re r14372: "Sort mall search results that are returned by StoreManager.searchMall so that
NPC stores get inserted into the correct place and that stores with larger
stocks appear before those with fewer items at the same price."
I understand that having larger stocks at the same price appear first makes it easier to buy in bulk, but consider this from the low stock seller's perspective for a moment: To make a sale, they must underprice higher volume sellers. This in effect forces them to give the big seller the opportunity to buy up the lower priced items and mark them up. Meanwhile, the smaller volumes at lower price now appear first, and the list is volume-fragmented anyway. Not bad for buyers, I guess, but it's not the best of situations for more casual small volume sellers. I go out of my way to select from low volume sellers when not doing implicit buying, since I imagine what it would be like for them to place a few items in the mall and never sell them - means more to them than the big guy.
Of course, it doesn't always work out this way, just a thought experiment. But how about an option to sort smaller volumes first (at same price)? That few would use, probably. Anyway, just a thought that might make for a more fluid economy from the perspective of involving more stores. And yes, balanced against the considerations of needing to retrieve more results, etc.