The Neopian Paint Brush Inflation Rate

On this page you'll find some data that goes right back to December 2005 on the price of the Paint Brush. It isn't terribly detailed, but you might see some important trends that have stretched back for years.

The sheer magnitude of paint brush inflation is what struck me about this graph. Perhaps this petpage could be a wake-up call for TNT up there, trying so hard as they are to control inflation, to make painted goals more acheivable for all players? All I can say is to wish them luck.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: Like most things in life, this data has its limitations. Very importantly, note that I did not gather data for paint brush prices in 2006. The points on the graph where 2006 should be are just estimates based on the average between 2005 and 2007.

Also, note that in 2005 I was a bit of a noob, and I wasn't recording paint brush prices down with the same purpose I have in mind today. I was just drawing up a list of prices in order to work out which PBs gave the best bang for their buck :P It shouldn't effect the data too much, but just bear that in mind.

The prices of PBs are subjective, anyway, since most of them have to be found on the TP and not everyone on the TP lists prices. I record these prices as if I am about to buy the paint brush, so normally I record the lowest or second lowest price I see on the TP, whichever is more common, i.e. the price I am likely to buy the paint brush for at this moment.

Prices were recorded in December, so keep in mind the little bit of Christmas inflation that happens. Check the data table below to see precisely when during the year these prices were recorded.

Pacmanite does not support flat-out item hoarding to deliberately jack up the price of PBs. Investment, that's ok, but deliberately buying everything of one item so you can have a monopoly on its price, that's not ok. =)

The graph appears a little stretched vertically because I needed to fit aaall the text in the legend into its height. And I can't stretch it much horizontally or it'll be mean for people with 800x600 computer screens ^^; Also the graph needs to be kind of tall because otherwise the mess at the bottom would be hard to make out.

Final disclaimer: Do NOT steal my data. I took the time to record all this and it's my decision to even put it on a petpage for you all to see. Link back here if you want to share these results with other people! If I see people running off with my data, I'll take this page down forever. Rawr.

Ye Almighty Graph!

Notice that no Paint Brush worth over a million neopoints has ever decreased in value on this graph.

Roughly, the more expensive the PB, the greater the rate of inflation.

Not all paintbrushes have increased in value. Some have even dropped in price! Take for example the camouflage paint brush, which was newly released and going for about 800K around the time I took the data in Dec 2005; by Dec 2008 it had joined the ranks of checkered and striped at around 200K. This is probably because when it was first released, there weren't very many in the economy yet, and gradually over the years the supply of this PB grew larger while hype over it being a new colour faded away. Personally I don't expect it to drop much more after this, unless Tarla is involved.

And to put things in perspective, let's try comparing this inflation to the "official" inflation rate in Neopian shops (not user-owned shops), which on December 12 2008 was at 2.31% per year.

If all the paintbrushes since 2005 had inflated at the same rate as the stuff that stocks in official Neopian shops, we'd get a very very different graph, to say the least :P And Pirate Paint Brushes would sell for 2.8 mil, not 7.

Data table

It's a little hard to make out some of the values on the graph above, so here's a table of all the numbers I punched in.

Further notes:

• In 2007 and 2008, data was taken on December 10.
• The precise date in December for the 2005 data is unknown, but I do know that it was after the "Wocky - Snow Day" avatar was released, which was Dec 12, and before Christmas.
• The Christmas PB deflated massively on December 25 2007 (advent calendar :P), but the 2007 data was taken on Dec 10 so it missed that. Likewise it deflated again on Dec 6 2008, this time just before data was taken for the year.
• I did a brain fart and forgot about the Biscuit Paint Brush in 2007. xD
• In 2007, there was only one person on the TP stating a price for the Mystery Island paint brush at the time I was recording, and in 2008 only two.
• For some reason, I keep finding that the Rainbow Paint Brush has a lot of variations in price o.o

Ending Credits

Rather boring CSS by me, Pacmanite
All data collected by me, Pacmanite.
Formatting of the graph to look kind of tacky = by me, Pacmanite.
Credit to my Dad for helping me punch numbers into excel. @_@ *is noob at excel*

Other petpages by Pacmanite: