SillySilenia

Thanks everyone. Tomorrow is the appointment with the endo so I can get started with hormones. Surgery is still a ways off, but so long as I can start hormones now with my parents on board (especially because I'd rather not have to go around behind their backs about it) I'm okay.
 
I've been out to my friends for years, but it took some time for me to get over my anxiety so I could talk to a therapist and try to find an endo who would give me the hormones plus figure out a way to come out to my parents. It should be relatively smooth sailing from here.
 
I've been presenting as masculine for a while now, and I was always a tomboy to begin with. But hopefully now this will put a stop to the whole 'you haven't worn a dress in a while' stuff. lol
 
 
Well, i don't believe in the Abrahamic God, but the gods I know are pleased I'm able to start on the road to being who I actually am. With their help, I was able to draw on their strength to come out to my parents.
 
Good luck with your surgery! My trip is to the hospital clinic and it'll be my first time seeing this doctor so I'm nervous like I am with every new doctor I've met.
 
Well my clothing choices won't really change except where fancy attire is concerned. I'll eventually be able to wear blazers and tuxes and stuff without looking too out of place. :3  
 
UPDATE
Got my Endo appointment finished. I have officially been prescribed testosterone and can start getting the shots next month! :D

Remarkably enough, I got it on a page that took two minutes to load. Talk 'bout irony.
 
It also seems to have glitched out on me. I now have +40k, +Lag-b-Gone Serum x2, +Tales of Lag x2, but without the promised NC.

True, glad they're attempting to do the best they can. Now that they're actually openly admitting to and acknowledging the issues, I know I have gained a lot more patience with it. Then again, for me it never was about instant fixes, but about the prospect of getting things fixed at all--and acknowledging the issues was a huge step in that.
 
A step that finally makes me feel that they realize how bad the problems are/were and how frustrating things become as a result. A step that shows me they are committed to resolving the issues and to keeping us at least somewhat informed in what we can expect for the time being.
 
It's a lot easier to be patient when you know that they're trying; that they are working on things no matter how slow progress may be.
Sure, they may have been working on things before, but when things merely keep getting worse and worse and they don't say a single thing about the many issues, it's a lot easier to start wondering "do they even realize how impossible this is for us? Are they even working on making things better?" than when they are upfront and basically say "this lag is bad, we know. We're working on it. We can't promise when exactly it will be done, but we're trying our best. As a result, the site will be down then-and-then for maintenance."

From my end, it looks like it isn't so much down as experiencing ridiculously heavy lag. I am getting through with some difficulty, but about half my pages lag out and the other half has a loading time upwards of a minute.

I noticed a fair amount of interest in posts in which I give some insight in the Neopian economy (or that of closed/autarkic virtual economies in general) elsewhere on TDNforums, and thus decided to open a thread to share more of such insight without having to worry about derailing the scope of a thread.

Disclaimer:




Posts I make may be broad or narrow in scope. If you're uncertain if a principle I've mentioned in a post applies to a certain type of item, feel free to ask. With exceptions of the shortlist of items below, please do not ask about specific items or "types" of item when that category exists of ten or less items, as even though small, there is a sincere risk that public discussion of the economical merits, risks and prospects of a specific item may impact or influence it.

Specific items I feel save to mention, discuss, etc.:
Items that the market is more-than-saturated with and as result do not sell even at 1NP (e.g. Dung) due to having essentially no demand and a ridiculous supply. Any item with an essentially fixed price due to eternally being available in, for example, the Hidden Tower. (Baby Paint Brush) Any item that cannot be traded in any way, shape, or form between accounts. (Starter Paint Brushes) Any item so rare and/or expensive that even if my post caused all TDN members to attempt to start buying or selling it would make no impact because it's unlikely that more than maybe five of them have either the item or the funds to buy it. (Certain stamps, for example) Certain items that will be perpetually popular and have both reasonably large supply and large demand (Codestones, Red Codestones, Dubloons, some Neggs) INDEX BY SUBJECT:

Italic links are links to posts I've made somewhere else on TDN Forums or later on in this thread.
Non-italic bold links are links to pieces posted off-site (unless otherwise mentioned, this will be Google Docs)

List of terms and definitions/explanations:
Definition list, general. NEW! (Jan 11th) Eternally a work-in-progress. Autarkic/Closed Virtual Economies
The many factors and complications of a closed virtual economy. (Dec 4th, 2014) General patterns of closed virtual economies and how this results in what appears to be a mixture of capitalism and communism. (Dec 5th, 2014) Events and Seasons
Influence of Charity Corner event on future prices for Plushies and Toys. (Jan 5th) Recordkeeping and calculations:
On costs of goods vs. costs of inventory when calculating profit/loss. NEW! (Jan 11th) ---------
Feel free to ask me any questions either about pieces I have written and listed above, or about the Neopian economy in general. You're also welcome to request me to write about a specific subject, though I cannot promise I will do so.

CURRENTLY WORKING ON: "On the influence of real life holidays and seasons on seasonal and non-seasonal items".
Going to be a long one if I'm going by my Notes of Clarification in regards to terms used in said article.

----
Disclaimer in regards to sharing of any documents hosted on Google Docs:
Of any above-linked documents hosted on Google Docs, sharing outside TDNForums is permitted solely if the content remains attributed to me (“SillySilenia of TDNForums”);
AND the document is not replicated, changed or adapted without prior written permission, which includes but is not limited to hosting the document anywhere else and/or removing this note;
AND you do not require compensation in any form for the sharing of such a document.
Other commercial use is also NOT PERMITTED with sole exception of the indirect, virtual, commercial benefit that having a better understanding of the Neopian economy (or virtual economies in general) may bring you.

The Wishing Well has a rarity cap (speculated to be 89, but we can't be entirely certain), so there is a sever limit on what can be obtained from it. I can't really think of anything below that rarity that would have a significant impact if a handful more were released, and while there are things that ARE of worth that can be obtained from it, they still have enough that the total max of 20/day entering the system would have a negligible effect, as Silenia explained at the end of their post.
 
Additionally, of the 30 granted wishes I currently see on the page, only two of them will not vanish upon use (Royalgirl Korbat Plushie and Fyoras Lidschatten {which I believe is Fyoras Eyeshadow in German}). The rest are 4 Bag of Peanuts (likely for the avatar, so they'll be used quickly), two different Stamps, and then 22 Goodie Bags of varying types. So in the end what we're getting with this is an utterly tiny decrease in demand for items that have a solid, constant demand. The people who won chose their wishes, of course, and they were then selected at random, but in the end the economic effect is less significant than your average shop.

I noticed a fair amount of interest in posts in which I give some insight in the Neopian economy (or that of closed/autarkic virtual economies in general) elsewhere on TDNforums, and thus decided to open a thread to share more of such insight without having to worry about derailing the scope of a thread.

Disclaimer:




Posts I make may be broad or narrow in scope. If you're uncertain if a principle I've mentioned in a post applies to a certain type of item, feel free to ask. With exceptions of the shortlist of items below, please do not ask about specific items or "types" of item when that category exists of ten or less items, as even though small, there is a sincere risk that public discussion of the economical merits, risks and prospects of a specific item may impact or influence it.

Specific items I feel save to mention, discuss, etc.:
Items that the market is more-than-saturated with and as result do not sell even at 1NP (e.g. Dung) due to having essentially no demand and a ridiculous supply. Any item with an essentially fixed price due to eternally being available in, for example, the Hidden Tower. (Baby Paint Brush) Any item that cannot be traded in any way, shape, or form between accounts. (Starter Paint Brushes) Any item so rare and/or expensive that even if my post caused all TDN members to attempt to start buying or selling it would make no impact because it's unlikely that more than maybe five of them have either the item or the funds to buy it. (Certain stamps, for example) Certain items that will be perpetually popular and have both reasonably large supply and large demand (Codestones, Red Codestones, Dubloons, some Neggs) INDEX BY SUBJECT:

Italic links are links to posts I've made somewhere else on TDN Forums or later on in this thread.
Non-italic bold links are links to pieces posted off-site (unless otherwise mentioned, this will be Google Docs)

List of terms and definitions/explanations:
Definition list, general. NEW! (Jan 11th) Eternally a work-in-progress. Autarkic/Closed Virtual Economies
The many factors and complications of a closed virtual economy. (Dec 4th, 2014) General patterns of closed virtual economies and how this results in what appears to be a mixture of capitalism and communism. (Dec 5th, 2014) Events and Seasons
Influence of Charity Corner event on future prices for Plushies and Toys. (Jan 5th) Recordkeeping and calculations:
On costs of goods vs. costs of inventory when calculating profit/loss. NEW! (Jan 11th) ---------
Feel free to ask me any questions either about pieces I have written and listed above, or about the Neopian economy in general. You're also welcome to request me to write about a specific subject, though I cannot promise I will do so.

CURRENTLY WORKING ON: "On the influence of real life holidays and seasons on seasonal and non-seasonal items".
Going to be a long one if I'm going by my Notes of Clarification in regards to terms used in said article.

----
Disclaimer in regards to sharing of any documents hosted on Google Docs:
Of any above-linked documents hosted on Google Docs, sharing outside TDNForums is permitted solely if the content remains attributed to me (“SillySilenia of TDNForums”);
AND the document is not replicated, changed or adapted without prior written permission, which includes but is not limited to hosting the document anywhere else and/or removing this note;
AND you do not require compensation in any form for the sharing of such a document.
Other commercial use is also NOT PERMITTED with sole exception of the indirect, virtual, commercial benefit that having a better understanding of the Neopian economy (or virtual economies in general) may bring you.

The prices of the toys and plushies that are given out in large amounts by the dailies, the battledome and random events will most likely be back to their normal/old prices again soon, simply because these have a much, much, much higher supply than demand. In particular those that are both given out a lot and are below rarity 90 will be likely to deflate back to original prices or close within a few days to two weeks tops. Some of those already are back below 25NP.
 
Those that are given out a lot but are rarity 90 or above will probably take a little bit longer because they both became a lot more inflated than other frequently-given-out toys and had a larger portion used up by the event. Take for example the Tyrannian Acara Plushie, a r90+ toy given out by the Tyrannian opponents in the Battledome. It peaked at around 40-42k and is now rapidly deflating. It's currently down to approximately 1k and falling. Still, it'll probably be a bit longer than the low-rarity-frequently-granted plushies/toys.
 
Low rarity toys that are either infrequently or not given out by dailies/REs/battledome may take a bit to drop back to their former levels. However, since they're currently not in the high demand they were in during the event and there is a steady supply through the main shops, they'll sooner or later drop back to original levels, especially because since they're currently worth more than usual, people can make some profit restocking them even if they normally would have ignored them. As a result, more of those that stock in the main shops get bought, supply increases, demand is low, prices drop. Since the majority of those are bought from the main shops with actual neopoints, however, they will be slower to drop since people are more invested in not making a loss on them. Otherwise, the speed at which they drop will likely be in good part determined by how many of them stock and at which price.
 
High rarity toys that are either infrequently or not given out by dailies/etc. will likely take a fair while to get back to former price-levels because they do not stock too frequently in the main shops and thus the amount of them in circulation will be slower to increase. On top of that, a lot of them were used during the event and there are a fair few people looking to replace plushies, resulting in an elevated demand compared to usual (but decreased compared to the event). If any toys don't go back to their original value, they'll almost certainly belong to this category, but those never were the "cheap" toys to start with.

Leverhelven: not an economist, no, but I have a strong interest in economy and around twelve years of experience with online communities with a mostly-closed, virtual, economy and after you see half a dozen of them derail in the near-exact same manner, the patterns become extremely clear. When some of these patterns showed remarkable similarity to patterns easily detected and commented upon in the string of real world economical crises in the same timespan, it became even more easy to detect the more subtle patterns and determine in which ways a closed virtual economy differs from a real life open economy.
 
The "mechanics" mostly; your comparison with anarcho-capitalism is rather apt in some ways, though in other ways it's as far from truth as can be. Frankly speaking, the Neopets economy at this point is an extremely strange mixture of traits one would find in a state-ran communistic autarkic closed economy* and an ultra-liberal free market ultra-capitalistic economy. (Yes, there are some socialistic/communistic traits, but more on that later)
 
I don't remember when exactly I noticed the first patterns, though it was while I was pretty young. Maybe 13 or so? Would probably be around 04 or 05, as I noticed them on Gaiaonline and that was the first time I was truly active there. I do remember which patterns I did first notice, however.
"Prices are predominately influenced by supply and demand but can be disturbed by other factors; artificial scarcity or demand can be created and the economy can be manipulated as easily--if not more easily--when it's a virtual closed economy as opposed to a real-world open economy" (artificial deflation and de-scarcifying items can in certain circumstances also be done--when a popular item is scarce because one person is hoarding a large amount of them or aggressively buying up those available; said person can accidentally or on purpose flood the market, oversaturate it and trigger a deflation that reaches at least slightly beyond the item itself, given the proper circumstances--but is less common, depends on a good many more factors than artificial inflating/increasing demand/decreasing supply, and more difficult); "To keep a virtual economy from spiralling into out-of-control inflation, the amount of virtual currency brought into it should be roughly balanced by the amount taken out of it" and "The release or re-release of one or more items into the economy has effects on the economy reaching far beyond said specific item; and if done badly, can collapse a good part of the economy or cause sky-high artificial inflation reaching far and wide." After noticing those, not only did other patterns become more clear and easy to spot, but I actively went looking for them. Even ran some statistics, and kept track of the prices of certain items, tried to predict some things (failed miserably at first, got somewhat better with it later on provided no unexpected situations occurred. Such as a mass re-release of a moderately rare item that was standing to increase in price due to its theme matching up well with the season). I did notice that every site with a virtual economy has its own quirks, depending in part on the actual mechanisms in place and in part on its userbase, predominantly taste in items, accepted etiquette and in amount of time and effort willing to spend on site earning currency.
 
I could continue on about this for a fair while, but let's not make my post novella-sized, eh?
 
*As to my above remark regarding socialism/communism:
I do understand some of what the person who said "socialism" is coming from; there are some characteristics that would normally signify socialism, or rather, certain variations of communism. While the virtual economy itself is a blatant liberal capitalist economy, by means of being a closed economy and lacking some of the factors of a real world economy--items and money being created from thin air, for one--it does share some key characteristics of communism or gives off the appearance of sharing them, especially if you presume the site's side (TNT, non-user shops, etc.) as "the state".
 
The state does have full control over which goods ("items") are produced and which price they are--initially, in any case--sold for. All economic resources are in the hands of, or originate with, the state. The money has to come from somewhere; and since there is no way to bring outside cash into the economy to be converted into neopoints, it must by definition have originated from the state; The items, since(no item is created or brought into the economy without the state; for even items bought from other users must have at some point come from the state; All "jobs", if defining job as neopoint-granting activities, are either while "employed by the state" (games, battledome, stocks, foodclub, other betting) or have the state as major player/supplier (restocking). Full control over what people can do to earn money. That shop you run? Remember paying them for every upgrade? That trading post? It's theirs, and if they decide to shut it down, well, let's wave it goodbye, and no, there isn't a way for you to create your own trading post. Or your own auction house. Or your own factory to produce goods you know people want. Or... well, you get the picture. Still, while this means that TNT is in a prime position to mess up the economy (something they have proven to be really, really good at, too), it is the mixture that makes it such a strange mess.
One or the other would be plenty of mess enough, if viable. (Which it isn't, in case of a virtual community; at least, not without total anarchy. Since it's practically impossible to have an online open economy, that one's hardly viable. If it's online communism, the userbase will be pretty small, because one of the thrills for many people is becoming--virtually--rich, or collecting items.)
Both means that the flaws of the one amplify those of the other.
 
For example, one major part of the inflation comes from the scarcity of certain items because TNT does not release more of them and/or because they decide which "goods" are "produced" in what "amounts". (Read: they code the shops. They decide which items stock, for how much, how often, and how many of them) That would match a whole lot closer with communism than free market capitalism.
Another major part of the inflation comes from the freedom to set your own prices on goods and the essentially endless supply of neopoints a user can have, provided they have the time/skill/determination. Which is definitely a capitalistic trait.
 

Some of the described issues are not so much a result of savage capitalism by itself, but rather, savage capitalism in an essentially closed economy* lacking many of the complicating factors of a real-world economy while adding others. It's something you see commonly in nearly every online community with virtual currency and some form of economy, though pet-sites like Neopets, avatar communities like Gaiaonline (and MMORPGs such as Runescape and World of Warcraft) are most heavily predisposed towards it.
This tends to be a combination of several factors:
A lack of attractive sinks (scarcity attracts, but those items are scarce because they do not frequently appear, which means that most people will buy said items from other people, which means the NP stays in circulation); it does not help that the great majority of items that get used up sink less neopoints than a single player could make in a few minutes, or have alternative options in that price-range; A tendency towards making the more attractive potential sinks real-world-money items instead (NeoCash in Neopets' case, Gaia Cash in Gaiaonline's case, etc.) which does not work as a sink for the normal currency at all (and indeed even makes the other sinks less attractive to some degree); An endless supply of new money to enter the economy, limited only by the number of players active x time willing and able to spend. In the real world, money changes hands, but there are strong limits on the amount of new money to enter an economy (by coins being minted and bills being printed), which may as well not be present at all in Neopets' case. (One could say there is some limit on the amount of new money a single player can make in a short timespan, but with a long list of different possible ways in which said player can make it, essentially the only limit is the time said player has and the amount of effort they're willing to make. Of which in some cases, not much is needed at all.) Essentially unlimited storage of items and money, meaning that people are extremely unlikely to throw away an object they have simply because they now have something better; In Neopets' case, random events and dailies adding items and money to the economy. (Yes, there are also random events that take away things, but with a bank to keep one's money safe and a SDB to do the same, I dare say a lot less is lost that way than is added) Items with an actual limited number (as opposed to items that are rare but still in some form supplied to the economy, however little) staying on abandoned and frozen accounts or ending up with people who will not consider selling under any circumstance, constantly decreasing the number and thus driving the prices on said items higher; resulting in a top-down inflation at first, followed up by a deflation of the lower-rung/common items resulting in what is essentially a break in the economy between a large group of cheap items and a small group of very expensive items with very little in between.** A lack of actual necessities. Your pets may not exactly be happy about being left untrained, disease-ridden and starving, but they won't die. Nor will you. There quite honesty are very few consequences to such a thing beyond the risk of a random event making your pet red or blue (if that one even happens any more), which isn't even much of a risk if your pets aren't painted. This means people can spend practically every single neopoint they have on luxuries. Heck, it's even possible to keep your pets well-fed, free from disease and happy without ever spending a single neopoint, long as you're willing to hop by the giant jelly and omelette daily and hang around the healing springs when your pet catches a disease. As a result, pricing makes very little sense and you get things like certain pencils being more expensive than a chair or bed. A lack of fees on transactions between players, meaning that it's a reasonable choice to buy an item from a fellow user for, say, 597NP rather than pay 599NP for it in the shop. This makes the already ineffective sinks even less effective.  
*One could make the claim that Neopets is not so much a closed economy as an autarky, though it certainly has strong traits of both. Indeed, there is outside influence on Neopets albeit indirectly (in the form of holidays, for example, which influence to some degree which items are popular--Christmas/winter-themed items as we're nearing Christmas, romantic items as Valentine approaches, etc.--but also in the form of (not allowed, but nonetheless happening) offsite trading/account selling, to name just a few) but far less than would be the case in a real-world economy; and furthermore, the influence is indirect rather than direct. An object made in Belgium can end up in, say, China. An item on Neopets will stay on Neopets or be destroyed on Neopets, but will not ever enter a different economy/site. Neopoints are the same; they exist on Neopets or stop existing, but will not enter a different economy/be ported off-site.
 
**People want those items; they get more expensive; they try to sell their own items for higher prices at first or sell expensive items they otherwise would not have sold; for the rare items, this new higher price likely stays; however, because there is now an influx of common goods on the market, not only does the inflation not stay, the prices decrease to likely a price lower than before

Basically, there's two different definitions of being rich.
 
One is simply "having more money than the great, great majority of folks." By that standard, 5, 10, 25 or even 100 million NP probably is not rich.
 
The other definition is "having enough money that you can (easily) buy most things except perhaps for those that are the most expensive--though not necessarily all at the same time" (in case of Neopets, that'd include several stamps and some avatar items; in real life this could include certain paintings, buildings, etc.)
 
By that standard, 5-10 million is pretty decent but not quite rich, but 100 million probably would be.
 
EDIT: Shane for Wax, as to people not considering themselves rich even if they have millions, yes, capitalism plays a role there. However, something else that is pretty important here is that neopoints are a very weak currency. Nice but pretty normal food (I'm not speaking of Gourmet food--which is basically the Neopian equivalent of the food you'd get in real life multiple-Michelin-star restaurants--just things like a Cheese and Beans Jacket Potato or a pizza slice or such) can easily be upwards of 1k--aka 0.1% of a million.
 
A contrast with real life would be someone who has enough money saved to be capable of buying themselves a nice-ish but (relatively speaking) not quite that expensive meal a day for two-and-a-half to three years (but who would have no money left if they did that) is not exactly rich. (It'd be the equivalent of having about $5000 dollars in savings. Certainly a lot better than being in debt, but not quite what people tend to consider "rich")

The prices of the toys and plushies that are given out in large amounts by the dailies, the battledome and random events will most likely be back to their normal/old prices again soon, simply because these have a much, much, much higher supply than demand. In particular those that are both given out a lot and are below rarity 90 will be likely to deflate back to original prices or close within a few days to two weeks tops. Some of those already are back below 25NP.
 
Those that are given out a lot but are rarity 90 or above will probably take a little bit longer because they both became a lot more inflated than other frequently-given-out toys and had a larger portion used up by the event. Take for example the Tyrannian Acara Plushie, a r90+ toy given out by the Tyrannian opponents in the Battledome. It peaked at around 40-42k and is now rapidly deflating. It's currently down to approximately 1k and falling. Still, it'll probably be a bit longer than the low-rarity-frequently-granted plushies/toys.
 
Low rarity toys that are either infrequently or not given out by dailies/REs/battledome may take a bit to drop back to their former levels. However, since they're currently not in the high demand they were in during the event and there is a steady supply through the main shops, they'll sooner or later drop back to original levels, especially because since they're currently worth more than usual, people can make some profit restocking them even if they normally would have ignored them. As a result, more of those that stock in the main shops get bought, supply increases, demand is low, prices drop. Since the majority of those are bought from the main shops with actual neopoints, however, they will be slower to drop since people are more invested in not making a loss on them. Otherwise, the speed at which they drop will likely be in good part determined by how many of them stock and at which price.
 
High rarity toys that are either infrequently or not given out by dailies/etc. will likely take a fair while to get back to former price-levels because they do not stock too frequently in the main shops and thus the amount of them in circulation will be slower to increase. On top of that, a lot of them were used during the event and there are a fair few people looking to replace plushies, resulting in an elevated demand compared to usual (but decreased compared to the event). If any toys don't go back to their original value, they'll almost certainly belong to this category, but those never were the "cheap" toys to start with.

The prices of the toys and plushies that are given out in large amounts by the dailies, the battledome and random events will most likely be back to their normal/old prices again soon, simply because these have a much, much, much higher supply than demand. In particular those that are both given out a lot and are below rarity 90 will be likely to deflate back to original prices or close within a few days to two weeks tops. Some of those already are back below 25NP.
 
Those that are given out a lot but are rarity 90 or above will probably take a little bit longer because they both became a lot more inflated than other frequently-given-out toys and had a larger portion used up by the event. Take for example the Tyrannian Acara Plushie, a r90+ toy given out by the Tyrannian opponents in the Battledome. It peaked at around 40-42k and is now rapidly deflating. It's currently down to approximately 1k and falling. Still, it'll probably be a bit longer than the low-rarity-frequently-granted plushies/toys.
 
Low rarity toys that are either infrequently or not given out by dailies/REs/battledome may take a bit to drop back to their former levels. However, since they're currently not in the high demand they were in during the event and there is a steady supply through the main shops, they'll sooner or later drop back to original levels, especially because since they're currently worth more than usual, people can make some profit restocking them even if they normally would have ignored them. As a result, more of those that stock in the main shops get bought, supply increases, demand is low, prices drop. Since the majority of those are bought from the main shops with actual neopoints, however, they will be slower to drop since people are more invested in not making a loss on them. Otherwise, the speed at which they drop will likely be in good part determined by how many of them stock and at which price.
 
High rarity toys that are either infrequently or not given out by dailies/etc. will likely take a fair while to get back to former price-levels because they do not stock too frequently in the main shops and thus the amount of them in circulation will be slower to increase. On top of that, a lot of them were used during the event and there are a fair few people looking to replace plushies, resulting in an elevated demand compared to usual (but decreased compared to the event). If any toys don't go back to their original value, they'll almost certainly belong to this category, but those never were the "cheap" toys to start with.

The prices of the toys and plushies that are given out in large amounts by the dailies, the battledome and random events will most likely be back to their normal/old prices again soon, simply because these have a much, much, much higher supply than demand. In particular those that are both given out a lot and are below rarity 90 will be likely to deflate back to original prices or close within a few days to two weeks tops. Some of those already are back below 25NP.
 
Those that are given out a lot but are rarity 90 or above will probably take a little bit longer because they both became a lot more inflated than other frequently-given-out toys and had a larger portion used up by the event. Take for example the Tyrannian Acara Plushie, a r90+ toy given out by the Tyrannian opponents in the Battledome. It peaked at around 40-42k and is now rapidly deflating. It's currently down to approximately 1k and falling. Still, it'll probably be a bit longer than the low-rarity-frequently-granted plushies/toys.
 
Low rarity toys that are either infrequently or not given out by dailies/REs/battledome may take a bit to drop back to their former levels. However, since they're currently not in the high demand they were in during the event and there is a steady supply through the main shops, they'll sooner or later drop back to original levels, especially because since they're currently worth more than usual, people can make some profit restocking them even if they normally would have ignored them. As a result, more of those that stock in the main shops get bought, supply increases, demand is low, prices drop. Since the majority of those are bought from the main shops with actual neopoints, however, they will be slower to drop since people are more invested in not making a loss on them. Otherwise, the speed at which they drop will likely be in good part determined by how many of them stock and at which price.
 
High rarity toys that are either infrequently or not given out by dailies/etc. will likely take a fair while to get back to former price-levels because they do not stock too frequently in the main shops and thus the amount of them in circulation will be slower to increase. On top of that, a lot of them were used during the event and there are a fair few people looking to replace plushies, resulting in an elevated demand compared to usual (but decreased compared to the event). If any toys don't go back to their original value, they'll almost certainly belong to this category, but those never were the "cheap" toys to start with.

The prices of the toys and plushies that are given out in large amounts by the dailies, the battledome and random events will most likely be back to their normal/old prices again soon, simply because these have a much, much, much higher supply than demand. In particular those that are both given out a lot and are below rarity 90 will be likely to deflate back to original prices or close within a few days to two weeks tops. Some of those already are back below 25NP.
 
Those that are given out a lot but are rarity 90 or above will probably take a little bit longer because they both became a lot more inflated than other frequently-given-out toys and had a larger portion used up by the event. Take for example the Tyrannian Acara Plushie, a r90+ toy given out by the Tyrannian opponents in the Battledome. It peaked at around 40-42k and is now rapidly deflating. It's currently down to approximately 1k and falling. Still, it'll probably be a bit longer than the low-rarity-frequently-granted plushies/toys.
 
Low rarity toys that are either infrequently or not given out by dailies/REs/battledome may take a bit to drop back to their former levels. However, since they're currently not in the high demand they were in during the event and there is a steady supply through the main shops, they'll sooner or later drop back to original levels, especially because since they're currently worth more than usual, people can make some profit restocking them even if they normally would have ignored them. As a result, more of those that stock in the main shops get bought, supply increases, demand is low, prices drop. Since the majority of those are bought from the main shops with actual neopoints, however, they will be slower to drop since people are more invested in not making a loss on them. Otherwise, the speed at which they drop will likely be in good part determined by how many of them stock and at which price.
 
High rarity toys that are either infrequently or not given out by dailies/etc. will likely take a fair while to get back to former price-levels because they do not stock too frequently in the main shops and thus the amount of them in circulation will be slower to increase. On top of that, a lot of them were used during the event and there are a fair few people looking to replace plushies, resulting in an elevated demand compared to usual (but decreased compared to the event). If any toys don't go back to their original value, they'll almost certainly belong to this category, but those never were the "cheap" toys to start with.

The prices of the toys and plushies that are given out in large amounts by the dailies, the battledome and random events will most likely be back to their normal/old prices again soon, simply because these have a much, much, much higher supply than demand. In particular those that are both given out a lot and are below rarity 90 will be likely to deflate back to original prices or close within a few days to two weeks tops. Some of those already are back below 25NP.
 
Those that are given out a lot but are rarity 90 or above will probably take a little bit longer because they both became a lot more inflated than other frequently-given-out toys and had a larger portion used up by the event. Take for example the Tyrannian Acara Plushie, a r90+ toy given out by the Tyrannian opponents in the Battledome. It peaked at around 40-42k and is now rapidly deflating. It's currently down to approximately 1k and falling. Still, it'll probably be a bit longer than the low-rarity-frequently-granted plushies/toys.
 
Low rarity toys that are either infrequently or not given out by dailies/REs/battledome may take a bit to drop back to their former levels. However, since they're currently not in the high demand they were in during the event and there is a steady supply through the main shops, they'll sooner or later drop back to original levels, especially because since they're currently worth more than usual, people can make some profit restocking them even if they normally would have ignored them. As a result, more of those that stock in the main shops get bought, supply increases, demand is low, prices drop. Since the majority of those are bought from the main shops with actual neopoints, however, they will be slower to drop since people are more invested in not making a loss on them. Otherwise, the speed at which they drop will likely be in good part determined by how many of them stock and at which price.
 
High rarity toys that are either infrequently or not given out by dailies/etc. will likely take a fair while to get back to former price-levels because they do not stock too frequently in the main shops and thus the amount of them in circulation will be slower to increase. On top of that, a lot of them were used during the event and there are a fair few people looking to replace plushies, resulting in an elevated demand compared to usual (but decreased compared to the event). If any toys don't go back to their original value, they'll almost certainly belong to this category, but those never were the "cheap" toys to start with.

Still down, for about two hours now.
 
As to the lag issues mentioned above... well, you know how bad things are when you manage to snatch a 55k stamp despite the page taking over a minute to load.
 
So I suspect the answer to "who is not lagging and thus grabbing those items" is "no one. Everyone is lagging like heck, just some people manage to get through a second faster than others".
 
Missed out on a fair few good items as well due to lag, though. -cough- Missed out on most good items due to lag, just managed to snatch one fairly nice stamp (the one mentioned above) and a handful in the 5-20k range. Still not exactly bad, but the lag cost me more than one UB, so... XD

Typical, looks like it got back up about five minutes after I figured "may as well go and do something else for a bit". XD

-nod- Happy to hear that a few folks should indeed be around.
 
Glad I got in my dailies before my newspaper round, but I certainly do hope the site will be back up soon.
 
(Hey, who wants to bet that within a few minutes of the site coming back up, enough impatient people finally log on that it goes down again for a few minutes? ><)

Still down, for about two hours now.
 
As to the lag issues mentioned above... well, you know how bad things are when you manage to snatch a 55k stamp despite the page taking over a minute to load.
 
So I suspect the answer to "who is not lagging and thus grabbing those items" is "no one. Everyone is lagging like heck, just some people manage to get through a second faster than others".
 
Missed out on a fair few good items as well due to lag, though. -cough- Missed out on most good items due to lag, just managed to snatch one fairly nice stamp (the one mentioned above) and a handful in the 5-20k range. Still not exactly bad, but the lag cost me more than one UB, so... XD

If I take perspective into account, especially when looking at the lines from the Eiffel tower and the direction of the trees, boy wonder looks like he's standing under a really weird angle at the very least. Oh, and he must be standing on a hill considering that not only is the base not visible, but most of the second segment isn't either. For it to be that close yet have those parts not visible, he must be standing significantly higher than the height the Eiffel tower's starting at.
 
Light direction also doesn't seem to completely match with the light/shadows on him, but that could be accounted for by trees outside view.

If I take perspective into account, especially when looking at the lines from the Eiffel tower and the direction of the trees, boy wonder looks like he's standing under a really weird angle at the very least. Oh, and he must be standing on a hill considering that not only is the base not visible, but most of the second segment isn't either. For it to be that close yet have those parts not visible, he must be standing significantly higher than the height the Eiffel tower's starting at.
 
Light direction also doesn't seem to completely match with the light/shadows on him, but that could be accounted for by trees outside view.

Back around. ART UPDATE: Starting the sketch of Rainbow_Dipped.
 
CherryGrass, thank you for the great compliment. <3
 
tk421beth, Marae19: Will certainly consider your pets as well. =)
 
tk421beth: Yeah, Lia is amazing. <3 She drew my Poogle as well and indeed, it's awesome. <3

You're welcome. =D I am glad to hear you like it so much!
 
(PM received. Will reply later, as I'm about to log of. The art's lovely--thanks! <3 :D)
 
ART UPDATE: Next pet to be drawn--after I catch some sleep, several hours later than I should ><--is pulpfreeoj's Rainbow_Dipped.

They're both absolutely lovely, even if Viragore still is "plain". Will most certainly consider.
 
ART UPDATE: My piece for Grenushol is now finished! Now considering who I will be drawing next.