Lockpicks vs. ectos for currency?

I'm sure this has been brought up in the past, and I certainly understand why ectos were traditionally used for currency, but why are they still used instead of other things? The price of ectos varies, sometimes wildly (ie during the free entry into uw weekend event) the only way you can get them is in the uw or buying them. I don't see why we don't use lockpicks instead.. they're available from just about every merchant, they have a set value that never changes (1200 gold) and even if you're not using them to trade you can just... use them! I understand that they're worth less than ectos so you'd need more of them to equal the same amount but then you don't have to haggle over the value of the ectos you're trading. I know its like an ingrained habit with the weight of momentum behind it. Is there something I'm missing?

theres already item selling for 8 stack of ecto... and ecto are 3-4k more than lockpick... I wouldnt see selling something for 15stack of lockpick...

This has been discussed before in a pretty long thread...you'll find that lockpicks are a better solution but people with lots of ecto will always be against it. Realistically lockpicks will work for 99.9% of trades, if you have to trade for something worth 7+ stacks of ecto then you need to make some decisions about how to transfer the money anyways.

People with lots of money determine what is currency.

Proletariat however can use lockpicks if they wish or whatever. Ectos will remain the currency until people who own them decide they want to change that.

Having variable currency is beneficial, since it allows for speculation and haggling - almost all of today's currency is virtual, and their value determined by stock markets. Hard currencies (gold, silver, diamonds) simply don't work as well, since they can't adapt.

How about stacks of 250 Armbraces?





















Zing!

Incorrect, anyone from an alliance that owns a factions town can get them cheaper than everyone else.

Yer and that is why there set value would be 1200-1250 gold, you can already pick up stacks of lockpicks at that price.

I sell them for 1k. Bam -- crushed your "set value" theory.

Ecto prices are pretty unreliable. Although id rather see ectos pinned at something lockpicks make for a nice alternitive and are only unsuitable for mega pricey trades. And as for alliances the 1200-1250 is about the price they are dealt in anyway they just have the convinience and supply the lockpicks to make a lockpick economy vaiable.

/Stacks of Red Iris Flowers for new currency

And I'd buy it for 1k and resell it for 1.2k...

Unlike ectos, there is a semi-stable market for them (chaos gloves and FoW are the only uses for ecto)

There's always going to be outliers to the average price, just like nothing natural fits a linear or exponential regression

sorry but that puts too much control of the economy in the hands of a few people who control towns....what if they decided they wanted to raise their profit margin by making the price 1.3k or 1.4k instead...people would have to pay in order to get their lockpicks. Meanwhile those people controlling the towns can still get the discount and have a position of power in the enconomy. Instead they rely on Ecto prices which are controlled by Anet and their loot tables and not the whim of some person who may want to get a bit more gold for themselves.

people who own towns are behind this move to try to convince people to use lockpicks...because they have a vested interest in the outcome...just like people who own lots of ectos have a vested interest in seeing the community continue to use it as currency. The difference being that the control of the supply lies with Anet, not some elite group of alliances. People who do not have huge stacks of ectos know this...which is why they continue to use ectos over lockpicks.

That could happen in theroy but i doubt it could relisticly happen. One alliance deos it then GG people just buy from the others and the alliance just shot itself in the foot. Although it might be possible to get them all to do it, that would mean getting lots of alliances to "team up" and keep a lid on any member who would b out to make a quick buck selling cheaper that the alliances inforced price. They couldnt really stop him unless they somhow found out. Also these alliances are activley competing with one another so its very unlikey tthem would join up. Now think about a kurzick/luxon alliance... madness .

That'd be schweet.

I wholehartedly agree with using lockpicks instead of ectos. The problem is all the people that power trade already have an inventory full of ectos, so they would be against it, even though it would actually save them money instead of using fluctuating ectos.

Works in pre-searing

We are used to ectos, it's tough (maybe only for me) to change our habit to write from 100K+5e to 100K+15 lock

It would be a great idea if lockpicks didn't drop.

^^Hehe, GW Teamsters, Hoffa style.

Yeah I think the price of ecto has gotten far too unstable for it to be effectively used as currency. At the same time I don't see a shift happening. It ALMOST happened with candy canes after they were first introduced to the game, when peppermint candy canes were just called candy canes and were the only kind available. About 6 mo. after they hit the game you started seeing people posting "WTS xxx 100k+50cc", but before it could really take we had 3 different kinds of canes and it became apparent they would be more readily available then people had initially assumed (thank god they made me filthy rich before that happened). I also think that ecto as currency goes beyond the need for something to trade above the 100k limit, and also has to do with a currency valued at more than a platinum, the next step so to speak. I think we will always need a form of currency that is worth at least 5k per unit.

But I'm just a simple necro, and I could be totally wrong.

How do people get ecto?