Prices on the Broker totally out of control!

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by Ambassador of Krypton, Jan 8, 2022.

  1. Reinheld Devil's Advocate

    Oh there is 100% chance there is market manipulation, but if you know your prices, take advantage of it. If someone buys up every 'Trick lapel flower' on the broker so they can put theirs in and 500mil (and it's MABYE worth 200 most days), drop it in at 250. If yours sells, great you made 250. if you get undercut, that 500mil one is NEVER selling...so screw that manipulator guy, RIP his 25mil listing fee. Or hey...if he wants to protect the manipulation, he might by your undercut....bonus!

    Not even sure how many times I've gone in to list something I know is not that rare, see something listed for 10x the real value and I just say 'hah...look at this a-hole' and list it for at or maybe slightly above what i'd list it for anyway. Honestly, I'd almost rather do that than list the 'only' one there, regardless if something sells or not.
    • Like x 5
  2. Reinheld Devil's Advocate

    The only things you should probably sell to the vendor is RnD plans, with the exception of either the top level Nitro/Flex plans OR plans related to feats (like olympian or special forces). everything else...base items, gear that is tradable (like robin's belt or faust's hood), go into the broker. Some sell for 50k, some for 500k....a few for 5mil. It adds up.

    You can sell non tradable gear, but as you say, if you need the salvage for your augments, go there first.

    The 'best' stuff to sell that you can get every day is the collections or some OP catalysts from the omni boxes. If you are a member with 16 toons, you can at least (assuming you get them to level 30), run the 3 solos every week to collect that box. While the influx of these items has lowered the prices some, many are worth millions still...some a LOT of millions, and if you run the right solos, you can be done in 5-10 min with each toon(be selective....it's a solo). Otherwise, seasonal items (especially feat related or attractive style items) are the long game investments as several have mentioned.

    Everybody gets worried about the TC 400mil+ ones...yeah, those are long goals, but 10 40 mils gets you one...or 100 4 mils....and those are not that hard to get if you know where to look.

    Picked up 2 comic shaded with my gains from the last month. I'll eat one and turn the other to 5 billion at some point....in a year or so.
    • Like x 2
  3. Star King Active Player

    The prices are insane to be sure. But people will always excessively overcharge things anyway. The way I sell things is better. For example, I'll stock up on duplicate collection pieces and sell them for 1000 each on the broker. I'll sell the items first because others are selling them for 15000 or more. I'd much rather pay a 1000 because it's easy to make that much in less then a day. But people selling things for millions and millions of credits is rediculous. I'd be lucky to make a million credits a in year and I won't throw it away on some overcharged item.
  4. Reinheld Devil's Advocate

    This does work, but its a big grind basically policing the broker all day. Hey, I've sold stuff for <1000 before too, normally though its whatever dregs are left in my inventory when I'm listing pricier things. This method also eats a lot of inventory space or means a lot of trips back and forth to the bank or mailbox.

    Personally, I'd end up growing tired of doing it before I sold 1000 of those $1000 things to get to a mil. That same time could be spent farming Metro or Gotham and picking up a single collection (like Green Kryptonte or Superboy plaque rubbing) that will make you more money in one transaction with a lot less inventory and trips to the broker/mail.

    But if it works for you, that's all that matters. Just not sure it will work for the OP if they are looking to get into the broker game.
    • Like x 2
  5. Reinheld Devil's Advocate

    I'll do the massive under cut on items I KNOW are being manipulated and are semi-easy to get (although I'd do maybe $50m if the overpriced one was $200m). Yes...maybe I lose out on $150m....but maybe I also just saved a $10m listing fee if it gets undercut by someone else and doesn't sell. I don't do the broker shuffle...I sell things I get as drops or buy seasonally mainly. I like 'fire and forget' broker work...and watching for undercuts takes more visits than I want to do.

    BTW...thanks for buying my undercuts. I have no issue with you turning around and reselling at 3x the price...I won't be buying it so it doesn't concern me. Wal-mart didn't get rich by worrying about what Macys prices stuff at...they priced stuff to sell and sell a LOT of it.
    • Like x 2
  6. Hraesvelg Always Right


    I don't really do a whole lot of broker hustle either since I hit a certain on-hand cash threshold, but I was mainly pointing out the fallacy of thinking there is a "true" value of something. There is a historical floor/ceiling of where an item is. Sometimes people do corner a market by buying out the cheaper items and keeping the price at a certain threshold...but if the item is selling at the increased rate, which is the "true" value? You're right that at a certain point, undercutting gets you "enough" to float on by, so the loss isn't that big of a deal. You don't have to worry about the risk of the broker fee. Pure risk v. reward, but if someone is trying to get into the good tax brackets...they could be potentially leaving a lot on the table. You can hustle even more and just sell an item in a trade. Reap the reward and bypass the broker fee entirely. Mostly pointing this out to the people that say it's impossible to make loads of cash in the game. Those weekly Omni collections have made me a mint by themselves since they started up, no major starting capital required.

    I'll also preemptively point out, in case someone gets bent out of shape, that we're talking about how the markets in the game work, where the ethical considerations of locking people out of cosmetic digital items are different than the ethical considerations of locking people out of housing, medicine, and food...
    • Like x 2
  7. zZzTorrOzZz Committed Player

    Never had over a billion in 11 years on this game. Have most everything availiable, all collections, and most feats.
    Only reason I have built to a billion is so I can go right back broke on these stupid TC collection pieces for the feat
    attached because I have never in 11 years and since TC's released gotten that piece that ends up 999 million game
    cash on the broker. Not once! Have always finished those collections through insanely priced pieces on broker.

    It's never the game, it's the people, just the way it is.
    Currently I have zero beyond repairs to spend game cash on.

    Greed is ignorant and pointless in this game.
    They should cap the broker much lower than 999 million. Tone down the greed.
  8. Reinheld Devil's Advocate

    Agreed on all points. As long as I've got a few B on hand for any surprise needs that might pop up, I'm good to go. Everything else is for bragging rights and I'm so far removed from that at this point I stopped caring.
    • Like x 1
  9. Illumin411 Loyal Player

    The value being what someone is willing to pay is true in real life but not in DCUO. In real life, most wealthy people won’t knowingly overpay for things, not even a $10 sandwich. That goes doubly so if they suspect a price has been increased to specifically take advantage of their wealth. In DCUO, people with billions in play money knowingly grossly overpay for things in a regular basis and don’t bat an eye. That is not by any means a normal economic phenomenon. It is however a major (but certainly not the only) reason why the US PC/PS4 DCUO economy sees an inflation rate astronomically higher than even the most volatile of micro-economies.
  10. Illumin411 Loyal Player

    I do the same. The problem is too many people who look that price up assume the $500M is legit and list theirs for $495M. The next person assumes the same and lists at $485M, etc etc. Sure, sometimes those of us who pay enough attention and/or have memories that function for longer than a couple weeks get a drop and we list it for what is in the typical price range (even if on the high side) thus resetting the insanity. But lots of times that never happens.
    • Like x 1
  11. Reinheld Devil's Advocate

    This is true...while super rich DO like spending a lot of money (like sending themselves to space and such)...they generally know when they are getting screwed and when they are getting their money's worth. While you might get away with it a few times because they just don't want to bother...I doubt Bezos or Elon Musk would be buying too many of those $100 PB&Js the 'boutique' store might sell them.

    Bezos would hire a 'Sandwich guy' for $12 an hour ...work him like a dog and come out ahead selling the surplus.

    Elon would make a PB&J sandwich building robot....of course.
    • Like x 2
  12. Trykz Dedicated Player

    +1
  13. Imaginos Dedicated Player

    The only way to control prices is by tweaking drop rates. DCUO doesn't have an economist on staff that I know of and don't seem all that concerned with their all over the place drop rates. If they really wanted to fix it they'd up the drop rate on really rare stuff and slightly lower it on really common stuff and they'd stop putting things behind specific areas as the only way to get them, spreading them out a Little more, not a lot but a few other avenues to those drops. That would cause everything to level out a bit more across the board.

    They won't do this but that's what is needed. The devs loves them some stupid rare drop rates and people throwing real world cash at these things, for those that have a cash outlet, enables the devs to keep that attitude.
    • Like x 1
  14. L T Devoted Player

    I concur, but probably not in the way you mean. The true value of the above collection is probably way closer to 200m than it is to 20.
  15. L T Devoted Player

    The rich won't pay $10 for a sandwich?

    Welcome to NJ, where a sandwich in a diner starts at $12.95
    • Like x 2
  16. Monkeyboy Committed Player

    Increasing drop rates only hurts the grind for that rare drop, which cuts $$$ in some cases. The Devs gave the community a fair system to be regulated by the community. The money glitch seriously threw it off balance but I see many groups for pet/rare drop runs to sell. So for the most part it's a system where you get what you put in. The common theme seems to be make it easier to complete so I can stop playing or complain the Devs need to do more. You can make 100+ million a week selling Exobytes from gear and role specific colas. Running content that drops certain reagents for craftables sell for 500k+. The $$$ is there, you just have to try first.
    • Like x 1
  17. Quantum Edge Steadfast Player

    The economy in MMOs is pure, unfettered capitalism. It's actually interesting to watch some items move up and down. For example, last week on the day the winter event ended, you could quite literally watch the price winter motes rise on an hourly basis after the event ended. In a week, I'll probably be able to watch them drop, as people get their feat, and the speculators start panic selling.

    For good or ill, it's interesting to watch.
    • Like x 4
  18. Imaginos Dedicated Player

    No it doesn't. It makes those items far more available to everyone. What it hurts is people who manipulate the market and don't want others to get access to very rare and rare items though ingame drops. The real issue is finding a good balance between too common and too rare.

    The devs gave an unbalanced drop system that they're still tweaking to this day as we can see with various items that show up as drops during events and how some are far too common and others nowhere near common enough. The devs always gather info from those things and if you think they aren't well....
  19. Burning_Baron Loyal Player


    The seller decides the price and the buyer decides what is worth it.
    • Like x 1
  20. Monkeyboy Committed Player

    Making an item far more available is the EXACT opposite of making it rare. That means less grinding, in an MMO no less. The only purpose this serves is making it easier to get what you want. People who get the rare drops is like winning the lottery. So now the lottery is unfair?