Suggestion Average Price ability for Merchants

[TheTXLibra]

I think a really cool ability for merchants would be to put in something like "/price ###" where ### was the item/block ID number. It would then return the average buy price and the average sale price, between all shops on the server. This would be an awesome ability, and also fully justifiable RP-wise. The benefit to the merchants is so that they can price their goods more appropriately, based on the average price and how hard their shop is to reach. The benefit to the players is a more stable economy where the prices are more regular and predictable. The role-play justification is that someone who dedicates their life to the buying and selling of goods should be much better able to gauge the fair price of an item than, say, a carpenter or an engineer.

 

[MajorasMask]

If some rogue merchant, somewhere in the map, creates a group of 10-20 chestshops with prices in the thousands/hundreds for basic items (gold, diamond, iron), then we're all screwed.

 

[MajorasMask]

But seriously, while the idea is nice (could be tried out, why not?) i'm concerned that it'll promote merchants to sell at the same price. What could happen is that the first merchant sells things at a high price, and everyone else follows. However, it is possible to use this for competition (making a chest shop with a price lower than the average).

 

[TheTXLibra]

A couple answers to your concerns, with something of an economic background:

1. Ultimately, the consumer, not the seller, ultimately determines the price. So even if the average price for logs is, say, 1c per stack, but the people buying at the time only want to spend 0.5c/stack, then the merchant with 0.5c/stack will make the sale.

2. The market rule is that merchants will typically price at just below market price, and then adjust for convenience, and adjust again for location. A merchant wants to make the sale, so if average is 1c/stack, they might sell at 0.9c/stack, but if you are conveniently located right outside spawn, you have the benefit of being able to likely charge 2c/stack, versus if you are out in the woods, you might have to charge 0.5c/stack because of the risk of the buyer getting killed by mobs or PVP.

3. Averages can be set for a modal average rather than a straight average. For instance, if there are 4 merchants, selling the same item at the following prices:

1c/stack
3c/stack
3c/stack
50c/stack

The modal average is 3c, not 14c/stack. Taking a modal average is probably the best way to do it, for precisely the reason you stated.

 

[itzmak]

What about a giant wall full of going prices for items that changes daily? It would have to be a new plugin but it would be awesome

 

[Kainzo]

You guys are welcome to look around for updated eco plugins
dev.bukkit.org <-- you can search there.

 

[northeaster345]

Frankly I'd just be happy to have a report on what I've sold and bought with my chestshops everytime I log in. Because checking your stock doesn't give you the full picture if you're both buying and selling

But yeah, I'll look around

 

[Fjordsen]

Frankly I'd just be happy to have a report on what I've sold and bought with my chestshops everytime I log in. Because checking your stock doesn't give you the full picture if you're both buying and selling

But yeah, I'll look around

This.

 

[northeaster345]

The maker(s?) of chestshop have put it on their to-do list, but it's not implemented yet
http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/c...nsactions-that-occurred-since-previous-login/