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Saturday 13 June 2015

This just breaks my heart - a Plex blunder

Every time i see someone miss-sell a Plex it just breaks my heart.

In the image below it appears someone has sold at least one Plex at 910 ISK when i very much suspect they meant to sell at 910,000,000 ISK.  A classic miss-posting that can occur in Eve.

The current view is that the sandbox nature of Eve Online means that players must live with those mistakes - CCP are not here to protect players from themselves.



In the above case, this could be a Plex trader - in which case that is less of an issue.  They can take such losses and likely make such a mistake every so often.

It could though be someone who has spent $15 to buy a Plex and miss-sold it on the market - that would be a bigger problem.  i would hope they get their due ISK if they put in a ticket to CCP.

However, it does point to the flaw in the current market system.  On today's exchanges - Sell orders that are priced below posted below Buy orders are settled at the price of those Buy orders.

So, in the above example, the Sell order would have sold at something like 868,000,000 ISK even if it was posted at a mere 910 ISK.

I am no coder - but i wonder how much additional time and resource this would require?

Sunday 7 June 2015

The Plex Account

A while back i discovered that i was collecting too much surplus ISK and i needed something to invest it in - which lead to me to investing in Plex.  My thinking was that this was the one item in game that could keep pace with inflation in Eve Online.

Don't look at the mineral prices as a guide to inflation - look at the ISK cost of keeping up with the game as a guide to inflation in Eve Online, it is going up.

My reasoning what that the ideal characteristics of such an investment would be:

  • Price linked somehow to the rising wealth in the game though i also want the price to be independent of individual specific items
  • Controlled supply - i want the supply of my investment to be limited or restrained so that as a scarce resource its value can grow as wealth in the game grows
  • Readily converted to ISK no matter what the environment - come war, peace, patch, expansion, you name it i want my investment to be recognised by all players at all times as something of value
  • Sufficiently liquid to convert to ISK in a short period of time - i.e. i can sell my investment very quickly into the market for a fair price
  • Power Proof - i don't want any player / alliance power base able to control the price of my investment
  • Patch / expansion proof - i don't want my investment to be materially reduced in value on the whim of a change in a patch or expansion.

Which lead me to Plex.

Well, one year later i now own 94 Plex valued at 83bn ISK.

In all, I have entered the market 6 times to buy those Plex and by average gain has been 24.2% (a range of 38.8% to 10.6%).



So far, at least, my theory is holding true on investing in Plex.

However, it is fair to say that whilst i meet one side of the CCP aim of Plex (i am providing liquidity to those players that which to sell buy Plex for US$ and then sell that Plex for ISK), i am part of the player base that is forcing the price of Plex up (i don't plan on selling my Plex any time soon).