From Soup to Nuts: A RIG Guide | Page 1 | Guides and Resources | Guild Forums

Cryptex XIII
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Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 8:57 pm

From Soup to Nuts: A RIG guide.

Note: Special thanks to Rezuka for editing and Kitty for providing graphs.

A note to everyone: The term "RIG" was unofficially given by gaia users, recently, the Gaia staff decided to officially name them Chance Items or CIs. Being that I'm an old Gaian coot, stubborn and already had to live through the name change of DIs to MCs I'm not changing the text and refuse to call RIGs as CIs.

Introduction.

I realized that not many people understand what RIGS are and how to work with them so I felt the need to make this simple guide for you. I tend to push RIGS very hard as an item to invest in because I personally have found them very profitable items to work with. Hopefully after reading this guide you will understand why I am pushing them as much as I am.

Table of Contents.

- What exactly are RIGs?
- The benefits of RIGs.
- Buying and Selling RIGs.
- Determining the Success of a RIG.
- Things to remember.
- Past RIGs.

Rules.

- Follow the Gaia TOS
- This guide is for Investing Elite ONLY! If you want someone outside of the guild to see it have them join.
- DON'T steal any part of this guide and post it else where without permission.
- Please do not quote entire posts. ONLY quote the sections/sentence(s) that are necessary to get your question or point across.

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 8:58 pm

What are RIGs?

The term "RIG" actually stands for: Random Item Generator. The items or prizes that you get for opening and playing it are generated randomly. Typical prizes within a RIG can range from store commons, to old event items, to new items, to the 'new' items that were released in a previous RIG. New items are generally the main attraction of the RIG and the reason why so much hype will surround them. Some RIGs require the person to play a quick game, the item rewards depend on how that game is played. Other RIGs will just generate an item for you at random.

RIGs are sold in the Gaia Cash Shop. Singles generally cost: 149 Gaia Cash; Bundles generally cost: 999 Gaia Cash

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Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 8:59 pm

The Benefits of RIGs.

Vending.

RIG's are awesome items to vend. Not only are current ones gold mines for misprices but if you have the capital, you can purchase the bundles, open them up and sell them as singles. An example: Poseidon's Legacy bundles are currently selling for 620k. Singles are selling for 71k. If you were to multiply 71k by 9 you'd get 639k. Basically, it's cheaper and more profitable to buy the bundles and sell as singles. Just don't forget to factor in the 2% tax. An easy way to do this is to take for example, 639k and multiply it by .98. You would get: 626,220. With tax selling an unopened bundle would equate to: 607,600.

The point: You get more gold by opening the bundle and selling it as singles! This might not seem like a lot of gold at first but after doing this repetitiously, the gold adds up.

Exchanging.

The exchange is a great place to find deals! Sometimes you can catch people selling singles and bundles well below the LMP. Buy these up and sell them in the MP as another way to earn some profit.

Hoarding.

RIGs are an excellent item to hoard. Unlike most items that may go up, RIGs will go up. This is because they are only available for a limited period of time which limits the number of RIGs available. As these RIGs are opened to get the items within, the supply of the actual RIG decreases causing them to inflate. RIGs inflate very quickly because of this!!!

Example #1: The Azrael's trickbox bundle is arguably one of the most successful RIG examples out there.

User Image

The Bundle had an all-time low of 400k, this would have been the ideal time to buy them. The Red line on the graph indicates the day that it was discontinued, 11/18/09. As you can see the bundle has inflated drastically since then with no major deflation's. Fast forwarding to now, merely 3 months later, it is worth 1,200,000 gold. That equates to 200% pure profit in just 3 months!

Example #2: This is an example of my personal success with bundles. I bought my Love Charm bundles for around 500k per bundle. That means the singles inside were worth about 55k when I bought them. If I were to take those bundles, open them and sell the singles for the current LMP (right now 70k) I would have made 130k profit (this is without factoring in the tax mind you) still that is a pretty hefty profit! And I barely lifted a finger!

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:00 pm

Buying and Selling RIGs.

It is important that if you want to deal with RIGs that you read and try to understand the graph below. Understanding the graph below can help you determine what the best time is for you to buy and sell your RIGs which will ultimately increase your potential profit.

*The following information is credited to Not That Awesome:

Price Patterns.

Every CI follows this loose graph:
User Image

The green line is the period that the CI is in the Cash Shop. In the first few days, Gaians flock to the brand new shiny Cash Shop item, keeping the price high. Once the shiny factor wears off (usually when the next new shiny item—EI evolutions—is reported), the price starts to fall and continues to fall for the next week or two until it reaches its low point. The best time to buy them is from this low point until P1, the announcement that the CI is leaving the Cash Shop.

After the CI leaves the Cash Shop, you'll almost definitely see a sudden rise. Most investors start to dump after P2—usually vendors who like to keep their capital liquid and newbie hoarders who aren't used to long-term investments. You'll see the price usually travels are a slowly increasing rate after the spike as most investors continue to sell at the price they're happy with.

After a while still the price will jump again to P3. This is where your bulk hoarders (people with 20+ bundles or more) start to release the bulk of their hoard into the market. Keeping your bundles until this point will GUARANTEE you a profit, no matter what happened before—if you've been unlucky enough to pick up a bad CI, your best bet is to keep waiting until now.

P4 is your final dump point. Why? This is where CIs stop behaving like short-term investments and start to show more long-term price patterns. The market for the CI is near death so they become hard to sell and the price becomes unpredictable. There ARE people who continue to hoard beyond this point but only hoard past here if you have A LOT of gold and you don't NEED to sell to keep investing.

So, some examples of CIs that follow this graph (see if you can compare them):

Poseidon's Legacy

Famestar Hero

Wrath of Gaia

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Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:01 pm

Determining how Successful a RIG will be.

*The brunt of the following information is credited to Not That Awesome with a few small edits by Cryptex XIII

Now this is a bit more complicated and relies a lot more on your judgment/experience. Every single CI is different, but not just in name. There are a few factors that set the good CIs apart from the bad, including:

How do you play it? What are the chances of success?
How cute/adorable is the rare companion?
How popular is the theme?
How well-received are the items?

Play style/Success rate.
Even though a CI is pretty much pure chance, every CI is a like different game with different rules. Go through the search lists and you'll see that there are a lot of different versions of the original CI—each of those is a different "stage" or a different "level". For some CIs, you're randomly given a stage at the start of the game with some stages rarer than the others; other CIs force you to progress through the game for a victory, with higher levels being harder to pass. Sometimes there are hybrids games, sometimes games that don't fit this model at all. Point is, every game is different.

A game that's more fun to play and gives the illusion that the player is in control, will probably be more profitable. Simple. If people like how easy or hard it is or if the play style is fun and the game gives the illusion that the player is in control, the CI will be in higher demand, which means a higher price.

Rare Companion.
There's a unique rare in every CI (yeah, unique until its re-release lol). Sometimes it's absolutely loved and sometimes it just isn't. Remember that these guys are RARE—there re only a couple of hundred of these found in every CI. Because they're so hard to find, people will probably have to keep opening boxes even after the CI leaves the Cash Shop. Of course, only if they like it.

Theme.
Simple stuff: The theme determines the bulk of the items in the CI. If people like the theme, people will probably like the items. For example, the Famestar Hero. Famestar Hero was centered around one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the world, music. Because almost everyone likes listening to music, you can totally understand why the theme was a big hit. On the other hand, we have the Wrath of Gaia. Heh, shows how much people care about the environment. lol

Items.
The items that come in the CI depend on the theme, but items that people would love to see on avatars are gonna increase the demand of the CI. You can figure a lot out by looking at the item prices, especially of items in the 500k-2.5m range. IMO the more items that fall into this range, the more profitable the CI will be—this price range is the range where the item isn't just expensive because of rarity but because Gaians think they look good. They're also not very easy to obtain so you can bet that people will continue to open CIs in search of them.

A great place to visit for information on the above is the Gaia Community Discussion. This forum is where you'll be able to read the community's opinion on the CI. You'll also find threads like an item list, artwork thread, probabilities of success/failure and other stuff depending on the CI, so it's a great knowledge base.

Just remember that this list of factors isn't exhaustive; everyone has different ways of analyzing items and you will probably find other ways of predicting how much profit you can make, but you'll figure that out with experience. :)

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:03 pm

Things to Remember.

- Buy the most current RIG available. Something like a Lexbox is way past it's prime and not worth investing in.

- Typically you should try to wait at least a week before you buy a RIG, this way you are not buying at the inflated prices.

- Don't open the RIG in the hopes that you will get a particular item. Chances are you won't get that item and you will have lost out on a ton of gold. Instead, wait for the hype to die down and then buy the actual item you want.

- Don't hoard the items in a RIG, no matter how awesome it was. There is ALWAYS a chance that the item will be released again in a future RIG.

- Sell the RIGs when you are happy with your profit. But don't forget: The longer you hold onto them the harder they are to sell. The general rule when selling RIGs is to sell 1.5-2 months after they were taken out of the Cash shop or three RIGS after it was taken out of the Cash Shop.

-When selling a RIG bundle, keep in mind that you are likely to make 20-60k more by opening the bundle and selling it as nine singles.

- When selling, it is advisable to put 1-3 items in the MP at a time rather than putting all nine up at once. By putting all nine up you can cause the price to drop due to under cutters. You may have a harder time selling your RIGs.

- There is technically no set time frame as to when a new RIG will be released. The date that the RIG before it leaves can help determine when the new one will come out. Usually a new RIG is released 1 day-1.5 weeks after the one before it is removed from the Cash Shop. (The average appears to be every 25 days or so)

-There is no set time frame as to when an item in a given RIG will be released again. The Pale Marionette for example as been re-released at least four times (the Azraels Trickbox, Super Prize 2009, and unconfirmed but Code Alpha bundle and Perfect Tragedies) while the panda slippers for example, have only been released once.

- Not all RIGs are good to invest in. The most recent and arguably best example is the dreaded Animal Quackers bundle. This particular bundle lacked strong and popular items. When the Snow Apples came out and people found that they had far better items the price of the Quackers tanked --terribly. The red line on the graph represents the date that they were removed from the Cash Shop.

User Image

My goal with this is not to scare you so much that you don't want to invest but to make you aware. This does not mean don't invest in RIGs, what it means is be very careful as to what RIG you should invest in. RIGs require a LOT of research!!! That includes going around in forums, guilds, and watching the Exchange and the Marketplace for opinions and to find out what items in the targeted RIG are the most popular and selling the fastest. Most RIGs don't tank to this extreme, but the Animal Quacker can be used as a reminder that there still is that possibility.

- My final piece of advice: RIGs can be risky!!! Don't throw everything you have (gold wise) into them. Spread your gold out towards other items that you feel are likely to inflate. This is so you can recover easier and faster should you take a hit from a bad RIG.

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Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:05 pm

Past RIGs.

Note: This seriously took me about a month to do due to time restraints in RL etc. There are some things missing! If anyone could help me on anything they see missing for this section I would greatly appreciate it.

Cirque du Gothique

Available from: 9/15/10 - 10/11/10

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Levels:

Victory Level: User Image

Final Reign

Available from: 8/21/10 - 9/13/10

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Victory Level: User Image

Wrath of Gaia

Available from: 07/19/10 - 08/20/10

Bundle: User Image

Single

Levels:

Victory Level: User Image

Famestar Hero

Available from: 6/22/10 - 7/18/10

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Levels:

Victory Levels: User Image

Luna's Incense;

Available from: 5/19/10 - 6/18/10

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Incenses:

Perfect Tragedy

Dates in cash shop: 4/17/10 - 5/15/10

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Acts:

"Final Act": User Image

Code Alpha

Available From: 3/22/10 - 4/15/10

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Issues:

Special Issues: User Image

Deluxe Rare Issue: User Image

Poseidon's Legacy

Available From: 2/18/10 - 3/19/10

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Levels:

Love Charm

Available From: 1/26/10 - 2/16/10

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Male Date Levels: User Image

Female date levels: User Image

Snow Apple

Available From: 12/18/09 - 1/22/10

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Victory level: User Image

Super Prize 2009

Dates in cash shop: 12/24/09 - 1/04/10

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Animal Quackers

Available From: 11/23/09 - 12/16/09

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Victory levels: User Image

Azrael's Trickbox

Available From: 10/19/09 - 11/18/09

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Levels:

Victory Level: User Image

LeXBox

Available From: 9/22/09 - 10/14/09

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Levels:

Victory:

Game Over: User Image

Dark Reflection

Available From: 8/25/09 - 9/17/09

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Levels:

Victory:

Failure level: User Image

Lonely Star

Available From: 7/21/09 - 8/19/09

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Levels:

Midsummer Swirl

Available From: 6/22/09 - 7/14/09

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Levels:

Victories: User Image

Gee Boi Turbo

Available From: 5/22/09 - 6/17/09

Bundle: User Image

Single:

"Level 2": User Image

- Save Point

Final level: User Image

- VICTORY!

Suspicious Package

Available From: 4/21/09 - 5/11/09

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Emerald Seed
Available From: 3/24/09 - 4/17/09

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Fruit:

Victory:

FAMESTAR 2000

Available From: 2/26/09 - 3/20/09

Bundle: User Image

- Single:

Levels:

Victory:

Repo Lamp

Available From: Unknown, if someone could help me on this it would be appreciated!!!!

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Lamps:

Gold Gold Revolution

Available From: Unknown, if someone could help me on this it would be appreciated!!!!

Bundle: User Image

Single:

Fortune Egg

Available From: Unknown, if someone could help me on this it would be appreciated!!!!

Levels: User Image

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:07 pm

Reserved.

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Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:08 pm

Reserved.

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:32 pm

Open for discussion.

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Serethielle

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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 4:04 pm

Thanks for creating this ^^ Came in SUPER useful! Now to buy what I want upfront....the only matter is the gold....

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 5:42 pm

thx for making this now i know more about hoarding items also nice avi wink ninja

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5HUE0GHXZ
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 6:45 pm

They were released at the same time as Snow Apples which meant there were THREE RIGs that openers were actively interested in
They rereleased every RIG before Snow Apples which caused those prices to plummet. The worst part about this is that short-term hoarders still hadn't a chance to dump them and the rerelease just made this worse.
The Super Prizes meant that openers didn't have to buy the Animal Quackers themselves, which in turn meant less demand.
Because of the Super Prizes, Animal Quackers stayed in for a lot longer than people had hoped. This is also true for the Snow Apples and you can really see the effects—they haven't inflated nearly as fast as Love Charms.
By the time Quackers had the chance to recover, all but some of the demand for them had been phased out. Openers would have been flat out of gold from the Super Prizes and the Snow Apples were expected to leave soon as well, which meant a NEW RIG was going to be out.

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 7:54 pm

thank you for the tip^.^

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Cryptex XIII
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Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 9:28 am

Not That Awesome

The Animal Quackers suffered a failure to recover and that was where their downfall was. I know of several hoarders that can not unload them because no one wants them. The prizes contained are also very weak unpopular items (there are some exceptions). Which helped further hinder their recovery.

RIGs can be risky because you face the possibility of a repeat of the animal quackers. It is not safe to say that Gaia will not release RIGs the same way that they released the quackers/apples/super prizes. A release like that is likely to hold the same effects and consequences.

There is also no guarantee that Gaia will not release a RIG similar to the Super prizes. For someone trying to make a short term investment this does hold the risk of hurting their profit because they are always at risk of their RIG being re-released.

Welcome to Gaia! ::

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