The 'major problem' with all of these things, is that 'Gamemaster' won't give a record of what you have been paid when selling, and it won't list at what quality it was sold at...so, you can discuss all you want, but until you have proof of those things, frankly, 'Gamemaster' can just steal your 'SC$ Cash' from you...and, sadly, most likely they do.
You disagree? And, you think 'Gamemaster' never 'steals'? Well, was just 'charged' 2.6T SC$ for 6,700 Interceptors at 103 quality, which at 200M or so each, should have only been like 1.3T SC$...you do the 'math'. Sold 1B tons of Sulfur recently, at fixed price, 0% decrease, at 2x times market price, and it only --paid-- 130%; it 'should have paid', at a market price of about 200 SC$, like 400B SC$, but it only paid about 260B SC$. The same things happened many times, with many products, including Oil, Weapon Grade Uranium, Corn, High Tech Services and others.
The 'rule' is that it always charges you or over-charges you, --including quality-- when you BUY, but under-pays you, --not including quality-- when you SELL. In effect, you get doubly, doubly 'ripped off.
Here's how:
Example: Oil
1) You buy Oil at 200 quality, to stockpile for whatever you want. OK. So, you buy say 1B tons, at a market price of say 600 SC$ per ton. You 'should' pay: (1B tons x 600 SC$ x 2.0 [200 quality]) = 1.2T SC$. Well, the 'system' decided to charge you 2.4T SC$ instead. Too bad for you.
2) So, now you have 1B tons of Oil sitting there, but you decide to 'dump it' because a repetitive, annoying and 'not needed' error message, says "One of your countries or enterprises is in debt, and you must pay that debt before you can get [1] Gold Coin" to send as a 'donation' to a new leader who is struggling to start. So, you sell back to the world market, at exactly the same market price, and once again you "should" get paid 1.2T SC$. But, here's what happens:
1B tons of Oil at 600 SC$ at 200 quality, quality is "lost", so now you only sell at 100 quality.
So, (1B tons of Oil x 600 SC$ x 1.0 [100 quality]) = 600B SC$. (Assuming you get "lucky" and get paid at market price.)
End result:
You PAID 2.4T SC$
You RECEIVED 600B SC$
Net LOSS: 1.8T SC$
And, that's a 4 times loss, or the 'doubly, doubled loss'.
If the 'system' decides to 'auto-change' the order to "immediate" when buying, and 'auto-change' the order to "rock-bottom price" when selling, that could also "account" for these losses, or simply add to them, then you lose even more.
"Thank you for visiting Simcountry.com, your "recent contributions" were appreciated, and sorry you have massive debts now...and, of course, HAVE A NICE DAY."
So, basically, "whoever" the "arm-chair programmer" is who controls buying and selling of products, has a "serious problem", and at the next 'Jozi chat', this is going to be addressed.
Editors note: Yes, some of the things listed here may not be 100% or even 110% or even 1.10% accurate, because until the 'system' gives a 'record' of transactions, or unless there is another means of clearly tracking prices paid, it makes it un-reasonably difficult to track changes, generally speaking. In the case of these examples listed, the countries were --sitting there doing nothing else-- so it *was* obvious to note changes or values within whatever convoluted, inaccurate, and blurred 'financial statements' that were given.
If you want to make SC$ cash doing trading or selling, then what you should really do is "manipulate the market price" and use 100-only quality products to trade. If you look at Little Upsilon, in the Food/Ag sectors, it's obvious to see that this has been done for a long time by many leaders/accounts. If you want "proof", just ask around ;).