Rarity vs Cost
brandons...@yahoo.com
mention where), there are cards selling for $10+ that are included in
the starters. If card one sells for $12 and card two sells for $5 and
there are three copies, you can buy almost 3 of the starters for the
cost of those 4 cards that are included in the very same starters.
What gives?
sg3kmb6...@gmail.com
I'd give it at least a couple of weeks before trying to draw any
conclusions from prices of KoT singles.
tobinator
People are not always rational in their spending and buying habits.
-tpl
Peter D Bakija
<999fe338-fc9b-487f...@o40g2000prn.googlegroups.com>,
brandons...@yahoo.com wrote:
Well, if people will pay for them, well, then there you go.
For example, you can get a War Ghoul from Lasombra for 12 bucks. You can
get a Tzimisce starter from any number of places for 10 bucks. If your
whole plan is to just buy a War Ghoul, you pay the 10 bucks, get the
starter, and get the War Ghoul and all the other stuff with it. Awesome!
But if you are buying a whole bunch of singles already anyway, and you
can't buy a Tzimisce starter from the place you are getting the singles
from (as most places that sell singles don't also sell individual
starters)? The $12.00 for the War Ghoul doesn't look that bad of a deal.
So you spend the $12.00 for the War Ghoul.
Right now, if you want Freak Drives? You buy a KoT Ventrue starter and
get 3 of them for about 10 bucks. But if you don't have a Ventrue
starter handy, or you have to pay 5 extra bucks for shipping to get it?
Paying 6 bucks a pop for the Freak Drives when you are getting a bunch
of other singles anyway doesn't seem like a bad deal.
Peter D Bakija
pd...@lightlink.com
http://www.lightlink.com/pdb6/vtes.html
"It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does?"
-Gaff
brandons...@yahoo.com
> In article
> <999fe338-fc9b-487f-90c1-1f3d90f83...@o40g2000prn.googlegroups.com>,
>
> brandonsantac...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > Scanning over the price for some KoT cards sold as singles (I won't
> > mention where), there are cards selling for $10+ that are included in
> > the starters. If card one sells for $12 and card two sells for $5 and
> > there are three copies, you can buy almost 3 of the starters for the
> > cost of those 4 cards that are included in the very same starters.
> > What gives?
>
> Well, if people will pay for them, well, then there you go.
>
> For example, you can get a War Ghoul from Lasombra for 12 bucks. You can
> get a Tzimisce starter from any number of places for 10 bucks. If your
> whole plan is to just buy a War Ghoul, you pay the 10 bucks, get the
> starter, and get the War Ghoul and all the other stuff with it. Awesome!
> But if you are buying a whole bunch of singles already anyway, and you
> can't buy a Tzimisce starter from the place you are getting the singles
> from (as most places that sell singles don't also sell individual
> starters)? The $12.00 for the War Ghoul doesn't look that bad of a deal.
> So you spend the $12.00 for the War Ghoul.
>
> Right now, if you want Freak Drives? You buy a KoT Ventrue starter and
> get 3 of them for about 10 bucks. But if you don't have a Ventrue
> starter handy, or you have to pay 5 extra bucks for shipping to get it?
> Paying 6 bucks a pop for the Freak Drives when you are getting a bunch
> of other singles anyway doesn't seem like a bad deal.
>
> Peter D Bakija
I would refer anyone paying $12 for a War Ghoul to Tobinator- "People
are not always rational in their spending and buying habits."
I don't think that any card should exceed $5 if you want to have some
level of balance between those who have been invested from the
beginning of the game and those who might have started more recently.
People will, of course, spend lots of money on things that have a
highly subjective value, take the US housing market for example!
Just my 2c
Brandon
Peter D Bakija
<bdd2d714-8b53-4af9...@l33g2000pri.googlegroups.com>,
brandons...@yahoo.com wrote:
> I would refer anyone paying $12 for a War Ghoul to Tobinator- "People
> are not always rational in their spending and buying habits."
> I don't think that any card should exceed $5 if you want to have some
> level of balance between those who have been invested from the
> beginning of the game and those who might have started more recently.
Sure. But the market bears what the market will bear. If people didn't
pay more than 5 bucks for any card, then no cards would be more than 5
bucks. But tell that to Heart of Cheating.
Frederick Scott
news:999fe338-fc9b-487f...@o40g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
In my observation, the first two or three weeks after a new set has
come out are the weirdest and usually the worst times to buy singles.
I don't know exactly why but there seems to be a lot of interested
buyers in that period whereas the list of sellers stays relatively
constant. The number of sellers of a new set is somewhat higher
early on and a few drop by the wayside after the insanity dies down
a bit but it's nothing like variance in the number of buyers. You
get huge bidding wars going on and lots of guys bidding lots of
money making for insane and (at times) totally unreasonable and
stupid prices.
Then, after just a few weeks, the vast majority of those buyers
suddenly disappear. I have no idea where; I suppose some of them
win the auctions for the cards they're so hot to get and thus leave
the market that way. But that can't possibly explain how many of
the bidders just seem to melt back into the woodwork. I can only
suppose those guys are trading or doing local, non-EBAY buying or
finding their cards from some other sources. Or maybe they get
discouraged from the high prices and totally stop trying to buy.
Beats me.
After this period is over, prices go on a leveling trend which
tends to be much steeper and quicker for the mediocre cards and
rather more flat and even unnoticeable for the chase cards.
Eventually some sort of equilibrium is hit and prices then become
relatively stable.
Fred - not just a customer, an all-out geek
Morgan Vening
<pd...@lightlink.com> wrote:
>In article
><bdd2d714-8b53-4af9...@l33g2000pri.googlegroups.com>,
> brandons...@yahoo.com wrote:
>> I would refer anyone paying $12 for a War Ghoul to Tobinator- "People
>> are not always rational in their spending and buying habits."
>> I don't think that any card should exceed $5 if you want to have some
>> level of balance between those who have been invested from the
>> beginning of the game and those who might have started more recently.
>
>Sure. But the market bears what the market will bear. If people didn't
>pay more than 5 bucks for any card, then no cards would be more than 5
>bucks. But tell that to Heart of Cheating.
I think maybe his point was that if a card does exceed $5, then maybe
enough supply should be provided to meet demand (as is evidenced by
the drop in value of the aforementioned War Ghoul) to drop it to a
similar value.
Unmasking was a rare in Gehenna. And has been $10+ since. And it's
only 4.5 years later it's been put back into print, and still selling
well above that point. War Ghoul used to be in the $20 area, and has
dropped to the $12 area, not because of a functionality (errata)
change, nor an aesthetic change, but purely from a supply/demand
change.
There's no real reason from a non-speculator perspective, that a card
that has a disproportionately large demand can't be reprinted in
subsequent expansions (either booster/starter/both). Even retaining
rarity doesn't change the concept. I doubt that there would be more
than the smallest minority who would open a KoT booster and find a
Powerbase Montreal/Heart of Cheating/Unmasking, and be disenfranchised
about it (as opposed to getting a Delivery Truck/Sixth
Tradition/Society of Leopold).
It's the same with some of the Promos. Some are utter crap, but those
that aren't, especially those were multiples might be usable
(Ensemble, Two Wrongs, Waxen), have an artificial rarity imposed upon
them that doesn't need to be exclusive.
Anyways, that's my 3.22402 cents.
Morgan Vening
Obtenebration
taking up uncommon slots, seems to be several in KOT that have that
happen.
Starters are a great way to get rares and uncommons(everything in 3rd)
that are harder to get than rares(J.S. Simmons more huma..common than
commons).
Some people just want the single card and will pay upwards of the cost
of a starter box to get it. But seeing them go for more than a
starter box is unusual, since you could pickup that card and others
with a starter in most cases.
Then you have cards that have never or not appearing to ever see
reprint(Shroud of Absence) and will continue to go up most likely.
Teeka
> Fred - not just a customer, an all-out geek
Rock on, brotha. :-)
Peter D Bakija
> I think maybe his point was that if a card does exceed $5, then maybe
> enough supply should be provided to meet demand (as is evidenced by
> the drop in value of the aforementioned War Ghoul) to drop it to a
> similar value.
Maybe? Brandon was asking about why cards that *are* reprinted in
starters sell for more than they should, given how starters cost,
like, 10 bucks. But I suppose you could extrapolate out to this.
-Peter