Market Report - still not getting better

Day 1,637, 03:44 • Published in USA Canada • by Wilhem Klink


Mixed messages abound on Day 1637.
Raw Materials stay even leaving the Raw Material Index at 51.11.

Food prices are mixed, with the ends (Q1 & Q6) holding and Q4 improving, but all else slipping. The Food Index moves .56 lower to 78.09.

Weapon prices are a mixed bag with Q4 strongly moving up in what we at the 1600 Index feel might be some odd system glitch. All other weapons move lower except Q3 which makes a positive push. The Weapon Index nonetheless moves upwards off Q4's strong upside, moving up .13 to 77.88

Wages push higher moving the Wage Index to 101.69.

Gold halts its four day slide and pushes the Gold Index up .84 to 124.34.

The Index:


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 turns negative off weak prices and higher gold. A player can now buy 273.3 gold over the course of a year at today's prices, down from 451 on Day 1600.



The movement in Q4 struck us as odd. We took a look at the movement in prices since Day 1600 quality by quality in weapons:


On Day 1620 there was some separation of the different weapons in terms of pricing. From 1600 to 1620, prices moved in a fairly tight group, and then Q6 begins to assert its value, followed by Q2 with Q4 bringing up the rear. They hold those positions until the 44% company upgrade on Day 1631, where everyone re-tightens except for Q6. But the reader should notice the green line (Q4) on the last day (today) as it shoots up. It is assumed that tomorrow there will be a large correction in Q4.

We also have a chart like that for foo😛


Its always interesting to see such a wide spread in pricing on food. As the Index has noted in the past, there's no benefit of a Q6 food over six Q1 foods except inventory space. They both give you 12 health. Whereas with weapons, a Q6 not only saves inventory space, it does more damage. The Index is of the opinion (which has been proven wrong over & over, but we still cling to it) that food, not weapons should have the tighter graph lines when showing relative prices. But, look, food is all over the place. Sure, some of that is due to the price: a small .05 cc movement in .50cc food means a greater percentage change than a .05cc movement in a 4.90cc weapon, but still it seems off.



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. Except the 1600 AU Index which represents an amount of gold one can buy given market conditions as noted in that section.

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