Since when has the value of a thing, real world or in a game, been constrained strictly to its utility? How much practical purpose does a painting have? None. You can't eat it (unless you're the person who sold it). You can't drive it to work. You can't blow space pirates to bits with it. It's nothing more than some pigment smeared on a canvas. Yet paintings can be absurdly valuable.
There are many factors involved when evaluating the worth of a thing, utility often being the least critical consideration.
An item is worth exactly as much as the highest bidder is willing to pay, and not one cent less.
The typical classic mistake of a lot of people is to do foundry missions, thinking they will grant you high ammounts of ec lol.
No kidding. I stopped doing that one month in to STO.
STF drops don't seem to pay out much either. After a week of trying to sell a 14-17mill Nausicaan sword, I just gave up and kept it for myself. I am not a patient man.
Since my last post three Galors have been sold off the exchange, leaving 8 Galors remaining starting at 208m. Given the size of the playerbase, I imagine there are more than 8 people who want a Galor.
~200 mil is, while still on the expensive side, a lot more reasonable than the 500 mil I thought we were talking about, LOL. The latter would have put it in the bug ship range (which i honestly think it isn't, by a long shot). So, in that case, probably no market rigging going on (not that it doesn't happen, mind you).
Guess I should have logged in first, to see what the prices are myself. Sigh.
But Galors are basically an infinite supply item, with all the boxes that dropped for them.
The magic 200 EC range is, not surprizingly, right about what you would expect to spend on keys to win one if you are lucky. It would be about 400 if you had horrible luck but still manage to get one.
If the price goes higher, people will open boxes because it will again be worth it, and the price will drop back down to around that value again.
Unless the revise the secondary loot tables, you will be unlikely to see Galors going under the median cost to win one, because very few people are opening them for the secondary rewards. The reason Elachi escorts are still so cheap on the exchange is people opening the boxes for the weapons. Temporal sci ships don't quite hit 200 and hover around 100 because people open them for chances to get Marion. We can do this all day, but the 200 EC price is exactly the price I would expect to see a Galor.
The only people who would be able to fix the price on Galors would be too good at the economy to attempt it, because it would only take 1 person to be smart enough to catch on to the fact that they were doing it to drain them dry of funds and get rich in the process. You will have to do your own work if you want more economics lessons than that, Auction house is PvP, and you need your own strategies. At least in this form of PvP the winners are always the consumers.
I really should have rolled a Ferengi...
I once again match my character. Behold the power of PINK!
Fleet Admiral Space Orphidian Possiblities Wizard
Compared to what's out there now, the luster of the Galor and even its Spiral Wave Disruptors has lost their sparkle. There's alot of good TAC Cruisers / Battlecruisers out there. Even the weapons are overshadowed now.
Still a good package, but I would not break myself over it in today's STO. There's far better stuff these days. A ship built for the specific purpose of Power Creep has been overtaken by it.
Firstly, it is entirely possible in a real world economy, and secondly you are comparing apples and oranges. An ingame parallel of your bakery example would be trying to buy up every battery and other commodity on the exchange and relist them at artificially inflated prices. It wouldn't work because there are far too many of them, and people can source them easily and cheaply. Supply outstrips demand.
Actually, your batteries are a bad example. We talked about normalization. And besides supply & demand, competition keeps prices normalized too. In this case, it would be pointless to try and drive up the prices of batteries, as NPC Vendors will just keep selling them at normal prices.
In the STO economy, however, it's entirely possible to buy up all listed Galors; or all 'Inspirational Leader' traits, for instance. Since there is only 1 channel to sell them thru, competition is simply eliminated (someone offers it for half the price, you simply buy it up, on that same single channel, and relist it at your own price).
Who decides what is reasonable? You?
For myself? Yes. People can justify 500 mil until they see blue in the face, but I would *never* buy it for that price; and if someone, like the OP, asked whether that kind of money was worth it, I would still say no.
A prime example of this is the Jem'Hadar Attack Ship. This ship regularly goes for around 500m ec, when usually dips to around 400m when the promotions roll around. Despite the fact that many comparable escorts are now available at much cheaper cost, the bug still holds its value because of its rarity, reputation and desirability. Yet again, demand outstrips supply (notice a recurring theme here?), as there are only 17 bugships on the exchange right now, and if these forums are anything to go by practically everyone wants a bugship.
Bugship is an exception. That's because the bugship comes with an element in the STO economy not seen with other ships (at least, not to that degree); namely, advertising. The bugship is very heavily promoted and hyped by Cryptic itself, as the ultimate must-have ship. Since advertising is an exclusive Cryptoc right, bug ship prices are rather inflated because of it (it's also a very good ship, btw; but not *that* good).
If you opened a Cardassian lockbox right now and got a Galor and decided to list it on the exchange, would you list it at the value you say its worth in this thread (50m EC), or would you list it at the current going rate?
I would sell it for the current rate, because (see above) my price of 50 mil wouldn't be a regular-economy competitor's offer, next to that of others, but would immediately be bought up by others, who'd sell it for 150 mil more. In a regular-economy market, if ppl started selling it for 50 mil, what you'd see happen then, is that the others sellers would have no choice but to sell it for about the same price too, or go out of business. That it why I keep saying your insistence on superimposing regular-economy princples onto the STO market doesn't really fit well. The STO economy is simply far more easily manipulated.
I suppose it depends on what you want to do with your time. You can do a Doff Mission and have a Doff drop on you worth Millions of EC. Grinding out 8k Dilithium a day for a month will give you enough Zen to buy 15 Keys, which you can then sell for 2 million EC each. It is really not that difficult to make 50 million EC in a month if that is your goal.
Why on Earth would I buy keys when Uncommon Unreplicateable Materials is more profitable?
Update:
I am now at 11mil EC after 2 weeks. That is with mostly selling uncommon unreplicateable material, and some light grinding (whatever I can get done while my daughter naps ).
Ok I am going to write a short guide here to help people make more energy credits:
1. Do all the missions that open up the duty officer exchanges for different races.
Example: The Bajor one that allows you to send one of your officers on exchange for a different one. Hopefully you get a purple to sell.
2. You can buy purple duty officers with 25k fleet credits. The box you get is bound but you can open it and then get a unbound duty officer.
3. Go to all clusters and do all the colony missions. At the end you get a mission that is repeatable to get purple doffs. You can then take these doffs and exchange them for 3 unbound blue duty officers which you can sell.
It takes a bit of effort and time but you can make a lot of ec with duty officers if you put in that time.
Best of luck to you in getting your Galor, it's a fun ship:)
Comments
There are many factors involved when evaluating the worth of a thing, utility often being the least critical consideration.
An item is worth exactly as much as the highest bidder is willing to pay, and not one cent less.
STF drops don't seem to pay out much either. After a week of trying to sell a 14-17mill Nausicaan sword, I just gave up and kept it for myself. I am not a patient man.
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Fleet Admiral Space Orphidian Possiblities Wizard
~200 mil is, while still on the expensive side, a lot more reasonable than the 500 mil I thought we were talking about, LOL. The latter would have put it in the bug ship range (which i honestly think it isn't, by a long shot). So, in that case, probably no market rigging going on (not that it doesn't happen, mind you).
Guess I should have logged in first, to see what the prices are myself. Sigh.
The magic 200 EC range is, not surprizingly, right about what you would expect to spend on keys to win one if you are lucky. It would be about 400 if you had horrible luck but still manage to get one.
If the price goes higher, people will open boxes because it will again be worth it, and the price will drop back down to around that value again.
Unless the revise the secondary loot tables, you will be unlikely to see Galors going under the median cost to win one, because very few people are opening them for the secondary rewards. The reason Elachi escorts are still so cheap on the exchange is people opening the boxes for the weapons. Temporal sci ships don't quite hit 200 and hover around 100 because people open them for chances to get Marion. We can do this all day, but the 200 EC price is exactly the price I would expect to see a Galor.
The only people who would be able to fix the price on Galors would be too good at the economy to attempt it, because it would only take 1 person to be smart enough to catch on to the fact that they were doing it to drain them dry of funds and get rich in the process. You will have to do your own work if you want more economics lessons than that, Auction house is PvP, and you need your own strategies. At least in this form of PvP the winners are always the consumers.
I really should have rolled a Ferengi...
Fleet Admiral Space Orphidian Possiblities Wizard
Compared to what's out there now, the luster of the Galor and even its Spiral Wave Disruptors has lost their sparkle. There's alot of good TAC Cruisers / Battlecruisers out there. Even the weapons are overshadowed now.
Still a good package, but I would not break myself over it in today's STO. There's far better stuff these days. A ship built for the specific purpose of Power Creep has been overtaken by it.
Actually, your batteries are a bad example. We talked about normalization. And besides supply & demand, competition keeps prices normalized too. In this case, it would be pointless to try and drive up the prices of batteries, as NPC Vendors will just keep selling them at normal prices.
In the STO economy, however, it's entirely possible to buy up all listed Galors; or all 'Inspirational Leader' traits, for instance. Since there is only 1 channel to sell them thru, competition is simply eliminated (someone offers it for half the price, you simply buy it up, on that same single channel, and relist it at your own price).
For myself? Yes. People can justify 500 mil until they see blue in the face, but I would *never* buy it for that price; and if someone, like the OP, asked whether that kind of money was worth it, I would still say no.
Bugship is an exception. That's because the bugship comes with an element in the STO economy not seen with other ships (at least, not to that degree); namely, advertising. The bugship is very heavily promoted and hyped by Cryptic itself, as the ultimate must-have ship. Since advertising is an exclusive Cryptoc right, bug ship prices are rather inflated because of it (it's also a very good ship, btw; but not *that* good).
I would sell it for the current rate, because (see above) my price of 50 mil wouldn't be a regular-economy competitor's offer, next to that of others, but would immediately be bought up by others, who'd sell it for 150 mil more. In a regular-economy market, if ppl started selling it for 50 mil, what you'd see happen then, is that the others sellers would have no choice but to sell it for about the same price too, or go out of business. That it why I keep saying your insistence on superimposing regular-economy princples onto the STO market doesn't really fit well. The STO economy is simply far more easily manipulated.
Helpful Tools: Dictionary.com - Logical fallacies - Random generator - Word generator - Color tool - Extra Credits - List of common English language errors - New T6 Big booty tutorial
I am now at 11mil EC after 2 weeks. That is with mostly selling uncommon unreplicateable material, and some light grinding (whatever I can get done while my daughter naps
If anyone is interested.
1. Do all the missions that open up the duty officer exchanges for different races.
Example: The Bajor one that allows you to send one of your officers on exchange for a different one. Hopefully you get a purple to sell.
2. You can buy purple duty officers with 25k fleet credits. The box you get is bound but you can open it and then get a unbound duty officer.
3. Go to all clusters and do all the colony missions. At the end you get a mission that is repeatable to get purple doffs. You can then take these doffs and exchange them for 3 unbound blue duty officers which you can sell.
It takes a bit of effort and time but you can make a lot of ec with duty officers if you put in that time.
Best of luck to you in getting your Galor, it's a fun ship:)