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Yes, its shocking news Gaia, and it isn't good news. sweatdrop Developer slash Gaian-Economist-with-three-months-market-experience Sagger-AT3's economic predictions for events following imposition of the dreaded 2% Marketplace Listing Fee is indeed coming true. And why is that a bad news? Well, in a nutshell - prices are going up the elevator, customers are going down the stairs. What's worse is the prices are already on the top floor and the customers are on the ground. gonk Lets take a quick look at some of Gaia's graphs and find out what's been going on since August when 2% was set in motion.



We've put in red lines to show an estimate average sales / prices line and we've marked out 'August' where its the month of August when the 2% was introduced. The first two items are prime examples of super-inflation. The Winter Rose, on the other hand, is a nice example for those who want to relate all this to an item they knew from its early days. Apologies about the negative axes in the Winter Rose graph, that's Gaia's fault for having a weird graph-maker-thingymabob. Both the Katana and the Pendant experienced some sort of price-uppage in January while the Winter Rose [released in January] followed traditional MC suite and had its quick go-up-and-come-down period during then. The actual point we're trying to make, however, is clear: all three items have been on a price hike since August. Then, since people can't afford them, sales are going down. The graphs also prove one major thing that everyone was right to be afraid of the phrase "2% will be a catalyst for inflation" in August because ~ no, your eyes don't decieve you ~ the super-inflation period only started after August and not before! eek
As we weep and mourn at the grave of Marketplace v1 and wish that somehow prices will come back down someday soon and the inflation 'rates' will return to normal, we still doubt whether 2% is our friend or foe. Only time will tell whether inflation will keep inflating at its current rate or if an economic miracle will occur and save us all.