S-rank price fixing.

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In my opinion s-ranks are very end game, and at end game you are going to have items to trade for PD's or just PD's that you find. Its really not hard at all to get 20 pds. If you are going to complain about paying 20 pds for a s-rank then just do cmode.

(not directed towards Ade, directed to people who disagree with price increase)
 
Or just don't buy them and watch the price drop. Like a reverse cartel.

You see, the reason that cartels like OPEC were so effective (until recently) is because they peddled an item that was an absolute necessity for day-to-day life.

As far as PSO "necessities" go, S-ranks are far from this. You can achieve great success or clear any area without them. They are being over-valued. I'll go without any new ones before I allow myself to get ripped off.

If others want to adopt this mentality, that's great. The prices will become more competitive and return to normal.

Even at 12 PDs per S-rank, you Cmode guys aren't going to make more PDs than that (on average) with 3 to 4 hours of regular play. You can tout your skills as much as you want; they aren't infinitely valuable.
 
Me personally, I feel there is no set price on items on PSO. It's all set with the seller, and buyers tend buy what a user is selling an item at, even if price is outrageous/cheap/or accurate. Just nature of buying and selling (Ebay for an example.) 20 Photon Drops for an S-Rank, may sound expensive to some, to others maybe not. If you feel its unreasonable then do not buy from that seller and move on. If you need an S-Rank and refuse to pay said price from seller, consider learning challenge mode then. Familiar yourself with the stages and play.
 
Ade said:
As far as PSO "necessities" go, S-ranks are far from this. You can achieve great success or clear any area without them. They are being over-valued. I'll go without any new ones before I allow myself to get ripped off.
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Then don't buy them and stop complaining about the prices. S-Ranks shouldn't be worth less just because people like you don't play Cmode and want cheap s-ranks. I consider them a necessity.

GuardianGirth said:
Deal with it or go back to kindergarten and share all your crayons with everyone else instead.
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HereticKitsune said:
20 PDs is fair IMO. You're paying for dedicated, skillful play that requires four people to coordinate a few hours of their time, where one of those players sacrifices their reward to trade you an S-Rank with a name of your choice. A premade S-rank should cost a little less than one where you pick the name.

If you want a special put on it, you pay for that outright. If it's a pre-owned S-rank with a special on it, maybe a small discount on that aspect as well.

The economy is still young and PDs are quite scarce, yes... But S-ranks are incredibly good weapons.
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These pretty much nail it.
 
Again: Saying that something is too expensive and explaining why is not complaining. If that is the case, then any assertion that runs contrary to the status quo could be dismissed as "complaining."

However, saying something is too expensive and not providing reasons as to why IS complaining.

There's a difference that you're not seeing.
 
I'm just raising awareness. I'm basically saying, "Hey guys, these salespeople have agreed not to compete with one another on prices to screw YOU, the consumer."

The now-informed public can combat this by NOT buying S-rank from them or by playing Cmode themselves. Either way it's a win for economic honesty.
 
Just because you think something is expensive does not necessarily mean people agree with you, no matter how much you "explain" your point of view.

There are people who agree with you, there are people who aren't.

The reason cartels are illegal in real life is because there's nothing the common folk can do about it, as it takes education and dedication to properly provide goods or services, but PSO is a game where you're essentially always trading money for time (and/or vice versa). You buy something so you don't have to get it yourself, to save yourself time, and if you disagree with a price, you're essentially saying that the time-sink to get it yourself is much more worth it than buying the item.

A "cartel" in a video game does not matter, because you can take action to deal with it yourself that isn't just telling other people to take action. When it comes to C-Mode specifically, it can actually be done relatively easy with just 2 players if you try, it's not like you need to struggle to find 3 other friends.

And once again, this isn't some conspiracy to keep prices up, it's because we felt like S-Ranks were worth more than 10PDs of our time. If other people feel they should be cheaper, they can just never buy from us, or C-Mode themselves and sell for cheaper.

You also have to remember that to get S-Ranks you need friends, and friends aren't going to compete with each other over prices if they're running together, you know?
 
@Vex: The vocal minority have agreed that it's not too expensive. Remember this from earlier?

"Furthermore, I don't ever expect a thread like this to be won "within the thread." No Cmoders are going to read this and say, "Yes, Ade. You are right. We will change." Also, no buyers are going to read this and say, "Yes, Ade. You are right. We will stop paying that price."

The win happens later when people remember what was said here and act upon it."

We'll see what happens down the road.
 
"You also have to remember that to get S-Ranks you need friends, and friends aren't going to compete with each other over prices if they're running together, you know?"

I guess if your friendship is based on economics, then yes. I would think that you could compete with each other and still be friends.

@Matt: I'm not sure why you're illustrating that cartels are illegal IRL like it's some sort of a counterpoint. I agree that no rules are being broken here. I just want people to know what you're doing so they can decide for themselves. Price-fixing is by nature dishonest because it attempts to manipulate the natural flow or supply / demand, so it's "illegal" in terms of natural economy. But that's it.
 
"If other people feel they should be cheaper, they can just never buy from us."

And that's the goal of this information-sharing thread :D
 
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Don't expect it to have the desired effect, though. Your word is not exactly gospel.

People disagreeing with you doesn't make them the vocal minority, btw. That's a bit insulting, don't you think?
 
What I think is that this thread has way more views than it has posts, so we'll see how this plays out in the actual economy. A lot of people won't speak up here because they don't want to deal with the visceral reactions.
 
Ade said:
I just want people to know what you're doing so they can decide for themselves. Price-fixing is by nature dishonest because it attempts to manipulate the natural flow or supply / demand, so it's "illegal" in terms of natural economy. But that's it.
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People already know they can decide for themselves. Everyone knows they can run through Challenge Mode and make their s-ranks free of charge. People pay for the convenience of not having to learn or play through Cmode. You're not bringing out some new found information to light.

On other servers there were set srank prices and there was no "cartel" behind it. You're trying too hard at this point. V101s go for what? 15 pds? I'm not going to call out the Normal Mode crowd and say "the normal mode cartel has agreed on a set price for such and such". Come on man.


Ade said:
What I think is that this thread has way more views than it has posts, so we'll see how this plays out in the actual economy. A lot of people won't speak up here because they don't want to deal with the visceral reactions.
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I might have helped, had to share this with some people so we can get a laugh at this thread.
 
All you are saying since the beginning of the thread is that C-Moders are dishonest greedy players, therefore the community should stop buying S-Ranks. You are not making any other point. Please, understand that doing C-Mode takes longer than the total clear time because of various things happening in between the stages, plus you can't run everyday a whole episode because it is seriously exhausting. Not to mention that while taking time doing it, we can't grind or hunt for ourselves. You claimed that it takes 3 to 4 hours to get an S-Rank while from my experience it takes at least half a day on PSO (and that's for the fastest episode). Clearing an episode of C-Mode usually spreads on several days due to the differences between players' schedules.
 
Ade said:
I'm just raising awareness. I'm basically saying, "Hey guys, these salespeople have agreed not to compete with one another on prices to screw YOU, the consumer."

The now-informed public can combat this by NOT buying S-rank from them or by playing Cmode themselves. Either way it's a win for economic honesty.
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Challenge Mode players have always played with each other and have never really had a competitive price. The 'going rate' at each given time has been what all the players have sold it as. Why would we hurt our friends business.
 
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