I'm not complaining, but the little notice didn't say why they were doing it, and I'm curious.

I'm complaining, my prices are carefully set.

Usually they do this when deflation has prevented proper trade. But there's a lot of sP sloshing around right now as the average user's sP has gon from 10MsP to 12MsP in only about six months, so them doing this right now is VERY FUCKING COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.

The other reason that SubetaTeam does this is if whiny users decide that certain items MUST MUST MUST be valuable, even though nobody but nobody wants them. Elixirs are that way.

The items I'm seeing bought right now though? They're wierd and don't follow either reason SubetaTeam usually uses for interfering in the free market. My guess: they're testing out a new system.

Ah! That makes a lot of sense. I didn't realize they were doing it not at the set prices.

oh no, they do buy at the price that you set. They buy up a certain amount of your items if you have a lot (as I usually do) and they have a maximum price that they will pay.

But here's the thing. Every buyer wants to pay as little as possible, and every seller wants to sell as high as possible. The prices I've set? They're approximately where I think the market is or will go within the period of time I allow to sell that item. If SubetaTeam is messing with the market, then their maximum price may be much higher than my price because their price is entirely artificial they pulled it out of their ass. Over the NORMAL course of market fluctuations, I'd be able to see the price change over days in my shop and increase my price accordingly. They are, de facto, stealing.

Furthermore, once they've wiped all the affordable whatevers from the market? Restockers will charge MORE than the remaining lowest (but now much higher) price, because they can. If the item is not-restockable, the price will skyrocket.

My biggest complaint about this is that I'm working towards an achievement and the sp from the 12 purchases they made from my shop went towards my personal points and not my shop total! Errrr!

I wonder why it doesn't go into the tills. Huh. Well, thank you for the insight!

So are they doing it to try to adjust the market? I was confused too because I had one Snowflaik Trading Card in my shop and they bought that... I don't think it was devalued or anything (I had it priced at around 63K), so I'm not sure why they bought it, lol. I haven't seen a ton of those cards around or anything.

I too have had Trading Cards purchased from me, and mostly if I just have one. This is unusual for SubetaTeam.

Usually yes, they're trying to warp the market. Today, I think they're just doing it to test out a system. because by now there'd be multiple purchases in my shop and there've only been three so far. The reason I'm sure there'd be lots of purchases in my shop is because my shop is mostrously humongously huge and in past purchase-events I'd get a whole sidebar full of purchase announcements.

In the past, when they've purchased in earnest, they've lagged the site horribly. I'm not encountering any delays.

Okay, thanks for the info! Wonder what they're testing!

I dunno, but I'm raising the prices on my Trading Cards.

Well then. I had no idea this was happening and just brushed off the alert xD Glad I came and read up on it. Thanks guys!

they only bought r99s under 80 k nothing else.

thank you! I don't have a lot of r99s like that, so that kinda explains how few purchases I saw in my shop.

I also saw a post by ">http://subeta.net/forums.php/read/818131/What-did-Subeta-Team-buy-from-your-shop/1/

He is intending to change the code on how it is done, so this was also partly experimental. It does also appear that he is intending to interfere more frequently into the markets on certain items.

I don't even know what they purchased from me, lol, the alert I got didn't mention it xD

and I thought they bought it for the free shop item event later.

Thanks for linking to that comment. That... irks me. Items "we feel like have dropped below their value." Isn't an item worth what people will pay for it? I can see why it's a problem for sellers like you who work hard at pricing and having big shops. It doesn't affect me personally much with my tiny shop, but it's still bothersome.

They only bought a retired RoQ (Subq) item I had, I don't have a huge shop but they always end up getting more than one thing from me so I supposed it wasn't such a major intervention. (Judging from that, it absolutely wasn't only r99, though.)

I don't really mind the whole 'retain your items' value' idea, depends on the item I guess. I mean, they got retired Subq from me for like 200k and I understand if they want these items to be more valuable. Several people attempt their chances with GoFPs for retired Subq, after all. Likewise about items that sell / used to be sold in the CS, but deflated beyond a comfortable point for staff; those items did cost cash for many users.

For restockables I guess I'd only see a point if the items in question became rarer (as in, started stocking less often, for example) and they want to skip the (potentially long) time it'd take for the item to gain value in user shops, otherwise idk seems like they'd just deflate back again. But I digress.

Bottom line is that they typically purchase from user shops to increase an item's worth, but the lack of pattern / odd pattern this time suggested there might have been another reason -- and then Keith confirmed it. But I guess this shows we can expect more buybacks in the near future, when Keith has perfected that code.

another reason SubetaTeam might do this, has been reminded to me by the two posts above. Capitalism is unfair, and Subeta has an interest in favoring all players or perhaps even more so to new players, and not just rich-old-bastard players like me. If you're new, but you've stumbled across (or carefully aquired) something rare but it does you no good if it retains no or little sP value. It's hard to get a leg up against those who can afford autopricing and hard to struggle against the already-existing markets.