Continued Adventures Great New Adventures The Comic Section Your Questions Answered Top Tips and Your Views Read Short Stories Back to the Main Page

The Marvin and Clyde Hour

by Captnq

Marvin: Hello and welcome to The Marvin and Clyde Hour! I'm Marvin!

Clyde: And I'm Clyde! And we're from the Neopian Economic Institute.

M: That's right, we're an independent organization that analyses the current NeoEconomy. And We're here to talk about the New NeoEconomy!

C: Yes, many things have changed in the past week. We've made statements before, but we feel the new changes will effect everyone, and you need to be made aware.

M: Yes, Recently the new code has been put into effect that makes it impossible to buy more then one item every five seconds. This has caused a massive ripple through out the secondary market, causing runaway inflation and disaster for the casual player.

C: Wait a sec, I don't follow you, Marvin. Won't this new code make it so that people have a better chance to get items out of the shops?

M: Yes, it will. However, the supply has not increased. So what is happening, instead of one person getting ten items. Ten people are getting one item.

C: Oh. That's good!

M: No, that's bad. It's kinda like communism. And we all know how Russia is doing lately.

C: Come again?

M: The Neopian economy follows the rules of any other economy. Supply and demand. Supply is decreasing. Demand is on the rise. Prices in the secondary market are going through the roof even as we speak!

C: Wait a sec... if more people can get items, then... supply is going up, not down.

M: You forget that it's easier to get ANY item, not just the item you want.

C: So you get one item and trade it for the item you want.

M: Except that most people don't play 24/7. Most people play only a few hours. So what happens is, they don't have time to wait around for the item they want. If you need 6 Kraku Berries, you can't get them in the store anymore. You can only get one. Those other five, you need to go to the shop wiz for, or wait through 6 reloads, IF Kraku Berries reload each time. Let's face it, most people don't want to wait an hour or two to get there berries.

C: Humm... well... At least there will be more Berries on the shop wiz, though.

M: Actually, no. The casual user will start getting more Berries, and you'll stop seeing people with 40-50 items on the shop wiz of one kind. People like that drive the price down for everybody else. With a bunch of people at one, You don't have any serious competitors. You don't have to under cut the guy with 50, because he doesn't have 50 items anymore. You can wait until the few people below you get bought out. This mean that prices are going up on the secondary market. Neopox pizza has already doubled! We haven't seen it this high, EVER. Even the last Neopox outbreak didn't drive up the price this high. We have reports of Neopox at four to five thousand Neopoints, and this is before we went into the weekend, Clyde.

C: Erg, Yes, must remember that Weekend Price spike that happens when more people log on on the weekend. If it's four thousand before the weekend...

M: It'll only get worse.

C: Well, I'm sure NeoPets had a good reason for this.

M: People complained a lot.

C: Err... haven't we proven with the crash of '29 that most people don't know how to run an economy?

M: Yes, We have. Frozen foods have doubled as well, Codestones have jumped two thousand in the past two days alone...

C: Wait a sec, you can't buy codestones in a shop, why would they be effected?

M: Sympathetic Price Movement. It happens all the items. Common goods get a price hike, and the unbuyables follow suit. Don't even get me started on the paint brushes.

C: So what do we do?

M: Do? Nothing. Neopets could end the five second rule, but to be honest, the damage is already done. Even if they stopped right now, may be too late. Prices MAY start to go back down, but it'll take weeks, if not months for a full recovery. Prices go up, they rarely go down. Maybe if they stopped the five second rule, and added more reload times, that could reverse the situation. But remember, the more you mess with the economy, the more it messes with you. Furthermore, hard core users who keep the prices down and play 24/7 are most likely quitting in droves as we speak. Without that base of people who are cutthroat and trying to under cut each other at every opportunity, I'm afraid that it may not be possible to end this situation. My advice, Invest in objects. Neopoints are devaluing even as we speak. Clear out those bank accounts and Buy Buy Buy! The longer you wait, the less your Neopoints are worth.

C: Or, you could weather the storm. This cannot last forever.

M: Clyde, usually I'm the optimistic one. But remember folks, if you have a lot of money to invest in objects, you can make a HUGE profit now. EVERYTHING is going up, so just about everything will make a profit. I see tents jumped from 200 to 650 in the past five hours alone!!! If you don't have money, well. As they say, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. You need a lot of money to take advantage of this inflation spike. If you don't have cash, well, good luck in the Shops. I hear it's gotten brutal. That's all for now! I'm Marvin...

C: And I'm Clyde.

Together: And this has been the Marvin and Clyde hour.

HOME | SHORTS | ARTICLES | EDITORIAL
SERIES | CONT SERIES | COMICS