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Everything holds steady. Except gold. That goes up. Again.

Raw materials hold during the week. There was some upward pressure toward the end of the week, but enough came on the market to hold the lid on a price rise. The Raw material Index extends its stay at 28.89 for the 24th consecutive day.

Food prices hold steady ticking up slightly for the second straight week. The Food Index is up 0.42 to 72.22.

Weapon prices are flat for the week. The low end (Q1 & Q2) weaken a bit but the drop is offset by strong prices on the high end (Q5 & Q6) pushing the Weapon Index a touch higher, up 0.16 to 70.94.

Wages slip a bit for the week as wages continue to fall back from their Day 1657 all-time high. The Wage Index falls 1.7 to 102.3

Gold continues its push toward new heights this past week, setting four new record highs. Gold ends for the first time over 2500cc per unit and the Gold Index sits at an all-time high of 153.61, up 3.61. Gold is now 53% more expensive than it was on Day 1600.

The Index:

Certainly indicates the stability of prices over the last 3 weeks.

The 1600 AU Index
Based off of the amount of gold a player could earn in a year by working at market wage, selling 20 weapons, 200 food (both Q6) and 1750 raw materials (split 50/50 food/weapons) the 1600 AU Index falls as the rising price of gold continues to push the index lower.

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Wages

A return look at wages in select countries. As The 1600 Index has noted, any player may take advantage of any country's wages simply by moving there and taking a job. Citizenship is not required to take a job, just mere presence in a country. A chart showing the net wage (after income tax) is several countries:

The table is sorted by highest net (after tax) wage. Its interesting to note that eChina & eRussia's net wages are quite close, less than 1cc difference to the earner but to the government, eChina gets nearly 40cc more in taxes. The producers have to pay that, so does it make a difference in market prices?

We have a chart for that, too.



Food chart showing wages, the production bonus, how much labor goes into each unit, the raw material cost, plus tax info. eRussian Q6 Food producers are making 191cc per worker, while eChinese producers are making 93cc. Certainly the higher eRussia market price helps (2.80cc vs 2.46). What about Q6 weapons?


This time eChina comes out on top. While their total costs are fairly even (19.35cc for eChina vs. 20.51cc for eRussia), the VAT takes a toll on the eRussian producer.

Certainly a wide spread on profits world-wide.

In the eUSA, the net profits for Q6 Food and Weapons over the last 2 months

Weapon producers are enjoying higher profits than thier Q6 food producing counterparts.

How 'bout them Q5s?


Just the opposite. Food producers are making more, but neither are livin' large with Q5 food producers making just $21 per employee and Q5 weapon a mere $13.60. Assumption of market wage and all raw materials purchased at market prices.

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Moving Averages

For those unfamiliar with a "moving average", in the following charts, the blue line represents the market price at 3:00 eRep time. The red line in the 5-day moving average (average of the last 5-days) of market prices. What that tells us is whether prices are trending downward (the market price is below the moving average) or trending higher (the market price is above the moving average).

Its been a while since The 1600 Index has done a 5-day. And here's your reason:


Not much to look at. Apart from the stunning series of drops from Day 1600, Q5 weapons reached a level of 19.15 on Day 1646 (aka May 23) and has traded in a very narrow band of +- .12 since (that's 25 days).

Q6 has been a little more interesting:

Q6 weapons are steadily dropped in price, little by little, ending this week as prices went into a slight upswing.

Always interesting to note that on Day 1600 a Q5 weapon cost US$27.65. One can buy a Q6 weapon today for less than that.

Might as well do Q5 & Q6 food while we're here.

Q5 is typical of food. Not the sudden dropds that weapons have, but a steady downward trend and then over the past three weeks, fairly steady.



Looks like Q6 has experienced an end to a period of rising prices. That 5-day line just turned down.

A couple of bonus charts:
Gold. Note that sudden dip and quick recovery. That's when Plato introduced the Divisions into the game. There was hope that more free gold would lower the price of gold. Hasn't happened.


And wages. One can see the pull-back from the all-time high on 1657.



Note: prices are reflective of a percentage of Day 1600's price (Hence the "1600 Index"). In other words if an index is quoted at 88, that days price is 88% of the price on Day 1600. Except the 1600 AU Index which represents an amount of gold one can buy given market conditions as noted in that section.

Methodology on prices: prices are taken at 3:00 eRep time. The price is the average price of buying 1,000 Raw materials, 500 Food, 100 weapons (at each quality level), and 8 gold, plus the market wage less any fraction of cc (so 240, rather than 240.1). All qualities are standardized to Q1 (per hit or per health).

Sic transit gloria mundi