Someone educate me about some prices I see on TP.

Like people offering 71 silver for a level 39 rare (yellow) ravaging Flame Cleaver of Battle, and people asking 1 gold 75 silver for it... I must be missing something here.I know about some skins being worth something, I know about inscriptions and insignias that you can salvage, I know about certain Runes and Sigils creating the value of an item, I even understand why a level 11 Swindler Epaulets has to cost 65 silver (being a pretty rare and BIS item for those keyrunner throw away characters). But I can not think what the value is of this item.

Is it needed for certain obscure Mystic Forge recipes? There are more weapons in this level range that seem to sell for a pretty penny. What am I missing here? :)

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Flame_Cleaver

It's a cultural armor skin which otherwise costs 35,000 Karma. Obviously people consider asking between 71 silver and 1 gold 75 silver is where supply and demand meet.

Awesome, thank you. This explains a lot and I will be more careful when salvaging low level stuff. :)

After some more research I am still a little confused about that particular item I mentioned. I understand the idea that people want to save karma and rather buy it from the TP, but I also noticed that most other "flame" weapons of that level are a lot cheaper. Levels for the flame weapons go from 39-80 and their prices go from like 1.5 silver offered to the 71 silver offered for that flame axe, which is really an outlier imo. I am just mentioning the offered prices, since to me that reflects the true value much better. Dagger and scepter go for around 50 silver and then it tapers of quickly to prices that seem pretty normal for yellow weapons.

And it is not that the axe is a much rarer drop, it actually drops more often then others when I am doing the Ogre wars events. And that is another thing: those Ogre Wars must be among the top most "done by players" events in the game, because of the rare drop "Sam" that still goes for 230-275 gold on TP. There are always people doing this event almost back to back, on a timer that is like 15-25 minutes. Unless it is bugged off course but that is another story. So these flame weapons can't be that rare, I loot them constantly.

So I am still thinking there is something special about this Flame axe. As you may guess, I am interested in the workings of the TP. :) Are there recipes we do not know off? Something to do with the mystic forge?

Sometimes prices don't make sense, don't overthink it. ;)

Items for collections, rare and unobtainable things or stuff that is just pretty or used for RP purposes go for a premium. Sometimes there just isn't logic attached to it.

@"Kiza.5630" said:Sometimes prices don't make sense, don't overthink it. ;)

Items for collections, rare and unobtainable things or stuff that is just pretty or used for RP purposes go for a premium. Sometimes there just isn't logic attached to it.

I am sorry, but I do not agree with you on that when it comes to prices that are actually offered. I totally agree with you on the prices that are sometimes asked though, those are often just figments of the imagination of someone hoping to strike it rich. :) In every MMO I have played I am usually a pretty good "TP-warrior", making a pretty penny by understanding the workings of the economy. Not the best mind you, so that is why information about those Karma weapons still can enlighten me.

But one thing I have learned from the TP of GW2, is that it very well reflects the actual worth of an item in a certain timeframe. Prices fluctuate off course, and you immediately know when certain interesting items have hit the Gemstore, affecting the gold--->gems balance and also enticing players to dump materials(prices for mats go down) because they need gold to buy that nice skin. But for me there is still a lot to learn about the economy and TP in GW2. I have done the "buy up blues and greens for low prices and salvage them, both for luck and mats" thing and made good money with that: it was also interesting to see that a few people doing that (me amongst them) will slowly work up prices for those blues and greens from like 65 copper up to 130-150 copper over a period of months. And then off course people drop out of this scheme and prices will slowly fall again. All understandable.

Why are MINOR runes of the mesmer so expensive(60+ silver), compared to every other minor rune out there? I can only attest this to the fact that there is a pretty good guide out there for creating a level 11 (through Cooking) throwaway Thief character(keyrunner) that indeed is insanely powerful if you deck it out in Power and Precision gear(all account bound, re-usable gear) of which the Minor Mesmer runes add Precision. Combined with a minor Fire sigil, almost every other hit with your dagger is a Fire Blast AoE. So that is a price I can understand, though there may be more reasons.

Prices for yellow level 65-80 gear: around 8-15 silver: this pricing is all about the Globs. Mithril being dirt cheap: understandable. Silk, same thing. And so forth. Pretty much every offered price makes sense. Exept some of these lower level items, that consistently are in demand for a pretty penny. Surely putting 4x a level 39 Flame Axe in the mystic forge does not give you a better chance on a Frostfang precursor, right? (Need higher level items for that). Upgrades in the MF, hoping for a higher tier, I can understand that too.

But I think the Mystic forge is the part of the Economy that still mostly eludes me. I have also thought about the possibility that some people just like to deck out there level 39 Ranger or Warrior with the best of the best axe they can wield, so this would create demand for a yellow level 39 Axe. Then 70 silver is not so ridiculous. However I do not believe that this demand is due to that since the amount of time that people can stay level 39 (and actually play) is probably about 1 hour or 8 Dynamic Events. :) Now if GW2 would allow you to stop earning XP, then I would understand that price immediately.

I know in other mmo's, lots of people like to keep playing at certain levels for several reasons. Don't want to be overleveled for a cerain zone, roleplaying, loot. GW2 does not allow this and off course has the level scaling + the fact that you earn items both for your real level as well as the level of the zone you are in.

Ok long story, still confused about the flame axe! :)

Minor rune and sigil prices are strange and left in limbo, because there is no real any supply to them anymore since the crafting patch. I don't think anyone would use them on a keyrunner. It barely makes a difference in speed and you basically throw away money.

Mid tier crafting materials are used for ascended and supply of them is much lower since vast majority plays on lvl80 maps. Fragments, shards and stuff crashed when sigil/rune crafting changed. Before that you could level via discovery pretty nice. But now other materials are needed.

Its starts to make more sense when you consider an items practical value, and the way the TP operates.

Basically the only items that see substantial trade volume are ones which players actually have a use for. Common materials churn in the rates of the 10s of thousands per minute, while Legendary and Precursor weapons may only see movement every few days. But there have been items posted on the TP from Year 1, which no one ever bothers to look up, much less want to buy.

This situation/issue you're seeing with obtuse pricing is largely due to lack of interest by the players as a whole, resulting in stagnated trade volume. Rares below lvl 65 do not salvage into Ectoplasms (a major crafting component), and will only salvage into mid-tier basic materials (worth "maybe" a couple of silver at best)..... IE not worth buying all but the most obscure circumstances. There were further pushed into obscurity after Anet implemented Leveling gear into both Crafting and the Leveling Rewards, circumventing the already marginal use case of players using it as actual gear.

The TP also hosts a lot of Blue, Green and White tier items that have no practical value to players, and have long since hit the threshold for breaking even on their salvage value. If anything could get thrown off the TP listings to streamline it, it would be every piece of dropped gear below Rare tier; and could benefit from lumping levels into a range, rather then list each combination of stats, rarity level, and rune (if it has). Or change how the system searches (which is currently perfect match ID) to allow similar items to be grouped into a single listing based on perceived purpose.

With the exception of items above 2k gold or are ultra rare drops (volume less then 1000), which will have low trade volume by nature, anything with abnormally high prices for what they are, are 90% likely to be a "legacy item" on the TP thats only really posted because the TP allows it, and is probably from a time period of when they first appeared in the game, when people were trying to quickly flip them before supply hits equilibrium. This happens a lot with items associated with Collections, which will permanently equalize or the buyers will refuse the higher listing prices, as soon as collection falls out of public attention.

For instance... the trade for items associated with the Mawdry collection still has movement, but the supply is falling off since no one is thinking to replenish it.

https://www.gw2bltc.com/en/item/66923-Plate-of-Piquant-Plant-Food

Compare that to Delrimor Ingots, which sees stable trade throughout the year, due to its usefulness in Ascended item crafting and various collections.

https://www.gw2bltc.com/en/item/46738-Deldrimor-Steel-Ingot

Now look at the cleaver's 3 month trade activity. Most of them are spikes of 1-3 in a day, a few days a week. There is movement, but the movement is suspicious.

https://www.gw2bltc.com/en/item/32886-Ravaging-Flame-Cleaver-of-Battle

39 is the lowest level of dropped rares. It's the most expensive because it's among the earliest opportunities for people to upgrade to rare weapons. You can see this pattern with any given set. Prices taper off as you get closer to level 62 when exotics are available. And yes, level 62 exotics tend to be a lot more expensive than their late game counterparts.

Thanks for all the replies folks.

Starlin, That last link you posted just makes it more befuddling. It shows a consistent demand from people who are willing to fork over 70 silver for a level 39! yellow axe that will only salvage into a few iron and never yield any globs. Then, when you do a search for other yellow flame axes, the prices vary, with the high level ones actually being worth almost the least. Carrion Flame Cleaver of Energy (level 74 yellow weapon) only yields 11.5 silver, and this weapon can actually salvage into globs.

I agree that the volume in those level 39 axes is very low. Do you mean to say that these listings are some sort of remnant of the past when all of these karma weapons actually had some value, but that the value for the other types (like staff, sword and so forth) have been corrected over the years, but not this one? Is that 70 silver that I can get for it, an as of yet uncorrected price on the market? Even so, the volume seems to be enough for the price to get corrected over time.

Maybe most players are being careless (or stupid?), like I used to be, and just rucksichtlos salvage anything yellow that is below Glob-salvage level, thinking it will not be worth more then a few silver. Interesting.

NB: when you look at the old listings of that axe, all the way to the bottom of "Current Sellers" you notice that people once dared asking 10 gold for this weapon. I am guessing those are listings of the days that these karma weapons were all in high demand. Will see how those graphs turn out for other flame weapons in that same level range.

It is also clear, that from all these Flame Weapons (Axe, sword, scepter and so forth), it is actually the level 39 ones that are worth most. So it can not be for the skins, since you can get the same skin for a fraction of the price if you buy the level 74 version (and maybe get a glob to boot). So there must be something to the level of the weapon, and I still do not get it. Btw, same thing for the Verdant weapons: people willing to pay 1gold 55 silver for the level 39! yellow version of the verdant axe. Why dont they buy the level 74 version for 8 silver?

Maybe these weapons are actually being bought by level 39 players who just wants the best in slot for that level. It is the only reason I can think of. I guess gold comes easy these days. At least it would explain why the Axes, Swords and scepters are higher priced then for instance a Focus: looks to me more people wield an Axe then a Focus.

@Tyncale.1629 said:

@"Kiza.5630" said:Sometimes prices don't make sense, don't overthink it. ;)

Items for collections, rare and unobtainable things or stuff that is just pretty or used for RP purposes go for a premium. Sometimes there just isn't logic attached to it.

If this is so then you should all the more see lots of examples of nonsensical pricing on the GW2 TP. I see it all the time. Most people don't check alternatives or cross-reference to see if they could obtain the same desired result through another channel. Whether what they're after is a skin or a rune, etc. - often you'll find items they could get the same thing from at a wildly different price range. What is being offered is often determined simply by looking at the current bid and offering a little more. Nobody says "Well wait, the offering price on this SHOULD be 20% higher than the existing offer, so that's what I'll bid."

When you calculate what to invest in on this TP, you have to take into account that by far, most players have no idea what they're doing or how finances work. You'll find this more on GW2 than, for example, in WoW where so many people have add-on tools to tell them what the smart bid range is. Here there's no outside help, meaning most people can't be bothered to find out what makes sense and just go with the flow.

The only items on GW2 TP that you can usually count on to find a reasonable equalibrium point are those that are high volume. Even then there are oddities to be found.

if you want something that truly makes no sense, strict the price from high to low and look in the exotic part, there is a simple weapon on a price higher then any other weapon yet it's worthless.the TP is broken, the only way they can fix it is by doing a full sweep and refunding all taxes already paid, it's allot of work but then all the undervalued items are now out of the TP.