Skyblock economic study

1. Your liquid assets (How many diamonds/grass you have)
4-5 stacks of grass+ 12 diamonds.

2. An estimate of your aggregate wealth(everything you own including rares, blocks, etc.) in diamonds (Round it to the nearest half stack if you're rich enough to not be sure). Assume everything is going for the current market rate.
I'd say 32-40 diamonds

3. Your rank
Donor 10. Got it as a gift

4. How long it took you to gather whatever you have(If you ever accidentally wiped your island or been scammed out of everything please take that into account also).
Lets say, (excluding the November 2015-March 2016 break I had from skyblock), 1-2 years

5. Any personal experiences/anecdotes you'd like to add.
I haven't been scammed for the last year and a half, so I've been collecting a lot of stuff.

 

How often would you say gifting ranks happens?

 

To me?

Well I don't give ranks bc I don't have money.

 

I was referring to the server in general. Do people gift ranks often? About 1/3 of the people I talk to say they didn't buy their ranks themselves

 

Oh.

No, its not common nor rare, it's one of those things where if you get it you're extremely lucky. Some people get their ranks from other people.who buy it in exchange for diamonds, which sometimes ends up in the buyer charging back on the money and the player who gets it gets perm banned until they pay it

 

1. Your liquid assets (how much diamonds, grass you have)
I have about 500 diamonds and no grass because I always give it away to the people who need it

2. Estimate in wealth (rares, blocks, etc)
I own around 7,500 diamonds worth of rares, I almost have every single rare in the game

3. Your Rank
Donor400

4. How long it took me to gather what I have
It took me around a year with some 1-2 month brakes I took from Skyblock and Minecraft

5. Personal experiences
When I was a greenie, I didn't really have much. I had and island but of course it looked like a greenie island with all cobble and cheap wood. Then one day I decided to create a new island. I started making the new island but then within the 1st weak of playing on it, I got bored. I took a 2 month break. I said hmm maybe ill go back to skyblock again. Still a greenie didn't know much people. Then, I made a great friend named RockieMountain. He was a skygod and a great builder. He helped me with my island and then we expanded it greatly. My island looked great. I saw that I had a double island with another player once I extended mine. I didn't think much of it until 1 day someone offered me 800 diamonds for my island. Of course I took the deal and used those diamonds to get donor 100. John was the one who bought the double island and I thank him for that because that really changed myself on skyblock.

 

A compelling and heartwarming rags to riches story. Thank you for this

 

1. Your liquid assets (How many diamonds/grass you have) Around 2k Dias and an SC of grass

2. An estimate of your aggregate wealth(everything you own including rares, blocks, etc.) in diamonds (Round it to the nearest half stack if you're rich enough to not be sure). Assume everything is going for the current market rate. 16.8k

3. Your rank D400

4. How long it took you to gather whatever you have(If you ever accidentally wiped your island or been scammed out of everything please take that into account also). I have been constantly trading since March of 2015

5. Any personal experiences/anecdotes you'd like to add. If you want to get a lot of Rares/Dias flip everything

KingDG I'll pay ya a Super Rare Potato to do this honestly

 

Thanks for responding! I've heard from multiple rich people that you're considered the most insanely rich of the insanely rich. Although this will most definitely skew my graph, I will gladly include this.

 

I'm not the richest, I'm just the most active rich person

 

1. I would say 1000 diamonds and 1 stack of grass.
2. 3000 in diamonds
3. Donor 400
4. 4 months since before I’ve dropped all my radars
5. Tradeshops for quartz or prismarine.

 

I've been offered more to do less in the past.

That said, I will respond to (part of--you know which questions I'll ignore ) this eventually. I began a response a while ago and I'll finish and post it when I have time.

 

Well that doesn't count

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

1. Rares and Riches

I’d consider myself to be on the richer side of the economy.


2. Your rank

Greenie -> Donor50 -> Donor100 -> Donor250 -> Donor400


3. How long it took you to gather whatever you have (If you ever accidentally wiped your island or been scammed out of everything please take that into account also).

I joined in mid-2014; I accumulated the majority of my "wealth" by the beginning of 2016. I’ve been scammed and griefed many times. Due to different things, I’ve lost over 15,000 diamonds’ worth of items (valued according to “old” prices) over the years.

________________________________________________________

I'd like for my study to include a structured wealth class system

Most people might shape the wealth class system according to ranks, so I’ll illuminate this perspective for your benefit.

Greenbeans

If you’ve never heard the term before, players without a rank are often referred to as greenbeans or greenies. As you might infer, such players are generally new to the server and are “generally” on the bottom of the economy and so-called wealth class system. Nondonors do not immediately join the “economy”—that is, they aren’t looking to get rich. Most nondonors join skyblock to play skyblock—the fact that this server has an economy is just a bonus that some recognize and enjoy later on. Nondonors tend to participate in or host skin competitions, battle in the MobArena (although this activity has died down as time has passed), fiddle with banners, and of course expand and refine their islands in good ol’ skyblock fashion. Although I’d probably need to have joined the server two years earlier than I did to credibly say this, I imagine that this so-called class of players comprise the original target audience of skyblock. Most nondonors never join the economy: they discover skyblock, they skyblock, they grow bored, and they leave. This pattern holds true especially now with the skyblock concept so ubiquitous throughout the Minecraft gaming platform today. Skyblock is an “old thing” that’s been around for a while and furthermore doesn’t cater to the instant gratification and repeated short-term excitement that other contemporary successful servers offer (such as minigame servers).

If a nondonor, however, does in fact shift from skyblock to one of the server’s two other attractants—its economy and its community—then the aforementioned does not hold. But once a nondonor makes this shift, he or she will likely seek an upgrade to become a ranked player. To elaborate upon this:

The server pressures players to rank-up. This holds especially true for those that become hooked on the economy. Nondonors who wish to participate in the economy must find some way to increase their assets—and without the extensive capital possessed by higher ranked players that allow them to barter and make large gains in their assets in relatively short periods of time—nondonors typically turn to their previous activities in an attempt to make profit. In this manner, skin competitions with entry fees, banner shops, casinos, builders (who charge fees), etc. are born. This trend only intensified with the introduction of tradeshop and the /visit command.

Years ago, nondonors could not even teleport to their nondonor buyers (and vice versa); two such individuals wishing to make a trade would have to use a public warp for their business. Thankfully, the server had warp skybase, which had rooms designated for players to make such trades (imagine small rooms with two pressure plates for players to stand on that would lock the door to the room so no one else could enter; a trading chest would be in the room to encourage chest trades and the leaving of logs to help combat scams). All in all, trading was a hassle for nondonors. Scams were rampant; finding buyers was difficult with so much competition (this server used to regularly have 300+ players per day), and even advertising products, services, or events was a difficult task (using hyperbole, chat zoomed by at 100 mph back then).

Naturally, these troubles were eased for donors. With donor10 come a colored name for increased visibility, as well as (I believe) the teleport command. With donor25 came colored chat, allowing for even more chat visibility, as well as other perks and benefits which can be found on the skyblock shop website (I don’t have them memorized). Paired with their kits, ranks were an attractive solution to nondonors, and “rich” nondonors became a rarity.

As a sidenote, some nondonors who didn’t shift to the economic side of the server still experienced similar disadvantages and pressures for, in the process of expanding one’s island, one has to purchase goods and resources, and the funds for these endeavors must come from somewhere. For those who play on the server for its community, peer pressure, the bandwagon effect, and the aforementioned situation tended to influence those individuals to buy (or upgrade) their ranks.

[P.S. Scams, bridging, and griefs died down with island protect, /lock, /visit, and trade shops, but there used to be an entire class of players who used illegal means to fill in the economic gap.]


Donor10s, 25, and 50s (that focus on the economy)

Most donors similarly feel overshadowed by higher ranks, and once they’ve upgraded already before the pressures of the server, they’ll be sure to try again. Most donors trade and save their capital so that they can buy an upgrade with in-game items later on once they can afford it. Lower-ranked donors still participate in things like casinos and skin competitions. There is, however, a general correlation between rank and participation in those types of events; as an individual gains rank on the server, he or she often becomes more pointedly focused on trading and attends skin-comp/casino-type events less frequently. A person generally gains rank on the server as he or she spends more months on it, and as a consequence of the increased time, he or she has more experience and knowledge of the server and its inner workings.

This experience-information related trend likely contributes to the rank-trading trend. A good example of this would be what happens after drop parties. The DP plugin lists in chat the winner of each dropped item; experienced traders (often high, greedy donors) save the names of lower ranked donors and nondonors who get each item (predominantly heads) in the hopes of getting a ridiculously good deal (which would occur if the owner of the head didn’t know its true value). The product of something like this, if one has enough capital, would be owning—let me think of a random example—12 unplaced 2017 santa heads, which is not unheard of. Notably, when something like this happens, if the seller of the item realizes its true worth later on, he or she has a greater chance of becoming more interested in the economy. Most donors are fixated on heads, but this is mostly due to the fact that heads are dropped during every DP. There exist plenty of other types of rares—which have their own little economies—outside of the head trade. More on this later. It’s generally during a player’s lower-donor years that he/she realizes the importance of information (like what other types of rares there are and who has them). It’s this key realization that can turn an “unexperienced trader” into an “experienced trader,” opening lots of possibilities. More on this later as well.

In light of the above trends, lower-donors generally don’t have as many diamonds as higher donors. Kits contribute slightly to this gap, but the contribution is insignificant when compared to the disparity in frequency and success of trading experienced between lower and higher donors. Some higher donors even discriminate against lower donors (#rankist), viewing all of them as new to the server, untrustworthy, and potential scammers. An example of this would be an individual looking for coop-members that are rank Donor[#] and above.


Donor100s, 250s, and 400s

Again speaking generally (I’m sure specific counterpoints could be constructed for everything I’ve said thus far), donor100s, 250s, and 400s are the most experienced members of the community. These donors tend to have the most capital and do the most trading (often leading to large increases in capital). They generally make up the “high class” of Skyblock.

Donor400s deserve a special note, though, because the “creative item” that they get with their rank gives them an instant 1,500 diamond boost, helping them immensely with their trading. To these already rich and experienced players that now have the highest donor rank, they are the best equipped to use these 1,500 diamond (or equivalent in rares) to improve their status and trade for profit. I don’t think I need to expand much on this class of players, because they’re just the opposite extremes of the earlier donor rank descriptions.

 

So that’s how most people might describe the economy. I, though, believe in a similar but different model.


Socials & Staff

- Most staff (there are exceptions) dedicate the majority of their time to helping the server and its members. As a consequence, they become deeply involved in the community and social side of Skyblock

- Most socials aren’t too involved in the trading business. They may come across rares/diamonds but (generally) will either save them for an upgrade or give them away as gifts.

- The server isn’t as bipolar as I’m making it out to be; just note that there are these two general types of players. A player can be both or neither (e.g. the aforementioned build-an-island-then-leave player).

- Some socials can get really rich. If a player vested in the economy leaves/quits the server, he or she either keeps his or her items or, more typically, gives them all away. Some players give away their items via drop party; others throw everything into the void; most give their items away to a friend. Sometimes this “friend” is a social player. I know of a few players that became “insanely rich” just from gifts.

- Socials who have become insanely rich don’t usually get that interested in the economy (but this is a possibility and has happened before). Often socials will use their riches for their friends, giving gifts or buying upgrades, and they care less about the value of their items and the profitability of their trades. Experienced traders often take advantage of this fact.

Producers

- By producers, I mean players who produce cobble, stone, food, banners, etc., and sell them.

- These are generally nondonors or lower donors.

- There was a surge in the number of producers with the introduction of the tradeshop plugin because demand increased. With richer players wanting to start tradeshops, they needed to buy products to sell in their shops, and so they turned to producers.

- Some producers sell their items in their own tradeshops, but the shops of richer players get the most attention, so selling to a middleman is often more profitable (for both players involved).

- Some middlemen donors with the most popular shops (e.g. skyshop) see lots of profit and gain lots of capital from the process and become high donors, but this is a rarity; usually selling small, produced items does not get a player very far.

Unexperienced Traders

- Can be a nondonor, can be a donor400. These players haven’t realized the importance of information in the skyblock economy.

- Are interested in the economy and can be very rich

- Typically buy and sell, although their efforts are not always successful

- Susceptible to being taken advantage of by experienced traders

- Usually less active. A positive correlation usually exists between activity and the profitability/frequency of trades

- Sometimes are hoarders who are looking only to buy a specific item, such as, naming a random example, unplaced 2014 pumpkin heads. They’d be willing to make a “bad trade” (e.g. overpay) for the specific item.

- Can be players who are only seeking to expand their wealth to later buy an upgrade

- If they stay on the server long enough—and remain interested in the economy—by definition unexperienced traders become experienced traders. It’s hard ignore the (subtle) importance of information if you trade for long enough.

Experienced Traders

- Usually higher donors.

- Make trades, but also deal in information. That is, they often:

• Keep track of which specific players want a certain item and what they’d be willing to pay for it

• Keep track of what specific players are selling and what they’d sell it for

• Keep track of who owns certain items

• Keep track of upgraders and players who are looking to get upgraded

- Love making middleman trades (the most successful may even make a middleman upgrade, which is harder to do)

- Often keep track of who gets certain items in drop parties and is, when drop parties occur, well-stocked on items that would be attractive to lower donors/nondonors (e.g. raw diamonds, spawners, beacons, and grass)

- Maintain good relations with other traders and always like to stay informed about what deals they’ve made

- Keep track of how rich other players are (as a consequence of tracking what items they have)

- Keep track of fluctuations in prices; can use knowledge of these fluctuations to become a much better negotiator

- Typically older

- Don’t usually give away information freely

- Before island protection, they usually never let other players onto their islands (with the exception of a few close friends)

- Rarely get scammed

- Generally aren’t afraid to deal in illegal items

• Sometimes make substantial profit from dealing with illegals

• The most lucrative illegal trade is buying/selling items for IRL money (e.g. with paypal)

• Paypal trades used to be legal long ago. This used to be a huge part of the economy.

- Generally are friends with at least a couple mods

- People who used to deal mostly in illegals (often IRL money) have a higher chance of becoming experienced traders

Upgraders

- Quickest way to get rich

- Two kinds

• Upgrades players here and there over his/her time playing on Skyblock

• Upgrades lots of player and burns lots of money to get very rich, then almost always quits after growing bored of the server

- If an upgrader quits, he/she has a higher chance of saving his/her items rather than giving them away (but exceptions exist)

- Some of the richest players on the server are upgraders

- Typically prefer raw diamonds when accepting upgrades

- These days, most upgraders only buy low ranks (50 -> 100 or less)

- Are almost always high donors

- With increased capital, they’ll see more trades (if they aren’t hoarding), so they’re likely to become experienced traders

- There’s another hidden economy relating to upgraders; if you want to know more about it, PM me.

The effect of the 'illegal items' rules

There are mainly two kinds of players. One type doesn’t even need mods to enforce this rule, because they’d abide by it anyways. The other type will ask “what rules?” (The rules are either completely ignored or closely followed. Something to note: in the past, the majority of rich players had engaged in illegal trades.)

The 'rares' driven side of the economy

Heads

- Most popular item, mostly because they’re brought to front of every trader’s attention every DP. Also, each DP introduces more heads into the economy, making them a popular item with an always-increasing supply

- Placed are always worth less than unplaced heads; unplaced heads have a colored name and lore that disappears once they are placed

- Unplaced heads are generally rarer, which is why they are worth more.

- An unusual lore in general makes something far more rare (e.g. the Noobcrew “Super Duper” rare head vs. the standard Noobcrew “Super rare” head).

Admin heads

- Used to be insanely valuable (2,000 – 4,000 diamonds for some of them)

- Cyp began allowing donor400s to get them as creative items, causing a giant surge in the amount of both donor400s and admin heads

- The value of admin heads has since dropped; many DP heads are more valuable than all of them.

- Jeffciv heads were the last of the admin heads to be an acceptable donor400 item; I believe they are accordingly the most valuable.

- Before Jeffciv heads were obtainable as donor400 items, there were only three or four on the server that were introduced in an old (2012?) drop party. An old ex-staff-member (RobloxianRoblox) used to have them but he sold a couple and then, within the last year, quit. I’m not sure what happened to his stuff; he probably has it stored away somewhere.

- The “original Jeffciv heads” aren’t super significant because many people just don’t know about them. Only the most experienced of traders probably know about them and possibly where they are. To those traders, they’re probably worth a little more than the average Jeff head.

Beacons

- I stopped trading in beacons a while ago, so my opinion may not be as valid as others.

- Beacons used to be pretty cheap (maybe 50ish diamonds)

- With the introduction of islandprotect, the chance of getting a beacon griefed (used to be the item most frequently stolen/griefed) dropped dramatically, so there was an giant surge in demand

- Beacon prices have been rising ever since (with slight downward fluctuations)

- Beacons were recently added to one of the voter crates, but I do not think this has had a significant impact on the economy because not very many people get beacons from the crates

- Lots of people hoard beacons, which has probably led to their continued price inflation

Silked Spawners

- Introduced in an old 2012 plugin that got removed (disallowing any more silked spawners to come into existence)

- Used to be popular; nowadays only a few people know what they are and even fewer active players own them

- Some of them were very valuable because of their rarity, such as the silked horse and giant spawners

- Currently all silked spawners could probably be considered very rare, but because so few people know about them, there’s little demand, so they’re not worth much

Spawn eggs

- Used to be a giant economy based around this that spawned out of a few major illegal events (looting a famous old mod, I believe, letting tons of spawn eggs enter the economy)

- Used to be very much

- When they were in the economy, there was a monopoly; a few players had nearly all (if not all) of the eggs

- Cyp (maybe a year ago?) removed spawn eggs from the server

- New ones (like horse spawn eggs) are still present on the server, but not many others exist

Dragon eggs/End portal frames

- Used to be the most popular rares on the sever (in 2015 and before)

- They got hoarded and duped and their values have fluctuated insanely from 800 to 200 diamonds a piece to whatever they’re worth now.

- Mostly, they’ve been hoarded by a few select players

Netherstars

- Used to be sold for a few grass in an old Halloween warp

- Since then, they haven’t been sold, so they became a rare

- Can be used to craft a beacon, but are rarer and generally worth more than beacons, so this is typically not done

- Also were hoarded – a few player used to have nearly all of the netherstars in circulation until some of those players sold theirs, reintroducing them into the economy

- At the moment, there isn’t much demand for them, so they aren’t worth an incredibly amount

Old illegals

- Sponges, bedrock, and gravel used to be illegal to trade on the server

- Before they became legal, they used to go for 800+ diamonds each

- Nowadays their value has gone down

Notch heads

- Introduced recently via donor400 creative items

- Very few of them; decent value

There are other tons of rares, but I’m getting lazy and I’m sure there’s a trading thread somewhere/you can ask around.

Updates

- These often only have significant impact on the richer players of the server.

- Nearly all of the items I lost (that I mentioned in question three) were due to updates.

- Two significant waves occurred; the 1.8 update stripped the server of fire, water, and lava blocks, which used to be a significant part of the economy. Then, more recently, Cyp removed spawn eggs from the server, which used to be another part of the economy (although not as significant, because only a select few people had them due to immense hoarding).

- Other than removing items, updates also introduce new items to the economy, some of which—if dropped by Cyp/bought as a creative item upon purchasing the donor400 rank and are otherwise unobtainable—become rares.

Little disclaimer:

By saying “socials,” I’m not implying all other players aren’t social. I also don’t mean any harm by my using the terms “lower-ranked” or “lower donors.” Everyone’s equal; by lower, I referred to their numbers, not the players themselves. Take all such terms at face value and don’t read deeper.

 

KingDG it took me 25 minutes to read this. Who had the 12 Santa heads? I'd like to buy from him. It was very entertaining reading this. Although, I guess I'm not completely an experienced trader

Green = Yes
Red = No

Experienced Traders

- Usually higher donors.

- Make trades, but also deal in information.

- Keep track of which specific players want a certain item and what they’d be willing to pay for it

- Keep track of what specific players are selling and what they’d sell it for

- Keep track of who owns certain items

- Keep track of upgraders and players who are looking to get upgraded

- Love making middleman trades (the most successful may even make a middleman upgrade, which is harder to do)

- Often keep track of who gets certain items in drop parties and is, when drop parties occur, well-stocked on items that would be attractive to lower donors/nondonors (e.g. raw diamonds, spawners, beacons, and grass)

- Maintain good relations with other traders and always like to stay informed about what deals they’ve made

- Keep track of how rich other players are (as a consequence of tracking what items they have)

- Keep track of fluctuations in prices; can use knowledge of these fluctuations to become a much better negotiator

- Typically older

- Don’t usually give away information freely

- Before island protection, they usually never let other players onto their islands (with the exception of a few close friends)

- Rarely get scammed

- Generally aren’t afraid to deal in illegal items

- Sometimes make substantial profit from dealing with illegals

- Generally are friends with at least a couple mods

 

It's all general. You don't have to fit a mold completely

 

Do you fit it completely?

 

I am a producer, mainly stone
I deal directly to customers (no tradeshop, no middle man)
Often make bad trades
Often gets scammed
I am hell of a inexperience trader

Also in Experience traders the only 1 thing fits me is typically older