Guild Wars 2

With the introduction of the newest patch, several new inscriptions have been added into the game. These can only be obtained by salvaging non-craftable exotic weapons. However, to offset the ease of obtaining these inscriptions, you must also add 5 ectos to the mix. Thus, the recipe for the greatsword will be: blade + hilt + inscription (settler’s, dire, magi’s, rabid, etc.) + 5 ectos. Insignias, of course, are not used in weaponsmithing recipes. I wish you the best of luck in your crafting ventures!

Thanks for posting your results; however, you may as well have salvaged greens along with those since the pop-up confirmation window has been removed as of this patch.

The spread in TP prices is generally larger for “slower markets” (less often purchased/sold) and smaller for “faster markets” (more often purchased/sold) (but you probably knew that already). “The spread” can often increase and decrease without warning due to sudden shocks to the market. Like the gem “spread,” it is does not, in itself, cause anything to happen. It is inherently a product of other forces at work (e.g. someone suddenly buys up 5000 of an item and drives up the price by 50g – now the spread has increased by 50g —- and vice versa) and is acted upon by players seeking profit. Through competition in the market, the spread will eventually reach a level appropriate to the item’s market. Though the spread may remain the same, the price levels may have fallen or risen (and so inflation may have increased or decreased). Thus the “value” of gold is not affected by “the spread,” but rather, as intuition would have it, inflation.
———————
Your argument is correct – any talk of gem price inflating the economy is certainly hogwash. However, that is not due to any spread or peanut butter or margarine. It’s due to a combination of factors – an increase in the amount of gold held by players (“wealth effect”), a increase in the demand for gems, and perhaps (but not necessarily) inflation. Your argumentative points seem to be a bit confusing – perhaps you mixed up gems and gold at one point?
ANET does tend to lean towards deflating the economy (to encourage new players to stay players, for starters), but in recent updates this policy seems to have been flipped on its head. In the long run, I expect gold to be “steadily drained from the game” but right now, with wp price reductions and such, there seems to be more gold than usual in the GW2 economy. Inflation has occurred in certain markets, and deflation has occurred in others, per usual. I expect recent events have been the product of short-run shocks to the economy, and will eventually level out (this, assuming ANET has a plan laid out).

TL:DR –
Reasoning is wrong on two points – “the spread” does not decrease dollar value (dollar value/gem purchased is a constant ratio) or gem/gold value (supply/demand of gems/gold in the market determines this), and a gem buyer will not spend more real money to buy a non-TP item. Otherwise, the facts are correct, though in all honesty the argument was a bit pointless (objectively speaking – no offense intended!) Thank you for speaking your mind!

TL:DR —- below

First off, I agree with your comments about the rising price/value of gems in terms of gold, the static price of gems in terms of real dollars, and the existence of “the spread.” However, I feel as though your argument has been founded on a rather shaky premise, as the price of gems (or “the spread”) has not, in itself, caused a decrease in the real value of real dollars.

Since people are buying gems with cash, gems with gold, and gold with gems, things are not so one-sided. Yes, with some of ANET’s recent additions to the game (Champ boxes, Crown Pavilion, etc etc.), some people have acquired stupendous amounts of gold. Also, with these “10 days of sales” that is occurring right now, people have been, in general, demanding more gems than usual. As such, multiple factors have contributed to the increase in gem prices.

When you say that a “gem buyer, using real money to buy a non-TP item is going to spend more real money for that item,” you would be incorrect in saying this if this gem buyer were purchasing an item from the gem store (non-TP). The fact of the matter is that, as you correctly pointed out, gem price in terms of real dollars is a static value and has not changed since the start of the game. Therefore, gem buyers would be paying the same amount ($20 for 1600 gems or a Molten Alliance mining pick + Consortium harvesting sickle) for any gem store item they may wish to buy. They would not be spending more real money for that item due to any reason.

If they wanted to purchase a TP item by converting gems into gold, they would be obtaining a nominally larger sum of gold than they previously would have. Since prices are constantly changing on the TP and there is no set “basket of goods” that we can account, there is really no way to feasibly calculate inflation in the GW2 TP unless we ask ANET directly. So the player may or may not be spending more real money for current TP items. They are, however, getting more gold for their real money today (relative to 2 months – or even 2 weeks – ago). This fact is indisputable – just look at the data on the Currency Exchange.

“The spread” in gem prices is hardly applicable to any short-term economic events. People will not sell 100 gems for gold, and then “flip” this gold for <100 gems. That’s just silly thinking. “The spread” is, in the end, just a variable that is determined by a fixed ratio. It is there to deter people from feasibly “flipping” gems and gold in the short term. It does not affect the value of real life dollars in terms of the quantity of gems able to be purchased.

I believe they meant this Tuesday as in this week’s Tuesday, or August 6. However, there is reason to believe that the achievements will be available for 4 weeks, until a month from August 6.

Unfortunately, I doubt any players who know what items invest in will care to share their ideas with you, as doing so will inevitably decrease their profits. You are better off doing some good hard research on your own, and in doing so you will hopefully discover unexploited niches. I do not recommend converting gold into gems unless you have a spectacular amount of gold.

^ Both things are true, though there have been proportionately more people going to CP than people farming. Regardless of whether people have stopped crafting, there are many more players now who desire gold% increase. Also, it’s now just a lot easier to enter into the CP instance than it was to find a good dungeon party.

However, now that people are starting to grow weary of endlessly running CP, I expect the prices to drop now or soon.

Dragonfly Cupcakes do not offer the 40% gold increase that Omnomberry Bars do. As you so correctly implied, the main reason people used bars was to increase their gold gains from boss/monster kills. The magic find gained from using the bars is equal to most other magic find boosting foods from the same tier. Thus, people who care more about MF would purchase dragonfly cupcakes, while people who care more about direct gold gains would purchase the bars (assuming the gains would outweigh the cost of the bar). Since the Crown Pavilion boasts a small but densely populated area, players are able to more efficiently utilize the gold% increase stat, and players have preferred and will prefer the bars more (Dungeons previously offered 20-30s per boss kill, which compensated for the lack of steady monster slaying).

Dragonfly Cupcakes currently sell for less than 1/6 of the price of omnomberry bars.

The price has gone up because over the course of the last few days people have massively relocated to the Crown Pavilion, which is densely populated with gold-dropping mobs. Demand for those bars has thusly increased, and price has correspondingly increased. I’m sorry, but at least it was just a 60 c loss/bar (unless you sold 250+ bars).