Will TBT (forum currency) lose its value once AC Switch comes out?

[UglyMonsterFace]

I was not a member of this forum during New Leaf's prime so I don't know how the economy here worked back then. I imagine that most people would have been trading using IGB rather than TBT in those days. Nowadays, lots more people are charging/paying with TBT. I wonder if this will change when the new game arrives? Is there a forum veteran that can give insight as to how everything worked when New Leaf was brand new? I'm just curious.

 

[Koi Karp]

I am equally curious as I am sure many others are. For ACNL, at the beginning, IGB and items held really high value in comparison to today. When people started to develop money making methods for the game / manipulate the game, these obviously began to drop in value. Although its devoid of meaning, TBT and IGB use to have a feeling of equal importance and it was entirely possible as a new member to come to the forum and buy goods and services with either TBT or IGB. Now IGB has became virtually useless as there is barely a market for it in relation to the currency of TBT (most TBT currency activity is just people on the forum moving collectibles around). It was also possible on other forums away from TBT to buy things with IGB, which further proves IGBs were frequently used to exchange things.

All just recollections!

- - - Post Merge - - -

If it follows ACNL, as many more people will be on the forum and also posting, much more TBT will be flowing around and say 20, 50 or 100 TBT for an item or 200 - 500 TBT for a villager would see TBT being more throwaway. I am unsure of how that will effect collectible prices... I assume they would go up in price if there is more currency in the entire 'economy'. The number of collectibles won't change but the demand for them would surely increase if there are more users and more money flowing around so you could probably expect rises after AC Switch launch / lead up.

 

[LambdaDelta]

there will likely be a spike of people more interested in regular bells for at least a few months, but I'd also expect tbt to see a good boost as well. with the likely surge of returning members with tbt that may want to buy up collectibles they missed out on or whatever

 

[Justin]

It will mostly depend on whether duplication or hacking is possible in the new game, and if so, how long until it is and how easy it is to do it. (it's almost a certainty really, just a matter of whether we're talking at launch or if it takes a few weeks/months/years)

TBT also has value in terms of how easy it is trade compared to large sums of IGB, unless an easier method is introduced in the new game.

Although to be honest it's still kind of nuts to me that our fake forum currency holds any value in-game. Before New Leaf, that was never the case and we used to have new users join getting laughed at when they would ask if they could use their TBT bells in-game...

 

[ali.di.magix]

I think it also depends on how hard some items are to obtain. When I first came here, rarer items used to sell for 50 tbt per piece as they we hard to get and the demand for them was fairly high. High demand and low amounts of items really pushed the value for the items in tbt. I'd say there'd also be a high demand for IGB, so I think the people who earn IGB like crazy (depending what the mechanisms are like e.g. turnip market?) would use that to their advantage to sell IGB for TBT.

I think it will also take a bit of time for the tbt prices for items to sort themselves out too. Right now, activity in New Leaf is really low, so the demand is low and the prices are super cheap. I'd expect that to skyrocket for a short period of time while those people who progress really fast (or hack maybe) will start selling their stock. Until certain items become more common, the prices will average itself out, but I think it will be interesting to see what prices in TBT that they sell for. Or IGB for that matter.

I think TBT will still hold its value, or increase in value, because even though the game market would increase I think the TBT marketplace would increase in activity too. Older members may resurface and want to sell/buy collectibles, and newer members will be contributing to the market too.

 

[RedTropicalPeachyFish]

I think it will also take a bit of time for the tbt prices for items to sort themselves out too.

^ Agreed.

My thought is like what Justin said. It'll depend on how fast the method of hack/cheat spreads to be common. And I'm assuming it'll go all the same as how it was in NL, as Switch is easier to hack the system compared to the 3DS, which actually had something to do with the change of low in Japan earlier of this year regarding infringement to the creative work.

Speaking of which, about the value of forum currency or TBT market economy/demand on collectibles, I've been wondering how many people are aware of it that when in-game items/money has quite low value, economy of tbt currency wouldn't be active much, at least among new members. For example, say, like in current NL market, you only get 1-3 forum bells for selling an in-game item or service, then it'd be hard for you to earn enough forum bells to buy off valuable/popular collectibles. The only active members in that section will most likely to be the same group of people, those who only actively buy/sell collectibles and can gain big profit by that. When it's the only way to earn good amount of forum bells in short length of time, it naturally results in fewer members in the tbt market, which wouldn't help the market to be active. And that is how it is now.
If the hack/cheat in Switch game gets common, it'll just go the same as it is now. That's what I assume. Though, like how it was when amiibo update was released, there's a good chance that people will pay good amount of tbt bells for new item at launch. I remember some members were selling a New Nintendo 3DS or Wii U console item in NL for like 100 tbt, and yet there were not very few players who were willing to pay it.

 

[MasterM64]

I definitely agree with a lot of the things that have been said so far! I definitely think TBT is more valuable at the moment because IGB in New Leaf is heavily inflated due to many years of activity around the AC community as a whole. Additionally, New Leaf is not as popular as it used to be so a lot of us who are still on TBT, but don't play in-game as much value TBT more. Once the new game comes out, IGB is going to be relatively scarce worldwide in the AC community so the exchange rate of IGB to TBT will be closer to equilibrium compared to now. I guess we will just have to see what the future holds, but I bet it is going to be quite exciting indeed!

 

[radical6]

TBT should have never became a currency in the first place and is arbitrary

 

[MasterM64]

Although to be honest it's still kind of nuts to me that our fake forum currency holds any value in-game. Before New Leaf, that was never the case and we used to have new users join getting laughed at when they would ask if they could use their TBT bells in-game...

I didn't think about this until I re-read your post Justin, but I think the reason why TBT holds any value in-game is the fact is that is simply valued by people who don't care for IGB as much and I also think the collectible market and being able to buy add-ons is another huge reason. Additionally, I think TBT is valued more than IGB because it is more stable compared to IGB since it doesn't inflate as quickly (& TBT also deflates as well). Just some thoughts as to why TBT is worth more than IGB...