General

Dualblade

The psychology behind offering first

Someone has probably asked you to "offer" before in trade. The question seems innocuous enough, and you offer a price. He haggles, eventually reaching a price lower than what you hoped for. Two days later, somebody has a cool piece of gear you want to buy. This time, you ask him to offer first. He refuses. You decide to offer first, and eventually reach a price, again not what you had hoped for. Why does it seem that offering first has disadvantages? It's the same as offering second, right?

Wrong. Let's stipulate that you're selling an item. Someone trades you. You offer. By offering first, you are providing your "top" price. If you offer something too high, then traders will simply cancel. As a result, as the first offerer, you have to compromise between not overpricing and getting an eventual fair price. On the other hand, the prospective buyer knows what price range you are looking for. If you overprice, the trader cancels. If you give a fair price, the trader haggles and shaves 20% off the price. As a result, you are forced to sell at lower than expected.

Offering second also gives traders another advantage. Merchants who were planning to lowball you can now do so without revealing themselves. They simply wait for you to say what price they'd be willing to sell for, then cancel if it's too high.

Conclusion: Dual blades are assholes and deserve to go to hell.

April 14, 2013

10 Comments • Newest first

Lohd

Did I miss something...? What does this have to do with Dual Blades? o.o

Reply April 14, 2013
EpikSnow

You can solve this by making up a C/O. The other person can't offer lower or he/she simply just wont buy it.

Reply April 14, 2013
PureWhiteSky

I actually learned about this in Micro econ theory.
Its called the edgeworth box diagram for exchange.

Reply April 14, 2013
MarshMallows

You're actually a girl? Or am I missing something

Reply April 14, 2013
xiangliang2

This was the guy who made the DB guide.

I'm still loling. +1

Reply April 14, 2013
x1mmortality

Or, you could simply just sell your items in a shop, never having to offer first

Reply April 14, 2013
powerguy121

Successful merchants know this is how to make a profit.
An example of when offering second works so well.
If someone is somewhat new to the game and you tell them to name a price, let's say it's a tyrant gear. I'm being completely unrealistic here, but if let's say the new player that doesn't know the price of Tyrants had to name a price first.. he could simply say 10M. Now, if the merchant wants to haggle down further from that.. he can.. he can probably pull 8M.

Reply April 14, 2013
Constellar

this is common sense

Reply April 14, 2013
yoguy911

i agree on your conclusion

Reply April 14, 2013