Guild Wars 2

Minipets, the Gem Stores latest free promotion. This means it seems like a no-brainer investment, even if you don’t have the cash to tie up.

But hold your horses – how quickly are they likely to rise? Not quickly at all.

Think about it, today everybody who logged in today got 2 fine and 1 uncommon minis (from Set II). That’s a huge injection of minipets into the game – which do not get removed from the game (a la consumables) and are more of a niche market.

Are there enough collectors that want all of the minis? Sure, there are, but by now they probably have their collection as far as Set II goes. So this market currently relies on new people looking to collect – a very minor amount of people.

Now think of the amount of people taking this investment opportunity, it’s very open and in the public eye. Is it worth your time?

Reasons you should invest:

• It will turn a profit eventually.
• Set II could disappear just like Set I did, causing a huge spike.
• Won’t take any mule-space for the first stack.

Just something to think about before you bandwagon.

The minipet market is crazy because the buyers are crazy. It’s a market I cannot and will not predict because I simply don’t understand it, especially when people pay four figures for wurm minipets…

When the first LA trailer came out, I remember reading a post that people should stock up on racing moas. I scoffed – who the heck would buy that?

Of course, it went up considerably. I never seem to learn.

Vol.7601:

The minipet market is crazy because the buyers are crazy. It’s a market I cannot and will not predict because I simply don’t understand it, especially when people pay four figures for wurm minipets…

When the first LA trailer came out, I remember reading a post that people should stock up on racing moas. I scoffed – who the heck would buy that?

Of course, it went up considerably. I never seem to learn.

I really don’t like minipets, so it does seem crazy to me. However, I understand people paying for their “favourite” minipet. As I say, I’m not a minipet collector, I just don’t like them, but I do have a Molten Firestorm because it’s my favourite.

At most, I’ll use this to finish getting Miniature Collector title if Set I prices are dropping too (I don’t like minis, but I’m a sucker for titles).

I tried to get all of Set 1 just so I could have the achievement points and title and then sell them. I’m stuck now with a few left to go since I set my high bid at 7g (some of the remaining ones are now well over 100g each).

The nice thing is that if I decide to give up on my goal and divest my collection, it will be worth a decent chunk of gold since it is nearly impossible to get these minis now.

mtpelion.4562:

I tried to get all of Set 1 just so I could have the achievement points and title and then sell them. I’m stuck now with a few left to go since I set my high bid at 7g (some of the remaining ones are now well over 100g each).

The nice thing is that if I decide to give up on my goal and divest my collection, it will be worth a decent chunk of gold since it is nearly impossible to get these minis now.

I’m pretty sure that Set II can be MFed and throw out Set I? At least I think that’s the case – a discontinued item would be more than these minis cost.

Flissy.4093:

I’m pretty sure that Set II can be MFed and throw out Set I? At least I think that’s the case – a discontinued item would be more than these minis cost.

Yes, that’s why I said “nearly” since you have to buy 4 Set II minis in order to throw the dice on a chance for 1 Set I mini.

Once again Anet messes with the minipet market. Its probably the area of the market with the largest market manipulation from Anets side.

Well at least you can get a set 2 for free at the moment on the TP.

SandraSolace.7682:

Well at least you can get a set 2 for free at the moment on the TP.

I dont want them for free. My miniature collection is more than 1000g below their peak value already and anet keeps messing with it.

Think about it this way. (And this works for the gemstore dyes too)

Minipets are gemstore items, and they have a gem price. Even the exotics, hidden behind mystic forge RNG have a gemstore price.

This price can be calculated.

The long term price of the minis will be slightly less than the gemstore price of the minis, and this is unaffected by the sales of minis on the gemstore. By offering a slight discount to the gem price, you should always be able to sell your mini.

Anet rereleases discontinued minis, so there is no “rarity” profit to be found investing in minis. Flipping is a fools market except in the short term. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if ANET’s own economist is rereleasing minis precisely when they hit a certain increased value, basically stealing the speculators profits for the company.

So if minis, even discontinued minis arent rare and should be sold above a certain price point before ANET steals your market… Is there any value to be had?

There is value.

The value of a mini is that their price does track gemstore prices and allows you to profit from Gem inflation which will always be here because ANET is invested into it. (And tracks the gem price without you having to pay enormous TP fees for gems).

I see mini pets as a really long investment (time depends on how many are available), with each patch I gather some of the exclusive minis, wait some months and then sell them for a much higher value.

But as I said, it’s a really long investment to me.

Now Anet I have only single request: PLEASE bring back Foostivoo and the other Wintersday minis, they’re technically the only minis that I need to complete my miniature collection, please

I took a year to (temporarily) complete my series 1 collection for the achievement.

Today, with the free minis, the price for series 2 minis dropped significantly. So in addition to my 3 free ones, I bought all the other ones from the TP! 40 AP later, I’m holding on to them now in case any of my friends wish to borrow them for the achievement.

I can sell them back whenever.

So, yes, the prices dropped, but also I wouldn’t have bothered with series 2 minis for a long, long time if not for the freebies today.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

40 AP later, I’m holding on to them now in case any of my friends wish to borrow them for the achievement.

Can I be your friend? No, seriously. I’m like 40 AP from my 15k chest and it’s one of the few achievement tracks I need, but none of my friends collect them, I hate minis, and I’m actually trying to build Incinerator so I can’t just go buying stuff. I GM a guild (see signature) and have played the game for thousands of hours; I have no intent of scamming anyone. I’ll send them right back when I am done.

/hoping you’re on an NA server…

I’m with Maledictus. Being a collector is hard when ANet keeps grossly manipulating the price of minis…I like to have them, but I also hate to hold on to something that can drop in half at any moment.

Even worse is the black lion chest drops that allow mass forging of exotic minis.

Mini collection is a cruel mistress. Would be nice if they removed the MF for set 1 minis, imo.

Brave Sir Ryan.1240:

Would be nice if they removed the MF for set 1 minis, imo.

Discontinued items that are tradeable are a terrible idea. I hate it everytime AN make items this way.

Them being mystic forgeable after removal from the store is fair to everybody – the set I prices went up because they cost 4 minis at a chance, but players who want them can still get them for a reasonable price.

So this market currently relies on new people looking to collect – a very minor amount of people.

No doubt there’ll be more demand when GW2 China is released, how much more demand is another question entirely.

I think set 2 will disappear off the shelves eventually, but now and then, just like set 1 a few days ago (or maybe it was a week or two? I forgot), it will probably make a comeback for 3 or so days. I don’t think they’ll ever be discontinued though, and like the original poster said, they’re not a consumable – unless players want to use them for the mystic toilet… I mean mystic forge. So really, their numbers/supply never really diminish.

If they ever became discontinued (highly unlikely), or if the ability to make X mini via the mystic forge was removed however, only then would I imagine them to be extremely expensive, but I doubt either of these 2 things will ever happen as long as there is money to be made for Anet via the gemstore mini’s section, and in terms of the lesson in making mini’s too rare, well, we only need to see how hard it was to get one of those coveted mini polar bears in GW1!

China will have a seperate trading post for sure.

Brave Sir Ryan.1240:

Being a collector is hard when ANet keeps grossly manipulating the price of minis…I like to have them, but I also hate to hold on to something that can drop in half at any moment.

Are you buying the miniatures for your collection or as an investment?

If the former, it shouldn’t matter what prices the minis are. If the latter, considering that the mini market is subject to such volatile swings, I can’t recommend miniatures as a good investment portfolio.

if you collect you shouldn’t care about the price. You’ll never sell it anyway.

Unless you for example bought a mini-jackopot for 200 gold and the price changed to 100g the next day.

Zaxares.5419:

Brave Sir Ryan.1240:

Being a collector is hard when ANet keeps grossly manipulating the price of minis…I like to have them, but I also hate to hold on to something that can drop in half at any moment.

Are you buying the miniatures for your collection or as an investment?

If the former, it shouldn’t matter what prices the minis are. If the latter, considering that the mini market is subject to such volatile swings, I can’t recommend miniatures as a good investment portfolio.

That’s a good way to look at it, but the answer is both.

I do like to have them…but it also stinks to see them drop so many times, knowing I COULD have cashed out and re-collected later for half the price. Makes me not want to hold them.

Yeah, I can understand why that would hurt, but that’s kind of the way things go in the real world too. There’s always situations where you buy at the wrong time; the only way to deal with it is just appreciate what you have and never look back. You’ll just keep on nursing regret otherwise.