Sit back friends, let me tell you a juicy drama-filled story, a classic Nasomi forums tale...

So I'm a high WW/GSM crafter, naturally I speak with and buy from many of the miners around. I was getting a general vibe of sadness from them as the orichalcum ores were tanking to an all-time low, and as much as all of us are goal-oriented people and we're trying to progress ourselves, I knew a lot of these people personally and I wanted to help out. I pushed the Orichalcum Ore from 40 to 60k pretty much overnight.

Crafters will often let things pile up for days or weeks and the buy from a low point where people will no longer farm the mats up to a more motivating amount in one big wave in an effort to get mats as cheap as possible. That's not what this is. When I bought the ores there were maybe two dozen(very little) on AH and I pushed the price up 50%, this is an absolutely god-awful decision from a profiting standpoint. I did it strictly to help miners, planning to continue buying in the higher range throughout the rest of my GSM leveling.

A particular few people who lead mining groups/shells took it upon themselves to do a few things from here:
a) Do not allow their members to undercut -- This alone is all good, very normal for mining groups for obvious reasons.
b) Artificially inflate the prices further by buying from their own members over the AH price, with the intention of selling at an absolutely absurd price.

I would like to clarify that this is not people just trying to test waters & see if they can make more gil, I understand trying to test markets for better value. I have several sources telling me these are people promoting a full on us-vs-them, hateful mentality.

There's a very small amount of GSM who can use Orichalcum Ore, and I know how we all operate, I'm not worried about this gaining traction, it wouldn't. However to cut out the cold war situation I've just listed my stock (which I still do need...) on the AH at what it used to be.

I'm going to lose at least a few mil to my competition and weeks on my leveling in the process of just trying to help some people out. I really do understand why a lot of the bigger crafters are not very nice, however I'm going to try stay optimistic and kind-hearted because that's what FFXI has always been about to me.

I will continue buying from the nice people who I know just want to make some gil, and people who they vouch for, at higher prices and gladly eat the loss. If you know me, toss me a tell and I'll buy above AH rates.

To any miners caught in the flak, I sincerely apologize, I was trying to help people out and in the end everyone gets burned except the quiet efficient business-oriented crafters who do things by the books. (And to clarify, no hate to those people, but that's just not me.)

EDIT: The people in question have since apologized and have taken steps to repair the situation.

Hmmm...

Takes a lot of mettle to fix ore pricing.

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I think people should be allowed to do whatever they want with the pricing of the goods from their labor. The market will pick a winner in due time.

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What? Free market works? Blasphemy.

I can't tell if you're trying to make it political, but it works less effectively in America because we don't actually have a free market.

It does, however, work great for a virtual world with virtual currency.

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You're right, and it's not that people shouldn't be able to do these things, they should--It's just the inherently negative motivations that make me a little depressed.

I've told you before. Just make sure I'm happy and I will never let you down, unlike those greedy dirty miners (except you Kekugo).

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Oh - I didn't mean I don't understand your point... I've tried some too.

I'm just saying, letting it bother you or expecting a change to stick that the market doesn't support.. in the long run, won't work usually.

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