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TWIRP Special Indexes Report and Analysis (2008/01/14) TWIRP Index Values (2008/01/07)

This is the TWIRP report covering price changes and economic trends for the week of January 7, 2008. Please read on for a summary of TWIRP index results, and be sure to check out the subsections for more index reports, charts and details.

If you are new to TWIRP and have not yet learned about how it works, I recommend reading either the sections Understanding TWIRP and TWIRP Index Details, or the more concise TWIRP Quick Guide. Without that background you may have a hard time understanding this report.

NOTE: This is the very first TWIRP report, so I only have two sets of data collected so far: my baseline from December 31, 2007, and my current data for January 7, 2008. With only two data points the index charts are, shall we say, less than tremendously useful. J I've included them anyway, just so you can see what they look like; as time goes on and the data fills in, they will become increasingly helpful in illustrating price trends.

Global Composite Yield (TWIRP): 99.2 -0.8% q
Skill Composite Yield (TWIRP-S): 97.4 -2.6% q
Combat Composite Yield (TWIRP-C): 100.1 +0.1% p
Key Items Affordability (TWIRP-X-KEY): 99.2 -1.8% q

Advances: 115 (38.0%)
Declines: 148 (48.8%)
Unchanged: 40 (13.2%)

Item “Winner” of the Week: Eye of newt: +35.6% pppp
Item “Loser” of the Week: Blue partyhat: -28.1% qqqq

Index “Winner” of the Week: Herb Drop Value: +15.5% ppp
Index “Loser” of the Week: Herb Seed Drop Value: -21.4% qqq

Crude Volatility Index (TWIRP-X-VOL): 519

(Since this is my first report, and it is based on a limited amount of data, I will keep my comments brief. It will take some time and additional data for me to be able to better analyze the indexes and make more useful observations.)

The most important issue of this past week related to item pricing and the RuneScape economy would certainly be the serious problems in the market caused by Jagex's recent changes anti-RWT changes. The Grand Exchange has still not been improved, while the ability to trade without using the GE was almost completely removed by the “unbalanced trade” update on January 2, 2008. The two most notable results of this combination have been items that are not trading at all due to incorrect prices and price restrictions, and other items that are swinging wildly in price due to low trade volumes. Jagex has promised that it will make corrections to deal with some of these issues, so all we can do at this point is wait and see.

The total crash of prices experienced in December seems to be over, but the market as a whole continued to slump this week, led by a drop in skilling profitability of about 2.6%. The hardest hit skill by far was Runecrafting, due to the sharp rise in pure essence prices, though that key raw material is now going down in price as quickly as it went up. Combat was rather neutral, with slight cost rises offset by similar rises in drop values. Minigame indexes were little changed with the exception of the Mage Training Arena, the profitability of which plunged over 10%. Rares continue their downward spiral.

In the meantime, most of RS is abuzz with hype and anticipation over the release of Summoning, which now seems certain to be early in the week of January 14. I can only hope that the GE is fixed at the same time, or there's going to be some really frustrated people out there.

For more indexes, reports and analysis, be sure to read the subsections below. Otherwise, see you next week.

TWIRP Special Indexes Report and Analysis (2008/01/14) TWIRP Index Values (2008/01/07)