Trading Post buy-order low price glitches ?

[keenedge.9675]

Twice now, I've spotted buy-order items coming in that are far below current buy-order prices.

Look at my recent TP buy history for clues. Today, a few minutes ago with mithril 9c instead of 78c and a few days ago with Ectoplasm at 3s instead of 15s (ish).

Low quantities have been involved, but it probably points to a lurking issue. I have 2 screenshots if you want them. I don't come to the forum often, so let me know with in-game mail if you need those.

[Blocki.4931]

My best guess is that these are a result of somebody clicking very fast and the TP not properly loading, so it only shows the absolute minimum value that can be entered. If they accept fast enough it will go through.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

I'm not sure what you are reporting. Are you saying that you think you obtained mithril for 9 copper?If so, that's a known seller-side bug that ANet hasn't had much luck eliminating.

There are ~4 mechanics involved, only one of which is the bug.

• A sale's listing can be accepted for less than buy offer; this is to prevent an exploit to avoid listing fees. (See below)
• By default, the game autofills listing prices to match the highest buy offer at the moment.
• "Highest buy offer" a moving target; what's true at 10:03:35 AM isn't necessarily the same as it was at 10:03:34.
• When the TP is slow (see below), it still tries to autofill, but without the real time data, it assumes the lowest possible price. For Mithril Ore, that's 9 copper

The seller can avoid this entirely by being patient: wait until they can type in a price (they can still accept highest buy offer without typing; they are just waiting for the ability to fill it in properly).

As a buyer, you can enjoy the bug working in your favor.

[keenedge.9675]

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:I'm not sure what you are reporting. Are you saying that you think you obtained mithril for 9 copper?If so, that's a known seller-side bug that ANet hasn't had much luck eliminating.

Thanks for the nod.

I've spent my life developing, debugging complex database and embedded systems, so I enjoy flagging stuff like this for 'interested' parties.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

Some of the history:

For months, the TP has been exceptionally slow for long periods of the day, for more people than usual. Market watchers pin the start of this "global" delay to about a week before unID gear became the default for loot (replacing specific armor, weapons, etc). The TP has always had issues; these recent ones have had greater scope and greater impact.

The reason the TP accepts a below-market offer is historical: back in the day, you could list sell offers at whatever you liked. People realized that you could save on listing fees by using a very low price and the TP would still give you the price of the highest buy offer. For example, if the WTB price was 1000 gold, normally you'd end up with 850g net profit: 100 gold would go to the sales tax, and 50g for the listing fee. If instead you listed it for 1 copper, you'd still sell for 1000 gold, still pay 100g sales tax, and the listing fee would be a mere 0g (1 copper). You'd net 900g.

When ANet patched this 'exploit', they did it in such a way that would hoist the tax-evader on their own petard: the TP would accept their offer exactly. In the example above, the buyer with the 1000g offer would acquire the item for 1 copper. The seller would get 1 copper (less fees, which would be roughly 0, in the circumstances).

---

Why wouldn't ANet just change so that the TP no longer auto-fills at all?I wouldn't do it. People in a rush to sell (which seems to be the largest plurality of TP users) would be greatly inconvenienced. And the actual circumstances of the bug are rare.

And that ignores the underlying cause: the TP is slow to respond. In my opinion, that's a far more important bug to fix. I'd prefer to see all resources devoted to that, rather than any UI issues, even if they sometimes have weird results like the OP described. Sellers who lose big can contact support. And everyone (buyer or seller) could stand to be more patient, as there's a lot of coin lost by being hasty.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@keenedge.9675 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:I'm not sure what you are reporting. Are you saying that you think you obtained mithril for 9 copper?If so, that's a known seller-side bug that ANet hasn't had much luck eliminating.

Thanks for the nod.

I've spent my life developing, debugging complex database and embedded systems, so I enjoy flagging stuff like this for 'interested' parties.

It's definitely worth reporting this. One never knows if ANet is aware or not, since they can't possibly publish the status of all the bugs on their plate (and a lot of people report 'bugs' which turn out to be user error or user preference). It's also hard to tell if something fell off their radar.

As I mentioned, in this case, I am 99% sure that fixing the real-time-reporting issues would prevent anyone from seeing this particular bug. And that's a bugfix that would benefit everyone.