shapu wrote:
It's more likely that someone out there decided that because there's a limited number of tep key rings (only a few million were given out, and some users who had them have quit/been frozen) they'd just buy a bunch until the price rose enough for them to hoard them and sell them piecemeal.
It's an artificial price inflation, and against the rules. Now, I don't know that that's what happened - it could also be that someone out there just really, really likes tep keyrings.
From what I remember, you can decide to hoard something
on your own, hoping the price will rise. However, if you buy up everything
in collaboration with others, then it's against the rules. It's like price-fixing in the real-world -- if an entire industry decides to get together and jack up prices, it's illegal. But if one company hoards their supply, hoping prices will rise, then sells at a later date, that's perfectly legal (but can be risky). If a number of individuals each decide to hoard, prices
could rise substantially (sort of like the commodities market, I guess). Anyway, I've bought a few rare items from recent plots (books from CG, for example) and thrown them in my SDB. A few years from now, as supply dwindles, I'll take them out and sell -- I'm hoping to make at least 1000% profit.