I find this a most interesting topic. It is just more proof that CCP let's the market sort itself out. I trade the "real" market every morning, futures to be exact. It really is a simple concept; The price for PLEX will stop going higher when the amount of buyers exceed the sellers. When PLEX was at around 200-300 mil ISK if anyone can remember those days, I had multiple characters cranking out operations so I could fund my alts with PLEX because it made sense. I could mine a belt down or research my bpo's and then sell them for ISK then go buy PLEX so I didn't have to pay. This process really only took me a few days too do. I use to be a BUYER of PLEX from an eve market point of view. Now that the cost of plex is now over 1 billion, it doesn't make sense for me to fund my alts with PLEX and now I purchase it with real money so I can sell it on the market, because it makes more sense for me to do it this way now. If I still tried to make the ISK to buy the PLEX it would literally take me all month just to fund my alts and then I'm still "break even". I consider my time valuable as I'm sure most here do, but some consider money more valuable than time. Currently there are those that consider money more valuable their time so they purchase PLEX with ISK and until that sentiment changes I'm "bullish" on PLEX prices.

That last part where some people consider money more valuable than their time...they are essentially putting a very low value on their time. For example, if they are taking 20 hours to afford a PLEX they are implicitly saying that their leisure time is worth less than $1/hour. Another implication of this is that they'd work for less than $1/hour too.

Exactly. I'm actually quite surprised the amount of time people put into this game trading, researching etc. now with PLEX as high as it is. Everything is either time or money to me, PLEX would have to seriously tank for me to go back to the old way of doing things because right now as you say, even at 100 mil ISK per hour income assuming that I don't take a break, it would take me 12 hours to buy a single PLEX with ISK. It would make more sense for me to work 2 extra hours at my theoretical low paying job of 10 dollars an hour and just buy a PLEX with real money instead. I've pretty much stopped manufacturing and doing BPO's because most people insist in this game that they don't want to make hardly any profit on the time they put in. That's fine with me, I'll let these guys work hours and hours making the product for a measly profit while I work a single extra hour at my Engineering Job and buy 4 PLEX when I get home. 6 Billion ISK for one hour of work aint too shabby. I never made that kind of ISK before.

That last part where some people consider money more valuable than their time...they are essentially putting a very low value on their time. For example, if they are taking 20 hours to afford a PLEX they are implicitly saying that their leisure time is worth less than $1/hour. Another implication of this is that they'd work for less than $1/hour too.

Unless you have a personal goal of playing for free, and you get enjoyment out of accomplishing that goal. For some, making ISK is fun, especially if it means they can get that fun for zero cash.

No, it is not free. Opportunity cost and all that.

I pay for my account(s) using real money, since I refuse to grind for Isk.

Sometimes I find a nice flow and make some, mainly by trading or buying/building/selling.

And sometimes I have a surplus of Isk and no obvious plan or scheme to invest in.

(As in to busy in KSP to really play the Eve market in earnest).

So I stash the surplus in Eve's version of governments bonds, aka plex.

Leaving isk stashed under the pillow (as in resting in j.random wallet) is a guaranteed loss over time.

And while a temporary crash in the plex market is possible, I do regard it as quite safe over time.

I pay for my account(s) using real money, since I refuse to grind for Isk.

Sometimes I find a nice flow and make some, mainly by trading or buying/building/selling.

And sometimes I have a surplus of Isk and no obvious plan or scheme to invest in.

(As in to busy in KSP to really play the Eve market in earnest).

So I stash the surplus in Eve's version of governments bonds, aka plex.

Leaving isk stashed under the pillow (as in resting in j.random wallet) is a guaranteed loss over time.

And while a temporary crash in the plex market is possible, I do regard it as quite safe over time.

I find this a most interesting topic. It is just more proof that CCP let's the market sort itself out. I trade the "real" market every morning, futures to be exact. It really is a simple concept; The price for PLEX will stop going higher when the amount of buyers exceed the sellers. When PLEX was at around 200-300 mil ISK if anyone can remember those days, I had multiple characters cranking out operations so I could fund my alts with PLEX because it made sense. I could mine a belt down or research my bpo's and then sell them for ISK then go buy PLEX so I didn't have to pay. This process really only took me a few days too do. I use to be a BUYER of PLEX from an eve market point of view. Now that the cost of plex is now over 1 billion, it doesn't make sense for me to fund my alts with PLEX and now I purchase it with real money so I can sell it on the market, because it makes more sense for me to do it this way now. If I still tried to make the ISK to buy the PLEX it would literally take me all month just to fund my alts and then I'm still "break even". I consider my time valuable as I'm sure most here do, but some consider money more valuable than time. Currently there are those that consider money more valuable their time so they purchase PLEX with ISK and until that sentiment changes I'm "bullish" on PLEX prices.

http://i.imgur.com/MsTN3VX.png

PLEX prices are just out of control, CCP needs to do something.

I pay for my accounts in plex, since the act of playing for fun in itself generates me more than enough income to plex my accounts. I'd probably pay with cash if I had to put any effort outside of enjoying the game into it, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

But yeah, plex will always go up.

PLEx went up since the beginning with the occasional low.
If you really calculate by how much, you can deduce percentage of capital amount to arrive to reasonable figures.
This can be used to profit from buying low and selling high.
The only time this would change perhaps is when the PLEx system would change, for whatever reasons or factors.

I recently bought PLEx with real money from the EVE PLEx store.
I usually use the ISK from selling the PLEx to fund my EVE time, because I always have higher costs than ingame income.
I usually buy game time or get game time through the buddy program, and get a free PLEx for ISK or time.
This last time around however, the PLEx went to over 1b ISK, and 1.1b and 1.2b ISK as predicted.
I bought 6 PLEx for $100 and then, 5 more or so, while there was a PLEx sale (only 1 during the sale).
I ended up with 13b ISK liquid, but not enough money or internet time.
So , I bought a PLEx with ISK and activated my trader account with 7 days left, because I didn't know when I could log in.
I therefore paid both with money and PLEx at the same time, by buying PLEx with money and selling PLEx for ISK, and by buying a PLEx with that ISK and selling it for game Time.

i'll quit my job right now and work for you.

That's up to you but we could make more if you kept your job.
That would make 4 coders and 1 more business person.
I can't fathom that 1 billion ISK per year is a medium type of business.
That figure has to be closer to 125b ISK to 250b ISK.
(perhaps 250b ISK for a large business.)

not sure if troll, im sort of fist pumping though.

I paid for my account using real money, except that I had to buy time back with a PLEx because I ran out of money (laid off).

I pay for my accounts in plex, since the act of playing for fun in itself generates me more than enough income to plex my accounts. I'd probably pay with cash if I had to put any effort outside of enjoying the game into it, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

But yeah, plex will always go up.

i'll quit my job right now and work for you.

not rly a business person, more an analyst

Been there, done that.

Which is another reason to store currently unused liquid ISK in PLEX ;)

Will it hit 1.3B again before the PLEX sale?

What is it with these PLEX sales? Do they have a PLEX sale every time PLEX tends to rise, in order to keep it down?

I doubt it. My guess they realized that dropping the PLEX price by a couple of bucks means they sell more and their costs are pretty much unaffected...so sales are good.

With the frequency that they have the PLEX sales, I wouldn't be surprised if people expect the cheaper prices and hold out for them.