RuneScape rare “party hats” worth as much as $2600 USD on the open market
Alternatively, RuneScape rare items withstand inflation better than a lot of other things
Did you play RuneScape back in 2001? How about 2004? The medieval RPG game was one of the first internet-based multiplayer online games which quickly gained a worldwide following among teens growing alongside the internet. An extremely appealing factor of the game was that virtually anyone can play it. The graphics were a little primitive compared to the PlayStation, sure, but it was online; which meant anyone can play it with only a computer and an internet connection. And this was when people were upgrading from dial-up to DSL en masse.
Another appealing feature of the game was that it wasn’t really professional at the time. The community was small, and everyone kinda knew (of) each other. Over the years, many glitches have been allowed into the live environment, resulting in players becoming exorbitantly wealthy and taking advantage of each other. The original developers sold their ownership in the game in 2010, and the game has been growing and changing ever since.
Naturally, as with all other economies, there has always existed a black market for in-game currency. Likewise as with most economies, inflation lol. In 2004, you could buy a million in-game coins from questionable retailers for about $15–20 USD. By 2010, this had fallen to about $5–7 per million. In contrast, today’s world of even the most impoverished areas having internet access allows playing to sell in-game gold to be a career. Accordingly, you can buy a million in-game coins today for about $0.12. (Bonus question, how much of all this is USD inflation?) But as with real-world inflation, the game also featured a few Stores of Value which have absolutely ballooned in price. One of the things the early developers freaking nailed was releasing unique items you can trade with one another obtainable only for a limited time based on when the player started playing. This mechanic inherently allows earlier cohorts of players to collect items unobtainable in the future and gives those players a sort of “prestige” and “pride” which, frankly, worked to convince them to continue playing.
Without question, the most popular item people associate with RuneScape is the paper “party hat” (which is about as unimaginably mundane an item that ever could be) released as party of an event for Christmas 2001. Players lucky enough to have obtained one of these items and hang onto them all of these years — seriously that’s 18 years — could log in and find that they are worth 13–29 billion in-game coins. On the open market, with today’s bid-ask of $0.10-$0.12 per million coins, that’s $1300–$2900. In contrast, investing in the S&P 500 since December 2001 would have returned about 220%.
You find inflation hedges in the most unexpected places, eh?
*** disclaimer: trading of in-game currency for real-world currency may be against RuneScape rules, or possibly, local laws. all information contained herein is hypothetical and used only to demonstrate how these unexpected items have withstood inflation. ***
