BDS and E-Blade Prices - What on earth is going on

pedrobds · July 18, 2019 at 8:53 PM

I started playing GW in 2008 and played consistently for 5+ years, since then I have been on and off, with the last few months probably being my most consistently active in a long time. The market right now is ridiculous and all over the place, I think everyone can agree on that. The most outrageous thing to me though are bds and e-blade prices. I understand supply and demand, but is there really a market for q9-eblades at 60-75a? I mean that is nearly 5ke, q13 and q12 are being advertised at 20-30a- again, really? 2,000 ecto for a q12 eternal blade, an item that people are getting as drops literally every day.

The same is true for bds, the cheapest bds I have seen advertised at 13 was still asking something like 350e, and q9s are advertised at 40-70a. This is just insane. As far as I can tell, UWSC and SOOSC are still run very often by SC guilds, so it's not like these got any harder. I hadn't run SOOSC in years, and the other day I hopped in a run where I basically had no idea what I was doing and it still only took like 9 minutes - these prices just do not add up.

I guess I just wanted to open up the discussion to see what people think about this. I know you can't really compare the market now to what it used to be, but in the not too crazy distant past you could get bds in the 50-150e range for attributes people didn't care too much about. You used to see high req e-blades in the 1xxe realm, and now you are seeing them advertised at more than 10 times that. If it is based on drop rates, are we really saying a Mini GH drops at the same rate as a q9 e-blade? The prices really are not insanely far apart. I mean maybe it does now (really not trying to start a discussion on botting because that is a significant separate issue).

I have a few things I have been thinking. Again, simple supply and demand could be the answer- nowadays if you want something, in some ways you just have to pay what someone is asking because you may not find someone else selling. (Like paying 5e for a +30 shield mod, a few years ago that would be like 3k, but now you're lucky if you find someone in kama that happens to have one sitting in xunlai).

Another theory I have, a little conspiratorial but let's have some fun - could the major SC guilds have gotten together and agreed on these prices to keep their runs profitable? To me this really is not that far-fetched of an idea. Again, if the people who are getting these drops decide among themselves that this is what the items are worth now, the rest of the community does not have too much of a choice. The other thing that makes me think this, are the prices of other end chest drops. Things like VS, obby edge, emerald blade, honestly even frog scepter, have increased of course, but nowhere NEAR e-blades and bds. Why is that the case? If we follow the same logic of supply and demand, q13 obby edges should be like 600-700e MINIMUM right now.

Either way, it just seems crazy to me and would love to hear what other people think.

OS T · July 18, 2019 at 11:40 PM

That conspiracy theory is not far fetched. I actually think something similar when it comes to all powertraders, that they give low PC's in order to buy cheap and resell at maximum profit.Ive seen this many times from 2015 and to this date.

I took a break for 5 years myself and I came back in 2015 and the prices was just insane compared in 2009-2010. It was mindblowing how shitty the economy is. I dont think its just inflation,but many taking advantage of that, and giving high Pc's out of their bottoms.

But basically everything is like. there is 1 item in xunlai that is q8 non max blue and someone has the balls to sell a shitty blue staff and ofcourse there are always someone who pays,why? I have no idea. I gotten loads of blue,grapes in q8 from chests and just merched them. People have no shame anymore about selling,they just sell anything they can. Also someone have bought a q8 white fellblade for insane amount of ectos, no1 back in the day ever sold a white q8 fellblade somehow in later years its just norm among certain collectors to must have anything going back 10years or more. I guess I just have that oldschool mentality like I had back in 2005-2010 when playing gw regarding certain collections/niches or whatever you want to call them.

In 2008 I bought a os q9+5e chaos axe for like 40-60k and in 2015-2016 I bought one and I had to pay like 60-120e. Just because that 1 person has it and is selling it right now they take like 3-4x price the usual value that it should go for.

I dont really care if I get flack for this,people can give me 300dislikes and I still wouldnt change my perspective regarding this. This is discussion side of xunlai.

SUPER64AEGIS · July 20, 2019 at 6:34 AM

"As far as I can tell, UWSC and SOOSC are still run very often by SC guilds, so it's not like these got any harder. I hadn't run SOOSC in years, and the other day I hopped in a run where I basically had no idea what I was doing and it still only took like 9 minutes"

you talk about how easy it is to get eblades/bds ect. well it is that much easier if not more to acquire ecto; ecto do not possess the same buying power as they had back in 05.

"are we really saying a Mini GH drops at the same rate as a q9 e-blade?"

drop rates aren't all that is at play here, all things being equal, weapons that people and their heroes can use will generally be worth more than pets.

"Another theory I have…"

in order for this cabal of scers to do this, they have to be the only ones with access to the scs. if they decide they want eternal blades to be worth 1,000,000a, you can simply sc it yourself. there comes a point that rather than farming an item yourself, it becomes easier to just pay what people want.

jimbo32 · July 21, 2019 at 1:35 AM

Personally, I've never understood why inscribable junk that has a theoretically limitless supply has managed to maintain such high prices to begin with. A Canthan or Tyrian non-insc wand or focus that drops in q9 with matching 20/20 is a million times more rare than a shitty BDS (I also think the BDS is one of the ugliest staff skins in the game, but obviously there's no accounting for personal taste).

My question is this, though: Are people actually buying Eternal Blades and BDS's at those preposterous prices? I mean, I could advertise in Kama that I was selling a q13 +14/stance Plagueborn Sword for 10a, but it's not like there'd be a line forming to trade for it. What are the chances that the market is actually much less than the "WTS" ads?

Also, there aren't many high-end collectors on Legacy who'd ever be interested in inscibable stuff, so who is making this hypothetical market? Is it SC people selling to other SC people? Maybe, I guess. High-end oldschool collectors and serious SC'ers would likely make up most of the players with that kind of buying power.

Again though, it's all a mystery to me. I'd much rather have a nice Canthan non-insc, and I tend to think of people drooling over "high-end" inscribable stuff as slightly mentally ill.

SUPER64AEGIS · July 21, 2019 at 8:25 AM

probably a bunch of gold sellers buying to sell to new players who want to spend $

ilikeydodachacha · July 21, 2019 at 9:16 AM

I feel like the economy is too messed up. Just browsing through the b/s/t/pc and it seems like a q9 eblade is worth around the same as a OS q8 15^50 longsword? A recent pc of a blue q8 focus was 5e, thats the price of 1 nicks gift LOL (although blue, is it really only worth 1/4th of the "free" ectos you get every week from nick?). Also someone just traded for that q8 crystalline, might be a noob question, but how does one trade for something more than 1750 arms/what do you use after that?

MaxBorken · July 21, 2019 at 9:17 AM Official Post

Quote from ilikeydodachacha

Also someone just traded for that q8 crystalline, might be a noob questions, but how does one trade for something more than 1750 arms/what do you use after that?

less than 1750 arms 😉

ilikeydodachacha · July 21, 2019 at 9:19 AM

That made me crack a smile irl

...edit: but question still stands! what about that mini island guardian

MaxBorken · July 21, 2019 at 9:24 AM Official Post

When a trade is more than 1750a, we use a trusted trade mod who acts as a middleman.

Keitax · July 22, 2019 at 9:55 PM

I think you pricings are a bit on the high side, a q9 eblade should be around 60a. Just because people sell those items at a price they want, doesn't mean they will be sold. Actually the prices of eblades/bds are dropping, a q9 eblade used to be more than 60a.

Rihanna · July 24, 2019 at 4:33 PM

I assumed the rise in BDS popularity is at least partially due to streaming now being a thing as it’s the most obvious way to show wealth due to it being the most visible staff.

Kabong · July 25, 2019 at 7:56 PM

For trades over 1750a you can either use a middleman (as previously stated) or use one or more items with agreed-upon value of over 250a in the trade window to raise the total value to the desired level. Just a thought

Speed Clear Ele · July 31, 2019 at 5:13 PM

Quote from Rihanna

I assumed the rise in BDS popularity is at least partially due to streaming now being a thing as it’s the most obvious way to show wealth due to it being the most visible staff.

wth people stream gw1 now ?

Rurik_shoepolisher · July 31, 2019 at 6:07 PM

bds only nice for heroes, i saw someplayer using heroes equiped with bds, imo thats why bds become expensive.

just like sup dom, sup sp and communing