Are the prices too high?

Hey i was just wondering how you guys are thinking about the rare material prices. i just calculated that i need 1620k to buy obsidian armor. in my opinion that's no fun anymore.....
Why are there no limits on the prices?

I have seen the prices of ectos as high as 17k each (6y ago) and low as 3k each (2y ago?)... a matter of supply and demand, that is how the economy works.

For myself i have quite a few chars who completed all campaigns and eotn, so i am able to do a lot of zaishen quests (especially the easier one). And i sell my gold coins for ecto's... that was a big help when i had to buy my stuff for hom.

Obsidian armor is meant to be expensive and difficult to get.... that said, my brother had 5 sets.

Get a client paying 125 per kill for AFK vanquishing service, vanquish from entire tyria in a couple of days, you got it.

I spent around 1.8 million on mine way back when. So no, the prices of things aren't too high.

They're higher than they have been because there's a bigger demand due to the HoM.

Obsidian shards are higher, ecto are same level as they've been for ages.

if you do uwsc or fow enough you will get a goodly amount of both ecto and shards--buying the rest with the cash you made from those runs. (no, I still dont have a set of fow--not even close since I cant handle farming).
hubby has been saving up for his ranger's fow since he first saw the armor--almost 7 years ago. He is not even half way

For me the price has always been too high, so ive never even been interested, not to mention i'd buy it and get bored of the "look" in 2 weeks >_>.
The good news: getting it is as useless in guildwars 1 as it is going to be in guildwars 2 (hom reward) just a look :P.

The prices:
1)If "rich" people are after Ecto its good, it opens a WHOLE new farming revenue for lower end players.
2)Gamers need Exclusive high end stuff, to reward high end playing.

I have to say this but ( and dont take any offence ) long time ago i believe fow armor was even higher price for materials and thats back 3 - 4 yrs.
Ask any veteran players if they can recall how much runes were a few years back and especially superier vigor.
Another thing that can affect prices is dependent of what skills gets buffed / nerfed , if uw becomes easier then ecto prices fall usually and if anet decides to make uw harder ( for sc`ers ) then prices rise due to them being harder to farm.

I have one question tho and its a paradox to me - does anyone actually buy/sell ectos to npcs ?
Ive seen prices rise and lower by 1 -2k thru a week and i used to assume ectos were always on player market and the npc price stood its ground for ages but sudden hikes makes me wonder whats the cause .Is someone buying a huge amount off npc ( and why off npc ) or are ppl selling loads to npc to lower price ?

Yep, sometimes it can prove cheaper to just buy from the merch or sell to the merch for a higher profit than what people are prepared to pay for them.

Then of course you have people that get them and don't realise what they're worth and just merch them by mistake.

Well it is supposed to be a "prestigious armor" and hard to get which is why it is placed FoW. Now it might not seem so hard to the crafter, but it still has that nice price tag which it should. That said I have over 10 sets and I've seen ecto prices much higher and lower in the time I've played. If you farm consistently the money comes in rather quickly.

Prices are exactly what they should be, no more and no less. It comes down to who is selling and who is buying.

No one is forcing you to buy obi, so if you don't like it, don't buy.

Just wait until GW2 comes out and hardly anyone plays GW anymore - you'll get your ectos for almost nothing!

do people actually do that - pay to get areas vanquished for them?

Or you will have to pay MUCH more. Supply and demand after all. When less people play, less people farm and sell ectos = higher prices

Aye. It's more common for people to ask just a few of the harder areas than an actual full campaign (though that happens as well) but there's quite some demand for it still.


On the topic of prices, simple supply and demand really, who am I to argue with that

Provided you have access to everywhere in the game, you can also farm Nick materials to sell for a handy profit each week. Spend a day or two farming up all the materials for say 5 full sets of gifts and they'll generally sell for about 10k per set on average, sometimes more and sometimes less.

Once you've done that and you open your own gifts, you can also sell any items in the set that you don't want to keep - I regularly sell my red/blue/green rock candies and that also nets up to an extra 10k a week too.

50k a week profit from Nick materials stashed away will cut down that bill for elite armor pretty quickly.

I've had people pay me 100k just to get a Rragar's NM done while they were AFK. xD Or 15e for a FoW quest clear in NM that takes about an hour. Or 30k for a ~18-20 min armor run. You'd be shocked to know how much money some people are willing to drop on getting something done easy. Not having to set up their own heroes for a campaign clear for instance but just cruise around while I do the main part of the work.

Of course, the key here is to position your self in the market so that you find the big spenders instead of just getting stuck doing missions that can fail due to chance. And having the game knowledge needed so you don't need to mess around, find your way, fail or similar. When it comes to Guild Wars i have an almost eidetic memory lol.

The best way to get money is DoASC, while an elite area that is difficult to get into without guidance from a guild, it is by FAR the most profitable and will get you obby armor in a couple of days. (20 gems a run = 1/3 of a brace = 8e, 1 run = ~40minutes = 12e/hour+drops)

I expect there IS a limit on the prices.

Unfortunately for you, that limit is not low enough to let you get obsidian armour for peanuts. It's probably 100K or something - the maximum amount your character can carry.

If there was a low limit... obsidian armour would probably not be prestigious, HoM wouldn't accept it, and you wouldn't be wanting it in the first place.

I think it's still pretty cheap for what is suppose to be a super elite armor. :/
I only got 2 because I only like the mesmer and elementalist and think the rest looks outdated (and crap, the warrior being the worst).

We all saw that inflation coming years ago, HoM or not. Well HoM did give it a boost but this would have happened anyway.

Here's exactly why:

It is the result of mass exploitation of a loophole with the rare material trader, or any traders with pricing flux.

The Rare Material Trader sets his prices based on the supply and demand that he gets from the players. Ofcourse he adds a little "conveniance" tax when buying or selling through him. Players set there prices based on what the Rare Material Traders's prices are, undercutting his sale price slightly.

So is it therefore better to buy rare mats from players since you get a better deal buying or selling?

Well... in the short term, yes. Not as conveniant but hey you save a little cash for doing your own leg work. The catch is that player prices are based on those of the Rare Material Trader, and guess who's just been left out of the tradeloop.

Now with a diminishing supply, and steady demand since some people still buy from the Rare Material Trader out of conveniance, (serroiusly, who's never at some point gone "screw it, I'll just buy from the trader") he has no choice but to slowly push his prices up. Player prices - based on Mat Traders prices - will go up aswell because we're all greedy #&%s . Add a few years of this and here we are now.

This is where you hear those stories of "Dudeee!! three years ago Ectos were 4k and Rubies/Sapphires were 3k and Obby shards were 2k at the trader OMG!!! kill me nowwww" etc etc.

2 possible simple solutions: either Anet set new limits on the max/min prices the Rare Mat Trader can sell/buy units at (closely based on current/passed prices not something riduculous like 100k max per unit), or stop playing GW - prices will go crazy but you won't care because you'll be playing something else.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy having a dynamic trade system, where one can maybe get better deals depending on the time of day or whats in fashion. Just not too keen on the infinate inflation as it gets lame after a few years.

I hope that GW2 will have all its trade issues and exploits well sorted, either at release or soon after once they've seen the new trade systems in action.

Inflation rant over.

Now at those moaning over high prices, trust me, you'll make the money you need no problem if you spend more time actually playing the game, and less time standing around in Kammadan or your guild hall.

Well,no obby isn't that hard to get.It's sort of common nowadays,I don't even enjoy having it anymore.
But there are many farms around just see what you're comfortable with and make money.
But ye the other poster is completely correct

If you think prices are expensive now u were not around in the early days when ecto reached as high as 13k/ea at material trader and shards got as high as 7k/ea before shadow form changed all that...

You can expect it to go up more... the less people in this game grinding away in farming... the less supply... the higher the price because these items will always be in demand for HoM.

If the price for the materials is too high for you, consider farming the drops in UW and FoW directly, or join SC groups. It's really not that hard to solo farm there, but it may take a while to collect all the ecto and shards. Obsidian armor is supposed to be rare and expensive, and it is definitely optional.

Weee the good old days before even I was playing. I take it supply was lower then. Overfarming would later drop all the prices.

Supply isn't the issue today though. Ecto sellers are everywhere, everyone is farming them. The Mat Trader is just not seeing any of that supply. There's the current inflation.

save 100k then 200k power trade you will get it we all did somehow and we are not so rich in game