Q:
Please nerf bag types instead of class skills!
Are sale gemstore items really sale?
A:
So my question is, is it really worth it to buy a sale item from the gemstore when everyone is buying it, therefore increasing the conversion rate?
Short answer:
Probably not.
Longer answer:
Currently, no.
Usually the gold=>gem exchange rate fluctuates around 100g for 400 gems. Assuming this as a baseline for gem store purchases, a character slot that’s not on sale is worth ~200g (800 gems).
Currently, the gold=>gem exchange rate is 129.85g for 400 gems. At that exchange rate, the gold price of a character slot under the sale is 207.6 gold. So at the moment, you’ll spend about as much gold on one as you usually would when there was no sale going on.
That being said, if you are purchasing a character slot with USD or some other real world currency then it truly is a sale. The same can be said if you already had gems on hand from a prior gold=>gem exchange at a lower rate or the average rate.
(edited by drunkenpilot.9837)
It’s a sale because for people who buy gems with real money they get more for their gems. Also applies to those who stored gems up using gold→gems before the sale.
FOR THE GREEEEEEEEEEEEN
Since all gems are bought with cash first, including the gems you bought with gold off the exchange, then yes. The cash price for the item is less and therefore IS on sale.
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
It’s a sale because for people who buy gems with real money they get more for their gems. Also applies to those who stored gems up using gold->gems before the sale.
Is it sale for people who don’t buy it with cash though?
And who doesn’t save the gems beforehand?
Please nerf bag types instead of class skills!
The price in gems, which is equivalent to cash, is less. It’s a sale. Doesn’t matter if the rush to convert gold to gems raises the exchange rate.
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
As I understand your question, you’re not going to get a bargain for your gold to gems conversion if you wait to do that until everyone else is doing it also. If you want a bargain then never try to buy anything when everyone else is trying to buy and pushing the prices up. You do it on off times when the gem to gold conversion is favorable.
Edit: to know if 800 gems bought during a non spike is cheaper than 640 gems bought on a high gold spike, we would need to know both the high and low gems to gold conversion rates that the gems were bought at.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
ANet may give it to you.
(edited by Just a flesh wound.3589)
Yes, because the sale is on items purchased with Gems bought with cash. It doesn’t matter for items purchased with Gems acquired through the Gold-to-Gems exchange as those are free (from cash), anyway. (Unless, of course, someone purchased Gems with cash, exchanged the Gems for Gold, then exchanged the Gold for Gems, again.)
So my question is, is it really worth it to buy a sale item from the gemstore when everyone is buying it, therefore increasing the conversion rate?
- Yes, if you buy gems with real life cash. It’s always a discount.
- Yes, if you regularly convert gold to gems (see below for some suggestions).
- Yes, if you convert gold to gems when everyone else is doing so and you pay attention to the rates, i.e. you do the math.
- No, only if you convert gold to gems and you pay no attention to the math.
Here are a couple of ways for even the poorest among us to have enough gems available during sale periods. Pick the one that suits your personality and finances:
- Fixed gem purchase: buy the same number of gems once per week (or per day|month). Some gems will be bought too high, but more will be bought for less. Suggested amounts 25 gems/day or 150 gems/week.
- Fixed gold conversion: same idea, fixing the amount of gold you convert. Suggested amount 50g/month (your daily income), 25g/week (not that hard to save up).
- Conditional conversion: buy whenever the rate drops below X. My current target is anything below 100 gold for 400 gems (about as low as the rate has been in the past 12 months). Invest as much as you can afford or a fixed amount each time it happens.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Simply put, is the gem price 20% more then what you typically see it as a non-sale situation? Let’s say you consider 100g/400 gems to be your “rarget”. If it’s at 125g/400 then you shouldn’t bother. If it’s 110 gems/400 gems and you don’t forsee it (or just not willing to wait for prices to drop down below 100g/400 gems, then you can give it a shot. But only if you really can’t wait for whatever reason. Maybe it’s limited time.
But yea, most of the time the only real way to take advantage by converting gems from gold is to do it when there aren’t sales, in advance. I usually convert gold I don’t need into gems.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
If your buying gems with gold during the sale then you are not getting as good as deal if you had exchanged gold for gems when there wasn’t a sale.
The key is to convert gold to gems when you get the most gems for your gold. Then sit on those gems for those inevitable impulse buys.
So in a way the rate change because of extra sales does negate the price drop. Especially with the ~20 percent sales. The 50 percent sales will usually stay a good deal despite the conversion rate changes.
So just think if your exchanging gold for gems the current sale might not be a better deal or as good as deal as you would think.
(edited by Cobrakon.3108)
Okay I looked at the title question and not the actual question in the body of the OP.
Likely not on popular items as they cause a rush to convert gold to gems and if you aren’t on the leading edge of that, you will pay more for the same amount of gems.
Best course of action is to buy gems on a regular basis outside of sales. I would buy gems with gold on Monday nights in the off chance that a highly desired item introduced on Tuesday would spike the exchange rate. If nothing end up in the store that day, well it’s not like gems go bad.
If you look at a gem exchange rate chart you will see there’s a general rhythm to the rate over the course of a day.
We are heroes. This is what we do!
RIP City of Heroes
RIP City of Heroes
Short answer: yes they are cheaper.
Longer answer: the gem-gold exchange is based on supply and demand (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Currency_exchange) of the participating playerbase. Obviously the price for gems will increase when more people are buying gems in a short amount of time. Thus the exchange turns less favorable for people exchanging gems for gold.
The increased requirement for gold is thus a direct result of the secondary exchange.
This can be circumvented as others have mentioned by stocking up on a supply of gems when conversion prices are more favorable.
So my question is, is it really worth it to buy a sale item from the gemstore when everyone is buying it, therefore increasing the conversion rate?
Short answer:
Probably not.Longer answer:
Currently, no.
Usually the gold=>gem exchange rate fluctuates around 100g for 400 gems. Assuming this as a baseline for gem store purchases, a character slot that’s not on sale is worth ~200g (800 gems).Currently, the gold=>gem exchange rate is 129.85g for 400 gems. At that exchange rate, the gold price of a character slot under the sale is 207.6 gold. So at the moment, you’ll spend about as much gold on one as you usually would when there was no sale going on.
That being said, if you are purchasing a character slot with USD or some other real world currency then it truly is a sale. The same can be said if you already had gems on hand from a prior gold=>gem exchange at a lower rate or the average rate.
I don’t know why I didn’t realise it before…I’ve been rushing to sell important stuff for gold so I can convert to gems for sale events. But actually it’s not really a sale.
So now whenever there is a sale, I won’t convert any more. I don’t think it’s worth it. Just save up money to buy whatever gemstore item I need during non-sale event, the conversation rate is better.
Please nerf bag types instead of class skills!
Gem store prices, and sale prices, are always based around the cost of buying gems with real money. Likewise sales and other promotions are based on that.
The gold to gems exchange is basically a courtesy and/or a way for Anet to legitimately claim you don’t need to spend extra money after buying the game. (And probably a way to allow players to buy gold with real money without other players complaining that it’s ruining the game, or actually ruining the game with uncontrolled inflation.)
Because the price is based on the number of people converting gold to gems and gems to gold it changes constantly, so it’s not really practical to try and offer a sale based on that price, because every time someone converted gold to buy the sale item (or anything else) they’d have to reduce the price even further and then it’d get down to absurdly cheap prices, especially for people who are buying gems with real money, and ultimately Anet would lose money.
If you want to buy gems with gold and take advantage of sale prices you really need to plan ahead – save up your gold and convert it to gems whenever the exchange rate is good (usually when there isn’t a sale going on) then save those gems until the items you want are on sale.
Yes it’s annoying to have to do that, especially if you haven’t saved enough by the time the item you want appears. But that’s kind of the idea. They want players to ‘give in’ and spend real money because that’s what keeps the company and the game running.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
So now whenever there is a sale, I won’t convert any more. I don’t think it’s worth it. Just save up money to buy whatever gemstore item I need during non-sale event, the conversation rate is better.
That’s not an accurate lesson either.
Sure, don’t convert during a 20% discount period — the conversion rate will probably go up by 15-25%.
However, it doesn’t go up by 50%, so it’s still worth converting during a 50% discount period. And it’s always worth converting when there aren’t any major new items or discounts going on (which is the vast majority of time).
tl;dr Plan ahead, don’t rush to catch up.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
It’s a sale because for people who buy gems with real money they get more for their gems. Also applies to those who stored gems up using gold->gems before the sale.
Yup, that’s what I did. I bought five character slots. I would have bought more, but I’m unemployed right now …