I wrote this as a respnose to another comment in a thread elsewhere, but wanted to post it here for others to discuss… or whatever. idk, I'm bored at work xD

EFT, and video games in general really, creates several problems that make it so you can't treat them with the same set of rules/expectations as a traditional 'real world' market:

1. Tarkov's economy is simply not a natural entity and also suffers from extreme hyper inflation (like a lot of games that have player-driven economies). Every match and every raid played across the servers usually results in more money being shoveled into the global economy than money leaving (via gear found then sold, quest rewards, etc.) I don't have hard numbers on this, but it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to say that 100's of millions to billions of Rubles are entering the market each hour. If not more. This makes it so Whales have unlimited buying power as they can keep padding their wallets endlessly (Ever since the US was taken off the Gold Standard in the mid 20th century, we've seen a similar trend. But that's a whole different discussion.)
2. (Related to 1) Supply of goods is infinite. Even with individual buying limits. Every trader reset, there's almost always more of a certain good flowing into the market than has left it. IRL, Sellers profit is limited by (among other things) how much physical product they can sell. No more toilet paper? You're S.O.L. until your manufacturer pumps more rolls out (Which could take weeks-to-months-to-years depending upon what you're selling)

3. Relying on competition to keep price in check works… but only if there's actual competition. EFT's economy is almost a carbon copy of the industrial revolution market, but progressing at light-speed while on steroids. In the early days there's a chance – some true competition – but once the market Barons are established, it's almost impossible to compete with them.

   1. The 'early days' in EFT usually means the first 24-48 hours after a patch. Look at Pestily. One time he showed how an individual could crack 100 million on the first day by flipping Salewas on the Flea without really trying. Someone looking to farm Rubles to swap for Real World money would absolutely take advantage of this.
   2. Competition in a true, 100% Free Market that is devoid of regulation will always be a transient state of being. Eventually, someone wins out. Either due to clever undercutting, superior product, or simple bad/good luck. To use the industrial revolution example again, look at power-players like JP Morgan or Rockefeller. Any 'competitive prices' they offered only lasted until they could starve out the other guy then take over his territory.
   3. Compounding this, we have groups of players working in conjunction, fixing prices or artificially boosting their market rank so they can sell more things at once. IRL, this is super illegal because buyers don't actually have real choices because all of their 'choices' are the same price. (The Tuna industry actually had a whole scandal with price fixing not long ago, and now those companies are having to pay hefty fines or are shutting down entirely)

4. Some goods are 'life essential' to a player, so they'll pay no matter what the price is. If an AI-2 costs 75k on the Flea or through a Trader, the player will purchase it. (This is assuming better meds are equally inflated). In Zimbabwe or post WW1 Europe, a loaf of bread could cost 100,000 in local currency, but people would pay because the alternative was to starve. That's one of the reasons anti-monopoly laws were created in the first place. Imagine having to use all of your paycheck on one meal.

5. The number of 'buyers' in EFT's economy shifts dramatically over a Patch's life span. Usually downwards, baring some drop event or suddenly becoming #1 on twitch or some weird shenanigans like that. Typically more 'casual' players ( will fall off over time and those who remain will naturally have more money. You end up with a kind of 'rich-selling-to-the-rich' scenario. It's like if the entire poor-to-lower/mid class economic demographic just disappeared. That typically doesn't happen IRL.

6. While Real markets don't always behave 100% rationally, it's not often you see business owners make choices that they know will lose them tons of money on purpose and with no tangible pay-off. Some people will drive up prices of basic necessities even if it means losing money simply because they can. Certain players just want to watch the world burn. Trolls just enjoy trolling.

BSG fixing prices of certain items or limiting buying amounts is akin to government intervention to keep things 'fair' between buyers and sellers. (The fact that they're Russian devs doing this makes me chuckle. heh.) However, BSG also wants to encourage natural market behavior, because it will take care of loot scarcity/balance as a result. If they wanted everyone to have access to certain gear once they leveled up whatever trader, stock limits wouldn't even exist to begin with.

Things selling out is by design.

Presently, BSG is having to dance a weird dance. They're trying to keep certain gear/equipment rare enough that acquiring it feels valuable and gives players something to work towards while also not making it so rare that 95% of the player base will never see the good stuff. On the flip side, if the market saturates with high-tier loot, Tarkov's main draw of high tension fights gets wiped away and player populations plummet (like with the .7/.8 pre-wipe event).

Given the number of options that BSG is starting to give players for crafting various items in the Hideout, I'm predicting that they'll eventually re-enable the full player-driven economy. Players will finally have a 'choice' when it comes to their gear. Spend the exorbitant prices demanded by the Flea Barons? Or go into raids and farm the crafting materials? It's not exactly a 'Coke or Pepsi' scenario, but it's better than being pinned into a corner because some individual or group decided to own the IFAK market that day. Time limits on production create their own sort of limit on availability to keep the market from getting saturated.

In the meantime, BSG is attempting to do the impossible and force the market to stay in a state of volatile flux that reflects a collapsing city economy caught in a warzone. The only way to do that right now is to manually go in and screw with prices/availability. (Not to mention they need to design the market where wipes are no longer a factor, making this feat gargantuanly more difficult.)

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–Stay Cheeki!