Gemp Merchant Market Watch: High Prices or Out of Stock

[Eukalyptus]

Quote from: Eukalyptus on April 24, 2013, 08:23:33 AM
First of all: Refrain from talking down to someone. DjiDjo isn't smearing it in your face, he is just stating facts. So stay calm. No need for insults.

I assume you are talking about the contents of the Hunters starter. No insult was intended, the guy strikes me as pretty experienced. I was genuinely surprised that he did not know that these starter contents are a known quantity.

No, I meant this:

Well now, this is an interesting point: The prices aren't dictated by "we the players," the prices are dictated by the few players who have lots of cards. The resources to buy and sell. People like yourself, in fact. You are the rich guy visiting the slums and telling all us poor folks that the system works fine.

The prices are dictated by those who have the cards. Simple as that. Request and availability.

How about you guys do me a real solid, and branch out into the Expanded Dailies for a while? Drum up some action for them. Who knows, maybe you'll even find out you like them. It shouldn't be too tough to adapt a movie deck to Expanded.

How about no? You wanted Expanded dailys. Expanded is the second most played format you said. So where are all those Expanded players? FotR block is already enough NPE for me. I don't need more. Besides, I sure as #$&*@! won't spend money on Expanded. Part of that is your fault. I don't want to see that Madril again. Ever. Take it as a compliment.

Quote from: Eukalyptus on April 24, 2013, 08:23:33 AM
Fourth: I'm actually okay with cards like Hides and Goblin Armory being over 100 gold. Those cards are the core of those cultures. It's almost pointless to play them otherwise.

It's for that exact reason that I think they should be something approaching Fixed, instead of Rare. They are a staple card, without which the whole culture is basically unplayable. In game design, you don't want to make an entire class of cards useless unless you have one certain rare. That's just bad design. Decipher should probably have re-released these as fixed promos. They didn't, and here we are. Because they are staple cards, I think they should be made more affordable. I wouldn't go over 100g.

For that exact reason they need to be high imo. And its only natural, if you think of their prices in IRL back then. Same with stuff like Gondor Bowmen, Simbelmyne and the likes. If I wanted every player to have the same card pool, I'd play casual.

That doesn't mean I don't like people having them, but they should not be easily available.

[bibfortuna25]

Yeah, I've got plenty of rares in my collection that are worth a ton. Elrond LOR, Cirdan, Goblin Swarms, a foil Eowyn SDOE, Ugluk, and Merry FTS. I have no plans to sell them anytime soon.

[sgtdraino]

Expanded is the second most played format you said. So where are all those Expanded players? FotR block is already enough NPE for me. I don't need more. Besides, I sure as #$&*@! won't spend money on Expanded. Part of that is your fault. I don't want to see that Madril again. Ever.

You're number three! Undefeated! Heck, you might win!

Having fun yet?  

[sgtdraino]

The following cards are out of stock:

The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles
Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
Hides

The following cards have high prices:

Goblin Armory 123.88

These are just what I noticed, there are probably others.

[sgtdraino]

The following cards are out of stock:

The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles
Weapons of Isengard
Mauhur, Relentless Hunter

As I understand it, once somebody sells one of these back (for not much gold), the price will reset to 20g.

The following cards have high prices (over 100g). Cards are listed first by set, then alphabetically:

Aragorn's Bow 130
Goblin Armory 122
Flaming Brand 146
Aragorn, Heir to the White City 110
Gondor Bowmen 102
Faramir's Bow 119
Grima, Wormtongue 120
Hides 108
Simbelmyne 150
Morgul Brute 426
Ulaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds 254
Glamdring, Foe-Hammer 148
The Witch-King, Captain of the Nine Riders 104
A Shadow Fell Over Them 184
A Defiled Charge 223
Vengeful Primitive 176

Special Attention to Morgul Brute: If its price gets much higher, it will probably go out of stock and reset to 20g. So, if anyone wants to make some gold selling a Morgul Brute, now's the time!

To the Merchant's credit, the number of cards over 100g is about half the number it was back in March.

[Eukalyptus]

The price doesn't reset to 20. It hasn't done that since the change was implemented. We got lucky that some cards got caught cheap in the process like 1R Elrond and Savagery, but thats it.

[sgtdraino]

The price doesn't reset to 20. It hasn't done that since the change was implemented. We got lucky that some cards got caught cheap in the process like 1R Elrond and Savagery, but thats it.

Good to know. Do you know what the parameters are, then? At what point do prices max out? At what point do cards go out of stock? And how does the new system make it harder to dupe gold?

[Eukalyptus]

To my knowledge, the merchant works like this:

Lets choose the number 100 and Savagery to Match Their Numbers. That card has been sold 99x atm.

Now comes along player Uruk and buys one copy. The counter ups to 100 and the card is shown as out of stock afterwards. Along comes player UruksNoMore and sells 3 copies. The counter gets substracted to 97, leaving 3 copies of Savagery to be buyable. The price increases slightly with each copy bought (when the merchant change was implemented, Savagery's cost was about 16 gold. Now its much higher).

Prices don't max out. There is no price cap that I know of.

[sgtdraino]

Ugh, that sounds terrible! That makes it sound like the most popular cards are probably going to keep going up in price forever, but on top of that also occasionally go out of stock.

And yet quite a few cards are much lower in price than they were back in March. Any idea what caused the price to drop?

How does this new system defeat people trying to dupe gold?

[sgtdraino]

Okay, it's time once again for another Market Report!

New feature I'm adding: I'm going to start showing trends, i.e. the previous week's price, and what the price is now, separated by a < or a > depending on whether the price has gone up, or gone down. Here we go...

The following cards are out of stock:

*0*
Anarion, Lord of Anorien
Arwen, Maiden of Rivendell
Boromir, Steward's Heir
Eomer, Forthwith Banished
Erkenbrand, Master of Westfold
Frodo, Mr. Underhill
Gandalf, Stormcrow
Ghan-Buri-Ghan, Chieftain of the Woses
Gimli, Dwarven Delegate
Radagast's Staff
Tom Bombadil's Hat
*15*
Aragorn, Swift Hunter
Battlefield Veteran
City Gates
Gamling, The Old
Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
Tracking Uruk
*17*
Elven Guardian
Madril, Loyal Lieutenant
Orophin, Silvan Elf
Rumil, Silvan Elf
Saruman, Coldly Still
Saruman, Curunir

BACK in stock:

The One Ring, Answer to All Riddles
Weapons of Isengard

The following cards trend towards high prices (over 100g). Cards are listed first by set, then alphabetically:
Key: Red = Increase, Orange = Decrease, Green = Now Below 100g

*1* (Rx121)
Aragorn's Bow 130>104
Goblin Armory 122<137
*2* (Rx40)
A Promise 102
Flaming Brand 146>101
*3* (Rx40)
Aragorn, Heir to the White City 110>90
Gondor Bowmen 102<123
*4* (Rx122)
Faramir's Bow 119<128
Grima, Wormtongue 120>76
Hides 108<175
Simbelmyne 150>102
*5* (Rx40)
Gollum, Stinker 126
*7* (Rx121)
Morgul Brute 426<485
Ulaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds 254>230
*8* (Rx41)
Saved From the Fire 161
Ships of Great Draught 118
*11* (Rx60)
Glamdring, Foe-Hammer 148>137
The Witch-King, Captain of the Nine Riders 104<106
*13* (Rx60)
Alatar Deceived 116
*15* (Rx60)
A Shadow Fell Over Them 184>156
Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow 245>205
Battlefield Recruit 325
Rohirrim Soldier 183
Legolas, Fleet-Footed Hunter 181
*17* (Rx60)
A Defiled Charge 223>209
Ranger of the White tree 217
Vengeful Primitive 176>68
*19*
The One Ring, The Great Ring 101
Ulaire Nertea, Dark Horseman 124
Ulaire Toldea, Dark Shadow 107

A question for anyone in the know: Many of the out-of-stock cards are fixed starter S-cards, and a few of the high-priced cards are S-cards as well. One of the reasons they are priced so high, or are completely unavailable, is because the Gemp Merchant does not yet offer the starters that these cards come from.

My question is: How is anybody EVER able to get these? You can't pull them in packs, right? And the starters aren't available. So, how do they EVER become available?

[Eukalyptus]

You can get them as foils in packs.

[sgtdraino]

You can get them as foils in packs.

There must be another way, though. I distinctly remember purchasing Ranger of the White Tree directly from the Merchant as a single (obviously when it was much cheaper). So, when did the Merchant have these in stock?

[Cthulhu]

Well as soon as someone opens one in pack and sells it back, it becomes available in the merchant. Last week Euk opened and sold some RoS starter foils (some Guardians and a Orophin i think), but now i see they are out of stock again. Wonder if someone bought them for like 1500 (or in Orophin's case more like 4000, cause he got 3000 for selling him) or what.

Its very hard to open one in a pack though, i spent 2000+ gold yesterday trying to get one in Hunters (though its a large set and its harder to get lucky there than in RoS) and got nothing. At least i decreased some of the regular rares' prices.

I got this impression though, that every rare gets a little bit more expensive every day or so, even when noone buys it, otherwise cant explain Brute's price for example.

[sgtdraino]

Okay, it's time once again for another Market Report!

The following cards are out of stock:

*0*
Anarion, Lord of Anorien
Arwen, Maiden of Rivendell
Boromir, Steward's Heir
Eomer, Forthwith Banished
Erkenbrand, Master of Westfold
Frodo, Mr. Underhill
Gandalf, Stormcrow
Ghan-Buri-Ghan, Chieftain of the Woses
Gimli, Dwarven Delegate
Radagast's Staff
Tom Bombadil's Hat
*1*
Savagery to Match Their Numbers
*15*
Aragorn, Swift Hunter
Battlefield Veteran
City Gates
Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
Tracking Uruk
*17*
Elven Guardian
Madril, Loyal Lieutenant
Orophin, Silvan Elf
Rumil, Silvan Elf
Saruman, Coldly Still
Saruman, Curunir

BACK in stock:

Gamling, The Old

The following cards trend towards high prices (over 100g). Cards are listed first by set, then alphabetically:
Key: Red = Increase, Orange = Decrease, Green = Now Below 100g

*1* (Rx121)
Aragorn's Bow 130>104<129
Goblin Armory 122<137<187
*2* (Rx40)
A Promise ---<102<106
Flaming Brand 146>101>90
*3* (Rx40)
Aragorn, Heir to the White City 110>90>88
Gondor Bowmen 102<123<134
Saruman, Keeper of Isengard ---<---<107
*4* (Rx122)
Faramir's Bow 119<128>115
Grima, Wormtongue 120>76>75
Hides 108<175>121
Simbelmyne 150>102>75
*5* (Rx40)
Gollum, Stinker ---<126<143
*7* (Rx121)
Morgul Brute 426<485<474
Ulaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds 254>230>226
*8* (Rx41)
Saved From the Fire ---<161<157
Ships of Great Draught ---<118<152
*10*
Cirdan, The Shipwright ---<---<131
*11* (Rx60)
Glamdring, Foe-Hammer 148>137>131
The Witch-King, Captain of the Nine Riders 104<106<120
*13* (Rx60)
Alatar Deceived ---<116>104
*15* (Rx60)
A Shadow Fell Over Them 184>156>72
Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow 245>205>71
Battlefield Recruit 325>321>321
Gamling, The Old ---<---<603
Rohirrim Soldier ---<183<201
Legolas, Fleet-Footed Hunter ---<181>177
*17* (Rx60)
A Defiled Charge 223>209>174
Ranger of the White tree 217>171<245
Vengeful Primitive 176>68>55
*19*
The One Ring, The Great Ring ---<101<110
Ulaire Nertea, Dark Horseman ---<124>122
Ulaire Toldea, Dark Shadow ---<107>105

Of note, HUGE price drop on Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow. If anyone needs it, now's a good time to buy!

ETA: The Gemp Merchant has something entitled "ALL PROMOS" which has cover art for the "Ages End" set. I've never bought it, so I don't know whether this is actually the Ages End set, or something else. Assuming that it IS just the ages end set, it is currently priced at 400g. If you were to purchase each card in that set individually, they would add up to about 554g.

[sgtdraino]

Okay, it's time once again for another Market Report!

The following cards are out of stock:

*0*
Anarion, Lord of Anorien
Arwen, Maiden of Rivendell
Boromir, Steward's Heir
Eomer, Forthwith Banished
Erkenbrand, Master of Westfold
Frodo, Mr. Underhill
Gandalf, Stormcrow
Ghan-Buri-Ghan, Chieftain of the Woses
Gimli, Dwarven Delegate
Radagast's Staff
Tom Bombadil's Hat
*1*
Savagery to Match Their Numbers
*15*
Aragorn, Swift Hunter
Battlefield Veteran
City Gates
Mauhur, Relentless Hunter
Tracking Uruk
*17*
Elven Guardian
Madril, Loyal Lieutenant
Orophin, Silvan Elf
Rumil, Silvan Elf
Saruman, Coldly Still
Saruman, Curunir

BACK in stock:

Tracking Uruk

The following cards trend towards high prices (over 100g). Cards are listed first by set, then alphabetically:
Key: Red = Increase, Orange = Decrease, Green = Now Below 100g

*1* (Rx121)
Aragorn's Bow 130>104<129<164
Goblin Armory 122<137<187>182
Morgul Gates ---<---<---<110
*2* (Rx40)
A Promise ---<102<106<122
Flaming Brand 146>101>90>79
*3* (Rx40)
Aragorn, Heir to the White City 110>90>88<95
Gondor Bowmen 102<123<134>88
Saruman, Keeper of Isengard ---<---<107<148
*4* (Rx122)
Faramir's Bow 119<128>115>69
Grima, Wormtongue 120>76>75>45
Hides 108<175>121>88
Simbelmyne 150>102>75<88
*5* (Rx40)
Gollum, Stinker ---<126<143<164
*6*
The Stole It ---<---<---<114
*7* (Rx121)
Morgul Brute 426<485<474<602
Ulaire Cantea, Faster Than Winds 254>230>226>197
*8* (Rx41)
Saved From the Fire ---<161<157>69
Ships of Great Draught ---<118<152<168
*10*
Cirdan, The Shipwright ---<---<131<185
*11* (Rx60)
Glamdring, Foe-Hammer 148>137>131>112
The Witch-King, Captain of the Nine Riders 104<106<120<125
*13* (Rx60)
Alatar Deceived ---<116>104>97
*14*
Grimbeorn, Beorning Chieftain ---<---<---<107
*15* (Rx60)
A Shadow Fell Over Them 184>156>72>64
Aragorn's Bow, Ranger's Longbow 245>205>71>63
Battlefield Recruit 325>321>321<420
Gamling, The Old ---<---<603<794
Legolas, Fleet-Footed Hunter ---<181>177<233
Rohirrim Soldier ---<183<201<269
Tracking Uruk ---<---<---<276
*17* (Rx60)
A Defiled Charge 223>209>174>133
Ranger of the White tree 217>171<245<332
Vengeful Primitive 176>68>55>44
*19*
The One Ring, The Great Ring ---<101<110<147
Ulaire Nertea, Dark Horseman ---<124>122>114
Ulaire Toldea, Dark Shadow ---<107>105>98

The Gemp Merchant has something entitled "ALL PROMOS" which has cover art for the "Ages End" set. I've never bought it, and I still don't know whether this is actually the Ages End set, or something else. Assuming that it IS just the ages end set, it is currently priced at 400g. If you were to purchase each card in that set individually, they would add up to about 554g.