A quick comment on the concept of "price gouging"

Real life has dictated that I apply efforts elsewhere the past week (i.e., correctly aligned my priorities), but when listening to the most recent episode of the otherwise excellent Call to Auction podcast the other day I was befuddled by their stumbling over the concept of price gouging in WoW.

Without totally rehashing the conversation, due to a bug (presumably) a glyph that was formerly craftable is no longer readily available. Therefore *ta da* it is pretty expensive until this error is fixed. A somewhat extensive debate occurred in the CtA podcast about the ethics of marking this up a tremendous amount vis a vis the term price gouging. I disagree wholeheartedly. Price gouging in the real world has legal ramifications and is, in most cases, wrong. WoW is a game and the axiom "whatever the market will bear" should be the only mandate by which you operate. A legion of professional and amateur blogs exist to demonstrate how to capitalize on inefficiencies, and all of the sudden there's an implied tipping point where profit margins cease to be ethical?

Buying items en masse and flipping them? Check.
Setting up an assembly line? De rigeur.
Cornering a market? Pro.
Taking a very low supply item and squeezing all the juice you can out of it? Whoa, whoa, now you've crossed a line.

It's like they said "we're ok with 750% margins, but 1000% margins are immoral!" I'm cartooning things and harping on a somewhat small topic, but it's been gnawing at me a bit. It's a conversation that shouldn't have even existed, and I guess that's my end point.

Better and less incendiary posts to follow, I promise...

Call to Auction podcast and your humble Quaaid

I'll post more extensively once I'm back on my computer (this comes from my iPhone), but the guys at Call to Auction were kind enough to read and answer a question I sent in. They also humored me with a nice little plug for this blog, so huge thanks to them. They're the leaders in the field, so I appreciate the effort.

I'll actually address my question (and their answer) in an upcoming, meatier post, but at least wanted to return the favor in some small way. Want to hear what I asked? Go check out their podcast! Episode 18 is the latest, as episode 19 was a one-off special that addressed 4.0.1.