Gold Exchange Rate is getting out of hand

[Ashantara.8731]

@etsubmariner.4690 said:Am I learning here that the gems-to-gold thing fluctuates instead of just being an Anet service transaction?

Correct.

If so, are we serious Anet? Gemstones aren't available in the game in any way as part of a raid or drop. You have to buy them, right? With real money?

No, you can also get them by spending gold, but at the current exchange rate you lose a lot in the process.

Anet decided that exchanging gems for gold ought to be a market fluctuation based on player transactions? Seriously?

What can I say... (sighs)

[crashburntoo.7431]

@etsubmariner.4690 said:Am I learning here that the gems-to-gold thing fluctuates instead of just being an Anet service transaction? If so, are we serious Anet? Gemstones aren't available in the game in any way as part of a raid or drop. You have to buy them, right? With real money? Anet decided that exchanging gems for gold ought to be a market fluctuation based on player transactions? Seriously?

Yes, Gems <--> Gold has always varied based on the demand (measured and adjusted by exchange volumes in either direction).

I can understand your concern. With Cash --> Gems being constant, but Gems --> Gold fluctuating, you will have a variable Cash --> Gold rate. Currently, this rate is unattractive, but it will return to something a little more "balanced". I expect there won't be a hard swing the other way (i.e. mount skins in BLTC in 2 weeks), since the short term fluctuation may actually be large enough to benefit currency exchange speculators even with Anet taxes.

[Omar Aschi Popp.7496]

@Ashantara.8731 said:Within just a week it increased from ~1,200 to 1,600 (and still rising) for 250g. Do you think it will eventually normalize again?

With the current rate, no one will want to invest real money anymore to buy gold if absolutely necessary. I know I won't.

You pay real life money for gold?PffttgghhLol.

LOL

[Omar Aschi Popp.7496]

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@Trise.2865 said:"Out of hand", you say? With an exchange rate like that, buying gems has never been cheaper, and might even go lower! This is a fantastic time to get lots of expensive gems for cheap.

Errrrr... (

is trying to find logic in that response, but fails

) What? How is it "cheaper" when you get less gold for the same amount of gems?

He is saying you can buy gems with in-game earned gold cheaper.

You know, like God wanted.

[mtpelion.4562]

@etsubmariner.4690 said:Am I learning here that the gems-to-gold thing fluctuates instead of just being an Anet service transaction? If so, are we serious Anet? Gemstones aren't available in the game in any way as part of a raid or drop. You have to buy them, right? With real money? Anet decided that exchanging gems for gold ought to be a market fluctuation based on player transactions? Seriously?

Yes, because that's the best way to do it.You see, as gems are in demand, the cost of getting them via gold goes up. As gems go down in demand, the cost of getting them via gold goes down.

On the FLIP SIDE, as gems are in demand, the amount of gold you can get by selling them goes up. As gems go down in demand, the amount of gold you can get by selling them goes down.

Also, you do not ever have to spend a single cent of real money to get gems, thanks to this dynamic exchange system. You can cash your gold in for gems and get any gemstore item for "free" (just costs your time in the form of gold).

[Khisanth.2948]

In terms of gold sink the griffon is nothing compared to the 32 slot bags. It's a potential 2,176g per character while griffon is only 250g per account. A single bag is more than the griffon.

[Hesacon.8735]

The materials market is in disarray as well. But I think it's good, this is a nice shake up with all the gold sinks vacuuming up currency on totally optional items.

[Omar Aschi Popp.7496]

@Khisanth.2948 said:In terms of gold sink the griffon is nothing compared to the 32 slot bags. It's a potential 2,176g per character while griffon is only 250g per account. A single bag is more than the griffon.

Dude. I've been playing since launch and I STILL only use my starter back and 4 slot, my first crafted box, my first leather bag from Champion Boat in QD, and my 10slot trick or treat soulbound bag.

That's 47 slots.

I do just fine. I don't understand bag hoopla.My mule toon uses the hot 80 boost bags.

Speaking of which, why did the level 80 boosts for pof not give equipment?

[LSD.4673]

I read the price of gems would skyrocket with the expac. My mistake :(

[TheVindelator.8239]

Oh sweet! Gems are cheaper now!

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

@sorudo.9054 said:i always see it this way, an exchange should at all times be give what you gained.if the exchange rate was done right then 1 gem for 20g should also have 20g for 1 gem, having a huge difference in this exchange makes one side profitable and the other hugely cheated.

If the exchange rates were the same on both sides then you'd see people, especially the richest people in game, able to flip large numbers of gems to get a profit. I don't think you'd like a game or an gem<>gold exchange where people are sitting in cities flipping thousands or hundreds of thousands of gems over and over to make gold. The difference in conversion makes it difficult to get a profit that way. People currently have to hold on to gems for quite a while, waiting for the price to rise high enough if they want to flip gems<>gold.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

The OP is kidding, right? The gold:gem ratio has never been static. It has gone up & down throughout its entire history and people invested RL cash all the time. This isn't even the lowest its been during HoT's tenure.

• People always invest RL cash December-January (all those Christmas|Kwanza|Chanukah gift cards) and often when there are massive amounts of returning players. This drives the rate down quickly.
• People convert gold whenever certain things are discounted, notably character slots, BL keys, makeover kits, certain skins or gizmos. This drives the price up
• People migrate to new servers when there are new links and when certain servers are not full, which is what spiked us from the pre-HoT historical 15-20g →100 gem era to the current 25-30g era
• Over time since the first year, the rate has gone up very gradually on average, with massive spikes and collapses several times per year.

In other words, the OP's completely misunderstood what the "normal" rate has been — it's barely below normal today.

---

Look at e.g. gw2tp's history, which goes back 4 years if you click the 'all' button. Here are some highlights of the cost of buying 100 gems with gold

• Today: 23g buys 100 gems
• Aug 2017: 32g and 28g
• Feb 2017: 25g
• Aug 2016: 39g
• Apr 2016: 20g
• Jan 2016: 16-20g
• Oct 2015: 20g
• Sep 2015: 25-27g
• Aug 2015: 16g

So in the last 2 years, the price has gone from 16g per 100 gems to 38g. In the last year, it's varied from 24g to 32g, mostly hovering around 25-28g. During the year prior, it was 16-39g.

So while it might be a relatively low point this week, it's nothing close to the lowest its been in recent memory.

[Ashantara.8731]

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:The OP is kidding, right? The gold:gem ratio has never been static.

No, I wasn't "kidding", I have better things to do with my time than posting "funny" threads on the GW2 forums.

I have never seen the exchange rate high-rocket like this. I wonder how much crazier it has to get before ANet puts a stop to it. The week before PoF: 250g cost about 1,300 Gems. Now it's 1,716+ Gems. Who wants to buy gold anymore at that rate?

[IndigoSundown.5419]

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:The OP is kidding, right? The gold:gem ratio has never been static.

No, I wasn't "kidding", I have better things to do with my time than posting "funny" threads on the GW2 forums.

I have never seen the exchange rate high-rocket like this. I wonder how much crazier it has to get before ANet puts a stop to it. The week before PoF: 250g cost about 1,300 Gems. Now it's 1,716+ Gems. Who wants to buy gold anymore at that rate?

ANet will not and doesn't have to stop it. Players will stop it, one way or another, likely both.

1) Once they get the gold they want, they'll stop buying gems to exchange for gold. Once that happens, the rate will stabilize.; or2) Once enough people think, "Hey, this is a bad deal for me!" they will stop buying gems for gold, as you say you have.

Once something on the gem store generates a lot of wants, the gems for gold rate will lower again as people rush to get what they want without spending cash.

What we're seeing now is an artifact of the fairly typical desire for instant gratification on the part of gold buyers who want their max slot bags and/or griffon now. I believe it likely that at least some of them don't often spend RL money for gold, and just accept whatever the rate is when they happen to do their transaction.

[FaboBabo.3581]

@Omar Aschi Popp.7496 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:In terms of gold sink the griffon is nothing compared to the 32 slot bags. It's a potential 2,176g

per character

while griffon is only 250g per account. A single bag is more than the griffon.

Dude. I've been playing since launch and I STILL only use my starter back and 4 slot, my first crafted box, my first leather bag from Champion Boat in QD, and my 10slot trick or treat soulbound bag.

That's 47 slots.

I do just fine. I don't understand bag hoopla.My mule toon uses the hot 80 boost bags.

Speaking of which, why did the level 80 boosts for pof not give equipment?

I have several Mats full in my bank. I have 5 Characters and store additional Mats on those. Still i have arround 40 Items which i collect daily in my inventar which won't fit in my bank anymore. I'd like to have some items permanent avaible in my inventory like keys. For Hot u got like 5 or 6 different Keys.I Like to roam a long period without worrying for my inventory.

Sure it's a Quality of Life thing. Still i got no problem in getting my Bags in the few Months. I will probably need a very long Time for my 5 Bags, but im ok with it.

Gw2 has several long time Quests, which u want to do, without making the preachievment - life hard.

Just as u said, u can easily go with 47 Slots, but once u got ur 160 Slots in the Late Game, after u have several Items in ur inventory, which are primarily for fun and gimmicks, u'll be happy.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

It might be worth the OP's time to re-read the wiki article on the Currency Exchange feature of the BLTC. It clarifies that the gold:gem rate depends on the supply of gems bought by players using RL cash and the demand of players wanting to convert gold to gems.

@Ashantara.8731 said:I have never seen the exchange rate high-rocket like this.

Um, the exchange rate dropped, it didn't "rocket". (What increased recently is the amount of gems needed to purchase a specific amount of gold, which rises & falls inversely to the exchange rate.)

I don't know how long you've been playing, but this isn't anywhere close to the exchange rate's lowest point.Chart at gw2tp — click the All button to see the rates going back to early 2013.

@Ashantara.8731 said:I wonder how much crazier it has to get before ANet puts a stop to it.There's nothing to put a stop to. The rate varies depending on supply and demand. It has risen consistently year by year, but has often dropped. In particular, it dropped substantially every December-January for the first few years, as people converted gift cards into gold. It rose whenever BL keys were discounted, new wing colors added, when character slots go on sale, and so on. It reached its current equilibrium when WvW world linkages began, as certain guilds started moving en masse to allied medium-full servers linked to high-tier, high-pop primary worlds.

So the peak rates of 130g to buy 400 gems were unusually high when they first arrived. The rate has been sticky at around 110-120g/400 gems ever since then and (see below) has only recently dropped below 90g/400 gems for the first time in "modern" gold:gem rate history.

@Ashantara.8731 said:The week before PoF: 250g cost about 1,300 Gems. Now it's 1,716+ Gems. Who wants to buy gold anymore at that rate?@Yogi Beara wrote:Nobody ever goes there anymore — it’s too crowded.

Lots of people are buying gold at that rate, which is precisely why the rate has dropped — more people are buying gold (with gems) than are buying gems (using gold). The mechanics have been explained by ANet and reiterated above: the rate follows supply & demand, like everything else sold via the Black Lion Trading Company.

As explained in many, many places, it's very likely that a lot of people were using their Credit Card to buy enough gems to obtain the 200-250g they needed to obtain a Griffon as soon as possible. That drastically affected the supply of gems, making them less valuable. (There are a number of complementary and a few competing theories, but that one seems to have the most support from those who spend time analyzing GW2 markets.)

[Khisanth.2948]

@Omar Aschi Popp.7496 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:In terms of gold sink the griffon is nothing compared to the 32 slot bags. It's a potential 2,176g

per character

while griffon is only 250g per account. A single bag is more than the griffon.

Dude. I've been playing since launch and I STILL only use my starter back and 4 slot, my first crafted box, my first leather bag from Champion Boat in QD, and my 10slot trick or treat soulbound bag.

That's 47 slots.

I do just fine. I don't understand bag hoopla.My mule toon uses the hot 80 boost bags.

Speaking of which, why did the level 80 boosts for pof not give equipment?

It does give equipment. Maybe you forgot to open the container.

[PopeUrban.2578]

@Omar Aschi Popp.7496 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:In terms of gold sink the griffon is nothing compared to the 32 slot bags. It's a potential 2,176g

per character

while griffon is only 250g per account. A single bag is more than the griffon.

Dude. I've been playing since launch and I STILL only use my starter back and 4 slot, my first crafted box, my first leather bag from Champion Boat in QD, and my 10slot trick or treat soulbound bag.

That's 47 slots.

I do just fine. I don't understand bag hoopla.My mule toon uses the hot 80 boost bags.

Speaking of which, why did the level 80 boosts for pof not give equipment?

20 slot fractal bags man. Super cheap. Also, where's your karka shell bag and 20 slot wintersday bags? You missed out on the free bag train!

[Omar Aschi Popp.7496]

@FaboBabo.3581 said:

@Omar Aschi Popp.7496 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:In terms of gold sink the griffon is nothing compared to the 32 slot bags. It's a potential 2,176g

per character

while griffon is only 250g per account. A single bag is more than the griffon.

Dude. I've been playing since launch and I STILL only use my starter back and 4 slot, my first crafted box, my first leather bag from Champion Boat in QD, and my 10slot trick or treat soulbound bag.

That's 47 slots.

I do just fine. I don't understand bag hoopla.My mule toon uses the hot 80 boost bags.

Speaking of which, why did the level 80 boosts for pof not give equipment?

I have several Mats full in my bank. I have 5 Characters and store additional Mats on those. Still i have arround 40 Items which i collect daily in my inventar which won't fit in my bank anymore. I'd like to have some items permanent avaible in my inventory like keys. For Hot u got like 5 or 6 different Keys.I Like to roam a long period without worrying for my inventory.

Sure it's a Quality of Life thing. Still i got no problem in getting my Bags in the few Months. I will probably need a very long Time for my 5 Bags, but im ok with it.

Gw2 has several long time Quests, which u want to do, without making the preachievment - life hard.

Just as u said, u can easily go with 47 Slots, but once u got ur 160 Slots in the Late Game, after u have several Items in ur inventory, which are primarily for fun and gimmicks, u'll be happy.

No I prefer pretending to live in 2013 gw2. Thats what I had.

I have actually sold and destroyed many 20 > @PopeUrban.2578 said:

@Omar Aschi Popp.7496 said:

@Khisanth.2948 said:In terms of gold sink the griffon is nothing compared to the 32 slot bags. It's a potential 2,176g

per character

while griffon is only 250g per account. A single bag is more than the griffon.

Dude. I've been playing since launch and I STILL only use my starter back and 4 slot, my first crafted box, my first leather bag from Champion Boat in QD, and my 10slot trick or treat soulbound bag.

That's 47 slots.

I do just fine. I don't understand bag hoopla.My mule toon uses the hot 80 boost bags.

Speaking of which, why did the level 80 boosts for pof not give equipment?

20 slot fractal bags man. Super cheap. Also, where's your karka shell bag and 20 slot wintersday bags? You missed out on the free bag train!

You missed my point. I INTENTIONALY play with 47 free slots.

And I do just fine. So I am not understanding the fervor over not enough slots.

[Rauderi.8706]

It'd still be nice if buying gold with gems didn't truncate the value of the gold earned. It's a bit of a ripoff.

[blambidy.3216]

Ummmm what are you buying in tp that's 250 GS? Anything like that just use gems instead. This game leaves too much gold around to be using real money to buy gems to gold. Actually if you want to ask who is doing it, it's you lol. U wonder why? The trading Post is a pool. Each time you buy gems to convert to gold it means the worth of gems is lower. Like how rare cards are. The more you keep manufacturing the card the less worth of the card. So the more you buy gems, the less value they are. Therefore buying gems to convert to gold are higher rates because gems are not worth as much gold. However the conversion to gold to gems is a good rate. Before it was in 112 gold for 400 gems. Now it's 90 gold for 400 gems. When the expansion released. Everyone buys gems for release. I bet you a lot bought ultimate POF. Therefore value of gems go down. So to be angry isn't necessary. That's to blame on the community. However you should look up guides how to make gold. There's plenty of ways to make gold. I believe if you logged on for a month. The dailies plus the things arenanet awards you per day give you atleast 70 gold in a month. So in 3 months you have 240. Which I don't think you need 250 gold all the time. That's too much. Gw2 is a gold thief. But gw2 gives plenty of gold back. Once you get the gold we spend it. Just make the gold right. Not by using real money.

[Pax.3548]

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:The OP is kidding, right? The gold:gem ratio has never been static.

No, I wasn't "kidding", I have better things to do with my time than posting "funny" threads on the GW2 forums.

I have never seen the exchange rate high-rocket like this. I wonder how much crazier it has to get before ANet puts a stop to it. The week before PoF: 250g cost about 1,300 Gems. Now it's 1,716+ Gems. Who wants to buy gold anymore at that rate?

Don't use real money then, and instead play and gain the gold the old fasion way. No one forces you to spend real money, only you yourself.

[Despond.2174]

It will take a few months more to see how things stabilize, the xpac isn't even 1 month old.

[Khisanth.2948]

@Despond.2174 said:It will take a few months more to see how things stabilize, the xpac isn't even 1 month old.

Depends on how soon quickly they get around to releasing mount skins. Pretty much as soon as they do that the exchange is going to flip in the other direction. It doesn't even matter how good or bad looking it is. There are enough players that there will be a big enough percentage to move it. It doesn't have to be a mount skin either but at this point it is probably one of the more surefire options. The only way I can see them screwing it up would be pricing it too high.

[Witch of Doom.5739]

Lots of helpful posts in this thread. I want to convert gems to gold but will not at the current rate, and that's OK because I can wait. The PoF release seems to be what has changed the rate and probably because of so many people getting the Griffon, as others have said. With Halloween coming soon, I hope people will be buying more things with gems and bring the conversion rate down a little. I'm also gobsmacked that ANet has not made more PoF-specific things immediately available in the Gem Shop, such as mount skins, etc. I would think the interest now would be quite high.