Observation and Question about high-end Miniatures

Hi all,

First off, I want to say that I don't have enough ecto to own any of the truly high-end minis in Guild Wars, so my thoughts are likely irrelevant. Hopefully, one day, I'll be able to afford a Ghostly Hero (ded is fine with me); there's nothing else to save for, anyway.

I am curious, however, about the pricing of the sell-my-soul-and-maybe-my-car minipets. These include the Kanaxai, Panda, and Island Guardian (maybe the MKG, but it's too early to say much about it).

What is most interesting to me is the price of the Panda and I.G. These pets are almost twice as common as a Visu, but the prices are far, far greater for them. I could understand these prices under some circumstances, but not with the current player base of the game.

If the game were dominated by girls who found the Panda cute or Asian players who wanted the pet for cultural reasons, the price would be understandable. Likewise, if the majority of players smoked week on a regular basis, the IG's price would make sense.

But most of the players are Western males (ages fairly irrelevant, imo, for this observation). It seems to me that this demographic would be more interested in showing off a sexy little assassin girl (Visu), especially when she is twice as rare as the Panda or IG.

I, for one, know quite a few more people with Pandas than Visu, so it's not that all of the Pandas are on dead accounts. And what is the most odd to me is that I know more players who want Visu than want either of those two pets. Hell, I know more people who want Polar Bears than Pandas.

The reasoning for the prices truly escapes me. The upside, at least, is that players who want the mini for reasons other than powertrading for crazy amounts of armbraces have a fairly realistic chance to own a Visu.

What are your thoughts? I must conclude by saying I fully understand why Kanaxai has its current price; a demon dual-wielding axes is pro.

Sorry for the epic amount of text. At least I broke up graphs for you

I see sense in a lot of what you say. Obviously it's all up to the demand, but I see why you think Visu would be worth more than all but Kanaxai. Especially considering the rarity of Visu; I actually didn't know she was more than twice as rare as panda of island guardian...gg

Personally, Visu is my favorite. I just sold one a week ago or so, and already I miss her. qq

::runs off to buy a Visu::

one of the 'minority' here.....panda is far cuter than the anorexic sin girl.....think even men might see that.

Don't know if this is allowed or not. But the gwauctions.org/ site usually has far better prices when it comes to mini's that the GW guru auction site. Hope that helps.

Really? Panda doesn't even look like its namesake, and if you want cute, the polar bear looks better imo...

yes the panda or the polar bear...either/both are cuter than Vizu...and BIGGER (hey maybe size does mater???)

It's about prestige. It's cultural, and that's often idiosyncratic.

Vizu is undesirable because you can't see her in town. She's tiny, and thus hard to show off.

Kanaxai is extremely tall; couple that with extreme scarcity and you've got the recipe for off-the-chart pricing.

Panda and Island Guardian are showy; you can't miss either in district.

Shiro'ken and Zhed are also quite rare, but they just don't have the cultural cachet that the IG and Panda have. They just aren't as showy, and they were released after IG and Panda had established their place as the most desirable options for those without a Kanaxai.

an acquaintance of mine had a kanaxi, a panda and an island guardian all out at once (on three accounts), all beside each other. the only compliments and wows he got was for the panda.

and i agree with martin, vizu is a skinny, tiny invisible stick.

But seriously, this comment coupled with most of Martin's argument make it seem like a person insecure about one's 'epeen' needs the showy pet, and that's why panda/IG are BIG commodities.

I know I always received loads of comments about my Visu in groups and quite a few even in Kama, but if one wanted even more attention, bigger would be better.

Gotta say though, I wish Visu were the eternal/ghost version.

The OP makes alot of bad points to begin with. The reason you see more Pandas than Vizu's is because people who have the money to afford Panda's can often also afford other rare Minis and since you can only have 1 Mini out at a time, people would rather put out a mini that looks more prestigious.

Also, the price of an items is not necessarily well represented by its rarity, obtainability, looks etc. Alot of people are turned off from pets like Vizu because of its looks and size (personally Vizu is my favorite, but I know most hate it).

When it comes down to it, its all about epeen. The Mini Panda and Mini Kanaxai are renowned throughout GW, the Mini Zhed.. well most noobs don't even know what it is.

It's very common in "luxury" markets that price are dominated by highly subjective factors, such as appeal and social rarity. By social rarity I mean that a small part of the community tends to control the perception of the level of rarity, and you guessed it they're generally the sellers! So in other words, sellers tend to make crazy offers and then present their case to buyers by explaining how "rare" the stuff is (not mentioning that other minis almost as rare are way cheaper) and stuff like, where the mini came from, when it was created, who had it, etc.

With time, this phenomenon tends to become much worse, as sellers can continue this trend easily by relying on their first sell and a community of "rare sellers" become known. This is powertrading pushed to the extreme, where money margins are in stacks of ectos I guess. A world I'll never, ever be part of and I'm very happy that way .

I feel it has something to do with the panda mini being very distinguishable when you first see it. Almost any player who is knowledgeable about the game has heard about the mini panda, and as such when they see one they say "omg wtf panda!" while if you were to notice a Visu, you might mistake it for a different humanoid minipet of much lesser value. Personally if I saw a Visu I wouldn't be impressed until I learned about its rarity or price, but even when knowing that, I feel it wouldn't have that omg factor like the mini panda, island guardian, or kanaxai does.

Let's grab an analogy : Take a Rolex and a IWC, put em both on the table, and watch what people grab. Righto. Next one : Grab a Maglite and a Fenix, and watch which one people take. Want another one? Ferrari versus an SSC Aero. Then now look up the real prices of the stuff, and other required specs. It's about fame, not about rarity. I get much much more comments on my Kuun, than my cele piggy will ever get. (no, i wish i owned a panda to compare :P Though if i looked at the comments in a district, there was some shouting when pandas were sighted... )

Here is your answer straight up...

MEN - most men - LOVE WOMEN

Women LOVE Panda's

Men get Women with Panda...

Nuff said?

Also with Gwen and other female pets does it not seem a bit twisted that a man of 40 could OWN a little Girl of 10?

ALso, why do some men buy Really BIG trucks with Giant Wheels? Well psychologically speaking its because they have an inadequate self image of them selves and their "man hood". Small - thing - equals ^ desire to be something.

So men with large toys have a small....
Just ask froid

It's worth noting that, according to recent Nielsen research, "females 25 years and older make up the largest block of PC game players, accounting for 46.2 percent of all players and 54.6 percent of all game play minutes in December 2008."

From my own experience, I can say Guild Wars doesn't seem to be as "dominated" by males as one might think.

That said, I'm not sure I can agree with the theory that pandas are desired more by females than males.