The game's economy

[Malakai10]

So, I've been playing for three years and horse prices were a lot lower and more consistent when I started. I'm not the most observant of people; thus, I am having a fair bit of trouble judging the worth of a horse, even by browsing through the sale. I have no idea what's going on with the prices anymore. Would someone be able to give me a general outline on the value of horses?

Thanks, have a great day!

"There are three kinds of economists. Those that can add, and those that can't." -Hamish McRae

[BlackOak2]

So, I've been playing for three years and horse prices were a lot lower and more consistent when I started. I'm not the most observant of people; thus, I am having a fair bit of trouble judging the worth of a horse, even by browsing through the sale. I have no idea what's going on with the prices anymore. Would someone be able to give me a general outline on the value of horses?

Thanks, have a great day!

"There are three kinds of economists. Those that can add, and those that can't." -Hamish McRae

I liked the quote!

I've come up against this myself.
Personally, I will purchase an AC horse that's for sale up to 10k, as a breeder the breeding report matters less then offspring count, color and physical conformation (not conformation evaluation). A fully trained horse in my mind is worth at least 15k (generally the cheapest acceptable training fee I would personally offer, so that's what I go by), depending on some of the following information, I may pay up to 50k for a fully trained 'basic' horse. COI plays a part in my cost analysis, since I choose to keep the COI lower, purchasing higher COI horses will lower the price in my opinion (but having lower COI doesn't necessarily increase price) and at an exponentially increasing discount. For instance, if I had a choice between three horses of the same breed, one at 0% COI, the second at 20% COI and the third at 80%COI, if my base price for the first horse is 20k, then the second horse I may say 18k because 20% COI really isn't that bad, but for the third horse, I may only be willing to pay 5k (or as happens most often, I will refuse to purchase the third horse at all), rarity of breed comes into heavy play when COI is involved (the rarer the breed, the higher COI I'll accept).
HGP is important for me, but much less so then perhaps other players. For instance, a 30,000 to 42,000 AC horse may be 10k, and I will pay as much non-AC horse (however on the rare occasion I've been known to purchase a non-AC horse for as much as 20k if it fits exactly the breeding purposes I need). I don't like to purchase an AC horse under 30,000 HGP for more than 5k, unless my needs match exactly what the horse has (for instance the low GP project). But for horses up to 50,000 HGP, I may only offer another 10k on top of the minimum price I consider the horse is most likely worth to me. A 70,000 horse with low or no COI I would likely hesitate at 50k.
What means more worth for me is their ability to perform or if they come from performing lines. If the young horse comes from long line of confirmed champions of one discipline (I'm talking higher champion titles, not just the basic 'Champion'), has an HGP of about 50,000, a low COI (although I might make an exception for a medium COI in this case), then I might offer upwards of quarter to half of the lower total earnings of both parents. So if the lower earning parent earned a million over his or her lifetime, I might offer as much as 500,000 for the offspring. That's not yet happened, but I can foresee myself doing so fairly easily.

Any horse that falls outside of my personal opinions is generally ignored with the single exception of new players with no decent grinders and very small farms. In this case I may purchase a horse I'm interested in for upwards of four times what I would consider buying it for.

There are exceptions to my own rules. I'm not interested in purchasing such horses yet, so I'm not sure what I would consider paying for them, but I do already know that I would pay more for such horses falling under the following conditions:
Rare AC coats.
Rare comments of AC breeder's reports.
Rare conformation evaluations of AC horses (both on high and low ends).
Rare talents of competition horses (like an arabian that does exceptionally well in log pull).
Unusual performances against conformation evaluations (like a horse that has low conformation evaluation for racing stats but does exceptionally well anyway).

I'm sure there could be others, those are just a couple I've already considered may interest me in the future.

I know this probably doesn't offer much insight into the game's economy flow today versus what it was last year and the years before, but my own purchasing opinions haven't changed. Does this mean I overlook some horses I may be interested in? Most likely. Does this really bother me? No, because there will always be another that will fit what I'm looking for.

[vallers]

So, I've been playing for three years and horse prices were a lot lower and more consistent when I started. I'm not the most observant of people; thus, I am having a fair bit of trouble judging the worth of a horse, even by browsing through the sale. I have no idea what's going on with the prices anymore. Would someone be able to give me a general outline on the value of horses?

Thanks, have a great day!

"There are three kinds of economists. Those that can add, and those that can't." -Hamish McRae

I liked the quote!

I've come up against this myself.
Personally, I will purchase an AC horse that's for sale up to 10k, as a breeder the breeding report matters less then offspring count, color and physical conformation (not conformation evaluation). A fully trained horse in my mind is worth at least 15k (generally the cheapest acceptable training fee I would personally offer, so that's what I go by), depending on some of the following information, I may pay up to 50k for a fully trained 'basic' horse. COI plays a part in my cost analysis, since I choose to keep the COI lower, purchasing higher COI horses will lower the price in my opinion (but having lower COI doesn't necessarily increase price) and at an exponentially increasing discount. For instance, if I had a choice between three horses of the same breed, one at 0% COI, the second at 20% COI and the third at 80%COI, if my base price for the first horse is 20k, then the second horse I may say 18k because 20% COI really isn't that bad, but for the third horse, I may only be willing to pay 5k (or as happens most often, I will refuse to purchase the third horse at all), rarity of breed comes into heavy play when COI is involved (the rarer the breed, the higher COI I'll accept).
HGP is important for me, but much less so then perhaps other players. For instance, a 30,000 to 42,000 AC horse may be 10k, and I will pay as much non-AC horse (however on the rare occasion I've been known to purchase a non-AC horse for as much as 20k if it fits exactly the breeding purposes I need). I don't like to purchase an AC horse under 30,000 HGP for more than 5k, unless my needs match exactly what the horse has (for instance the low GP project). But for horses up to 50,000 HGP, I may only offer another 10k on top of the minimum price I consider the horse is most likely worth to me. A 70,000 horse with low or no COI I would likely hesitate at 50k.
What means more worth for me is their ability to perform or if they come from performing lines. If the young horse comes from long line of confirmed champions of one discipline (I'm talking higher champion titles, not just the basic 'Champion'), has an HGP of about 50,000, a low COI (although I might make an exception for a medium COI in this case), then I might offer upwards of quarter to half of the lower total earnings of both parents. So if the lower earning parent earned a million over his or her lifetime, I might offer as much as 500,000 for the offspring. That's not yet happened, but I can foresee myself doing so fairly easily.

Any horse that falls outside of my personal opinions is generally ignored with the single exception of new players with no decent grinders and very small farms. In this case I may purchase a horse I'm interested in for upwards of four times what I would consider buying it for.

There are exceptions to my own rules. I'm not interested in purchasing such horses yet, so I'm not sure what I would consider paying for them, but I do already know that I would pay more for such horses falling under the following conditions:
Rare AC coats.
Rare comments of AC breeder's reports.
Rare conformation evaluations of AC horses (both on high and low ends).
Rare talents of competition horses (like an arabian that does exceptionally well in log pull).
Unusual performances against conformation evaluations (like a horse that has low conformation evaluation for racing stats but does exceptionally well anyway).

I'm sure there could be others, those are just a couple I've already considered may interest me in the future.

I know this probably doesn't offer much insight into the game's economy flow today versus what it was last year and the years before, but my own purchasing opinions haven't changed. Does this mean I overlook some horses I may be interested in? Most likely. Does this really bother me? No, because there will always be another that will fit what I'm looking for.

I don't know if it will help but I can write up how I price a horse to buy or sell. If there is any interest.

[BlackOak2]

I don't know if it will help but I can write up how I price a horse to buy or sell. If there is any interest.

I definitely would. Although I haven't changed how I purchase yet, if the game economy has changed drastically, maybe I should update my own purchase standards. Personally, I'm more interested in pricing for sale rather than purchasing (only because I can still find what I want to purchase within my own standards).

[Baranduin Brewster]

So, I've been playing for three years and horse prices were a lot lower and more consistent when I started. I'm not the most observant of people; thus, I am having a fair bit of trouble judging the worth of a horse, even by browsing through the sale. I have no idea what's going on with the prices anymore. Would someone be able to give me a general outline on the value of horses?

Thanks, have a great day!

"There are three kinds of economists. Those that can add, and those that can't." -Hamish McRae

I have only been playing for about a year and a half, so I have no idea what prices were from before. It is all supply and demand. If you have something rare, people will pay a premium for it. If it is common then of course people will pay less. With that being said, most players don't have the money to go out and drop $1,000,000 on a horse no matter how good or well lined that horse might be. Much of the money in game, I suspect, is held by less than 50 players. Prices are also, pretty skewed by what high purse events are available for a specific breed.

The following is my opinion and no one else's....

I normally will not even look at a horse in the market place for under $5,000. There are a few times I will, when I'm looking for a specific color/markings, just wasting time or if I'm browsing for AC horses.

I often have unusual projects running almost constantly, so rarities interest me, like: Low Speed (40 or below) gold speed stated TBs or micro (33 inches or below) horses of breeds I don't have yet, these I will pay a hefty penny for.

I usually will not hesitate to buy horse that has what I'm looking for in the $50,000 range for a run of the mill horse. AC horses usually if unbred I will pay up to $500,000 if they were bought specific for me, there is usually some trait I'm looking for if I'm going after the AC horses. For some private or less public lines I will even go up into the millions.

Now, if I'm looking for something specific, then I will pay appropriately for someone to use their time to get me what I want. I will pay upwards for $100,000 for a decent grinder for brood/stud since I should get one or two acceptable foals from them. I also, like some breeds to be realistically colored, so I will pay a premium for horses that meet those specifications. I breed mostly spotted horse breeds (Appies, Knabs, POAs and Sugarbush Drafts), Ponies, Drafts, Racers and Russian breeds, will pay more for these breeds than I will say a Swedish Warmblood.

I cannot tell you how I would actually price horses for sale, since I rarely sell publicly in the marketplace. I will on occasion toss up some random horses of breeds if there is a call for them, for instance when the pinto colorations was announced I did toss up some Paints, so people could breed some correctly colored Paint horses. These were just randomly bred horses, not from my own lines or horses I was overly worried about being over bred.

[vallers]

arabian, non adoption center that was bred from available market stock 6 gold and below
untrained 2-5k, trained to 795% and at least 5 stats 20k-40k

other ancient breeds improved 10k15- for 2-3 stats non red stat, trained 30k-60k for 2 or more stats

adoption center ancient breeds with neutral or better stats ( no red stats) 5k-10k untrained

non ancient breeds unimproved and untrained with no more than one cross 5k-10k with no reds with reds 3k-5k

non ancient breeds with 2-4 crosses untrained and unimproved 7k-15k

improved versions of 2 stat 45k hgp or more of the last two add 2k per stat

non ancient breeds with 5 or more crosses or breeds involved unimproved and untrained anywhere from 50k-250k
same as before improved 2 stats and 45k hgp or more add 5k-10k per stat

[BlackOak2]

arabian, non adoption center that was bred from available market stock 6 gold and below
untrained 2-5k, trained to 795% and at least 5 stats 20k-40k

other ancient breeds improved 10k15- for 2-3 stats non red stat, trained 30k-60k for 2 or more stats

adoption center ancient breeds with neutral or better stats ( no red stats) 5k-10k untrained

non ancient breeds unimproved and untrained with no more than one cross 5k-10k with no reds with reds 3k-5k

non ancient breeds with 2-4 crosses untrained and unimproved 7k-15k

improved versions of 2 stat 45k hgp or more of the last two add 2k per stat

non ancient breeds with 5 or more crosses or breeds involved unimproved and untrained anywhere from 50k-250k
same as before improved 2 stats and 45k hgp or more add 5k-10k per stat

This enlightens me quite a bit. I don't consider how many breeds to make certain ones are (I don't generally buy them either), so I'll need to keep this on mind for the future.
I like this as a 'base value starting point' and personally think that this is quite handy and valuable.
Thank you.

I also, like some breeds to be realistically colored, so I will pay a premium for horses that meet those specifications.

Just a comment that I agree with this as well and I too, would pay more for the breeds that adhere to real-life standards rather than the fanciful ones that we can breed just for fun.

[Argent]

Important factor: in the last year, a bug cropped up that was exploited, and flooded the game with absurd amounts of cash. So prices are probably inflated because people have to much excess money and nothing to really spend it on.

[vallers]

the bug was fixed

[Tjigra]

I believe there is no such thing as economy on prices.
If you offer for a specific horse, be ready to spend a lot. If you want something that is generally popular, be ready to spend a lot. If you want something that is important to you, but not to general community, you can buy an excellent horse for 5k or probably even less. If you just want a good horse and don't want it immediately, you can get one for almost free.
Since I am not on the boat with the most popular trends on the game, I have horses that don't fit the "generally popular" mark (the few 70k+ Arabians I have I won't be selling any time soon). Also I don't breed for selling, the foal either fits my project or it doesn't. If it fits, it sits, if not, I rehome. So I rarely sell at all. The few times I do, I tend to price them low, because I want those horses gone.