The original post was on Jan 10th, today is the 31st. If you go to Ragnarok's IGE page now it doesn't just say "out of stock," the page is literally almost blank with a blurb about no items for sale. A simple google search for Ragnarok gil yields similar results - I think all the gil selling websites are out of Ragnarok gil (although I wonder how many are owned by IGE).
I hope you all realize what this means...gil buying is no longer a factor in our economy, and hasn't been for some time after the holiday season! Since the noobarific gilbuyers no longer have mass amounts of currency onhand to pay ridiculous prices, this should reflect in lower AH prices for certain items, right? Well...not exactly. As of today:
Peacock Charm - 26 mil
Igqira Weskit - 10 mil (reached 13 mill over holidays)
Byrnie - 13 mil (reached 16 mil over holidays)
Scorp Harness - 13.5 mil (16 mil and higher over holidays)
O. Kote - 8.5 mil (over 12 mil over holidays)
Serket Ring - 20 mil
So there is a slight decrease, but definitely the prices are not "normal." Why is this exactly, if there hasn't been any gil buying for weeks? Who are these people still paying high prices?
Some theories...maybe enough time hasn't gone by yet? Perhaps too much damage to the economy had already been done over the holidays? Or maybe...gilbuying/selling helped push the prices way up...but its the normal players who now perpetuate the price increase? I know for a fact that if I put my SH up for sale right now, I will try to get what the current rate is, not what I payed for it so long ago.
One thing is clear in all of this, people have been complaining about the economy since I first started playing...but lets face it, inflation and high prices are here to stay. SE will do little or nothing to fix things. To survive you simply have to play the game smarter...or choose not to play at all.
-F
Edited, Tue Jan 31 02:41:05 2006 by Faiye
Edited, Tue Jan 31 02:41:11 2006 by Faiye
Edited, Tue Jan 31 02:41:36 2006 by Faiye