The CTP has been buying and selling artifacts and I think this has been a great service to the players by and large. However, by "locking" in prices, I think unintended side effects have come out. I think its clear that the price of warehouses has had a significant effect on the availability of planet fluxes. I have included a detailed reasoning behind my decisions below, but the basic decision

The CTP store will no longer buy warehouses or planet fluxes at any price FOR NOW.
At some point, when the prices seem to have stabilized, the CTP will "lock in" a new price for both warehouses and planet fluxes that will ideally sustain a healthy balance between the two.
Any current warehouses will be sold off at 525 ctp until the time that a new price has been locked in, at which point, the new price will take over.


Reasoning behind this:

At the time when the CTP store started buying warehouses, the price of them were nuts, some would go for as little as 200 CTP, others as high as 1000 CTP. The volatility made trading a huge hassle and the fixed price was certainly a big help in combatting this. However, the substantial difference between the (per gp) price of a flux and the price of a warehouse made the only logical choice buying a warehouse, reducing the planet flux availability.

It seems clear to me that the "true" price of a warehouse must be below 500. If it were not so, others would simply pay more then the 500 CTP price offered by the store. Could the price of a planet flux artificially lower it? Perhaps, but this seems unlikely, the stores' price on fluxes is largely ignored anyways, so the effect the store prices on fluxes has on the "true" price of warehouses seems like it should be minimal.

However, the converse is simply not true. The price of fluxes is dramatically changed by the price of warehouses due to the change in availability. Thus it is unclear where the price of fluxes should be... it is even possible that the "true" price of fluxes should be lower then the current store price; after all with increased availability (from the reduction in purchases of warehouses) the prices could possibly drop. Therefore if the store is to make a move to change flux prices, it must change the underlying cause, which in this case, is the warehouse price.

A further consideration is whether more fluxes in the game is even beneficial. In this respect, I lean towards whether or not it is beneficial for a newer player. The old hats have the resources and the strength to help themselves, and will realistically not change their behaviour despite an increase or decrease in the availability of fluxes. A stronger player is quite capable of defending a planet and still maintaining a reasonable level of production while a new player is not. Furthermore, while a new player may be able to take a planet from a stronger player, holding onto said planet is unlikely without the use of a flux. The converse cannot be said. Thus, my conclusion is that new players benefit more from strong players and an increase in availability is desireable.

Having made that decision, the question of what to do with the prices comes to mind. Clearly it is unsustainable as it is (although clearly profitable for an avid trader such as myself). Setting a new price could work, but it could also simply set the stage for the same problem at a different level. The easiest and I think best way is to let the market decide. Completely free up the market on both, and see where the prices end up. In this case, the prices should logically be sustainable, since if there is a bias towards one artifact over the other, then the market will self-adjust to correct the bias.

This solution, however, returns back to the incredible volatility that plagued the market in the pre-warehouse days. Thus the decision to use the resources of the CTP store to lock in prices once a new balance has been met. Furthermore, now that a precedent has been set for this process, the freeing up and relocking of the market can be repeated should another imbalance arise. This should ideally take care of long term problems with a discrepency in prices.

The CTP store is withdrawing from this process, because I feel that to take an active role in the repricing method could unwittingly change the final outcome and lead to an increased chance of having to redo this process. Since this volatility is going to suck anyways, I'd rather not have to do it again any time soon.

In sort, I appreciate the comments and the discussions I had about the current setup. It has helped me formulate a strategy that I hope will lead to a stronger market.

Byung Chun

seems the biggest problem was you were setting a CTP/Ku/EM to GP ratio... never a good thing... always best to stick to items that are not GP-only in my opinion

I'm not convinced that the setting of a price between GP and non GP items was the issue, but more it stemmed from the rigidity of the system. In any case, observing what happens will be telling I think.

Have read widely if shallowly in economics

if you fix the price of a commodity and things change- you will likely not be able to adapt fast enough

it will always have unintended side effects