295: The Economics of Meat

[Devin Parker]

So what I want to know is why are there low-level green items on the AH in WoW that are being auctioned off for ridiculously high amounts of gold? Every time I go to the AH, someone is offering something that might have been useful to my toon around 10th level, except the item has been priced at hundreds of gold.

Is there some kind of trickery going on here that I'm not aware of, or is that every bit as stupid as it appears to be?

 

[Saladin03]

I've never actually payed attention to how the economics of WoW are so similar to what occurs in real life that people are actually able to learn even the basics from it.

 

[ThisNewGuy]

I love this article of using video game mechanics to explain economics.

Although I must point out that the concept of supply and demand was presented incorrectly.

"The miners extracting the souldarite have to determine how much it will cost them to get different quantities of the mineral against how much the blacksmiths are willing to pay for it."

That's more about marginal cost vs marginal profit than supply and demand, which also relates to opportunity cost.