Pod Pilot Takes Serious Look at ISKless Trading | EVE Online

Pod Pilot Takes Serious Look at ISKless Trading

2008-05-14 - By Svarthol

Every day, billions of isk trades hands as commerce grinds away. One pod pilot feels that the isk value of goods is an artificial value; that value is something that only the owner can give to the item.

Tradesalotski explains: “I believe that we place too much emphasis on the value of money, and people perspectives need to change. We forget the real value of an item is what we give it. I think one of the biggest problems in New Eden is the emphasis placed upon isk. The pursuit of isk often means that you lose sight of what is important …having a laugh, and deciding what is important.”

To illustrate how value is in the eye of the beholder Tradesalotski points to is first trade; “My first trade was my exotic dancer for an Iteron Mark III. The person who I traded with had a -9.9 security rating, so for him having a ship in empire space was useless.” At current isk prices, this trade was far from even at a 50x value in Tradesalotski’s favor.

His most unusual trade was for a tomb in Azia Burgi’s cemetery; “I traded my Mackinaw with Azia Burgi for a place in her graveyard. The tomb would be unique and personalised unlike any others that were there already.” The tomb was eventaully traded for a fitted and rigged Firetail.

Tradesalotski adds: “In an ideal world I would like to trade in commodities which are not available on the market. For example…whilst the grave had no isk value the uniqueness and the experience meant that it did have value for someone. I would love to see some more trades like this taking place.”

Although Tradesalotski may like to see more bartering type trades in New Eden, Selene D’Celeste, a board member of EBANK had this to say:

“A barter system, based on good-to-good transactions, works on the micro-level where two individuals just happen to be able to benefit each other though an item-based trade. Such a system doesn't scale up well in New Eden. Since we place value on goods individually, there is no guarantee that when I want Item X from Person Y that they will desire something I own that could be traded for Item X. This is why money is important. By having an object that represents neutral wealth (ISK), and having somewhat stable ranges of value associated with physical items, we have a much more flexible system that allows more goods to flow and more ability to leverage the value of goods, which is good for all involved. The more trade, the more profits and opportunities for profit. Bartering is a useful option often forgotten, but it's certainly not a replacement for currency.”