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As we have seen with the March Company Upgrade sale, prices fall dramatically during the sale and then take another 2-4 days before they recover. The Company upgrade party is over, but we've got a mess to clean up.

Raw materials prices hold, a sort of moral victory for raw material sellers, as the Raw Material Index stands at 51.11.

Food prices are mixed, but serious weakness of the low end (Q1 & Q2) push the Food Index down 1.8% to a record low of 77.78.

Weapons likewise fall to another record low (its 5th record low in a row) and the Weapon Index hits 77.61.

The relentless rise in wages continue as the Wage Index goes over Day 1600's wage resting at 101.02,representing 101.02% of Day 1600s wage.

Gold prices finally show a bit of weakness as the demand for gold lessens and the Gold Index drops to 125.72.

The 1600 Index:


And a closer look at recent events:



The 1600 AU Index
Based off of the amount of gold a player could earn in a year by working at market wage, selling 20 weapons, 200 food (both Q6) and 1750 raw materials (split 50/50 food/weapons) the 1600 AU Index finally catches a break. The drop in gold and pick-up in wages is enough to offset the minor declines in food & weapon prices as the Index rises to 274.23.

The Index over the last 10:



Yesterday The 1600 Index looked at profitability of weapon companies in the face of falling prices and rising wages. As the crack staff were sitting around admiring the weapon graphs, someone asked about food companies. Surely they're not nearly as profitable, are they? Think again, Einstein.
We slapped together another chart, submitted for your approval. The assumptions:
1) they buy all their raw materials on the open market;
2) they sell the finished goods at market prices, and ;
3) pay market wages.

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Once again, Q1-Q3 companies are for self-production: One can't make money with employees. Q4 is only profitable at low wages, and just like weapons, barely at that. Q5 once again does solid work until the recent collapse in prices, and Q6 is/was raking in some bucks. How does that compare to weapon companies? Asked & answered!



We didn't expect that. Q6 food companies have, more often than not, been more profitable than Q6 weapon companies. Were you wondering if we had a graph for Q5? We do!



Different story. Weapons come out on top almost all the time, although profit for either is closing in on breakeven.

Moving Averages

For those unfamiliar with a "moving average", in the following charts, The blue line represents the market price at 3:00 eRep time. The red line in the 5-day moving average (average of the last 5-days) of market prices. What that tells us is whether prices are trending downward (the market price is below the moving average) or trending higher (the market price is above the moving average)

Today we're back on the high-end (Q5 & Q6)
Weapons first:


That's the all-too-familiar big drop, stable price cycle. Although there was a nice 11 day period of stable prices before the upgrade sale mugged prices. Q6, next:



Typical of Q6: trails Q1-Q5 on prices. We think its interesting to note a Q6 today is cheaper than a Q5 on Day 1600.





Both heading south, yet to find the bottom.

And the Saturday Bonus graph, gol😛


The 1600 Index staff was happy to note that gold is now in a period of decline, falling below its 5-day average. But as Jimmy McMillan might say "Gold is too damn high" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4o-TeMHys0

Note: prices are reflective of a percentage of Day 1600's price (Hence the "1600 Index"). In other words if an index is quoted at 88, that days price is 88% of the price on Day 1600.

Methodology on prices: prices are taken at 3:00 eRep time. The price is the average price of buying 1,000 Raw materials, 500 Food, 100 weapons (at each quality level), and 8 gold, plus the market wage less any fraction of cc (so 240, rather than 240.1). All qualities are standardized to Q1 (per hit or per health).

Sic transit gloria mundi