Economics on Improbable Island

Study notes..

Having collected price information from the comm. station, we can feed it into some handy programs to produce the following results, sometime on the 20th of June, on Improbable Island.¹⁾

ITEM                    (pft) [BUY AT        ]      [SELL AT       ]      {STDF}
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One-Shot Teleporter     (302) [New Pittsburgh] 1366 [Squat Hole    ] 1668 {87  }
Crate Sniffer           (17 ) [Cyber City 404] 191  [Squat Hole    ] 208  {57  }
Small Medkit            (15 ) [Kittania      ] 10   [AceHigh       ] 25   {190 }
Monster Repellent Spray (12 ) [AceHigh       ] 218  [Squat Hole    ] 230  {27  }
Large Medkit            (12 ) [Kittania      ] 64   [Squat Hole    ] 76   {137 }
Ration Pack             (6  ) [Pleasantville ] 57   [Squat Hole    ] 63   {-201}
BANG Grenade            (3  ) [NewHome       ] 117  [Squat Hole    ] 120  {-59 }

Abbreviations:

• pft = profit
• BUY AT, (and price): Where the item is being sold at it's lowest (and said price).
• SELL AT, (and price): Where the item is being bought at it's highest (and said price).
• STDF: Stock differential between two mentioned locations.

We can possibly conclude that while demand and supply have an effect on the respective local prices, it seems that these are not the only factors!

• For example, take the Ration Pack and BANG Grenade: While there were at least 201 more BANG Grenade's in Squat Hole, the prices were still lower in Pleasantville.

My current theories are that the following factors may play a part:

• The Rate of Demand: how quickly an item sells influences the price more strongly than the (absolute local) amount of the item²⁾.
• Charm: given the fact that Squat Hole is essentially a large fetid whorehouse and the fact that Pleasantville is an. . . appalling and squalid ghetto, I have no clue why that would make a difference. Mutants do tend to have a little more Charm than midgets though, don't they?
• The Island playing fast & loose with time & location, and adjusting for inflation.

To be continued.. ³⁾⁴⁾