Welcome to Gaia! ::

(Giggles) well you could just have it all bare except for the letters. XD Better test it out though about using multiple letters in there. I've heard the housing system is strange on what how many items of the same type it lets in the house at one time. XP

XD the story of my life. Only its not so much as letting any go just always chasing after items. Expensive little things they are. Don't look at it to much as loosing money though. I mean you could always sell them back if you had to. Besides, like you said, you aren't by no means desperate for gold. XD

Can't wait to see the house when it is done. XD

I wonder how long till we know if they are going to switch over to three items or now.

Well a whole new month and Sealed Envelopes are on the market.

I have not really paid that much attention to the price of Sealed's on the market for a good long time, but I have to say that the increase has gotten pretty insane.

When I first started on Gaia in 2004, most of the sealed envelopes went for somewhere between 3 and 5K and that price range stayed pretty steady I think till around 2006 when at one point it was more common to see then around 6K. While a slight increase like that is understandable, what I see happening over the period of that year is mind boggling.

For the most part the Gaia market has done a good job of reflecting real world trends of supply and demand. Also, while it is understandable that once a month has ended and no one can buy anymore letters that the price of that particular month slowly goes higher as the item becomes more and more rare with the population on Gaia ever increasing, something very odd as happened in regards to sealed envelopes.

Typically you would expect that the reason the price stayed so stable in the past is do to the fact that even as the population of Gaia raised that only meant more people were buying letters each month and filling the market. But something happened in the spring of 2006 and the market became completely unstable. Between the period of May and July the value of sealed's went from around 6k to near 10K. Meaning that in a period of 2 months the price rose more then it ever did in 2 years.

The trend only continues from there, but there is some special significance about July. That was the last month that letters were unsealed near the end of the month, starting in August they have been opening around the middle of the month. Now while the shift of having letters contents being revealed sooner would have the obvious result of increasing the price of sealed's over all, considering people have less time to sell/buy them before the item becomes known, this does not explain the increase before that time shift.

So then what does explain the price hikes? The only conclusion I can come up with is that Gaian have become greedy. A period of artificial inflation occurred in which items were put on the market at a higher value and instead of the usual price wars that are typically seen, people putting their items on the market for less and less trying to compete and get a sale, they were instead price matching. The most unfortunate thing is that there was never any recovery and the price continues to shoot up each month, currently the price of a sealed on the market is around 17k.

This is where the Gaia market fails in comparison to the real world, because there is absolutely nothing moderating it. The solution that the Gaia administrators have come up with is only adding to the market inflation, by making more ways for people to get gold and making it easier. This just means that there is more gold circulating through the system and has the affect of actually decreasing the value of the gold and causes the price of market items to go even higher. Lets face it, everyone is simply trying to make as much gold as possible for their items and collectively they are going to sale sealed's for as high as they can as long as people are still willing to pay.

With that we come to the other part of the problem. As much as we may want to blame those selling the letters, those buying are just are responsible for the price hikes. Because Gaia as a whole has not said "hey, we are not going to pay that much for a sealed, lower your prices or you wont get our business" and instead continue to buy them despite the ever increase in price, those selling have no reason at all put them on the market for less. If anything they are going to see just how much people are willing to pay.

Now I am sure that at some point they will get so high that people will indeed prove they wont pay any more and the price will become stable again, but if trends continue as they are that might just end up someplace in the 20k range.

You may be asking why the sudden rant over this considering that I buy letters with cash. Well it is the fact that I am feeling a little ripped-off. I started selling letters to people on the Guild way back and continue to sell to the same people each month on sort of a subscription bases. The thing is I have never raised my price or demanded more gold for my service, so pretty much everyone I sell to is still paying about 4k a letter. I have only had one person willingly and on their one say they wish to pay me more and buy them closer to 8k a piece.

I guess I am just feeling a little screwed over at the moment, but it isn't like I really need the extra gold. I have every item on Gaia I could possibly want when it comes to those only found on the market. So it isn't like I wont get over it, but suddenly seeing how much the average letter is being sold for versus what people have been paying me did irk me just a little and needed to get it out of my system.

Sadly, there is nothing to keep inflation in place. Everything is inflating to rediculse prices, and I have no doubt the sealds will just continue to rise. Right now the sealds get to 20k or higher on release day, before slowly working there way to about 12-13k or lower depending on how popular the item is, by the end of the month. One of the big reasons inflation and the market react so differently then the real world, is there is nothing to keep it in check. No taxes, no food or house bills us Gaians need to pay. What gold sinks we have are few and far betwee. It is one of the reasons I believe all the store updates have been so cheap. I honestly think the amids see how desperate questing for sealds each month, not to mention other older donation items is, and in an effort to make sure even questers have a chance to get some pretty store items, they keep prices low.

I had no idea you were unaware how high the prices had gotten with sealds, and the last thing I wanted to leave you with was a feeling of being cheated. When it comes down to it though, making enough money to buy them at the price I do from you each month is pretty much all I have money for. Except on the occassional times I do commissions, I always seem to have hardly a few k in gold. That is why there are times I don't send trade immediatly after getting the items, I'm still trying to earn the gold. I mean I had 250k of yours for a while, to try to get back into exchanging, but as you saw that failed horribly, and I couldn't very likely use your money to pay for the letters.

I guess I assumed you had known the prices, and had decided to keep selling at that price and would inform everyone if you needed to raise the prices. Just let me know how much you want from them, and I'll send back what I can't pay for along with the gold for this month. Sealds aren't worth risking our friendship to me.

If it makes you feel less cheated, just know I don't use your sealds as a form of profit. I always keep them at least till opened, and even then I have rarely ever gone on to sell one of the items at a later date. With as many poses as each item has now a days, I am usually short the items I would like for outfits, then the other way around.

Don't you worry about it Kriss, I was really just getting somethings off my chest. I in no way feel that you or Ed or taking advantage of the situation. And I did know that their price had gone up, just not that they had gone up so damn much. Was my understanding that they leveled off around 10k not skyrocketed to near twice that.

Their are those, however, that I do know buy my letters at the reduced price and turn around and sell them on the market. They have told me before it is partly how they make their gold each month.

I am not about to suddenly jack up my price and say "too bad" if you can't afford it. I am going to have a little talk with some of the others I sell to and either get them to buy less or pay more.

Right now I am also trying to save a little more of my actual money and buying these 20+ letters each months takes a good chunck of my cash.

Uhg, I swore I responded to this several days ago, I'm either loosing my mind or Gaia is being really mean. burning_eyes

Anyways, I can completely understand why it is getting to you then. I always look as the letters as the equivlant to a item that is being donated to me by you. Sure I'm paying some, but your donating the difference to me. To have people just buying them though to sell for a prophit would completely eek me. It's like donating something to someone to be nice, and they are just selling it. This is especially annoying because there are so many other great members around the guild alone who kill themselves to get one or two sealeds each month so they can have them for their avi's. I think the people in question should be quite understanding if you want to stop selling extras for reselling to them, especially if your trying to save your cash. Last thing I want to see is you to go broke on pixels. XP

Anyways, just let me know if at anytime you really need to raise your price, or need to sell less that month because of real life money needs.