[Discussion] Economic Starvation. Legal or Illegal?

[Daltron]

So today I got the following invite from a user on my friends list.

Looking for a few people who are interested in investing items and rising their values by Starving Market place. Stalk if you'd be interested.

I then went to the room and read more about the plan. On stickies there was the following.

By investing in the right items at the right time you could stand to make alot of credits. My aim is to get a small and elite group together of investors in which we work together to invest in the same item. The tactics that we would be using is basicly starving the item out of marketplace (continuesly buying the item for a reasonable price out of MP for a week or so).

By doing this we would stock up on the item whilst the market place value will slowly rise, for an example if there's a Blue Dragon in mp for 25c and it's average is 26c and there's 5 offers of the same price. Our investors would buy all of those dragons then place one in MP for 35c, if a random places one in MP for less then the investors buy it and we continue on. This will cause the certain item to rise.

General things:

• We invest in a maximum of 3 items at a time (read purple stickys for item info)
• We only let people in who have a significant amount of credits and are willing to contribute.
• Once you buy the item place it in it's designated area.
• You must not sell out until told to

I won't name the person because I don't know if this is against the Habbo Way.

Should this practice be allowed?
In the real world would it be okay to restrict access to a normally accessible resource and does the same moral theory behind it apply within the Habbo Economy?
Is this against the Habbo Way/ TOS or allowable?
What are your general thoughts?

[GrandpaJoe63]

I don't think the ToS or HabboWay mentions anything about this but as far as I know this is not allowed in the real world.

[da363bomb]

You are aloud to do this and I know a few users already doing this and make alot from it (Its the same a trading tbh). It also isn't very hard to buy out a item on habbo because most rares have crashed so tbh it is a good time to stock up.

[Yawn]

its gd but takes a while to do cos every time u buy the furni for the reasonable price it keeps the average low

i know a few items that id do this with

[-:Undertaker:-]

It is done in the real world and it's sensible - we could hypothetically force oil and gas prices down to very very very cheap but profits would fall to such an extent that more exploration would halt and we'd likely end up with a sharp increase and unstable price. OPEC (oil producers) often get together and decide on a price range.

In terms of Habbo, it can work and can't. It depends how well it's done, what item it's done with and whether people know you are buying them up. And most importantly, how quickly you sell them off after they've risen.

There's nothing wrong with it - people can buy what they want to buy.

[Daltron]

Hmm interesting replies everyone, def not against the habbo way then just seemed fishy to me. But am still curious on everyone's views on the topic in general.

[lucaskf390]

It's valid.
Hoardings happen often, examples: rastaman poster, paintings, LTD Van goof easel, aqua slurpee machine.
This guy probably is poor and wants to be smart inviting other people to the 'deal', people who are rich and know about habbo don't need to read stickies for tatics lmao. Depending on the item is hard to do because of casino owners that have a good amount of each rare.

[Mr-Trainor]

Yeah I can't see any reason why it'd be in breach with the Habbo Way or anything - is it not literally just bulking an item and keeping that bulk until the price rises? That's what I always used to do and still do to an extent, just making a collection of an item therefore leading to lower supply of that item and pushing the price up, although it doesn't always work and can take ages. Is it not the same as the fact that people are hoarding supers in their super casinos etc .

However, this does seem a lot more organised, like a cartel in some ways . I wouldn't join in simply because anyone could sell of their bulks at any time - you'd be better off collecting something with a friend - although, that didn't quite work out for me once either..

[Kardan]

Isn't it just a pyramid scheme? Let's say the scheme is ran by a Habbo called Dave, and Adam, Bob and Chris all join into the scheme as investors.

Dave secretly has a stock of blue dragons he bought for 25c, and he tells Adam, Bob and Chris to buy all dragons lower than 35c. Dave puts in his dragons for 30c, and Adam, Bob and Chris give Dave a nice healthy profit.

But Adam, Bob and Chris think they are in on the plan, so they're not bothered - but it turns out, they've all been used.

In reality, I think it will only be possible with items in short demand. I remember I tried to buy out Pink Pillows with Immenseman when there were only 15 or so on the UK hotel.

Anyway, this happens on RuneScape a lot, and it fails miserably. There will be a group of small friends that decide on the item and stock up weeks before hand. They then tell the public what to buy if they want to join in, but the group of friends sell their items way, way early. After a few days, the public get told to dump their items, and because so many get dumped at once, everyone ends up selling them for less then they bought them for (then the group of friends can re-buy them)

[Lewis]

I managed to get the snelly from 50c to 90c for a while. It might still be at that price!