Tradelands Economic Update – March 2, 2025

The market added $1,31 Billion in February which means the market outperformed expectations by +9.2%. This is owed primarily to the release of a new ship variant that included a blunderblaster and figurehead which were highly sought after on the market. Moreover, the lack of any crate releases gave existing weapons in a modest boost in activity, allowing for a slight increase which impacted the market’s performance overall. The continued tradition of releasing exclusive materials in February that are only available at this time of the year allowed for a market correction that demonstrated a healthy outlook on the investment of materials in the game as well.

Blunderblaster Effect

The release of Heartwood Blunderblasters as a bonus item to purchasing the monthly ship variant has caused a downward shift in pricing on the index. This change is likely to be permanent, in the short to mid term anyway, as this increased the volume of blunderblasters on the market and created an uptick in buyer demand.

Looking atht eh Accessibility report, you can see the existing sellers who owned the original generation blunderblaster have essentially remained unchanged, with buyer demand being wholly focused on the new Angelic Heartsteel Blunderblaster. At the end of Fubruary, we saw the demand for these starting to weaken, but it is still a long way away from it’s starting point prior to the update. This trend will likely not correct itself until the end of the year, meaning the $400k loss of value on this index could remain for a while unless sellers adjust it’s value once it is no longer on sale.

Bubba’s Trend

February saw the release of yet another shotgun style weapon, continuing to introduce more of this weapon type to the market. As a result, we saw Bubbas Bad Breath, the version released in December, continue to trend under market value despite gaining +27.24% in overall value. However, this trend is misleading because buyer interest has effectively hit 0% with the release of the new blunderblaster, meaning the prices are too high to earn interest from the market.

Despite these trends, sellers are still listing them as a top inventory item, meaning they are marketing them actively in their shops in the game. This means they still view it as one of the top items of interest, although it has already taken a backseat to the Scattergun which is the dominant shotgun on the market at present.

Gramophone Boosts

We are seeing a slight increase in the index price for Gramophones. It is nowhere near it’s height of $1M that was held prior to the Peppermint release. However, the aging of those older generation of gramophones finally seems to be hitting the market. This month we saw an increase of +13.16% and the overall index went over $300k for the first time in a year and a half.

If create releases see additional gramophones released, this index will see some movement. However, even if it is done with limited availability, the impact of the “Peppermint Effect” as 70% of the total market is dominated by this one type. Until this is brought down to around 50%, or at a minimum 66%, the dominant force for market pricing will be held by this type of gramophone. Since these are furniture items, meaning they lose no durability and therefore cannot be deleted through usage, they are likely to dominate the market for some time yet to come.

Heart Correction

Finally, it’s February. That means the re-release of Heartwood and Heartsteel. These two materials are released consistently every February, and has a notable impact on the market overall. In short, it acts as a corrective force because of its prominence in the market as a sellable material with higher than average demand.

These will increase over time until they reach a high point in December. The trends after the sale are already reflecting this. Finally, when the material goes back on sale, we see it re-set to its true price, which is largely based on the price to purchase it with Premium Tokens whenever the sale starts. Then, once off sale, it becomes increasingly rare and will increase in price once more. The fall typically results in a loss of around half of it’s total value, which is what we saw in February this year as well.