Awesome lol. I did similar thing in travian few years back. There was IP restriction so i couldnt bid myself on items and had to find another player to outbid specific players. There was not many items for sale so it was pretty easy to manipulate market since noone else was doing it. Some players always put same max. price on some items so my friend always made them pay max after my instructions. There was also items bought for minimum price at specific times like champions league match etc. lol loved those days. Sadly i could not cash out all that silver i got for real money but i could really build up acc. and had so much fun. At the end of that server i even made tutorial cause was pointless for me to play more :D
But indeed you are making some really valid points.
Sadly i am really really small fish in this pond full of sharks.
Good luck with your trades and massive profits!
Thank you for your answer, and good luck to you too!