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Something rare and exclusive always costs more, otherwise I'd go to my grocery store and buy myself a Ferrari tomorrow.
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People talk about supply and demand and have said the more of something there is the less the price will be. Also they said that the perfect stats and unique skins of greens would force the prices of rares to drop. Can't get any more WRONG. The only thing that dropped in price were the greens and those was only due to the ease of getting them. You know exactly where to go and who to kill to get a certain green and if you do the run enough times it's not a matter of if but a matter of when you will get one. The maxed state rare (gold) items are still (always have been and always will) insanely expensive. I've been to LA and Ascolon and watched the prices of the items being sold. You see nothing but the same rare items (same skin and stats) all being sold for roughly the same price. 100k+ sometimes including ecto. So where is the price drop? They're being sold all over the place at any given time in different districts so there is definitely a large supply. I see these WTS ads, go do some quests and missions then come back to see the same people trying to sell the same item(s). So there doesn't appear to be a strong demand yet the prices are still extremely high. It throws the whole supply and demand affecting prices out the window. Sure it has some effect but only a small one. However with that being said, I have noticed the prices dropping since they upped the drop rate of rare items. That only leaves me to conclude that the price is given to an item based on the odds of finding it rather than how many people have one. They know that if they stand there long enough someone will eventually come by to buy it and since everyone is selling it for the same high price it doesn't give the person much choice.
But where does the price come from? When I first started playing I used to follow a rule for value. If the item has a merchant value of 100 if it's white (normal) than that is the value, if it's blue then I would double it (200), if it's purple I would multiply by ten (1000) and if it's gold I would double and multiply by ten (2000). However I quickly found out that I was ripping myself off. Simply put, with no trader in the game that offers a price (since not everything found is for sale from a merchant or trader), the players themselves set the price. Now that those people got to gether (pretty much when the game was released) to form a community and as a community they determine a price that everyone abides by.
As for your reference to Ferraries, I'm not sure where to start. Let's see, they're not rare just expensive. The price of one has nothing to do with supply and demand or rarity (again, not rare). The price of exotic cars are determined their own way. I don't know the details off hand. Oh and you don't get them from a grocery store. You know those things that have the lots filled with parked vehicles some with price tags? They're called car dealerships. Say it with me now car, deal-er-ships.