Part 1: Personal Economics

The Entropia Universe Economy and You

Preface: A Real Cash Economy Part 1: Personal Economics Part 2: Social Economics Part 3: Global Economics Part 4: Universal Economics Part 5: "Virtual" Real Life Application

As in Real Life we each have a budgeting cycle within the game. This cycle can vary drastically for many different reasons, but it is still there.

• Beginning Balance

• Things that affect the Balance

• Ending Balance

We all start the game out with tattered clothing worth 0PED and 0PED on our PED card. (Your PED Card is like your in game bank card, It is where you store all of your in game PED)

There are a multitude of options for adding PED to our card, but the most common is to deposit real money. Other options are to sweat, gather fruits, stones, heal people(requires a tool to start), and any other creative ideas you can come up with.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - You Can Sell Sweat For PED - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Depositing Is The Most Common Way To Get PED - - - -

There are a multitude of options for spending your PED inside the game. You can use them in any of the different professions you choose. (for example guns armor and ammo for hunting) You can spend it on clothes or beauty products, cars, apartments, investing in items for trade, etc... the sky is the limit, everyone you meet will have something you can spend your PEDs on if you are willing to spend them.

Everything you do has a cost, hunting has ammo consumption and weapon/armor decay, mining has probe/bomb consumption and finder/extractor decay, crafting consumes resources, etc...

Some of the things you spend PED on can return some back. For example any of the main professions of hunting/mining/crafting as well as trading will produce items and resources from your PED, that you can then in turn sell either to the trade terminal, other players, or in the auction.

So there you have your basic first cycle.

• Starting balance 0PED

• worked or deposited to gain some PED

• squandered your PED on items or professions

• sold items and resources from your activities and got some PED back

• Ending balance on your PED card ??.??

A healthy approach to budgeting in the game will have your ending balance normally greater than your starting balance.

The longer you play the game the more PED you will need for your daily activities, so saving is important.

You will also need to be saving for more expensive gear to use in whatever professions you want to be doing.

After you have played for a few weeks or maybe months, you will have begun to observe what your personal spending habits are and what your own cost to play per hour is. Take note of this and see if it falls within what you want to be budgeting for. If you can afford to spend more per hour, then you might want to peruse bigger and more exciting activities. If you find that you are spending more than you really should be, then slow down your activities and find a comfort zone for what you are doing.

There are a multitude of tutorials and discussions on the different entropia forums on how to reduce your spending while maximizing your game play and fun. I would recommend checking out the Tutorial sections here at EntropiaPlanets as well as the similar section over at Planet Calypso Forum

The biggest things to consider would be playing within or under your skill level. (the fastest way to loose PEDs is to do something your avatar isn't really capable of)

The next would be to pay close attention to the markup (markup is the value above Trade Terminal value that an item or resource is commonly bought or sold for) on what you are using in comparison to the markup on what you are producing. For hunting this would mean the average dmg/pec including markup on the guns vs the average mu of the loot you are getting. For crafting this would mean comparing the markup of the resources you are using compared to the markup of the residue and items you are crafting. For mining this would mean comparing the cost of markup on your finders and amps compared to the markup on the resources you are finding.

There are ways to lower the markup on items you purchase and ways to increase the markup on items you sell.

The published markups on items and resources are showing the sales history of the in game auction, there is no data for any player to player trades.

The easiest for everyone would be to just put everything in the auction and sell it instantly, but that is not how it works. There are auction fees, transport fees if you are selling to people on another planet, and hundreds or thousands of other people wanting to sell or buy the same resource or item.

I would highly recommend playing around in the auction for a while without actually buying or selling anything. If you have something you are considering selling, look up that item or resource in auction and look at all of the others similar that are for sale. Sort them by starting bid highest first, then lowest first, sort by buyout with highest first and lowest first. Observe the quantity and tt value of the resources at the different ends of those lists, and see where what you have would fit in. Pick a couple of them that are closest to the same as what you have, watch the auctions to completion and see if they are sold at buyout or if they go till the last minute, or if they don't sell at all. If you are from a newer planet, be careful to watch how items from your planet are selling because people are less likely to buy from another planet.

Put your item in the auction and go through the process of setting up a listing for it, play with all the toggles and see what the different options are for buyout and starting bids and how they affect your auction fees. (Remember that if your item sells for more than the starting bid that the final auction fee will be the same as what it would have been if your starting bid was the same as the buyout)

• The approximate auction fee is (5% of the markup over TT value) + 0.5PED

If you are wanting to buy something, you should look at the same lists and sort them seeing if you can observe any trends through studying them. Check the market history on the item and see if the items listed at the time you are looking match up with the history. If everything in auction is a bit higher than history you might want to wait a day and check again for a cheaper item. Pay careful attention to what planet the item you are buying is from because if its not from your planet then you will have to pay an auction transport fee once you buy it.

• Auction transport fee = (tt*.23)+1PED

This means that if you buy a 100PED item you will have to pay an extra 24PED for transportation if it is from a different planet.

Auction is definitely the most common way to buy and sell things, but you have other options that may be better depending on the circumstances.

You will usually get a better deal selling your loot and resources to someone that actually needs it than you would after paying auction fees if you sold it in auction. You can even charge them less and make more profit in which case you are both profiting by the trade.

You will also get a better deal buying your resources or items that you need from a person that actually produced them since they will sell to you cheaper to avoid auction fees.

The third option for both buying and selling items is to go to a trader.

A trader will not give you as good a price as you would get in auction or to someone who needs it, but there are some circumstances where using a trader will still help you to profit more.

1. If the markup you would get in auction is less than the fee, you should either save up more or sell it to a trader. The trader will buy small stacks from many people to build up enough to be worth selling in auction.
2. If you need PED fast, a trader will be able to pay you instantly for your good where an auction takes time.
3. Sometimes your items may sell on another planet better than they do on the planet your on, in this case it would be better to sell to a trader so they can transport a lot of peoples items to that planet all at once.

Ok you have finished your cycle and have reached your ending balance which is also the beginning balance of your next cycle.

--Narfi 23:14, 23 September 2010 (BST)