[Dinogirl2468]

Ok so I have heard a few stories about shop owners getting their shops bought out. Although it isn't a banable violation it does cause some issues. Such as:

1. One person controls the market by making people buy at their shop since others shops have nothing
   
2. The person can raise the price making an item that doesn't cost that much cost more since they control the market
   
3. It makes the original shop owner do more work to keep their shop fill, especially on hard to find resources such as quartz
   

True, people can just put a sign up and say that there is a limit on how much you can buy but if the owner of the shop isn't  one or afk they wont be able to check who bought what and in what quantity.

I heard a brilliant solution to this problem. A plug in that tracts transactions. a shop owner would be able to see who bought what and what quantity. True a lot of transaction go through in a day so adding the ability to delete all the translation per week will help keep memory low 

Sure some shop owner might not mind being bought out since no matter what they are getting the money but for thoes who care this could be very useful.

[victorycry]

I would very much appreciate this plugin. However staff would have to check that it works with the current shop plugin, and also doesn't mess anything else up.

[Geckorian]

I would like to add that anyone who owns a shop may post a sign banning anyone else from using that shop. If the player banned from the shop continues to use the shop, the staff can take action.

On a related note to the original post: you can place a door or gate at the warp point, requiring a person to open it to enter. Opening a door or gate is logged by the system and can be checked by staff to at least see who is visiting and when.

[_JELLy__]

Dino, Think of it this way. Lets say you sell an item at $10, and someone bought you out of it and resells it at $12, you have earned $1`0 immediately and they will only get $2 out of it. That is an enormous advantage. I used to sell the cheapest (hands down) enchanted books on the old server and people buy me out ALL the time, but I get a lot more out of it than the people who resell them. I rose from baltop 50 to around baltop 11 in 2 months. 

And the point about doing more work makes no sense. You are doing the same amount of work to earn $10 always, it is just that you earn that money faster, just think of it as more demand. As long as people are buying things from you, as a shop owner, why would you care who bought it? You should be more concerned if your stuff is not selling fast enough. Also, whenever you restock, people will flock to your shop, and the people who bought you out will be out competed by your prices unless they want to keep buying you out for diminishing returns.

Furthermore, stuffs are not really getting more expensive. There will always be people competing for customers and making their prices cheaper. I still remembered a few players trying to standardize the diamond price without success in the old server when the diamond price is not fixed. They failed to raise the diamond price to where they want because of competition. As the server runs longer and the new players start to become old players, they'll start to gather the same resources and the price will be stable. 

In all cases you are the one with the advantage by selling low and making people buy you out. You don't have to make a sell-all shop, stick to a little niche, sell few varieties but cheap, and you will live well in it.

[Geckorian]

Jelly makes good points, although I would have to disagree with his comments about the extra work. I know from experience that if you keep getting bought out every time you log in, then all you get to do on the server is farm to fill the boxes. I personally don't play MC to be the indentured servant of another shop owner. It can become tedious spending every moment you are online just restocking because another shop owner has emptied you store and all the while you are getting mail from other players about how you are out of stock. Meanwhile the shop owner that emptied your stores has not had to do any work to fill his shop and can spend his days building, barking, and playing the game. I've seen more than a few shop owners on this server quit being shop owners because of such BS.

By that scenario the player buying everyone out comes out way ahead because not only does he have more time to actually play but he drives his competition out of business thus making more money in the long run. He also ends up getting to control the market and eventually setting prices for the entire server. We saw the same thing happen on the old server with places like 7/11.

[_JELLy__]

No, Geck. The only thing that kept 7/11 going is the variety. The prices were ridiculous and you know it. And the prices were ridiculous not because he controls the economy of those items, but because he HAS to earn a marginal profit. There were PLENTY of smaller shops selling less varieties of items for less money, and the only down side to small shops is that it is less convenient. 7/11 was convenient because it has everything. Yes, 7/11 was always in stock but he playing on the side generates him no money. As I said above, go into a little niche and you'll earn lots of money while putting in little work because you don't sell everything. That was how assembly line worked, everyone does a little but very efficiently and cheaply. If you wanna beat the larger shops that buy you out then I would suggest having a Combined shop with other players while each player sells different things. This way you guarantee variety and stock and attraction. That is not me saying create more malls because people still have individual shops that players have to travel to and they sell redundant things. Also, I don't see how you HAVE to restock after you get bought out, it's basically torturing yourself.

[Oshakai]

(09-08-2017, 10:08 AM)_JELLy__ Wrote: No, Geck. The only thing that kept 7/11 going is the variety. The prices were ridiculous and you know it. And the prices were ridiculous not because he controls the economy of those items, but because he HAS to earn a marginal profit. There were PLENTY of smaller shops selling less varieties of items for less money, and the only down side to small shops is that it is less convenient. 7/11 was convenient because it has everything. Yes, 7/11 was always in stock but he playing on the side generates him no money. As I said above, go into a little niche and you'll earn lots of money while putting in little work because you don't sell everything. That was how assembly line worked, everyone does a little but very efficiently and cheaply. If you wanna beat the larger shops that buy you out then I would suggest having a Combined shop with other players while each player sells different things. This way you guarantee variety and stock and attraction. That is not me saying create more malls because people still have individual shops that players have to travel to and they sell redundant things. Also, I don't see how you HAVE to restock after you get bought out, it's basically torturing yourself.

we've tried doing the multiperson shop idea before when puff had his shop, it didn't work out.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[Geckorian]

(09-08-2017, 10:08 AM)_JELLy__ Wrote: No, Geck. The only thing that kept 7/11 going is the variety. The prices were ridiculous and you know it. And the prices were ridiculous not because he controls the economy of those items, but because he HAS to earn a marginal profit. There were PLENTY of smaller shops selling less varieties of items for less money, and the only down side to small shops is that it is less convenient. 7/11 was convenient because it has everything. Yes, 7/11 was always in stock but he playing on the side generates him no money. As I said above, go into a little niche and you'll earn lots of money while putting in little work because you don't sell everything. That was how assembly line worked, everyone does a little but very efficiently and cheaply. If you wanna beat the larger shops that buy you out then I would suggest having a Combined shop with other players while each player sells different things. This way you guarantee variety and stock and attraction. That is not me saying create more malls because people still have individual shops that players have to travel to and they sell redundant things. Also, I don't see how you HAVE to restock after you get bought out, it's basically torturing yourself.

What kept 7/11 going wasn't just variety it was the fact that he made sure any other shop under selling him was emptied of product forcing players to pay his prices and use his shop. And as for not having to restock, if you leave your shelves empty what is the point of having a shop in the first place?  I personally am not out to compete with the big shops. Drshop, Emo, Buysell and other large shops have a massive selection where as I sell only select items. However I don't have a shop just to supply their shops with materials nor do I intend to spend the majority of my time on the server gathering supplies just for them to move them from my shop to theirs. I'm sure more than a few of the smaller shop owners feel the same way.  Bottom line is If you suspect another shop owner is buying you out to sell in their shop, Ban them from your shop. If they continue to visit the your shop, ask staff to intervene as it will now constitute trespassing wich is banable.

[_JELLy__]

Are you sure about 7/11 emptying people out? He sold ebooks, and I sold ebooks at HALF the price and he never emptied me and I continue to sell 10+ books a day, there is the first example of he not buying out and controlling the ebook economy. Keep in mind that my book shop was Very popular and everyone knows about it, including Meat, the owner of 7/11. There are numerous other examples. He sold lots of stuff that you can find in most malls if not for the amount of time you need to find stuff in malls checking shop by shop. His shop was EXPENSIVE, not the Standard. His prices were EXPENSIVE. there is the proof that he does not control the economy. If he does then his price would be the standard seen everywhere which was Not the case. 

Now lets take a better example, Beacons:
Let us suppose there are 10 beacons sold per day around the server. If a big shop buys you out, people will go to the big shop, sure. But think, the consumers basically have indirectly bought the beacons from the original suppliers! The big shop has to buy it from you to have the consumers buy it from them. All they earned is a thin profit margin. The traffic stays the same, the amount of beacons sold are the same, and the beacons have to come from somewhere, and it is the original suppliers that is getting bought indirectly through the bigger shops. I don't see a problem here. It is basically like saying to the big shop "Here, take my beacons and sell them for me, you can make a thin profit".

Though I hold that the small shop owners always benefit from this dynamic, the newer players might suffer. But I do believe the price will not increase because there's always enough competition to keep them in check.

[Oshakai]

(09-09-2017, 02:18 AM)_JELLy__ Wrote: Are you sure about 7/11 emptying people out? He sold ebooks, and I sold ebooks at HALF the price and he never emptied me and I continue to sell 10+ books a day, there is the first example of he not buying out and controlling the ebook economy. Keep in mind that my book shop was Very popular and everyone knows about it, including Meat, the owner of 7/11. There are numerous other examples. He sold lots of stuff that you can find in most malls if not for the amount of time you need to find stuff in malls checking shop by shop. His shop was EXPENSIVE, not the Standard. His prices were EXPENSIVE. there is the proof that he does not control the economy. If he does then his price would be the standard seen everywhere which was Not the case. 

Now lets take a better example, Beacons:
Let us suppose there are 10 beacons sold per day around the server. If a big shop buys you out, people will go to the big shop, sure. But think, the consumers basically have indirectly bought the beacons from the original suppliers! The big shop has to buy it from you to have the consumers buy it from them. All they earned is a thin profit margin. The traffic stays the same, the amount of beacons sold are the same, and the beacons have to come from somewhere, and it is the original suppliers that is getting bought indirectly through the bigger shops. I don't see a problem here. It is basically like saying to the big shop "Here, take my beacons and sell them for me, you can make a thin profit".

Though I hold that the small shop owners always benefit from this dynamic, the newer players might suffer. But I do believe the price will not increase because there's always enough competition to keep them in check.

I'm a 100% sure MeatHead did that. I sold diamonds for dirt cheap and Meathead would buy me out and resell them while I was online. So I banned him from my shop. He admitted it to me and everything.