Torn has a unique market, I recently conducted a test where I bought up 2000 leather gloves from the item market(I have sold of the gloves now) . Leather gloves are common and have a near endless circulation however the market price for them was driven up 50% than its base. This is not the curious part though it is what happened afterwards, even now, leather gloves have stabilized at around $450. Even though i bought up a mere 0.1% of the total circulation and gloves are constantly being ditched and bought they do not go back to their original value. This has a few reasons which are unique to Torn and what makes the economy so unique
How the circulation of products has created an economy which can be manipulated by a single player.
When an item is bought from the item market a 5% Tax is taken to keep the economy stable otherwise there would be minimal amounts of money exiting circulation making prices of items go up as shown in real world scenarios. This has a secondary effect too, that the newbie player is restricted meaning they look to get a bazaar allowing them to now not pay the tax. The whole point of mentioning this is the well known fact that circulation is key to the stability of the market. But leather gloves go in and out of circulation all the time yet even a month later when i am sure the 2K gloves i have bought have been added and bought on the market the price remains near the same. The cause of this is how players react to the market value. Truly, the market value is only there to maintain stability in the market to give players a baseline to sell items at. When I bought up the gloves there was not enough time for the market price to lower to the previous baseline meaning the new price ($450 at the time) was what players now saw and sold items at. However this price should have gone down as people undercut the prices of others to have their item bought first. In this case however the circulation of goods allowed people who bought the goods in bulk to sell for a higher price causing the price to be driven up again allowing for the stability.
How Leather Gloves can represent Torn's economy:
I would assume that no trader cares about the microeconomics of leather Gloves however this view can be expanded to the wider market. If I can cause a 50% increase in the value of Leather Gloves by buying a 0.1% of the total amount of them think about the implications for Xanax, a much higher in demand item with much more use for factions and other groups. Xanax is also being undercut by people selling it for a quick buck but if a faction want to stabilize Xanax then they would only need to buy a few of them to raise the price again. Xanax is the linchpin of the Torn market and this means that guild/factions and wealthy players are intent on keeping it stable. This means that if Xanax drops too far a wealthy player could buy up a few thousand to keep the torn economy stable. This proves that this mechanic of item stability works on both ends of the market if there are players who are watching the market.
How traveling can affect the market.
Torn's traveling mechanic causes a unique divide in the market, there are the suppliers, the players who fly to buy plushies and other things and the players that are willing to spend another 50K per item for convenience sake. This split means that as more people play Torn every day and more people travel to make money the price of plushies will fall over time as the market is becoming more and more diluted. This is counteracted by event however, such as Museum day which causes plushies to rise in value rapidly and causes the market to dip back its price the year before. This mechanic however does not apply to other goods especially the black market goods added in recent updates. This causes these items to be affected by both circulation as people buy them assuming their price will rise, the addition to the market over time as people travel and people slowly undercutting the price to get bought first.
These are all my musings over Torn Please feel free to tell me if you disagree or have another point to add or you think is more important.
Torn has a unique market, I recently conducted a test where I bought up 2000 leather gloves from the item market(I have sold of the gloves now) . Leather gloves are common and have a near endless circulation however the market price for them was driven up 50% than its base. This is not the curious part though it is what happened afterwards, even now, leather gloves have stabilized at around $450. Even though i bought up a mere 0.1% of the total circulation and gloves are constantly being ditched and bought they do not go back to their original value. This has a few reasons which are unique to Torn and what makes the economy so unique
How the circulation of products has created an economy which can be manipulated by a single player.
When an item is bought from the item market a 5% Tax is taken to keep the economy stable otherwise there would be minimal amounts of money exiting circulation making prices of items go up as shown in real world scenarios. This has a secondary effect too, that the newbie player is restricted meaning they look to get a bazaar allowing them to now not pay the tax. The whole point of mentioning this is the well known fact that circulation is key to the stability of the market. But leather gloves go in and out of circulation all the time yet even a month later when i am sure the 2K gloves i have bought have been added and bought on the market the price remains near the same. The cause of this is how players react to the market value. Truly, the market value is only there to maintain stability in the market to give players a baseline to sell items at. When I bought up the gloves there was not enough time for the market price to lower to the previous baseline meaning the new price ($450 at the time) was what players now saw and sold items at. However this price should have gone down as people undercut the prices of others to have their item bought first. In this case however the circulation of goods allowed people who bought the goods in bulk to sell for a higher price causing the price to be driven up again allowing for the stability.
How Leather Gloves can represent Torn's economy:
I would assume that no trader cares about the microeconomics of leather Gloves however this view can be expanded to the wider market. If I can cause a 50% increase in the value of Leather Gloves by buying a 0.1% of the total amount of them think about the implications for Xanax, a much higher in demand item with much more use for factions and other groups. Xanax is also being undercut by people selling it for a quick buck but if a faction want to stabilize Xanax then they would only need to buy a few of them to raise the price again. Xanax is the linchpin of the Torn market and this means that guild/factions and wealthy players are intent on keeping it stable. This means that if Xanax drops too far a wealthy player could buy up a few thousand to keep the torn economy stable. This proves that this mechanic of item stability works on both ends of the market if there are players who are watching the market.
How traveling can affect the market.
Torn's traveling mechanic causes a unique divide in the market, there are the suppliers, the players who fly to buy plushies and other things and the players that are willing to spend another 50K per item for convenience sake. This split means that as more people play Torn every day and more people travel to make money the price of plushies will fall over time as the market is becoming more and more diluted. This is counteracted by event however, such as Museum day which causes plushies to rise in value rapidly and causes the market to dip back its price the year before. This mechanic however does not apply to other goods especially the black market goods added in recent updates. This causes these items to be affected by both circulation as people buy them assuming their price will rise, the addition to the market over time as people travel and people slowly undercutting the price to get bought first.
These are all my musings over Torn Please feel free to tell me if you disagree or have another point to add or you think is more important.