Game time for Gold

[kandrathe]

Economics majors must love this and I admit I'm fascinated by it. A major driver of the tokens' price is its perceived value. Blizzard tried to set a perceived value to the token by starting it at 30,000g, and I'd imagine that if you wanted to purchase gold via the token you'd want to "cash in" quickly once the value dropped below 30,000g - hence the drop last night. If you're looking to buy a token with gold, you naturally want to see where it bottoms out but there's a perception that if you're buying under 30,000g, you're getting a "deal."

But, not really. Essentially, on the black market 1000g(BMG) = 1$. 1 month re-subscription, being the most expensive, is $15, or 15000g translated to tokens. The game token costs $20, ~20K BMG. $5 for novelty cost? I think not.

A deal then would for us to get a token (whose value is a month of game time), for the equivalent value of in game gold. In fact, the black market price should be adjusted for risk. But, we've seen very little enforcement, so I suspect it has little effect on the price. Unless the price gets under 15K, it is better to spend your 13-15$ just re-subscribing, or...

I'd say the initial market is a boon for token sellers, getting 25-30K gold, well above the black market rate for their $20 value. Roughly then, if you can get more than 20K gold, then $20 is a good investment for WOW token.