Ootori_K
Jace Quin
I find it much more interesting than I did in say, July, but otherwise I'm not sure what kind of take you're looking for. As to your second thought... can you explain to me what you mean by 'older bundles'?
For example, the Verdant Grove bundle is currently averaging 12 million GG on the marketplace. The Nouvelle Lune bundle, in contrast, is averaging 66 million GG. Currently, the In Deep Ship bundle is averaging 44 million GG and
rising, even though it hasn't left the cash shop.
I also find it interesting that older items do not seem to be pricing upward to keep with the inflation -- this is true not only of the bundles, but of older items that haven't been rereleased recently.
Has this been something you've noticed? And how do you expect to deal with a problem like this?
(( Sorry, edited to correct an incorrect number. ))
I thought I replied to this the other day but evidently I never hit send. >.<
Okay. So. The reason comparable items (in this case bundles of 'standard' CIs) cost more now doesn't really have to do with them being anymore rare, popular, or special in any way. It has everything to do with the GC to gold ratio. Overall inflation goes up and as a cash buyer you aren't going to sell RIGs for the mere 6-7M a bundle they were when Verdant Grove was released- not when you could get way more gold buying two currently-evolving REIs instead so this forces up the base price of new CIs and thereby the items inside them as well. If you look at the overall gold revenue graph you can even see why In Deep Ship has been rising since it came out- because there's been a recent surge of inflation the whole time it's been available.
Of course inflation coupled with some continued demand will bring up the price of Verdant Groves over time but not in as dramatic a fashion because the change in GC to gold ratio is a much stronger pressure on item price than demand and decreased supply are. However you'll probably be pleased to know that Verdant Grove bundles aren't really worth 12M. The MP only refreshes the average price when units are sold- so since no units have been sold since about the time the most recent bout of inflation started their price hasn't changed. But in the last few days some of the singles
have sold- at ~7M a piece. Since it's such a hard spike I don't necessarily expect it to stay 7M a piece and rising hence forth but you could expect the ~5.5M they 'ought' to be worth compared to recent RIGs. Considering the limited supply and some continued demand you'd expect them to be worth more than current RIGs- but that just isn't going to be the case. Interestingly if Verdant Grove were re-released right now that would do more for the price than rarity is now (if you find this bit hard to swallow check out the graphs of Divinity's Reach, Coin Toss, and Flynn's Booty/Chest and you'll see how re-release made them go up dramatically in price.)
I definitely agree that this price disparity is the case and does not seem logical. I do find it interesting but not necessarily surprising. After all even in the historical period of much slower inflation you could still see it in the most comparable items (in terms of being originally bought with cash for a limited time and rarity) where MCs from '05 were still stuck at 10k when MCs in '09 were coming out at 150k.
I had noticed it but it hadn't particularly concerned me. The way to deal with it is the only way you can deal with it: Hoard differently. Don't lose your patience but with items coming out literally almost every day that you could hoard why hold onto an item you've already profited from in hoping to squeeze out a few more percentage points when you could make a whole lot more selling them and investing in something new? Which is not to say that you can't still buy certain things and not have to worry about them for long periods but the real profit is in active hoarding. I have gotten to the point where 95% of my gold is made from doing nothing but hoarding. I sell sometimes hundreds of millions worth in a day and turn around and buy hundreds of millions worth of a brand new item.