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The Value of Gold & Other Assorted Resources?

I love the Pawn Stars guys. I-I-Is 25 mil even slightly serious?
Cuz that's a trillion times better than finding out it's worth as much as wood or something.
Sure.

I've got:
  • 270 x Handsaws
  • 182 x Hardwood, highly-quality wooden desks
if this is where we're going to ask about prices it would be really nice to know how much an NPC would pay for these, seeing as no PC seems to need it
How about 100 KS per desk and 5 KS per handsaw.
 
I have to lose some more salvage.
  • SSCC-XL containing cocoa beans.
  • Collection of various exotic spices and herbs.
  • Small crate of NAM pharmecuticals.
Is there an acceptable way for me to determine value myself?
 
Cocoa: 40 tons = 88,600 KS
Spices: 500 KS
NAM drugs: 2,000 KS

Eh, I'm not sure there's a common standard. For the cocoa I actually found the real price in dollars.
 
That's usually a good makeshift way of doing it.
 
@Wes given the recent economy discussion, how much are previous metals worth?

Recently you made a purchase with Yamatai buying a metric ton of gold for 2 million KS. How much is platinum, silver, and copper per ton respectively?
 
I think you should also ask yourself: What are their uses? And are they still valid in a post-singularity society? Platinum is useful in fuel cells as a catalyst to improve their efficiency. It is also useful in making optical fibers, and thermocouples beyond its uses in jewelry. Silver is resistant to corrosion and oxidation. It also is a good thermal and electrical conductor. Its photo-sensitivity has given it a place in film photography. But it is also useful in key electronics thanks to its thermal and electrical conductivity. And once again is used in jewelry.

The use of gold goes beyond mere jewelry. It is also beaten into thin sheets as gold leaf to be placed on all manner of things. But beyond its cosmetic appearance it is quite useful elsewhere. It is useful in the protection of electrical copper components because it does not oxidize which could break the contacts. It is also used in computer chips for the production of circuits.

Copper is common, more so than gold, silver and platinum. It is useful as wiring and in motors. It conducts heat and electricity very well making it useful in computer electronics and industrial settings. My first two questions are also answers with everything else as descriptors for the metals. They have their uses in current 21st century devices and the like. But are they still as useful ICly? I believe that is a good driving point to base value off of. These are just some of the basic, but varied uses in our societies today. However their usefulness in SARP may or may not be the same, especially if alternatives can be had and produced cheaper or in greater quantities.
 
Will, granted Yamatai bought 1 ton for two million, that would be 15ks for 30 grams of gold. In our current economy, a gram of gold is about 40 USD. That means that 15ks can buy 1200 USD with of gold.

Yes. These precious metals aren't worth a as much anymore because they are probably pretty abundant. But yes, they are still worth something and they are probably still worth quite a bit. We have the gold standard. 2 mill a ton. Now we need the other standards
 
Yet it may not be the 'Fixed Standard' but instead was a one off transaction. We won't know for certain until Wes says unfortunately.
 
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Yet it may not be the 'Fixed Standard' but instead was a one off transaction. We won't know for certain until Wes says unfortunately.

Well, @Gunsight1 asked Wes what the value of gold was to Yamatai, and Wes told him those numbers cause Ersetu money is literally made of gold. I also asked him in VC to confirm the value of gold before asking him about the other metals, which he then asked me to make this thread so he could answer the other metals when he had time to think about it :p

Though, given gold is useful, I find .50ks a gram to be a little underwhelming compaired to the 40 dollars USD it actually is. IDK where on the Wiki but I remember reading that the KS is the equivalent to the US Dollar, so that is a huge mark down. I suppose another question we could ask is what could be the gold standard?
 
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That would be an interesting point to bring up to Wes and other FMs possibly. Mainly because I am unsure if currency would be gold backed at fixed rates or not use any precious metals at all for it.
 
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Well, I have heard food floating around as one thing. Everyone needs to eat. Every faction needs food. During the mishhu war, even Yamatai had a food shortage. This means even Yamatai needs food. Dollar is based on how much it costs to feed the average person.
 
Yamatai isn't Tokugawa's Japan, using rice allotments as measures of wealth.

Wes will clarify soon, I'm sure.
I wasn't talking Yamatai in specific? I was talking what would be something stable that everyone needs that could be used in the currect society where most things that are really expensive now are no longer super expensive?

It was also a speculation on what COULD be the "Gold" standard of SARP, and given the Yamataian Dollar is what everyone bases their currency off apparently, and it is a Fiat dollar as far as I am being told, backed only by the word of Yamatai, what would be our gold or oil or what have you? Something everyone would feasibly consider valuable.
 
During the mishhu war, even Yamatai had a food shortage. This means even Yamatai needs food. Dollar is based on how much it costs to feed the average person.
I apologize. This only mentioned Yamatai, so I figured that's what you were talking about.

I'm uncertain the KS needs to be backed by anything but Yamatai's central bank. I see why you're opening the topic, though.
 
I think we have some members that were really punching the numbers for this cause, to find the USD equivalent to the KS.

@Wes maybe we can continue or finish this conversation?

I'm of the mind that we might forget Soresu's precaution above when doing that and will look at modern prices of SARP items and say that is what it should be. The value of money does not decide the value of goods in the setting, and I want that reminder here.

It's something I am now cognizant of after working with good and currency here. Even the other day, Wes told me a sports bra from SAoY was 10 KS and, in my head, I thought how inexpensive that was, but I bit my tongue, because I was wrong to think we live in the same society with the same value of goods.
 
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