Thursday, August 25, 2011

Prices do not matter. Inventory does.

I take the chance of this post on the Magic Online forum to discuss an important point every bot owner should know.

“Once you are big, prices are not important, collection is”.

In a nutshell, what happened is that CardBot applied different prices to different users, overpricing some items (you can look here to learn more). CardBot profiles the customers, and, according to some algorithms, it makes cards more expensive if you can afford it. Apart from ethical and business considerations (that are beyond the purpose of the article), it’s important to note that - even if the cards are more expensive - customers still buy there.

There are several reasons for that:
- Loyalty: once you shop in a bot, it’s likely that you will do the same, because “you trust it”
- Credit left: if you left some credit on a bot, probably you will want it back.
- Inventory: if you know you can find everything you need in a single shop, you are willing to pay 5-10% more and save 20-30 minutes of your life.

Inventory is the most important. Thus remember: grow big with aggressive prices. Once big, prices are not important.

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