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For my MMO friends who want to understand short-selling:
me: can I have a bunch of copper bars if I promise to give them back
you: sure
me: *sells bars on AH for 50g*
(waits a week)
me: *buys bars on AH for 10g*
me: here's your bars back
you: thx
me: has 40g
me: can I have a bunch of copper bars if I promise to give them back
you: sure
me: *sells bars on AH for 50g*
(waits a week)
me: *buys bars on AH for 10g*
me: here's your bars back
you: thx
me: has 40g
what's happening with gamestop:
broker 1: can we have a copper bars if we promise to give them back
broker 2: sure
broker 1: *sells bars on AH for 50g*
(waits a week)
auction house: copper bars are now 10,000g, sorry
broker 1: UHHHHHH
broker 2: where's my copper bars
broker 1: can we have a copper bars if we promise to give them back
broker 2: sure
broker 1: *sells bars on AH for 50g*
(waits a week)
auction house: copper bars are now 10,000g, sorry
broker 1: UHHHHHH
broker 2: where's my copper bars
broker 1 now has to buy a ton of copper bars or he's gonna get kicked from his guild, but every time he tries to buy more copper bars to cover his ass, it drives the price up even more and puts him more in the hole
Everyone else on the server has realized just how screwed broker 1 is and is buying up the rest of the copper bars available, driving up the price *EVEN MORE*.
it's also pretty public knowledge *WHEN* broker 1 is going to have to cough up the copper bars to his guildmates, meaning there's an almost infinite amount of leverage at play.
anyways the lesson from this is that if you've ever found yourself pretty good at working the auction house, have you ever considered helping to dismantle late stage capitalism
(Be sure to watch the news over the next few days as broker 1 now turns around and tries to get the game dev to hotfix the auction house to prevent losing everything but screwing everyone else in the process)
