that might be hundreds of times more work than just keeping a shop stocked for normal player requirements.
