Germany unable to buy sulpher?

[cwhomer]

I have played a couple times as Germany, and have noticed that you can't buy sulpher off the WM (manually or AI) despite the facts that:

there is a a consistent supply (9 to be exact, which doesn't seem to change at all)

Germany has sufficient prestige to be able to get at the supply before other nations (not all though, but since there is always 9 why would that matter?)

Is this a bug others have noticed, a WaD, or an isolated problem?

 

[Rio]

I have played a couple times as Germany, and have noticed that you can't buy sulpher off the WM (manually or AI) despite the facts that:
there is a a consistent supply (9 to be exact, which doesn't seem to change at all)
Germany has sufficient prestige to be able to get at the supply before other nations (not all though, but since there is always 9 why would that matter?)
Is this a bug others have noticed, a WaD, or an isolated problem?

The constant supply may be accurate insofar as the countries producing excess may provide about the same excess every day, and most likely, there never is a build-up because those countries seeking sulphur are buying the entire stock every day. With that kind of demand, I would wager it is a great power (probably whoever has more rank than you) building small arms, artillery and stockpiling ammunition. You never get any because those in line ahead of you are using it all and have higher-order demand than you.

There is one thing you can do. I have found from time to time you can beat this closed cycle by increasing the amount you try to buy of the item you are not getting. This appears to do two things: it drives up the price of the item, which will discomfit whoever has cornered what little market there is, and may cause other supplies to come on the market as the potential profit the item offers causes sale on the WM to increase. You do need to be prepared for this second phenomenon though since it can be temporarily costly. It usually does not suffice to, say, raise your demand form ten to twenty, but rather you needs must request hundreds, or even a thousand to have an impact. Whether the result is merely the action of other countries, or "the marketeer" portion of the program making a market, I do not yet know.