Prices and Inflation

[Ledi]

I have noticed this for a while, but it was only tonight that it really hit home how much items in neopets have inflated.

I remember, when I was about a year old in Neopets, seeing a morphing potion in the magic shop, and thinking 'meh, that's about 5k more expensive than the wizard, even with haggling'. Today? Most of the potions are unbuyable, and the ones that can be bought are nearly all over 50k. Some are even millions! (i.e. The Draik Transmogrification that I dearly, dearly want and can't afford)

I bought my first and only petpet paintbrush for 1,200np. It was a blue one. I painted my Christmas Dogglefox. Now the paintbrushes are more expensive than some petpets!

Paint brushes for pets have gone up too, obviously and painfully. When I was a newbie, I remember seeing blue paint brushes for 5k, and, being the newbie I was, didn't buy them. Boy, I wish I had. Now I just have to keep items squirreled away in my SDB, hoping one day they'll be worth more than 30np. I can't remember any paintbrushes being over a million neopoints, yet here we are. You need to be a neomillionaire to afford to paint your pets in the latest styles.

What happened? Did the steady flow of neopians completely smurf the fragile balance of Neopian supply and demand? Was there anything that TNT could have done to keep prices low?

Well, of course there was. But the more expensive wanted items are, the longer people have to play and the more sponsor games and offers they might click. Instead of playing an hour of games to get a paintbrush, Neopians now have to play weeks worth, if not more, or spend hours refreshing a page to try and buy that one item out of ten or more that might supply them with a profit from a shop.

I'm deliberately not mentioning avatar-related items. They were just a bad idea. And Hidden Tower prices have simply risen over the years, along with everything else. This was just a little rant that I had wanted to type for a couple of months... I'm glad I could get it out.

[shapu]

The biggest change in morphing potions was the increase in rarity. Many of them used to be in the low R90s, which while uncommon, did not make them impossible to find in the shops.

However, last year the Neopets staff decided to change all morphing potions to R98 and R99...so they effectively stopped restocking. Morphing potions are commonly used in the high-end quests for Jhudora and Illusen, and of course people love changing their pets, so the use has outstripped the supply, and price has increased.

I have no idea why the price of paintbrushes has increased, but I'd imagine it's tied into the large number of freezings that have been occuring over the last couple of years - with many people being frozen, particularly rich folks, who hoard paint brushes, supply relative to neopian population has decreased.

[Qanda]

Another reason would be the increase in wealth of neopians. Whereas in the past a million np would seem like a very big deal and would take months or even years to amass, is now obtainable easily in a week or two. Therefore more people would be able to afford items, thus causing prices to inflate since people can now afford more. Those who have not experienced an increase in wealth are sadly doomed to be left in the lower spectrum of the neopian economy.

[Phlameseeker]

Another reason would be the increase in wealth of neopians. Whereas in the past a million np would seem like a very big deal and would take months or even years to amass, is now obtainable easily in a week or two. Therefore more people would be able to afford items, thus causing prices to inflate since people can now afford more. Those who have not experienced an increase in wealth are sadly doomed to be left in the lower spectrum of the neopian economy.

WOW, i wish i lived in your Neo world. lol. no matter what i do, i never seem to make more than like 5k a week. this is mostly because i SUCK majorly at most games, i cant restock to save my life, and i never seem to get the stock market right and end up either pulling out to early, or just investing in something that goes broke the next day. Plus theres the hackings and freezings, but i wont go there, lol.

[rbpnmn]

The morphiong potions were also affected by that dum av. I it made pteri MP's go up to like 50k! You used to be able to get em for about 12k. I saw a guy who had nothing but like 500 (I'm serious) red pteri MPs in his shop for 25k and they all sold out in less than 2 min! I honestly hate this inflation. Everything is costing more while I keep falling back because of my PC and the way neopets works! Gosh, it bugs me!

[Qanda]

WOW, i wish i lived in your Neo world. lol. no matter what i do, i never seem to make more than like 5k a week. this is mostly because i SUCK majorly at most games, i cant restock to save my life, and i never seem to get the stock market right and end up either pulling out to early, or just investing in something that goes broke the next day. Plus theres the hackings and freezings, but i wont go there, lol.

1 million np starts getting easier to make when you are richer. With more nps, you can make more investments (for example you can afford to let your np stay in stocks longer), and you can reap higher awards. Thus, the typical sad case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

But how did the rich get rich in the first place? That's the question. It's not because they have played for a longer time; some three-month-old accounts can have more than 5 mil worth of items sitting in trades already, while some people may have played for 40+ months but still haven't made their first million.

[Mistykal]

It's very true. The inflation has been caused mostly by TNT, with the avatars, and the high rarity, but some of the inflation has been caused by the players, For instance the inflaters, who stock up on tons of one item and causes it to inflate. But inflation isn't all that bad, it gives the game more challange, and makes it harder yet sometimes more fun to play.

[Ledi]

..while some people may have played for 40+ months but still haven't made their first million.

::hand goes up:: That'd be me.

I really doubt that they would be listened to, but has anyone ever had any ideas for levelling things out for people without high-speed internet and millions to invest already?

i'm interested in hearing any ideas.

[stampsyne]

You can almost NEVER get rich off of playing games. The money is in reselling. I don't buy an item unless I can make 5k off of it.

Inflation is so very terrible. I got my lab ray map for less than 115K total. Now they are 50K apeace. New items I need for my gallery are impossible to get. All those new shops... and you can never buy anything from them or find what they sell. It is SAD. I feel sorry for newbies out there. They don't have a chance.

EDIT: I don't restock much either. Although Kayla potions can really give you a big profit. Bought for 7K sold for 400K. It's INSANE!

Last edited by stampsyne on Sat Oct 02, 2004 3:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Neopetsaddictv2.1]

You can NEVER get rich off of playing games. The money is in reselling. I don't buy an item unless I can make 5k off of it.

Inflation is so very terrible. I got my lab ray map for less than 115K total. Now they are 50K apeace. New items I need for my gallery are impossible to get. All those new shops... and you can never buy anything from them or find what they sell. It is SAD. I feel sorry for newbies out there. They don't have a chance.

i sell everything 1k cheaper cause wel i can

[jellyoflight]

I remember when Moehog Trans. Potions were like 5k..I bought one...but I used it *wails*

[xjox]

You can NEVER get rich off of playing games. The money is in reselling. I don't buy an item unless I can make 5k off of it.

Inflation is so very terrible. I got my lab ray map for less than 115K total. Now they are 50K apeace. New items I need for my gallery are impossible to get. All those new shops... and you can never buy anything from them or find what they sell. It is SAD. I feel sorry for newbies out there. They don't have a chance.

I have to disagree with that, while im not overly rich i do have 2 mil in the bank, 2 gallery accounts and a pretty collection of paintbrushes and unbuyable books, and i get alot of my money from playing the games! Im useless at restocking, purely cos i dont have the patience to sit in the main shops hitting F5 every other second!lol My idea is to buy things, hoard them in my sdb until they become very very expensive! Remember Maraqua went down so the prices went up........what would happen if faerieland or another land disappeared too!!

[cap]

I think the rising inflation has something to do with more members there are only so many valuabe items (pbs) while the number of members skyrocket and just about everyone wants these items. The demand on them has driven them up and the only way to counter this would be to increase supply by a lot.

[shapu]

Actually, you CAN make 30k+ a day off of games without too much trouble. Just remember that the non-flash games have much higher NP limits than the flash games, and some don't have limits at all *coughkrawpscough.* That comes down to about a million a month, give or take.

Not bad money.

[meowth1982]

I think inflation has 10 times more to do with what's going on in Neopia than number of players.

Example: When the space station first came out, the sold weapons. But there was no battledome. As a result, Hypno helmets were about 100 np a piece for an awful long time. Now, they're extremely hard to get ahold of. If they made clothes able to be put on your neopets and it show up, I think prices of clothes would go up too! Trends are everything when it comes to prices. (Although I'm not saying that lack of supply of an item that's unpopular means that it will be low in price. If there's not many in Neopia of something, I think it's a given that it will be expensive.)