- Tue Jan 15, 2013 6:53 pm
#138021
The Price of an Emerald
What is the price of an emerald, you ask? For the most part, the price is dependent on how you farm the emerald, and consequently, the time spent obtaining the emerald. With this in mind, a possible reasonable price range can be obtained using definite methods.
Emeralds are renewable items. But they can also be obtained in nonrenewable ways (in the case of emeralds, from emerald ore). Renewable items have definite methods of calculating price, like an equation. Nonrenewable items, on the other hand, are based on complicated, uncertain parameters. Their market price may never equal the true value due to lack of information.
If one emerald can be farmed in (say) 30 seconds, what is someone willing to pay for 30 seconds of your time? Or, equivalently, how many credits can the buyer earn in 30 seconds? The buying and selling of items (renewable, at least) is essentially the trading of time. If an emerald is worth 30 seconds, what else is worth 30 seconds? 1 credit? 10 credits? 50 credits? 1 diamond? Half a diamond?
A more specific solution is, What is the average number of credits created per person per 30 seconds? We don't have these numbers, to be frank. However, the maximum number of credits that can be created per 1 hour per person is around 7k. Therefore, 30 seconds is about 60 credits worth, at maximum. So, IF the seller obtains an emerald in 30 seconds, then the emerald is worth AT MOST 60 credits. Though, it's important to realize most people don't gain 7k credits per hour solely by placing/breaking blocks, hence "AT MOST".
In the most efficient manner, emeralds can be farmed at a rate of somewhere above 800 emeralds per hour. Nobody has such a farm on minerealm, so nobody should worry about competing against his or her prices. Though, 800 emeralds per hour yields a price of AT MOST 9 credits per emerald. And some farms have half this rate and double the price.
Of course, you can always price your emeralds higher than what they're actually worth. The price is still determined by supply and demand. If buyers are not knowledgable of its actual worth, this is known as "cornering the market".
Calculating possible price
A = Average amount of credits earned by placing/mining blocks per person per hour, this value can be as high as 7k
B = Number of emeralds earned per hour
Price per emerald = A / B
What is the price of an emerald? It is whatever you want. You can wait 6 months before someone finally offers you a huge price. Or you can wait 1 day to find someone who will buy for cheap. What is the lowest an emerald is worth? I'd say 6 credits. But is that the equilibrium price? Certainly not.
