Dizzle Trizzle: The Third One of These

Cranking these out late at night, I, unfortunately, overlooked some of the more minor nuances of the Cash Auction House.

Something I neglected to mention is that there are ways to combat undercutting. For example, if one were to invest a large sum of money, a person (or persons) could buy up all available copies of a single item and re-list them at a much higher price. These sort of things happen, but they tend to be rather unstable (since new items will inevitably be found and put up on the auction house), and the sheer force of the flat rate tax system that is said to be in place will inevitably drive the prices down, it's only a matter of time.

Another important note is to realize that, even in the case of this sort of monopolizing move, Blizzard still profits from the flat tax for every transaction. In the case of a re-listing, Blizzard earns twice what they would have for a flat sale.

The last thing I believe I missed is what makes such low prices possible. There is no cost to obtain items. People are paying to play the game already for various reasons, and any items they find are simply a product of them doing what they would have done normally. Because the items are fake and produced for free, the floor for making a profit is literally whatever the flat tax is plus one cent. My personal guess for the tax is somewhere around twenty cents (and keep in mind, a larger flat tax, the harder it is for a mass re-listing to take place), considering the steps Blizzard has to take in processing each transaction.