Guild Wars 2

I have been playing the game since launch and have not really gotten into gem trading for cash items because at that point in time, I didn’t really have that much gold for that matter but currently when I have been intending to trade gold for gems, the prices seems to have dropped drastically.

Now I understand from other posts that the gem to gold market and vice versa is managed by Anet and with that in mind I have been wondering why prices for gem has raised by that high a margin.

Qn1) Does Anet have an exchange margin that they hope to maintain or are we currently running on a free, supply and demand market.

Qn2) If it is a controlled market, why are we seeing nothing being done when exchange rates have fallen as far as previously 1g=500gems to now 1g=149gems.
I understand that prices are somewhat tied to supply and demand but objectively gems are more sought after than gold and as time passes, in game gold becomes more abundant while gems becomes more scares. How does Anet intend to manage this?
Is there a bottomline that Anet hopes to maintain? If so why isn’t it being done, has it not reached that line yet?

Qn3) If it is a free market, the prices will drop till 1g=1gem due to laws of demand and supply, this will lead to a market failure where trading would stop. Hence leading to cash items only being bought with RLC. Is this the outcome Anet is looking for? If not what are the factors that I have overlooked that will prevent this from happening?

1. Apparently its a supply and demand market, although I have my doubts.

2. You just answered your own question, people have much more money then they did at launch so naturally people can afford more gems. And you must understand, gems are unlimited. no matter what, you’re going to be able to buy them in any amount at any time. the scarcity of gems plays no factor in the rising prices.

3. I think you’re looking at this increase as a constant, which it isn’t. With the Halloween event coming up, people are stocking up on gems and after the event or maybe even during it (depending on what they release) I believe that the price of gems is going to go down again. In no case do I see gems going below 100gems = 1g ever.

2. If we are going by the Supply and Demand model, why are you assuming gems are unlimited? Should it not be in circulation only when players use RLC to buy them?
Going by how players are buying them, some are not receiving gems instantaneously, I would have to infer that they would only receive them once someone is willing to part ways with their gems at that current gold amount.
Which would make gem buyers grow with selling power while gold seller diminish in buying power.

3. If you look at this logically, gold will always be in abundance as players play while gems will not increase unless someone is willing to use RLC to exchange for them. Regardless, events will only increase the decrease rate of marginal returns of exchange rate in favour of gems but unless something is put into place, gold would most likely outgrow gem in supply, leading to 1g=1gem, in only a matter of time.
Eg. Players will demand less gems after events yes, but the demand for gems will always be higher than that of gold, so I don’t see how the exchange rate will not keep falling.

Alot of questions tied to the BL ..

There is one answer to most of them… ANet is selling GOLD for CASH.

It is the root answer to most questions in regard to BL Trading Post…

For anyone trying to craft or gather to sell and make a little profit… Look at what you are up against. Almost makes the gold farmers look good!

The problem with the gems is that Anet’s prices are A LOT higher than the farmers when you compare Anet gem purchasing to buying gold from a farmer. Thus, nobody in their right mind would turn gems into gold. Last I did the math you spend around 500% more money through Anet compared to a farmer.

Therefore, we have a situation where NOBODY turns gems into gold, but EVERYBODY is turning gold into gems, causing the gold —> gem rate to skyrocket, until it equalizes at around the farmer prices.

The gem market came pre-loaded with a certain amount of gems; too many IMO. Once that supply gets bought up then the price will skyrocket, as the gem/gold value increases, it becomes more tempting for people to buy gems for gold and also becomes harder for the botters to compete.

It’ll reach equilibrium at some point in the near future, trust me. (I’m betting it may be as little as the next 2-3 weeks when the halloween costumes and appearance editor kits come out)

Gems have a fixed cash value (which is a rip-off in the UK – I digress) and are going to become even more widely available once the Gem Cards roll out.

Supply and demand can’t really work when the supply is potentially limitless. More and more gems will enter the system, and the value of gold will drop relative to gems (which we’re seeing – it costs more gold to buy the same amount of gems that it did a month ago) and may even stabilize relative to the black market, or close enough to make it not worth the trouble to buy farmed gold (I do hope so).

If that happens it’ll be pretty impressive and prove AN haven’t fudged the economy. NB I’m not saying it will definitely happen, but as more gold enters the economy it’s going to become less valuable compared to gems, which have a fixed real money price/value.

The 1 gold for 1 gem is far fetched. The time investment for obtaining the amount of gold needed to get even lower priced items from the gem store would drive demand way down if it were priced like that. In the means time supply would skyrocket as people could get a lot of gold for little real money and the price would drop rapidly until a point is reached that demand significantly increases. Which means somewhere between the current rate and 1g for 1 gem will be an equilibrium point. Perhaps that average price would be100 gems for about 2g.