I realize this is incredibly old, but I believe what you're witnessing is the natural difference in demand. Because it's so expensive to expand lairs after a point, dragon demand tapers off quickly over time, while dragon production remains nearly exponential. That's why dragons are so cheap -- with the exception of when a rare combination is desirable (such as dragons with genes that have just been released, or dragons with a desirable and unusual color combination) it's a challenge to find a buyer who doesn't simply want to exalt that dragon.
However, there is no limit to item hoarding, which is why items generally hoarded as assets are where inflation can be witnessed. Booleans were 10k gems around July 2013. They're now around 350k gems. Treasure-side that makes then even more, as the stated money exchange ratio (which is somewhat higher than the true buying power of gems) was about 1:90 then and about 1:340 now.
It's true that swapped goods often tend to be more expensive than the thing they're swapped for -- I believe this is due to opportunity cost: someone with most of the items on hand needs just a few to catch the Swipp's Swap before it goes away, so they shell out. You also see this during festivals: holiday currency sells for more than any given holiday item after conversion! I believe this last phenomenon is at least partly owing to people not *checking* the auction house for those holiday items. Alternatively, it is because those people find cheaper sources to buy holiday currency from (as you can witness in the Item Sales section of the forum).
However, there is no limit to item hoarding, which is why items generally hoarded as assets are where inflation can be witnessed. Booleans were 10k gems around July 2013. They're now around 350k gems. Treasure-side that makes then even more, as the stated money exchange ratio (which is somewhat higher than the true buying power of gems) was about 1:90 then and about 1:340 now.
It's true that swapped goods often tend to be more expensive than the thing they're swapped for -- I believe this is due to opportunity cost: someone with most of the items on hand needs just a few to catch the Swipp's Swap before it goes away, so they shell out. You also see this during festivals: holiday currency sells for more than any given holiday item after conversion! I believe this last phenomenon is at least partly owing to people not *checking* the auction house for those holiday items. Alternatively, it is because those people find cheaper sources to buy holiday currency from (as you can witness in the Item Sales section of the forum).
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