Ecto Market

Ecto will always be 6500-7000g to me, no matter what the rare material lady says.

Ok once the rare material lady starts selling them for 4,500g again, I'll pm you and sell for 6,500g

Well, when I said a few days I wasn't really thinking. I really meant "eventually", but I suppose a lot can happen to people and their investments before "normality" returns (if it ever does, of course).

I also meant 6.5 (typo), IE: 15/100k (and I know that's technically 97.5, but that's how the average GWs player viewed things and I was using it as a standard).

Regardless, it's the same thing: I was basing it on the history of previous spikes that had lasted a few days only, which wasn't the most educated of claims.

All in all, I thank you for the education. I reckon you should ignore the trolls though, when you get riled up it makes your points more difficult to digest.

Jason Xll, I thank you for your most informative post's on this matter. I found this information really interesting & apreciate the lengths you went to to provide such informative feedback. GG

I noticed e was selling at trader for 9.5K last night. Wonder how high it will run.

Thank you for your posts Jason they were quite informative, and everything aside, sarcasm is one of he greatest pleasures in life!

What I have seen from Guild Wars over the past 4 years is very much the (I cant seem to find the name of this theory, but someone will know after my horrible attempt of trying to explain this).
When something is new on a market the price is high due to its demand and crawls up to its peek point until most buyers have the wanted item, then the item slowly starts degrading in price until it is available for everyone.
In Guild Wars I have seen this with greens and miniatures.

Since ectos are used for high end transactions could it be possible that the spikes and drops in ecto prices are related to increased (selling/buying) activity and new items being released?

Before someone catches a flaw in this theory I will put it out there myself, this didnt seem to happen with the WoC/WiK-items that were introduced. Which on itself can be explained by that they are nicely named (and that is it).

I scribble this while thinking so if sometimes my sentences dont make total sense, that's why

Ah I love this thread!

Jason, thanks so much ! Although it seems you have been banned. Hmm, anyone know why?

To bring us up to date, I have been watching ecto prices rise and rise! They are currently trading @ 10k from the mat trader. I thought there was no way they were going to go over 9k...but I was wrong. I quickly sold all my ecto for cash last night, as I don't think the prices will stay up.

A pet peeve of mine: when prices rise on something like ecto, but people in game REFUSE to pay more. They insist on paying what they paid 2 months ago, even though what they offer is far less than you could sell it to the merchant. An example conversation:

IIIXX Douche-slayer XXIII : WTB Ecto 6k / each

Me: Hi, i have ecto at 9K, which is the midrange price at the trader right now.

IIIXX Douche-slayer XXIII : WTB Ecto 6k / each...i said

Me: yes its gone up in price recently, have you checked? i can sell to the merchant for 8k each...so why would I sell it to you for less than that?

IIIXX Douche-slayer XXIII : Sell to merch then Noob

*Sigh*

Trading for me is the "game within the Game" that lots of other games (i.e Diablo 2) really lacked. I love buying and selling and trying to make a profit! GW economy really has a long way to fall before it gets to the level of degeneracy that Diablo 2 had...

It's not because of the past but the because of the future. If someone pays 9k each for ectos then the next day they plummet to 5k each it makes them feel retarded that they didn't wait.

There's nothing wrong with being a merchant but the problem with Guild Wars is if someone needs something they usually have to spam for a long time till they get it and that keeps them from playing the game. While GW does have a long way to go before becoming D2's economy it has major flaws that make it less than what it could be. The main flaw of GW's economy is there's nothing to do at the end of PvE besides make money. Usually games have prolonged endgame full of achievements that it keeps the economy and community healthy for a very long time. This is where SF really screwed things up. It's also very annoying to try and sell something for a decent price, no where near power trader prices, and have nothing but lowballers trying to get a deal just because they like to sit in kamadan all day hitting enter, up and enter constantly.

Back on topic, I would like to know exactly why ecto prices have gone up and S&D is just a generalized reason. There is a reason why supply is dwindling and demand has gone up. It's either an abnormally high demand or an abnormally low supply and my guess is the latter due to people in kamadan asking to buy more than usual. I believe the culprit to be Skyrim as this started shortly after Skyrims release. I am not sure though.

Few days ago i saw ecto for 11500 at trader. Only for few hours, but still...

I still think they will go down during Canthan New Year because of nine rings

LOTS of peeps came back for the wintersday and canthan holidays---and have noticed that a something is going on possibly soonish for gw2....add this together with looking at your HoM and noticing that gee whiz olly!! I still havent gotten to 50/50 and you have:
higher prices at the merchants/materials traders

(diamonds, rubies, sapphires, even shards are all waaaay too high---though onyx is still very low----)

sometime in February when all the festivals are over and everyone has got that final piece of armor---it should stabilize again (I hope...I still havent gotten to 50/50!!)

Probably people were thinking the hm-ele update would destroy uwsc and started buying lots from trader to resell after the update but since uwsc is still doable just a couple mins slower the price should start going down...

I have noticed over the last couple of days that prices have fluctuated between 9.5k and 11k over the course of a few hours. Do different player numbers at different times of day and night really make that much of a difference?

That said, despite the 1.5k spread in price at trader, players were still insisting on 'WTB 13e=100k' when what sellers there are are offering 11e=100. This has allowed me to make a profit by offering to buy / sell around the margins. Not much I guess, but about 200k in 24 hours just from ecto trades.

If you make four very reasonable assumptions:

1) The number of botters is more or less constant at any given time.
2) Human activity varies according to more or less predictable patterns (eg: Steam's activity curve).
3) Botters are primarily responsible for item sales to the trader. (Automation forces them to eat the discount.)
4) Humans are primarily responsible for item purchases from the trader. (People with high time prices buy from the trader rather than the secondary market.)

then your observation makes sense.

After nearly 4 weeks off I thought I'd bring this thread back up and ask this question.

Did the CNY affect ecto prices in the way you expected? Did it affect prices at all?

I noticed that the rare mat trader was selling at between 8.5k and 9k which is a drop form the 9.5 - 11k we've seen recently, but I don't think in real terms there was much of a reduction in the 12e = 100k sellers.

Bear in mind that I live in New Zealand, so my normal online time (mid-evening) is 18 hours ahead of the American English Districts I frequent.

Ecto has dropped to about 8k from players as of last night.

Of course, some people are trying to get 14e/100k rather than the 12e that it is.

It was 8500-9k before CNY...its now dropping slightly.


I have started keeping my wealth in rubies and diamonds; they are much more stable

Sell sell sell!!!

7.5k from trader
something is wrong....

I believe many people are selling their ecto to the trader in order to buy festival items and finish off their titles.

its the same shit every year, nothing new