Why GOM over IGE??

IGE is destined for the dumpster, *IF AND ONLY IF* GOM ever reopens the other markets. Until then, I have to use IGE for my other game sales. I'd rather not, and I really wish GOM would reopen the other markets again. Fraud happens. You protect yourself as much as you can, but you cannot eliminate all risk in doing business.

Yeah but thats because they have an innate lack of understanding about how GOM actually works. You can't hurt GOM by changing the price of lindens.... GOM will always self correct to sell lower and buy higher than IGE for 'waiting' trades (aka trades people put open offers for). If IGE lowers their sell price to $1... within a day GOM would end up with some people postin buy offers of $0.97. Thats the whole point of an open market..

IGE tried to suck up all the sellers, and all it did was drive the linden price up due to their scarcity on GOM, making IGE pay more and more and more for the same lindens, amassing a huge stockpile now that they have no choice but to sell at a huge loss.

Essentially they end up in the bind where if they keep doing that tactic, they raise the price of lindens continuously, and they loose money (because people still *BUY* from GOM, which will always be cheaper), if they don keep doing that tactic, they still loose money, cause now they're gonna end up selling lindens they paid 160 for a dollar, for 220 for a dollar.

its just a bad business model. It works abit when yer only competition is ebay. It will *NEVER* work in comparison with a system like GOM

It's not a bad business model when they deal in every other game currency besides Lindens. GOM really needs to reopen the other markets. I sold over $2,000 USD worth of SWG credits to IGE in the past 2 months. I would much rather have done that through GOM, but I have nowhere else to go that has the reputation.

Bad business model or not, when you want to buy or sell in anything other than Lindens, you're pretty much backed into a corner.

Great post Cris

heh well its still a bad business model.. its just no one out there is running a better one on the other games anymore.

I can't blame GOM tho, if a game isn't willing to accpet/verify transactions i wouldn wanna put *MY* RL money on the line either

IGE Is buying again btw

I just checked IGE's site. It still gives the "We are currently overstocked on this server. If you feel that this message is an error, please contact [email]vendors@ige.com[/email]." message when you try to get a quote.

IGE has been offering to buy smaller blocks, but not larger ones. The "cutoff" seems to change daily (or maybe even more frequently), but they're offering a nice $US1.25/L$250 price when they do accept your order.

A nice price and they're buying a few, and so GOM's prices seem to have firm support at the US$1.17-1.21 level. But 1.17 is about the breakeven point for anyone who would want to buy on GOM and sell in IGE at 1.25 (Paypal takes a cut twice), so I doubt that there's any of that going on.

- Ace

Zeppi is a gentleman and GOM is technical elegance.

I always recommend GOM to people who ask about currency exchange. I only bother making an effort to secondarily mention IGE if someone asks where to sell L$.

IGE is in a losing position. There is no way they can compete with a free-floating open market, especially with their impersonal reputation.

I think it is interesting how people keep predicting the downfall of IGE, yet IGE has managed quite well against GOM for quite some time. None of us know how much of their business is made up of L$ transactions versus other currencies, so somehow I think all the gloom and doom predictions that their business model can't work are premature speculation at best. I have no loyalty to IGE, but I find it interesting to comment on the financial strength and viability of a company whose finances you really have no idea about. It comes down to individual player choice. Some like the model GOM uses, some like the predictability of IGE. I have used both, GOM more than IGE but have had good experiences with both. Why there is so much negativity against IGE is beyond me.

Reputation and ethics hold a lot of sway with me, and I think there are many people that feel the same.

From IGE's website, you can find that "Brock Pierce" is its current CEO. This is the same Brock Pierce child actor that appeared in the "Mighty Ducks". More interestingly, this is also the same Brock Pierce that cofounded Digital Entertainment Network.

Kex mentioned their "impersonal" reputation. I think that's the least of their worries. Google will tell you the rest

So because Brock was a child actor before founding a media company, he is unqualified to run a business? What does that have to do with ethics or reputation? I imagine that his poor reputation would probably have prevented Microsoft, Intel and NBC from being investors in his company then, eh? Have you probed the background of the principals of GOM? Probably not. As I said, I don't favor either company, but it just seems odd to single IGE out simply because they are the more impersonal of companies. 9 out of 10 companies is impersonal anyway - do you not do business with your ISP, your cable company, your phone company, your cell phone company, gas stations, grocery stores, etc? All impersonal companies, but they still provide a service.

Of course being a child actor doesn't disqualify you from being a competent business person. That would be ridiculous

There's nothing in my post that speaks ill of IGE. I'm just saying if you do your background research, your opinion may change.

As far as personability (is that a word?) goes, Zeppi wins hands down in my book. He was kind enough to chat with me a couple hours, about life, GOM and SL. He seems to honestly care about this community. He worries about how an open market will affect SL. His work with VERTU especially wins a lot of points from me. That's why I *like* GOM.

Why I dislike IGE has absolutely nothing to do with how personable or impersonable they are. I'm just saying if you do your homework, you might change your opinion. Maybe not. But at least you'd understand why I feel the way I do.

If you want to discuss this, I can be reached in-world. I don't want to discuss this any further, publically.

aww they stopped again... how rude!

My predictions are based not so much on ethics as economics.

There's a reason that the hottest commodities in RL are traded openly in a market instead of privately through some single huge investor. =)

nothing against ige, but like gom for the reason kex points out. had i been aware of the price differential i would have used IGE in some instances.

I have a feeling that IGE is overall not very focused or concerned with the SL part of their business. Their bread and butter lay in the big MMORPGs like Everquest, Lineage, etc. So perhaps their SL trading business will flounder eventually - but they'll merely shrug it off. It is only a minor fraction of their empire anyway - they have plenty of business with the other games. Which is another reason GOM is preferable to SL users, since they actually give a damn beyond just making a profit, and are completely focused on SL trading.

I actually prefer GOM as well, and have had a nice experience with Zeppi. As I said, I just don't understand all the hostility toward IGE.

And Francis, it's fine I don't really want to discuss it further I was just replying generally to what you said. You are free to like or dislike IGE or GOM for whatever reason, or no reason at all. I was irked by Bhodi's thinly veiled bashing of anyone who uses IGE, not anything you said.

IGE can drive GOM out of the market if they are willing to operate at a large negative profit margin for a time. If they were buying L$ at US$1.50/block, and selling at US$0.75/block, GOM would get very little business.

Of course, doing this has its own serious flaws....

Assuming GOM doesn't have a lot of overhead, that would probably have to be a *very long time*. =)