Safest Investments?

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Posted by: Nick.6972

Nick.6972

Seeing how rapidly gold is losing value and the continuously growing inflation, gem exchange rates, how can one future proof their wealth?
What I mean by that –
I have about 1300 gold and there’s nothing I want to buy at this moment, and I’m hardly playing the game anymore. I’m concerned that when I finally decide to (play more actively) or buy something on the TP/Gem Stote (via exchange) , my gold will have lost it’s initial value due to inflation/market fluctuations.
Since (real) gold is considered to be the safest investment in real life – could same be said about ectos in GW2?

Would it be safe to invest 1200G in 3000 ectos? Keep them and resell in future?

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Posted by: laokoko.7403

laokoko.7403

base on history, I would say gems and black lion weapon skins.

But safest also mean really really slow. It would take you a year for gem price to rise high enough to offset the tax from buying and resell. Same with black lion weapon. Some of it took 10 month before it start to climb in price, and many of them don’t go up higher since Anet release it again for 2 or 3 ticket.

Taking a gamle on limited event item is probably the best way. And have faith and hold on to it.

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Posted by: Behellagh.1468

Behellagh.1468

The general TP market is too volatile to invest in anything that would retain value guaranteed. A new recipe or new item drop can radically alter the price equilibrium of any item or mat.

Gems for the long term have consistently risen, on average, over time but it has a built in 27.75% loss going from gold to gem back to gold. Over the last year the rate has increased roughly 6% per month but this last month has been fairly steady.

I don’t see a safe haven for gold in this game.

We are heroes. This is what we do!

RIP City of Heroes

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Posted by: Rising Dusk.2408

Rising Dusk.2408

Seeing how rapidly gold is losing value and the continuously growing inflation, gem exchange rates, how can one future proof their wealth?

First, I would argue that gold is not rapidly losing its value by any stretch of the imagination. The only (intended) inflation that has ever occurred has been closely controlled by the economists, and is associated with massive gold faucets like when they made dungeons reward gold or created champ bags.

I’ve always maintained that Ectos are a pretty good measure of the value of gold because they are so numerous and are used for so many applications that they flow like water on the TP. They also react strongly to gold faucets. As a general rule of thumb, Ectos have stayed within +/-10% of 40s each for about a year barring the supply surge that happened in Jan-Feb 2014 due to the Marionette pumping out tons of rares. Prior to 2014 is when we saw a number of the big faucets for gold added to the game, so it’s expected that Ectos were more volatile in that era.

That all said, there are very few what I would call safe long-term investments in this day and age. As a general rule of thumb, picking up BL Ticket Weapons when they are between 40-60g is a pretty safe investment as once they increase in ticket price, they will eventually rise up.

[VZ] Valor Zeal – Stormbluff Isle – Looking for steady, casual-friendly NA raiders!

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Posted by: eithinan.9841

eithinan.9841

silver is at a good price.

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Posted by: Mystic.5934

Mystic.5934

anything at merchant value (this used to be more reliable, but still not bad. the beauty is that at most you can only lose like 15%, and it’s likely to go up).
thick leather.
gossamer.
elder wood.
these, and similar, are likely to actually be valuable in the distant future. It’ll be hard to invest 1300g in these :P 1300g would buy about 2736 stacks of elder wood logs. that’s 17 characters, all with 8 × 20-slot bags. or just list it on the TP as you buy it for what you think it might eventually get to (maybe 1s?)

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Posted by: nekretaal.6485

nekretaal.6485

If you are going to take a break, investing in 1-ticket Black lion skins might be the way to go. Even better might be just absorbing a loss and buying gems.

You are investing in the price of the gemstore, a price which Anet itself will prop up.

If you are worried about sudden inflation, Ecto prices and precursors are wildly watched stable markets. (but notice that the new SW zone drops a lot more rares than other zones and long term farming of SW could impact markets. Rares are down since SW released. Eventually Ectos and precursors could follow. Will new zones be like the SW, which drops rares but less vendor trash, silver drops and mats? That’s a bad indicator).

Seasonal items are Seasonal. Candy corn is priced low right now and will eventually be in demand next year. Last year giant snowflakes were 2.5 silver at x-mas and almost 8 silver now. This is decent option if you only want to quit for a few months.

Then there are limited release “prestige” items. Is Scarlet’s kiss coming back? If no you have a safe investment. (But Anet promised China that they would get a chance to get all of our stuff so it probably is coming back). Some previously rereleased items like the Sigil of Generousity or the monacle kept most of thier value, even increasing price on the rerelease due to renewed interest. But this game doesn’t have too much respect for limited release items in general. The town clothes tonics will never be rereleased, but who wants them?

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Posted by: Nick.6972

Nick.6972

What about TP flipping? While I’m not interested playing the game itself, maybe I could play the TP? I don’t have any prior knowledge on it though.

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Posted by: Beldin.5498

Beldin.5498

Ectos are nearly on the same price they were 2 years ago, so i don’t think its a good investment.

I would also vote for the 1 ticket BL skins.

EVERY MMO is awesome until it is released then its unfinished. A month after release it just sucks.
Best MMOs are the ones that never make it. Therefore Stargate Online wins.

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Posted by: IllegalChocolate.6938

IllegalChocolate.6938

thick leather sections i mean look at them they can only go up

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Posted by: ozmaniandevil.6805

ozmaniandevil.6805

BL weapons skins to me seems safest, or a couple really popular precursors?

Isle of Janthir – Knights of the Rose (KoR)

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Posted by: eithinan.9841

eithinan.9841

What about TP flipping? While I’m not interested playing the game itself, maybe I could play the TP? I don’t have any prior knowledge on it though.

This is the problem with people suggesting “TP flipping” as a way to make gold in every single “how do I make gold” post.

If you are going away then you wont be flipping you will be speculating.

THERE IS NO GUARANTEED METHOD TO INCREASING YOUR GOLD WITH SPECULATING, or flipping, especially if you dont have any knowledge about it.

This is like going into a casino to play poker without knowing the rules to poker yet still planning to leave with a positive amount of money instead of losses.

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Posted by: Wanze.8410

Wanze.8410

What about TP flipping? While I’m not interested playing the game itself, maybe I could play the TP? I don’t have any prior knowledge on it though.

If thats something youre interested in, i certainly suggest you do it. I have been a power trader for 2 years now. Even though i still play lots of other content (about 50% of the time im trading these days) there have been stretches where i traded only because i got bored with the game.
In the early months i started trading because i saw how fast you can make gold there and like everybody else, i wanted gold to build my legendary and spend on gems. But at the beginning of this year, i realized that i got more gold than i need. But i kept trading because it was actually fun to me and not a risky but rewarding grind for gold.
My profits became more a measure of success rather than a reward in terms of value because gold loses alot of personal value, once you have enough of it.
It takes alot of dedication to learn to be good at trading but you can (and have to kill hours every day with it), while still being able to keep in touch with in game friends and follow changes closely.
Knowing alot of aspects of the game, like reward structures, farming experience in pve and wvw etc. will give a real edge in trading, so rewards basically scale with experience (and skill), which is very nice.
That also brings me back to the game all the time. To be good at trading, you have to do new content or revisit old one, once reward structures, markets, farming or build metas, demography or other content changes.

Tin Foil [HATS]-Hardcore BLTC-PvP Guild
Bloin – Running around, tagging Keeps, getting whack on Scoobie Snacks.

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Posted by: laokoko.7403

laokoko.7403

If thats something youre interested in, i certainly suggest you do it. I have been a power trader for 2 years now. Even though i still play lots of other content (about 50% of the time im trading these days) there have been stretches where i traded only because i got bored with the game.

Do you mind sharing exactly how rich you are?

Me personally, I didn’t spend any money in legendary. If I liquidated all my goods, I probably sit at around 25k gold.

Very few of my gold is actaully earned through TP activities. I have about 6000 playing hours, and I suppose I earn about 5 gold per hour etc.

25k gold sounds alot but quite honestly if you buy a few legendary it’s gone. I spend most of my money on alts, permanent licenses, and making ascended gear.

was wondering what kind of gold the sounds of GW2 traders have.

(edited by laokoko.7403)

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Posted by: Wanze.8410

Wanze.8410

If thats something youre interested in, i certainly suggest you do it. I have been a power trader for 2 years now. Even though i still play lots of other content (about 50% of the time im trading these days) there have been stretches where i traded only because i got bored with the game.

Do you mind sharing exactly how rich you are?

Me personally, I didn’t spend any money in legendary. If I liquidated all my goods, I probably sit at around 25k gold.

Very few of my gold is actaully earned through TP activities. I have about 6000 playing hours, and I suppose I earn about 5 gold per hour etc.

25k gold sounds alot but quite honestly if you buy a few legendary it’s gone. I spend most of my money on alts, permanent licenses, and making ascended gear.

I couldnt tell you, even if I wanted to because its incredibly hard to measure personal wealth. I tried that about a year ago and ran into several problems. How do you value all your listings on the tp? Do you calculate the value of the listing (which didnt sell yet and never might) or the buy order value? Do I account the tens of thousands of gems i got with gold and if i do, do i use todays value or their value when i exchanged them?
Do i measure all the thousands of gold that i paid for now soulbound items, like skins, dyes, minis, legendaries and ascended armor?
Last year i estimated me to be worth beyong 50k gold, propably most value of it in tradeable assets.
Now its more than that.
But I usually dont have more than a couple of hundred gold on hand every day in either cash or buy orders. Thats all i need most of the time to trade efficiently. Its usually only between 20-50 items i trade in simoultanously, from 3-5 different markets. I made the experience that trading in more than that results in less attention to each item, decreasing your profits in the process.
If I should need some more gold for any reason, i just sell something from my vault to raise some more couple of hundred gold within a couple of minutes or hours.
But I still have days, where i find myself out of a sudden without any gold on hand for something i want to buy quick for myself or because there is alot of profit to be made right then. Those times are often more exciting because my personal value of gold is rising again, raising my appreciation for every reward that i get in game, or once something sells on the tp.
Goes for real life as well. Somehow, i appreciated life more when i had little little money or posessions while traveling to places I havent been before than when i was sitting at home with lots of dosh and nothing to spend it on.

Tin Foil [HATS]-Hardcore BLTC-PvP Guild
Bloin – Running around, tagging Keeps, getting whack on Scoobie Snacks.

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Posted by: Mystic.5934

Mystic.5934

If thats something youre interested in, i certainly suggest you do it. I have been a power trader for 2 years now. Even though i still play lots of other content (about 50% of the time im trading these days) there have been stretches where i traded only because i got bored with the game.

Do you mind sharing exactly how rich you are?

Me personally, I didn’t spend any money in legendary. If I liquidated all my goods, I probably sit at around 25k gold.

Very few of my gold is actaully earned through TP activities. I have about 6000 playing hours, and I suppose I earn about 5 gold per hour etc.

25k gold sounds alot but quite honestly if you buy a few legendary it’s gone. I spend most of my money on alts, permanent licenses, and making ascended gear.

I couldnt tell you, even if I wanted to because its incredibly hard to measure personal wealth. I tried that about a year ago and ran into several problems. How do you value all your listings on the tp? Do you calculate the value of the listing (which didnt sell yet and never might) or the buy order value? Do I account the tens of thousands of gems i got with gold and if i do, do i use todays value or their value when i exchanged them?
Do i measure all the thousands of gold that i paid for now soulbound items, like skins, dyes, minis, legendaries and ascended armor?
Last year i estimated me to be worth beyong 50k gold, propably most value of it in tradeable assets.
Now its more than that.
But I usually dont have more than a couple of hundred gold on hand every day in either cash or buy orders. Thats all i need most of the time to trade efficiently. Its usually only between 20-50 items i trade in simoultanously, from 3-5 different markets. I made the experience that trading in more than that results in less attention to each item, decreasing your profits in the process.
If I should need some more gold for any reason, i just sell something from my vault to raise some more couple of hundred gold within a couple of minutes or hours.
But I still have days, where i find myself out of a sudden without any gold on hand for something i want to buy quick for myself or because there is alot of profit to be made right then. Those times are often more exciting because my personal value of gold is rising again, raising my appreciation for every reward that i get in game, or once something sells on the tp.
Goes for real life as well. Somehow, i appreciated life more when i had little little money or posessions while traveling to places I havent been before than when i was sitting at home with lots of dosh and nothing to spend it on.

If I may suggest, ‘net worth’ can be calculated by how much you can sell everything for right now. So if it’s listed on the TP, the value would be whatever the sell listing price currently is, not what it’s listed for, then subtract TP fees from that price. gems would be how much you would get if you sold all your gems right now. speculations would be whatever those items can be sold for right now. account/soulbound things would be 0. I think things like BLSK would also be 0. It’s a ‘current’ net worth, not a ‘possible’ or ‘future’ net worth.
not saying you should be telling people these sorts of things, just saying that might be how we would define the terms.

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Posted by: Cormac.3871

Cormac.3871

Personally I would diversify. But a lot of each t6 mat, maybe a black lion skin and an underwater precursor.

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Posted by: nekretaal.6485

nekretaal.6485

My advice above is still good, but also consider: Unidentified Dyes.

These are slowly creeping up and all sources for them are nerfed to hell. Black lion chests are the last good way to get them, but anet sneakily nerfed this replacing some Unidentified droos with special die kit drops.

Unidentified dies will continue to creep up until excess supply is all burned, and afterwards will be a way for you to invest in the gemstore without paying 27% tax.

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Posted by: Mystic.5934

Mystic.5934

My advice above is still good, but also consider: Unidentified Dyes.

These are slowly creeping up and all sources for them are nerfed to hell. Black lion chests are the last good way to get them, but anet sneakily nerfed this replacing some Unidentified droos with special die kit drops.

Unidentified dies will continue to creep up until excess supply is all burned, and afterwards will be a way for you to invest in the gemstore without paying 27% tax.

this is all true, but I feel that this is so obvious and so many people are doing it that it will take a really long time to see it happen. might be what OP has in mind, but just know that this is a really long term investment. Also, they added unid dyes as a drop from something recently… so there’s a non-zero chance they will reverse their ‘unid dyes are really rare’ stance.

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Posted by: Zaxares.5419

Zaxares.5419

Unid Dyes can drop from the Personal Story (and at least one from going from level 1 to 20, so it’s quite possible that key farmers will get one each run they do), as well as from Loot Bags from the Living Story, so supply is not as choked off as you might think. It IS an investment, but the profit margin from them is so slow and spread out over such a long time that it may be you end up getting bored and quitting GW2 before it ever reaches your sell price point.

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Posted by: nekretaal.6485

nekretaal.6485

The lvl 1-20 one comes at lvl 5 or 6 and is a choice of three common dyes.

There is still way too much supply and too little demand for flippers to get involved in dyes. That will have to burn out, which is why OP could burn 100G in dyes and not make a dent. That’s why it’s safe.

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Posted by: Zaxares.5419

Zaxares.5419

No, I’m quite certain that you DO get an Unidentified Dye at some point between levels 1 and 20. (The 3 common dyes is separate.) I’ve used Experience Scrolls a few times on a fresh character to help hit the 40 Skill Points monthly target, and I always end up with 1 new Unid Dye at the end of it.

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Posted by: BlueBoy.1236

BlueBoy.1236

Instead of unid dye, just invest in celestial and abyss dye. Those two dyes will only go up until anet release a brigher white and darker black dyes (tho i doubt it would happen)