Gold Depos in the new Trade System

[Ver-cheww]

Anyone else irritated, annoyed, vexed, and generally ****** off at the lack of Gold Depos at non-extortionate prices since the new Trade System came out?? When it was first released everyone went crazy on prices, and we all thought "Ah well, it'll calm down once everyone realizes no one is going to pay these asinine prices for resources and Gem Items" But, here we are months later and I can't scroll through the Trade window without literally laughing out loud at the amounts some players want for certain items. The worst of which HAS to be Gold Depos. I routinely see them listed at 350-375 for a 500 Depo, its only possible to make 500 Coins on a 500 Depo!! And even that is only if you are able to keep it Buffed constantly for the entire 500 Ore, which anyone can tell you isn't worth the trouble. Now I know as soon as some of you read this you'll say "Well I keep mine Buffed 24/7" I didn't say it was impossible, just improbable and difficult for those of us with real lives outside of a videogame.

I think a lot of this is caused by the fact that as buyers we aren't able to list them for purchase, so we are dependent on other players listing them for sale, and of course as seller's they want as much as possible for every sale. So as buyer's we can either bite the bullet and pay the ridiculous prices for which they are listed, or keep them Level-5 Gold Mines sleeping in the hopes that one day we come across a nice guy selling them for sane amounts that don't make us feel like our Gold Coin "Piggy-bank" has been sexually assaulted. The same goes for Wheat, Fish, Meat, and all the other Depos. We can only get them if we are willing to pay the prices listed in a seller's market. This is next to impossible for free players to keep up with.

Now I'm NOT a free player that's just here to gripe about how "unfairly" I'm being treated. I have spent a considerable sum on this game, as anyone of my friends or Guildmates could tell you, and happily so. But that in itself should tell you something, I am perfectly willing and able to buy my own Parrots with Gems and do so regularly. But even I can tell you that this has GOT to change B.B. When prices keep going up and up many players will just stop buying them from the TO and tear down their Mines. I have several friends that have done so already.Then the other players that have been spending their real life money on Parrots and other Depos to sell in the TO will stop buying them from the Merchant to resell and then you've dried up yet another source of income for your Company, and that can't be good for the new "upcoming" PvP and Science updates that we've been hearing about for over a year now

Come on Blue Byte, help us out here. Give us something to work with....please??

- VC

[Falconwolf]

I personally will not spend anymore than 300gc for a 500 gold ore depot. Any more than that and the profit margin really starts to shrink.

Here's a spreadsheet I made to show the costs of turning a 500 gold depot into 500 gold coins...

As you can see from the calculations, assuming only 1 gold mine, 1 smelter and 1 coinage...all 3 at level 1...it would cost you 167 gold coins to turn a 500 gold depot into 500 gold coins. So in that scenario if you pay anymore than 333 gold coins for the depo you are losing money.

The cost drops some with higher level buildings, such as level 4 or level 5 which incur costs of 72 gold coins for production.

If you have more than 1 of each building you could assume that the costs go up but this would not be the case. 2 buildings would require twice the baskets but would also require half the time, so the end cost is the same.

Edit: lol, I did all that work and I forgot to mention...yes I agree with you, and I think one partial solution is to allow buyers to put up a request for a gold ore deposit at the prices they are willing to pay. This is not a perfect solution, but it's a start.

A real solution would be to educate everyone on how much it costs to produce those gold coins.

[Falconwolf]

Also it should be noted that there is a gc to gem ratio that is pretty much the accepted norm for buying gem items.

The current gc to gem ratio is about 3gc=1gem, and if that varies at all, it varies by 1-2 tenths of a gc.

So at 3gc per gem a golden parrot should be sold for 225gc on the TO. Anything more than that and you are overcharging, anything less and you are giving a good deal!

[Jethro702]

Also it should be noted that there is a gc to gem ratio that is pretty much the accepted norm for buying gem items.

The current gc to gem ratio is about 3gc=1gem, and if that varies at all, it varies by 1-2 tenths of a gc.

So at 3gc per gem a golden parrot should be sold for 225gc on the TO. Anything more than that and you are overcharging, anything less and you are giving a good deal!

Well said.

[Cauldron]

I just buy the ore, not the deposit, not sure how Zeus is but I buy it regularly for 125gc for 750 ore, then all i have to do is smelt it and save the buffs from harvesting it... a win win.

[Wujcio]

gold depos went up in price not because of T.O. but because BB finally fixed the double placement exploit.

[Falconwolf]

gold depos went up in price not because of T.O. but because BB finally fixed the double placement exploit.

I disagree completely, but would love to hear your reasoning on this! Would love to hear your reasons why gold depos are in your mind exempt from the standard 3gc to 1 gem ratio!

[CrazyOol]

When it was possible to multi-place deposits (double, triple - depending on your internet connection) we could buy 500 gold deposits in our guild for 125. That was all pure profit for the seller since it was basically free to the player placing the deposit. Once the bug was fixed, and you had to buy them with gems, the price went sky-high. If your gold chain can't make coins at a profit, then shut it down and produce something else. They have given us buffs like Exotic Fruit Basket, Red Flying Settler and just recently the Cookies that last up to two days and triple the output, so that is one way to make a profit without having to pay constant attention to your island.

[Falconwolf]

That's still not a reason for the prices to have gone up.

All you have done is explain how the sellers were...in your own words.... "That was pure profit for the seller"

So if it was pure profit for the seller then, why would it not be pure profit for the seller now?

And more importantly, how does any situation exempt gold depots from the standard 3 to 1 gold to gem ratio?

Edit: You also say they have given us buffs like exotic fruit basket and red flying settlers, but those cost gems. 1 exotic fruit basket is 99 gems...that's 300gc worth just added to the cost of production of your gold ore, thereby garanteeing a huge loss on the purchase of the gold depot. A red flying settler at 199 gems, all by itself cost you more than the gold depot can put out.

[Falconwolf]

Here, to show you just how little sense your comment about buffs we've been given like exotic fruit basket and red flying settlers makes, I redid the calculations using Exotic Fruit Baskets for buffing (and believe me, using Red Flying Settlers only makes it MUCH worse)

If you take a look at the numbers, at best it will cost you 1822gc to produce your gold coins if you use exotic fruit baskets, but that will only give you 1687.5gc, so you are losing about 140gc...and that's the VERY BEST CASE SCENARIO. If you look at all level 1 buildings you end up losing about 3700 gc

So tell me again why gold depos are exempt from the standard 3 to 1 gc to gem ratio?