Quote:
Originally Posted by Triiz
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
If you aren't already doing it, consider excluding prices X percentage from the average price to prevent filthy ec resellers from easily manipulating it.
|
This is a really good foundation for an idea. My only thought is "what if the first pool of data is already a gouged price?" For example, the price on a pre-nerf CoS has been solidly 10-13k for years now. Meanwhile, during that time, gougers had been hording this item and, once they had each collected 20-30 of them, they then began spamming auctions and forum posts for 20-25k+. So, if this tool is going to begin collecting data now, it's going to start from that already gouged price and anyone trying to sell it for a reasonable price would be excluded.
Another issue - what happens after next patch when some items have their stats changed and the price should justifiably increase dramatically? For example, Narandi's Lance is going from 38/45 to 44/45 and the price will definitely be jumping up a lot. If the price tracker doesn't allow for large jumps in price, it won't reflect the value of the new and improved version.
In short, while I like your idea to help fight price gouging, I'm not sure this approach is practical for that purpose and actually may negatively impact its ability to showcase true item values after the next, albeit final, patch.
Another idea is to include WTB prices in the tracker. I've always found the most reliable method to figuring out an item value is to go through forum threads and compare WTS/WTB prices. Then find the midpoint and that's your value (sometimes this isn't reliable, as there are always exceptions in this insane economy). It's probably a good idea to list WTS/WTB prices in separate tables though, rather than averaging them because this could lead to people trying to spam low prices to bring the price down (same problem as price gougers).
Anyway, good on you for trying to do something for the community and I hope it continues to grow and becomes a stronger tool. I agree, the best difference a new tool could showcase would be a method to thwart price gougers.