NOTE: This article is being revamped! PLEASE read my post on page 2 titled "NOTE" before reading on!

Preface
Looking at it from an outsider's perspective, and especially that of a newcomer, the economic structure of Skyblock can seem frightening, and perhaps even dissuading, granted the fact that the economy is not controlled by a certain financial centre (as is the case with most of the real-world economic bases), but monitored entirely by the people who participate in it.

Trading is inevitable on Skyblock if you want to advance, especially for those who're not willing to - at first - give up their hard-earned money to skip ahead of the game. Unfortunately, a system that relies so heavily on the objectivity and conscience of the ruling players, (ie. the donors who have exclusive access to a vast majority of the items that fuel the market) the typical question of supply and demand often gets skewed, if not even lost in translation between markets.

So this is for you, you who chose not to donate, and are still struggling to earn your first diamond's worth. But it's also for you, you who donated $250 to see your name in colour, and have piles and piles of items in excess, but still can't get enough of hogging all the resources that others may need, but you got to first. Finders keepers, right?

Introduction
Hello everyone. I am Thomas, but here on Skyblock I hide behind the nickname Artificiality (because Thomas was taken). I am an author, editor and the founder of a collaborative writing project called 7 Billion & Me. When I don't write articles or lynch my authors for being too slow to articulate their thoughts, I study a vast array of interests I've acquired throughout my life, the primary one being finance. And so, coming to Skyblock, which in many ways is the embodiment of a simpler, more primitive economy (as is the case with most virtual currencies, as they're not governed by banks, central institutions or stock exchanges), it did not take long to gain an insight in its workings and the dynamics that control the chain of supply and demand.

Unfortunately, however, I am by far not the first person to realise this, and many of those who've seen the leads and loopholes before me decided - in accordance to their greedier instincts - to keep this information to themselves. Don't get me wrong, this is finance, and I'm not going to pour every single one of my tricks down your throat now, but I do feel, since this is an economy that rewards the rich at the cost of the poor, that someone has to at least provide everyone with an equal opportunity to prosper. Without a guideline for prices or average value (except for this limited post by FromLegoUniverse), it can be a challenge for new players to grasp how to earn their grass, diamonds and iron.

Many newcomers to Skyblock seem to find their only true source of income to be the voting system that has been embedded for better or worse, and it saddens me to see them waiting for days on end just to save for that god-enchanted diamond pickaxe, when in reality, voting is one of the worst inflows of currency available, and most definitely just a fraction of the ways to earn a buck or two. The ideas and principles I will go over here are not the absolute highest end methods, and gaming the economy is a remarkably easy feat on Skyblock, however I am not going to cover that in this guide, both because it would break the economy to release it publicly, but also because - if I were to share some deeper thoughts - I would not be providing it for free. Like everything else, knowledge is a commodity, and the businessman in me reminds me that a limited number of books to be sold in-game might be a better option.

Fundamentals of the economy
Skyblock's economy is built on two primary currencies; grass and diamond. These, I consider currencies because grass can be used in exchanges with server-based entities (the closest thing to a controlling institution) who, in this case, are represented by villages in /warp grass, and diamond is obtainable only through donations, but are recognised by most everyone as a currency that can be traded for anything (ie. diamonds will buy you everything, even if people don't need it, because it's easy to exchange for what they actually need).

Skyblock does not have a supply/demand element built into its economy, as its cornerstone, the diamond, is governed and controlled by a limited number of people, who get to pick their customers and clients themselves, and who have complete freedom with the rates these are sold at, simply because no competitor can obtain diamonds and sell them at a cheaper price (unless they decide to donate themselves, in which case the greed is usually instilled in them too). Therefore, diamonds are close to monopolised, and in a monopoly, supply is often much, much larger than the price-rate would indicate, but is purposefully kept low in order to sell the items at a higher premium.

Skyblock's other commodities (ie. iron, wood, redstone, so on) can usually be obtained through in-game activities such as the mob-arena, and even a lot of the rare items (music discs in particular) can be acquired through very simple processes that require no interaction with other players. These are therefore controlled entirely by supply and demand, as anyone with enough dedication can acquire them, and if enough people decided to do so, the price would naturally drop.

Understanding this, we can separate the Skyblock currencies (the ones controlled by the server [i.e. grass] and the ones controlled by a limited number of special-access entities [i.e. diamond]) and commodities (the ones purchased through use of currencies or commodities, but ultimately governed by the dedication of everyone on the server), and our server is going to look a whole lot more like the representation of a real-life economy, which is much, much easier to work with; it's a familiar concept.

Understanding the trade.
On Skyblock, ignorance is the hottest commodity there is, and it's remarkably common. A whole lot more common, in fact, than the chat would have you believe. Allow me to provide a real-life example for you: (sorry donors, this may flatline your "god item" sales for a while)

God items are worth nothing. Zip. Zero. Nada. Hear me out: God items are unlimited, and in ways you wouldn't believe if you haven't particularly taken time to get into the economy. They're created by anyone who has donated more than $100 to Skyblock, and there is absolutely no limit to how many they can enchant at any given time. They could pull out your entire double-chest of stone and convert it to god items in a manner of minutes. This overloads the economy like you wouldn't believe, and if just one person went ahead and did this - and effectively managed to sell them afterwards - we'd see the price-rate of god items decline to almost zero in days.

This is where ignorance plays a role. The reason god items are still sold for these incredible rates, is because people don't understand the driving factors behind them. For non-donors they're essentially rates, and thus they don't take the time to reflect on the fact that "hey, if it's on-demand items, and this guy can make unlimited amounts of them, why exactly am I paying a grass block for 5?"

Today I sold two iron ingots for a stack of god bones, a price that - taking the actual value of god bones into consideration - is ridiculously low, but because of the inflation the widespread lack of understanding has caused, I got my money's worth out of the trade. It took me less than 4 hours to flip half the stack (32 god bones) for 20 grass blocks, something that'll even out to 10-15 iron ingots. Thus, I increased my current net worth almost sevenfold in less than four hours, simply because donors know their items aren't worth anything, but non-donors don't, and being the middle-man is the number one financial position to hold on Skyblock. Prices fluctuate ridiculously on Skyblock, so don't be afraid to up the ante on your prices, especially for the items that are in controlled supply (as is the case with god items), but also, don't let yourself be fooled to pay huge premiums on these items.

Earning your first valuable items.
The two easiest ways, I've found, of acquiring a decent amount of valuable items, are both accessible to absolutely everyone, in the fact that they require no form of preparation or equipment beforehand. Both are hugely underrated, something that is terribly, terribly sad.

Number one, and the one I recommend to the more novice players is the MobArena (accessed with the command "/ma j" - look out for spam in the chat.) Not only does it require nothing, as you're provided all the necessary equipment when you enter the arena, but it will reward you with surreal prizes. A game of MA takes about 5-7 minutes, and it is not uncommon to walk out with 10-14 new redstone, an iron ingot, some cookies, some string, and perhaps even a carrot or potato (in case you don't have those at your farm already.)

To put that into perspective, say you play every game of MA during a day. On this particular day, you're a little down on your luck, and only every seventh game rewards you with an iron ingot. You make it to wave 12 in every game, and spend about 6 minutes every time. That means you'll be playing about 7 games an hour (as there're about 2 minutes of countdown between games). That is one iron ingot earned every hour, in addition to all the other items you're rewarded alongside it. In iron ingots alone, 8 hours of playing will have earned you 8 iron ingots, enough to buy you 10-12 grass blocks. Compared to the one grass block a day you earn through voting, this is an eightfold increase for just eight hours of playing. In other words, one hour of active game time will earn you the same amount of grass as 24 hours of waiting, so long as you play it right.

The second method of acquiring a good deal of items requires a bit more tactical thinking, but nevertheless, requires none to little preparation. The warp in question is "/warp mob", which will drop you into a little cobblestone house with iron doors to control the flow of incoming mobs. The house is constantly being raided by creepers and skeletons. Get your "/home" command ready, and head over there either unarmed, or with a simple stone sword and some leather equipment (which can easily be earned with "/warp animal"), and start looting both the mobs - who, for some reason, drop ridiculously huge numbers of items over there - and the players who constantly die in battle. Once you get a piece of valuable loot, say an enchanted item or a few music discs from a player who lost his life in brave combat, hit the home warp, drop the stuff in your chest, rinse and repeat. Before you know it, you'll have a full set of music discs and enough armour to last you through the armageddon. The music set alone will easily go for 25-30 grass blocks, enough to buy you a diamond (or 3 if you're dealing with a realistic donor who doesn't inflate the price arbitrarily).

Estimating values
A big part of climbing the financial ladder on Skyblock is understanding the value of individual items, regardless of the price they're being sold at. A good example is the diamond, a commodity that can sell for 32 or even 64 grass blocks, but in reality is worth no more than 10-12 grass blocks. Why do I claim it has such low value? Because of its appliances. First of all, there's the ever-looming conundrum of the impressive drop in value once it's converted into a tool. A diamond sword will sell for 3-4 grass, a diamond pickaxe for 4-5. Given the inflated price of 64 grass per diamond, and the 3 diamonds required to construct such pickaxe, that means the price drops by a factor of 38,4 once it's converted to a tool. So we can safely assume that we can't use diamonds for anything while still maintaining their value. It's natural that raw items are more expensive than tools in Minecraft, because anyone is able to convert them to their tool of choice, and thus there is more economic freedom with the raw materials, however, iron for example is sold at the price of 1-2 grass a piece, and iron swords/pickaxes go for a flat 1 grass, if not less. This is still a much, much more reasonable decline. Additionally, iron serves many additional needs, such as buckets, mine carts, so on, so on. Since Skyblock is entirely PvE, and one of the two only locations that pit you against mobs provides you all your equipment beforehand, whereas the other one provides loot that is no way worth wasting diamond armour over, it's safe to assume that apart from the typical argument that they're "pretty", the conception that diamonds are extremely valuable seems to be carried over from the fact that they're hard to attain in single-player.

Estimating the prices of other commodities is usually a whole lot easier, because a lot of them are sold through the villager vendors in "/warp grass". The price of the commodity in the player-trade is usually its ratio per grass at the villagers, multiplied by 1.2 or so. As an example, the vendor sells 8 bricks for 1 grass, so naturally you would sell 9-10 bricks for one grass. As there is no way to reverse-trade the villagers, that will be a good deal for you (as you otherwise wouldn't be able to get them off your hands), and it'll feel like a wonderful deal for the buyer.

If the villagers do not sell your items in question, it is safe to assume that they're less common, and usually sell at prices controlled entirely by demand. Keep an eye on the market for others selling the same items, and if all else fails, start an auction and let the price set itself. Auctions are not always bad deals; it was how I earned the stack of god bones I mentioned earlier, one of my better investments to date.

In closing
The economy on Skyblock is incredibly dynamic, and there is no telling that this guide may be valid a month or even a day from now, but as of the date of writing, February 19 (GMT), it is the best advice I can possibly give any newstarter and regular on Skyblock alike, for getting their feet inside the market, and actually start trading with profit. If you have any questions or concerns, or corrections to the post above, I'd be most happy to hear from you.

Thanks for your time, and best of luck on Skyblock!

- Thomas

 

OVAR 9000% better than mine! Nice job.

 

Why, thank you, oh, so much! I'd say they're entirely too different to compare, though!

 

Interesting piece, but completely completely off the mark.

The economy is governed by grass and grass alone, for 3 primary reasons:

1) No one ever will not accept grass for any trade
2) Grass is the only currency used to purchase otherwise not-obtainable items at /warp grass, /warp donor etc. Want a brick house or a ghast tear? /warp grass is the only way to go
3) Grass is not easily buyable from any other source. Even if u had millions of real dollars to throw at skyblock.NET, US$45 will get you 32 diamonds or 90 grass, do the math on which is harder to obtain.

Other points to consider:

1) I have _never_ seen a diamond sword go for 3-4 grass.
2) Diamond pickaxes are much cheaper because they are obtainable in kits. All other diamond tools and items have to be made by using diamonds (except enchanting tables/jukeboxes which you might get from a lucky vote), making their value a few diamonds less than what it cost to make them.
3) Just because a villager doesn't sell an item doesn't mean it's less common. Villagers don't sell wood logs, torches, charcoal etc.

In short, the price of an item is determined by how hard it is to obtain, whether that is by effort or by paying real $$ (Eg. donating).

Advice for new beginners:

So just forget everything you've read in this article, and start small.

1) Obtain a God Diamond Pick, which should be under 10 grass.
2) Mine cobblestone, sell them for 1 grass per 2 stacks
3) Mine smoothstone, sell them for 1 grass per stack
4) Chop wood and sell the logs for 2-3 grass/iron per stack

Pretty soon you'll get better tools, a larger island, some automation happening through the use of redstone, and suddenly, you'll start making more profits.

Above all, don't get impatient or give up.

 

*cough* Make one for .org *cough*

 

I disagree strongly, blaq, and allow me to address your points one by one, please.

Diamond is to be considered a currency because it holds global value. Its value is independent from grass because the two currencies are used to purchase very different items in the player trade, however purchasing items that're usually measured in grass is entirely possible through diamonds, granted you're purchasing in bulk. To give you an example, no later than yesterday, a user was purchasing a double chest of smooth stone with a diamond, whereas smooth stone, as you mentioned yourself, is usually bought by the stack with grass. Thus, the diamond was recognised as a currency and not a commodity, given that the player who sold said double chest explicitly stated that he had no use for the diamond whatsoever, but it would allow him to purchase the stack of iron he'd originally planned to trade his smooth stone for.

Ghast tears may be available only through the vendors, but since bricks are provided through the MobArena, they're just as accessible through the player trade alone. Defining something as a currency rather than a commodity doesn't necessarily require it to be able to acquire items through the governing institution, if it is recognised as currency by the majority-market, which in Skyblock's case is not the villager trades but the player-governed market. It is globally recognised by players and has a very clear and concise value, even if that one is greatly inflated through artificial supply.

Grass may be harder to obtain, but keep in mind that there's also a much larger inflow of it, particularly through voting. One user purchasing 32 diamonds for $45 does not make it any more rare than grass, even if it's expensive, seeing as - granted a 1000 users log in daily - at least 1000 new grass blocks hit the market every single day through voting. Thus it is a much more common commodity than diamonds, mainly because a lot of users are too cheap to invest in diamonds.

Just yesterday I purchased a diamond sword off the market for 3 grass blocks and an iron ingot. It may be at a loss to the salesman, which is exactly the point I was trying to make when I discussed ignorance, but it did sell for the value of 4-5 grass blocks nevertheless.

Pickaxes and swords seem to me as the only two diamond tools that serve any sufficient purpose on Skyblock, given their ability to either increase your damage output "/warp mob", or mining obsidian, which is still a very popular commodity on Skyblock for some undefined reason. The prices of the rest is not relevant if they're not actively being traded on the market. Cars in real life are traded at a price that usually provides some small profit margin on top of the expense of designing and building them. Again there are exceptions such as Ferrari or Porsche, that sell at a much higher premium, despite not being much more expensive to build than a nice Ford, because they're exclusive or considered luxury items. The average price of cars on the market are still, however, not governed by the price of these, because they hold a very limited share of sales on the total market.

I did not say the fact that a villager did not trade the item made it less common, I simply urged the reader to consider the possibility that it might be. There are many cases where it holds untrue, but also an equal amount of situations where it does not. Bones, for example, hold almost zero value on most survival servers, however, because they're hard to get your hands on in Skyblock (read; uncommon as few people use "/warp mob"), their price has been greatly inflated (one stack for one grass).

Therefore, I'd say, correctly, that commodities are governed by their accessibility on the market, either based on how hard they are to get your hands on, or how few people invest time in obtaining them. But diamonds, on the other hand, however you want to look at it, are artificially inflated because they're incredibly limited, and the people who possess them face a challenge in converting their real-life value to the equivalent in-game. But looking at the price of grass compared to diamond (90:32), one diamond should realistically sell for 3 grass.

Please, feel free to disagree, and I'd love to hear your further views on this. Thanks!

Lucario of the North, I'll surely look into it, but I haven't played .org yet, so it'll have to wait until I get an insight in it.

 

I'm not actually sure what points you're disagreeing on

 

Well, first things first, I disagree with your point that the article is "off the mark". With little exception, your pointers in your reply above did not amend any statements I made, but rather pointed out alternative ways to prosper (which is fine, I didn't claim mine was the only one). The specific points I disagreed to was the fact that diamond tools are - indeed - valuable (which I believe they're not), and your claim that grass is the only governing currency. The value of diamond seems very disconnected to the value of grass, as they seem to govern their respective markets independently, thus I don't see how diamond cannot be considered a currency. It is not dependent on the value in grass of every other commodity on the market, thus it must set the value of commodities in its own respective right, thus it is - for better or worse - to be considered a currency, perhaps even a premium currency at that.

 

Artificiality
Diamond tools are very valuable as they need diamonds. Diamonds are very expensive as they are very rare. The rarer an item is, the more expensive it is. For example, beacons are worth 24-30 diamonds for there is a fixed supply, it cannot be bought off from any villager. There will be more players and demand increases. There is limited supply therefore the price keeps on increasing. Few people will buy 32 diamonds and sky gods who get 3 diamonds in their kit are more interested in obtaining rares like fire blockblock

 

Amazing_General, I perfectly understand the fact that the diamond tools hold an arbitrary value based off of their inherent rarity, although they so often sell for less, but you're missing my point. What I'm saying is, they hold absolutely zero value utility-wise. Diamond axes are not worth the expense, as an iron axe does the job perfectly fine, and speed is not really an important factor on Skyblock. The same story goes for shovels (besides, why would you ever get a shovel in Skyblock?) and hoes that - again - hold absolutely no value in a limited survival map with a such inexplicable inflation on diamonds. Thus we are down to pickaxes mining obsidian, and swords to beat mobs in "/warp mob", both going for less than 7 grass in average trades. Therefore, I'm posing the idea that, if we are to calculate the actual value of the individual diamonds, we have to look at the two hottest derivative commodities of diamonds, being swords and pickaxes. Looking at the pickaxe, selling for - let's set the bar high - five grass in an average trade, three diamonds make up a fifteen grass value. Now we're adding a bit for good measure, as we're receiving raw material, and still a diamond should never be worth more than ten grass, which is still a 100% profit margin compared to the price of the pickaxe, not to mention the sword.

 

I have never seen a diamond sword go for 5 grass, just saying.

 

@Steve333333333, nevertheless, three grass and one iron ingot (~5 grass blocks) is what I paid for a diamond sword just last night. As I posted above in the replies (that I am going to go out on a limb and assume you didn't read), it may be wrongful of the salesman to sell them at that price, however ignorance is still the hottest commodity on Skyblock, and the entire point of the "Understanding the trade" subsection was exactly to point out this clear miscommunication between individual traders.

 

Guess you just got lucky, I usually pay around 50-60 grass for 1 diamond. But raw tools are only worth half of what they are made of, 1 diamond sword=1 diamond. That is what I was told, anyway.

 

No offence intended but the longer you play skyblock, the more you will understand the economy. By the way, whoever who sold you that diamond sword is either an idiot or scammed someone that and wanted to not get caught or wanted to celebrate valentine's day. Some people may want to have diamond tools as they need fast tools or wanted to show off their wealth and the tools can be repaired at no cost.

 

Also, diamond picks are VERY cheap as 25+ donors get it in their kit which is every 2 days.

 

Speaking of cheap diamond tools you could take into account only dia picks. They come from donor kits and worth around 8 - 10 grass. All other dia tools require diamonds to craft them.
And of course dia picks nowadays are overpriced. Few months ago they cost only 3 - 5 grass. Is it due to high demand or not I don't know.

 

I have been playing Skyblock.NET a long time, so long that I can't really remember when I first joined (definitely more than a year). I ammended several statements which you made, and I let more which I felt were based on "opinion" rather than fact slide. So I'll go through the points you've made to explain why, in my opinion, you're off the mark

The primary currency of Skyblock.NET is Grass. Period. Not Diamonds, not gold, not iron, for reasons I've stated above. But the point of using currency is for everyone within the system to accept the value, thus, Diamonds/Gold/Iron are also accepted. So long as villager trades only accept grass, and certain items can only be obtained in useful quantities through villager trade, Grass will remain the most useful and most soughtafter.

Proof? Look at how many people are spamming WTB grass in the chat. At any point there's probably at least 2 people looking to buy grass online.

You make the point later on that diamonds have little use, which is basically true, meaning that diamonds are "nice to have, but not mandatory" for all intents and purposes on Skyblock. This has little effect on supply-demand mechanics on the game, since most trades occur using Grass/Iron as currency rather than Diamond.

There are many items that are unlimited, wood and cobble to name a few, however, they all have a value attached.

First off, there's a heck of alot more people who haven't donated $100 to the server than there are. What you are saying will be true only if the rate of production of these items outstripped the rate of loss, which to my knowledge, isn't the case. As quickly as $100+ donors God items, people fall off cliffs, die in /warp mob etc. Many donors do not God items willynilly. I personally _never_ God stacks of items, and I've kept the price constant for ages.

This was a lucky trade, by no means does this mean that this happens very time. As you said, ignorance is common on Skyblock.NET, and everyone who has played long enough will have examples of such trades.

In short, doing /ma j to earn $$ is a waste of time. In that same time you could be chopping trees or mining cobble, or shearing sheep etc, all of which would be more profitable. If it takes you 8 hrs to earn 8 iron ingots, then you're truly stuffed looking to make it big on Skyblock.NET

This method relies on a few things:

1) Skill and low ping (aka not dying)
2) Luck luck luck, to be able to pick up items that others drop without dying yourself (and low ping to pick them up before someone else does)
3) Stupidity of individuals to bring valuable items into /warp mob.

Once again, really unreliable.

This is where the article gets further off the mark, with some statements being blatantly wrong, for a lack of a better word.

I have never seen this happen once in all my time playing Skyblock. Again this belongs to the "I lucked out on someone's ignorance" category rather than "This is the price of the item" category.

Pickaxes are not constructed, they are obtained from kits.

The price of a diamond tool is roughly 1-2 diamonds less than what it costs to make it, with the exception of Pickaxes. Why? Because all tools require diamonds to make, with the exception of Pickaxes, which are obtained through donor kits. Enchanting tables, while obtainable through voting, are so rare that the price is still 0.5 to 1 diamond less than what it costs to make (2 diamonds), while the same applies for Jukeboxes.

Not really, again it relies on knowledge of what is easily obtainable and what is not. Cobble would never sell for 1 grass for 32, why? Because it is easy to produce. Netherrack on the other hand, can only be obtained through /warp grass, so the price will be roughly what it costs to buy from the villager

The villagers do not sell heaps of items that are common. Eg. Bones, Arrows to name a few.

Sorry to sound so harsh, but you asked me specifically.

 

I very much appreciate your input, blaq. No need to apologise for harsh replies.

Again, you and I define a currency by two very different sets of requirements. Whereas you're looking into the share of items that are being bought and sold with one specific item, I consider a currency an item which holds a value independent of the fluctuation of the items it purchases, and instead is based off of the price of other accepted currencies (i.e. grass). Thus, fewer trades are made with diamonds because they're less common, and are held in a much higher regard, even if arbitrarily, yet they hold their own independent value, and are accepted in most every trade, even if they're rarely traded. Anyone with a diamond would be able to purchase any item with it (granted they had enough diamonds to afford it), and the value of the diamond fluctuates, if anything, only through the price of grass and vice-versa. It's a see-saw effect between grass and diamond, where a change in the value of one is going to affect the value of the other, however they still value towards their respective markets independently, thus I would not consider them commodities. It is, nevertheless, at this point just semantics.

Diamonds have very little use, not necessarily very little value. While I would infer that their value is vastly inflated due to a controlled demand from the donors' side, they are being sold at a value so high that most everyone recognises their buying power.

Here, there's a huge difference. Wood and cobblestone are sold at prices that in some way reflect their value. As anyone has access to both cobblestone and wood logs with a little time and dedication, their prices are set at realistic levels that match the knowledge that they're in no means exclusive. God items, on the other hand, seem exclusive because they're limited to a minority percentage of the players, but in reality they are as unlimited as logs and cobblestone, if not even more so. The fact that they hold no actual use in the game (granted we're talking about god-enchanted bones, sticks or other non-wearable items) is what makes their ridiculous inflation (sometimes a grass block for a god-bone, which is a whole lot more than a grass block for 64 cobble) so sad. They hold no more value than logs or cobblestone, with the exception of the pretty glow, and thus they should be sold at a much lower price. Even if people buy them out of vanity, there is no way to excuse a 64-fold increment in the rate to use ratio.

Personally, you don't, but to draw on a point you're making below (which I will address below), your individual experience doesn't necessarily imply that your case is common. Many donors - I've found - will god stacks of items, simply to increase their personal profit margin, even if it is at the expense of the market as a whole. This is one of the things that are causing such a huge divide between green beans and donors.

I perfectly understand the fact that trades can fluctuate highly based on the two individuals participating in said trade, however it is by far not the first time I've been offered a trade as such. Even if the case is that swords sell at a higher premium on regular levels, they should (and likely will not, now that diamond has been adjusted a bit in terms of price) never sell at above 30 grass, which is still a huge decline in price, considering the price of the diamonds individually.

This could not be more incorrect. Using "/ma j" requires very little time in individual playthroughs. My example from the article (which you drew from) even points to the fact that 8 iron in 8 hours is a ridiculously unlucky outcome of playing "/ma j" compulsively. I find I'm usually rewarded an iron ingot or two for every 2-3 games, in which case we're looking at not 8 but 16-24 ingots in 8 hours (which is about 30-40 grass), a much, much higher profit than what can be acquired through a cobblestone generator, especially starting out on the server, and being able to produce only one cobblestone per tick.

You're mistaking reliability for experience in this case. Using "/warp mob" doesn't require much luck in particular, as much as it requires a bit of tactical thinking (as you can easily keep yourself outside of harm's way by standing in the corners, and still be close enough to call first dibs on loot from players dying. As music discs are dropped commonly in "/warp mob", and are sold at a very high price, it doesn't require stupid players to bring individuals to the area, but simply requires them to die before being able to recall home. I can easily pick up 4-5 music discs in a day's worth of farming "/warp mob", without producing a single kill.

With the huge inflation on diamonds, even 1-2 diamonds less than production cost, it is such a stupid decline in value that purchasing diamonds in order to craft them is not just senseless, but idiotic. This further strengthens my point that diamonds are a currency on Skyblock, because they hold zero production value. Their rate is - by that definition - only arbitrary, and influenced by the ranging values of grass, and not by the tools it is used to build.

You're misreading my words. I am not claiming that all items that aren't provided through villagers are uncommon, I'm suggesting that one use caution if obtaining items that villagers do not sell, as they are usually less common (at least to some extent) than the items that the villagers DO sell. Also, the items that are not sold through vendors, are often subject to a higher fluctuation in price, because they are controlled solely by the player trade. Obviously there are exceptions (you named a few above), but there are just as many cases where it holds true.

 

Sorry to make it sound stupid, but I look at it this way: A grass block is about $1.50 if you choose to think of it like dol, and a diamond is worth $100.lars and cents

Also, as long as I'm talking about dollars, like Lucario said, please make one for .ORG :3

 

A diamond will never be valued at $100. First of all, 32 can be purchased with $90, which sets the price at approximately $3 per diamond. Additionally, donors get 1 diamond daily in their kits. Thus, after just one month (assuming they donated $100), their diamonds will have paid themselves off.

I am still looking into writing one for .ORG, but as I have zero experience on the server, and the economy there is slightly more complex, it may take a while to do the appropriate research.