I made a comment about this in another thread, and I know there are other discussions about this. I have read through these discussions, and they are polluted with toxic amounts of ignorance. I would like to get straight to the point here.
Expensive orders being undercut by 1 copper (less than 0.01% of the order value) makes the 5% listing fee act as a punishment for being first to list. It does not encourage cheaper prices or a healthier market.
There is a simple fix for this problem: Allow sellers to lower their prices for free.
This will prevent micro-cutters from exploiting the 5% listing fee as protection and will allow sellers to retaliate by adjusting their orders down. In fact the market will be healthier, as prices on over-valued items will be driven down quickly until the market reaches an equilibrium.
Also, the trade post should enforce a minimum price difference between orders. Even something little as 1% would prevent people from exploiting micro-cutting. That is 1c on orders of 1s, and 10s on orders of 10g. I don’t think that is going to be a problem for anyone.
Just these two changes would immensely help in creating a healthier market for high-value items on the Tradepost. These changes have zero drawbacks, and will not allow people to circumvent the 15% sales tax. I’m not the first one to suggest these fixes, but I think they deserve their own thread for better discussion and visibility. Thank you for reading!
P.S: Please add a 1-2 week expiration date on orders. Expired orders should have their listing fees refunded, of course. Your Tradepost is clogged with tens of thousands of useless orders that will never be filled, and it doesn’t help on weekends to have a bunch of junk orders clogging the prices screen (and your servers).
