Bay 12 Games Forum

I think this is intriguing but I don't understand what's stopping a very rich player from investing $100 million or more in a coal mine and destroying you guys. That's probably what I would do if I wasn't broke.

We could always try to get said rich player to join our scheme.

Quote from: Voxel_Squid on April 10, 2012, 09:28:40 am

by the way guys, if this coal cartel is to work, we do have to restrict the amount of coal we produce. If at some point we find that we cant sell all the coal we put up, we either have to restrict supply or reduce prices.

One thing on that note: The guy that bought all the coal (the admin) said that he does that regularly to fund his steelworking. That means we can put the price up high, but he will still buy it. Its probably not a good idea to bet all our money on that, but its something to think about.

Well I was thinking more long-term. Right now we can probably expand production quite a bit before exhausting the market (ie Ratan Joyce/secret company).

So eventually everyone who needs coal will produce it himself, killing the coal market completely?

Well there is a balance to be kept between price and revenue. Since demand is not a specific number, but rather a function of price vs quantity, everytime we increase the price, the amount we can sell goes down slightly. However, there is a point at which our marginal revenue = marginal cost, (price*one more item sold = cost of producing one more item), which maximises our profits in a monopoly or cartel.

Hey Scelly, thanks for buying a batch of coal from me that I bought at $10 and reposted for $12! This coal cartel is working out quite nicely!

Quote from: Toaster on April 09, 2012, 09:43:42 pm

Goons, as in Something Awful forumites.  They like to get on games like this and coordinate to dominate, much like we are.

So now we have a little forum competition going on, eh?

We definitely won't be able to beat them, but we might be able to benefit by riding on their coat tails.

So is the stock market based entirely on IPO speculation? or is it actually possible to hold long-term portfolios as a source of income?

Unless you do insider trading (AKA someone says "hey I'm going public at X time, be there"), then yes, sheer luck.

Well, if any of us does get to that point, we should definitely coordinate things so we can all make a quick buck.

I love how playing this capitalist game gives me an excuse to be so evil.