No, the reason they are selling so much is because they can offer a discount that others can't (for reselling packs). That is an unfair market advantage.
Of course they are free to use it, but the way it's done is kinda sketchy in my very honest opinion.
Just because you, as a single individual, aren't able to take advantage of an offer for merchants (businesses) doesn't mean it's unfair.
Your behaviour reminds me of this.
snipI heard you are reworking SmartMonster's mechanics, so this discussion is irrelevant. Thank you, sir.LOLZ
Right. I know that. They are selling a bunch cuz they can.
What's wrong with that? I mean, I'll hear you. I'm open to your perspective. I haven't made my mind up about these guys to be honest. I just can't see anything wrong with it yet. I don't see how it's an unfair advantage if anyone of us could do the same thing. You could just as easily buy in bulk to get a bulk discount, and participate in the affiliate discount.
In fact, people do it every day! If you go look at the peakmonsters market, you'll see that the majority of the sales are coming from people who have purchased in bulk and have affiliate discounts. The difference is, they mark UP their cards, and make a profit that way.
smartmonsters is marking DOWN their cards. And their profit comes from the SLIVER margin from the non-bulk sales they hope to make. In fact, they are doing us a favor by offering us the combined affiliate and bulk discount, without the fuss! Maybe I can't afford to buy in bulk, or get an affiliate discount. These guys are offering it AT COST. They aren't even making a profit on the 20% off. Their profit comes from the other sales. What they are doing is offering something, as bait, to make a margin on their lower sales.
And honestly, it's very clever. And the people who should be worried are the other markets like Peakmonsters, as they'll basically be pulling away activity from them by offering discounts not given on the other markets.
If smartmonsters succeeds on a larger scale, they may drive the price of the cards down for awhile because the other markets will have to compete. And by other markets, what I really mean is individual people, seeing that their cards are not selling as fast, so they'll need to drop their prices to compete. And if that happens, then the affiliate program may have to be reexamined. But that will be up to Peakmonsters how they wanna handle that.
Again, this does not affect mine and your buying power. It affects the market. And as with any market, healthy competition will always drive the prices of a product down. That's how free markets work.
I told you in my earlier reply that I would stop discussing, as I considered it pointless. However, I believe you slightly misunderstand some things about this particular case.
The thing is that they are "merchants", which allows them to get a 10% merchant bonus, whilst us, normal people, get a 5% affiliate bonus. We most definitely can't offer what they are offering without losing money (unless we use the packs we got through playing, of course, which is the only reason you can still buy packs for so cheap on the SM-Discord)
Incorrect, they are definitely not offering it at cost. They are making a profit, even on packs they're selling for $1.60. I can show you, if you wish.
Yeah, Healthy Competition is good. This, however, is not healthy competition. This is just a merchant getting a twice as big affiliate bonus without any proper explanation for how one would become a "merchant", which is literally nothing more than an affiliate with a higher affiliate bonus.
I was unaware of this fact. Please illustrate to me so I can be informed.
As you can see in block 27407018, SmartMonsters sends 1,281.314 STEEM (at that time worth $1000) to buy 575 packs (500 regular + 75 bonus):
A couple blocks after, in block 27407022, SmartSteem gets its Merchant Bonus of 128.131 STEEM (at that time worth $100), exactly 10% of the funds sent to purchase the packs:
That means they sent $1000, got back $100, so it cost them $900 to buy 575 packs.
Dividing the cost by the amount of packs gives: 900/575 = $1.565/pack. Selling at $1.60 gives them $0.035 per pack sale.
For smaller pack purchases, their profit margins only go up of course.
Wow. You did a great job explaining. I like the work you did. Thanks for taking the time.
I do happen to think that's a smart business strategy of them. And I am inclined to hold to my original position still, but this is interesting information, and I'm willing to hold off judgment until I see what they actually do.
OK. I've modified my opinion. If you read my comment on down the page, you'll see that I may actually agree with you, at least when it comes to the commission, if not with other items as well. They are basically behaving like a wholesaler, and as a general rule, wholesalers are not allowed to undercut their distributors. These types of contracts have different terms than the public. So, yes. You are right. A merchant commission should have terms and MSRP regulation, for several reasons, including artificially monopolizing the market, and artificially deflating the product value.
So this is what I came up with. Again, not an expert. Just finding out what I can. Let me know if this is what you were getting at.
Imagine how much you could accomplish building things, instead of finding reasons why something is unfair.
And by the way - if we bought 575 packs while STEEM is at 40 cents, sell only 100 and then price spikes to 60 cents and we sell the rest of them, we've just made a huge minus. Unfair, right?
That is something to consider...