future price of ZKeys

Hey all,

I can see from a certain standpoint, that 5000 balth faction = 5 normal skills = ~5k = zkey. But with the everlasting tonics from the zchest repeating themselves in a few months, and constant flux of players finding out about xunlai predictions, will it make any difference?

Do you think the price of ZKeys will remain relatively stable over 2009?

It will only if players say it will.
Players control economy. And player's opinions spread other opinions.
Perhaps if this thread wasn't brought up, it wouldn't of been questioned and would stay at 5k.

It's hard to sell for 5k, but people will use it as a stable trading item all time I guess.

I think the high supply is being controlled well by the high demand and usage of these keys. Then again I'd like to see the cost of the keys fall to make the cost of the title a little less exorbitant.

Now I haven't played this game in months, but last I played no one would buy keys for 5k. They were always going for around 2.5-3.5k (sometimes cheaper if you were lucky). Did the price go back up?

Were you here for the tonics and title and junk :S?

the prices will most likely spike in the last month (or two) of new release tonics, since general opinion will be that ANET saved the best tonic for last...max i can see them going for is ~6k/ea. then they will prolly drop to ~4-4.5k.

honestly, over the past few months people have become more accustomed to trading in zkeys, so i don't see them fluctuating too much since they will likely still be used as currency.

I think just for the start of those coming.

It's kinda difficult for me right now because I have a Mac, and therefore can't play GW. I have "obtained" a copy of Parallels and am now trying to get a Windows operating system. I want to get into GW again, though. I miss it

People are also buying cheap Prophecies and Factions accounts for the free Keys every month through XTH. It's a pretty big monthly influx when some people have over 10 accounts.

I don't know, for me I think the price will stay around the 4.5k to 5k range for a while. Kind of like ectos and shards pricing, it keep changing but never changed too drastically.

Althought if there was a rare tonic out there and the droprate is really small compare with other. The price per keys could go up since the demand goes up. I take it that a-net is releasing new tonic every month or are they going to repeat after a while?

http://www.guildwars.com/competitive...ishencalendar/

come May i'm pretty sure it goes back to phantasmal, which most still say is the best monthly tonic

I think this post is using "The Sky is falling" mind set. First, we just got done w/ wintersday.

Wintersday = lots of people going for gamer title. A LOT OF ZKEYS in market.
MAT = Multiple accounts doing predictions makes LOTS OF ZKEYS in market.
PVP Weekends = LOTS OF Balth farming. A LOT OF ZKEYS on the market.


The beginning of each month zkeys are low due to supply, then when the tonic comes out, sometimes it goes up, but not often due to the supply. Towards the middle of the month keys go back to the 5K range. Why? because everyone buying at 4.5k will resell at 5k. It only takes one or two people to control the zkey market. If you have enough gold, you can create a false shortage of keys by buying them up. The price will more than likely rise.

The price increased when the title was introduced, before it was about 2.5k to 3k. Once most people who want the title get it maxed or at least to the rank they want, then it will start going down. However it will not go down by much as people want to use ZKeys like Ectos are used, as a means to bypass the 100k trading limit.

As such, it will probably stay in the 4k-5k area, just decreasing to about 4.2k to 4.5k instead of being 4.7k to 5k.

Is it set in stone that the tonics will repeat? As for Zkey prices, I see anywhere from being bought at 4.5k to 5.3k, with 4.8k being the main as of lately.

Zkeys will completely worthless by the end of 2009. Just as you mentioned that more and more people participate in the Xunlai house every month. There is another statistic that is also increasing. Which is more people are getting multiple accounts and farming zkeys and eventually everyone will cave in and have 10-20 Xunlai House accounts. There will be a day in GW when those that still bother to play the game will all be harvesting 1000 or more Zkeys per month making the keys worthless. My suspicion is that the entire mechanic will go away soon. The effects on the economy have already been devastating.

Agreed with Belladonna.

A LOT of people where playing snowball arena during wintersday. The price drop we see over the past few weeks is due to the oversupply of faction that was spent on zkeys.

Edit: @Shadowspawn. What "effect" on the economy. Z-keys just transfer money from one group of individuals to another. It does not "create" weath (like money droping on the ground) or "remove" it (ie, buying things from merchants). It has very minimal inflation/deflation effects.

Zkeys will stay stable at 5k as long as people continue to refuse to sell lower and people refuse to buy higher. If too many people start to try and undercut others to sell their keys faster the price will fall. This goes the other way too if enough people begin to sell keys at a higher price the price will rise.

....Accept for the many, many 1000's+ being "created" per month.....

lol nice stab at trying to lower the prices of zkeys, but, I've been getting 5k for them for the last 3 months regularly. There's alway the small mediocre crowd that tries to get them for less, but, persistant sellers will wait for the ones willing to pay the 5k which is pretty often. Never takes me long to unload the 50 I sell at a time.

Basically, zkeys are a better currency option than ecto, and will probably remain pretty stable in price. With ecto, once you bought fow, chaos gloves, and whatever other crap you want, the stacks just sit in inventory. There's no real way to remove them from 'circulation' except to get more armor for your mule and secondary chars. And after that... nothing. Zkeys are constantly being removed from 'circulation' by being used on the zchest. Even if you're not using them, other people are. There's a constant steady demand for them - yes the price will go up or down a couple hundred gold depending on if there's been a double balth weekend or xunlai handout, but in general it'll stay the same.