sugarvalves [1963573] —
Original article
Five-fold nerve boost applied to all beer items from noon 5th to noon 7th. Manipulated beer prices close to $4k. Read our interview with the Beer Baron to find out who he is, and how he did it.
Torn's International Beer Day event begins at noon TCT on Thursday the 5th of August, with this 48-hour booze-booster running until the same time on Saturday the 7th.
During the Beer Day event, all beer provides five times as much nerve as usual, with this buff limited to the individual Bottle of Beer item and the Glasses of Beer produced by the Keg of Beer item. No other alcohol is affected by International Beer Day, because Tequila isn't beer, Minty Mayhem isn't beer, and Green Stout isn't... okay that one is a beer, but we haven't included it for this event. Don't ask me why.
What's Your Poison?
Many players prefer to make use of Beer Day by consuming the many Glasses of Beer they have collected during the previous year's Christmas Town event. Glasses of Beer provide two nerve on a typical day but are boosted to ten during IBD. With faction and company specials you can boost this as high as 22 to 23 nerve per glass. Neato!
If you don't have any Glasses of Beer available, then you'll obviously be using the 1 nerve Bottles of Beer you likely have stocked up in your inventory. For those who are short of suds, a trip to the Item Market will be in order. But if you've not been paying attention over the past few months, Beer buyers will be in for a hell of a surprise when they get there.
Pictured: The actual f**k?
Beer traditionally rises in price just before International Beer Day, but this year that simply wasn't possible, as item market manipulation means that bottles of beer are already overpriced. Traditionally valued at just under $1,000, beer rose above that threshold in mid-2020 and rose slowly to $2,000 throughout spring 2021. Then, without warning, the price of beer doubled within a matter of days, and now you'll be lucky to get a bottle for under $4,000.
For that, you can blame the Beer Baron.
Hold My Beer
In one of our previous market reports, we outed TheMacNamedDre as the secretive mastermind behind this rise in beer prices. We were told by numerous sources that he had been collecting beers and artificially increasing their value over a long period of time. Our investigations into TheMac's Bazaar proved that he had over 2 million beers in stock as of early June.
The accepted explanation for his behavior was that TheMac planned to corner enough of the market so that he could sell his overpriced beers in the run-up to International Beer Day. However, those close to the Beer Baron say he was doing it just to prove that he could. And in an exclusive interview with the Torn City Times, TheMacNamedDre confirms that this was the true reason.
"The reports you got about me collecting just to prove the price can be changed by the players is exactly why I did it. I was sort of frustrated that the majority of players all were taught it wasn’t possible when in my mind it definitely was. This collection started when prices were roughly $1500-$1600 each. So right around 3 or 4 months ago maybe? My original goal was to see if I can get it up to $2k. I believe the highest amount I’ve ever had was roughly 2.8m bottles."
No Small Beer
Today, TheMac has a paltry 50,000 bottles of beer in his bazaar, but while he has sold quite a few at their heightened prices, most of his collection remains in his Display Cabinet. TheMac believes that he was mostly if not solely responsible for the price of beer rising to $2,000, and then $4,000, but he admits that there are others out there who are playing with the price of beer too.
"This was a lot of work tbh and without the help of a handful of ppl it might not have even been possible. I won’t reveal any names of those involved though. I consider them good friends to have in this game and unless they want to out themselves in the forums or something then I would confirm. There is also a lot of ppl who just took notice of what was happening and they started unknowingly helping as well. There are also other big collectors who have just as many beers as I do."
TheMac points out that beer was already rising when he began fixing its price, and that even though its item market value may be artificial now, he feels it would've reached $4,000 eventually. The Beer Baron kept quiet about his scheme initially to make it easier to buy up beers, but now that he has over two million bottles in stock, it seems he is willing to bring his scheme to the public's attention. So why is that?
Last Few Sips
As we said at the top of the article, it was assumed that the Beer Baron would simply sell all of his beers around this time to make himself some money. However, our investigations show that he hasn't sold that many compared to his stock, so where is this all leading? What is the Beer Baron's endgame?
"That's a good question. I highly doubt everything would sell by that time [Beer Day] but you never know. I’ve already sold quite a few bottles at this higher price and really my goal was to just raise the prices. Tbh with what has happened I don’t believe beer prices will ever go back to what ppl remember them and that’s if I’m messing with it or not. There are a lot of ppl who buy beer as a money-making hobby."
It is true that many players resell shop-bought beers to make a little cash, but TheMacNamedDre has taken this a huge step further by hoovering up more than 3% of all of the beer available in Torn City. And that's not all. You may have noticed that the price of certain other alcohol items has gone up too. Guess who was behind that?
"This is the part that I never really cared to make public because I was the one who raised those prices as well but they have all sold since then and didn’t want to piss off too many ppl lol. You should have a reporter who remembers noticing my big stockpiles of kandy kanes and minty mayhems especially."
"If you look at the price graph for almost every alcohol type on the 6-month graph you will see they all seem to have gone up in price right around the same time as beer. Definitely not on the same scale as beer but you will see."
Pictured: Tequila six-month price graph.
Pictured: Minty Mayhem six-month price graph.
Pictured: Stinky Swamp Punch six-month price graph.
Another Round?
The upwards trend for some alcohols is more pronounced than others, but there is a clear change in the value of most booze items from May onwards. TheMacNamedDre appears to have somehow manipulated almost the entire alcohol market over the past few months, although he claims he's limited his work to one item of late.
"I actually am only really messing with beer lately. All the others sold and sometimes I’ll buy a few of them here and there when I see a really low price compared to what mine sold at. Some of those bottles went even higher too :/ probably should have held onto them. "
TheMac told the Times that his interview with our paper came about because he wanted to set the record straight on a couple of things. Now that he's done that, we decided to ask him about the future of trading in Torn City. Because if one player with a relatively low networth like TheMacNamedDre can change the price of beer in just a few months, what could others with deeper pockets achieve?
"Personally I believe any item in theory could be manipulated but I would say the items that are limited on how many are added to circulation every day would be the best ones to look at. Especially consumable items with a limit like beer because in my mind I always figured as the player base grows the demand for them will become greater unless that amount thrown out from bobs grows or they add another way to get mass amounts of them."
"I haven’t really looked into it much but I always felt like empty blood bags could possibly be susceptible to something like this happening. FHCs and xanax and stuff like that could always be susceptible too but it would take a massive bankroll to make something like that happen or a coordinated effort by multiple ppl with really good NW."
Shot, Chaser
Item manipulation is an interesting trend in Torn City. This practice is neither illegal nor frowned upon and is pretty much an expected occurrence by most players. However, I suspect this lax attitude towards manipulation would change quickly if more important items were being affected, as few would tolerate an artificial rise in the likes of Xanax, especially if its price grew as quickly as Beer did.
If TheMac is right and most items could be manipulated, it stands to reason that many of them already are. TheMac says that he doesn't want to come across as an expert on this because whichever item you choose to play with has an element of risk, but he feels that every item is indeed manipulated to an extent, but the will of the consumer tends to shift their prices back towards normality over time.
"The prices are what the players want them to be really. The only reason I ever see ppl start undercutting really bad is because of panic selling over something they heard or some just doing it because they would rather the quick sale... You never know how many ppl have and when they could throw them up for sale and just take advantage of the new price you created and unless you have a way to buy them out the undercutting just starts from there unless someone else starts helping you. Lot of stuff that can go wrong really."
Despite these risks, many players seem to enjoy the thrill of playing with the item market, knowing full well that their efforts will affect thousands of individual players. An inactive trader called El_Generale reportedly has over 5 million bottles of beer languishing in their unused bazaar. Another trader called Cony_Cage has 10,000 in their display and 20,000 for sale at $4,120 a pop. And dohop0 claims to have started beer manipulation back in 2019, and believes it is he who is the true Torn City Beer Baron, not TheMacNamedDre.
There are many who claim to be the real Beer Baron, and without delving into their inventories and trading histories, it may be hard to know who has had the most influence on the market. It could be one, none, or all of these traders. For all we know, the real Beer Baron could be someone else entirely, someone who prefers to keep quiet, as they continue to price gouge our pints in secret.
tl;dr: Beer items provide 5x nerve from 12:00 TCT 5th-7th.
During the Beer Day event, all beer provides five times as much nerve as usual, with this buff limited to the individual Bottle of Beer item and the Glasses of Beer produced by the Keg of Beer item. No other alcohol is affected by International Beer Day, because Tequila isn't beer, Minty Mayhem isn't beer, and Green Stout isn't... okay that one is a beer, but we haven't included it for this event. Don't ask me why.
What's Your Poison?
Many players prefer to make use of Beer Day by consuming the many Glasses of Beer they have collected during the previous year's Christmas Town event. Glasses of Beer provide two nerve on a typical day but are boosted to ten during IBD. With faction and company specials you can boost this as high as 22 to 23 nerve per glass. Neato!
If you don't have any Glasses of Beer available, then you'll obviously be using the 1 nerve Bottles of Beer you likely have stocked up in your inventory. For those who are short of suds, a trip to the Item Market will be in order. But if you've not been paying attention over the past few months, Beer buyers will be in for a hell of a surprise when they get there.
Pictured: The actual f**k?
Beer traditionally rises in price just before International Beer Day, but this year that simply wasn't possible, as item market manipulation means that bottles of beer are already overpriced. Traditionally valued at just under $1,000, beer rose above that threshold in mid-2020 and rose slowly to $2,000 throughout spring 2021. Then, without warning, the price of beer doubled within a matter of days, and now you'll be lucky to get a bottle for under $4,000.
For that, you can blame the Beer Baron.
Hold My Beer
In one of our previous market reports, we outed TheMacNamedDre as the secretive mastermind behind this rise in beer prices. We were told by numerous sources that he had been collecting beers and artificially increasing their value over a long period of time. Our investigations into TheMac's Bazaar proved that he had over 2 million beers in stock as of early June.
The accepted explanation for his behavior was that TheMac planned to corner enough of the market so that he could sell his overpriced beers in the run-up to International Beer Day. However, those close to the Beer Baron say he was doing it just to prove that he could. And in an exclusive interview with the Torn City Times, TheMacNamedDre confirms that this was the true reason.
"The reports you got about me collecting just to prove the price can be changed by the players is exactly why I did it. I was sort of frustrated that the majority of players all were taught it wasn’t possible when in my mind it definitely was. This collection started when prices were roughly $1500-$1600 each. So right around 3 or 4 months ago maybe? My original goal was to see if I can get it up to $2k. I believe the highest amount I’ve ever had was roughly 2.8m bottles."
No Small Beer
Today, TheMac has a paltry 50,000 bottles of beer in his bazaar, but while he has sold quite a few at their heightened prices, most of his collection remains in his Display Cabinet. TheMac believes that he was mostly if not solely responsible for the price of beer rising to $2,000, and then $4,000, but he admits that there are others out there who are playing with the price of beer too.
"This was a lot of work tbh and without the help of a handful of ppl it might not have even been possible. I won’t reveal any names of those involved though. I consider them good friends to have in this game and unless they want to out themselves in the forums or something then I would confirm. There is also a lot of ppl who just took notice of what was happening and they started unknowingly helping as well. There are also other big collectors who have just as many beers as I do."
TheMac points out that beer was already rising when he began fixing its price, and that even though its item market value may be artificial now, he feels it would've reached $4,000 eventually. The Beer Baron kept quiet about his scheme initially to make it easier to buy up beers, but now that he has over two million bottles in stock, it seems he is willing to bring his scheme to the public's attention. So why is that?
Last Few Sips
As we said at the top of the article, it was assumed that the Beer Baron would simply sell all of his beers around this time to make himself some money. However, our investigations show that he hasn't sold that many compared to his stock, so where is this all leading? What is the Beer Baron's endgame?
"That's a good question. I highly doubt everything would sell by that time [Beer Day] but you never know. I’ve already sold quite a few bottles at this higher price and really my goal was to just raise the prices. Tbh with what has happened I don’t believe beer prices will ever go back to what ppl remember them and that’s if I’m messing with it or not. There are a lot of ppl who buy beer as a money-making hobby."
It is true that many players resell shop-bought beers to make a little cash, but TheMacNamedDre has taken this a huge step further by hoovering up more than 3% of all of the beer available in Torn City. And that's not all. You may have noticed that the price of certain other alcohol items has gone up too. Guess who was behind that?
"This is the part that I never really cared to make public because I was the one who raised those prices as well but they have all sold since then and didn’t want to piss off too many ppl lol. You should have a reporter who remembers noticing my big stockpiles of kandy kanes and minty mayhems especially."
"If you look at the price graph for almost every alcohol type on the 6-month graph you will see they all seem to have gone up in price right around the same time as beer. Definitely not on the same scale as beer but you will see."
Pictured: Tequila six-month price graph.
Pictured: Minty Mayhem six-month price graph.
Pictured: Stinky Swamp Punch six-month price graph.
Another Round?
The upwards trend for some alcohols is more pronounced than others, but there is a clear change in the value of most booze items from May onwards. TheMacNamedDre appears to have somehow manipulated almost the entire alcohol market over the past few months, although he claims he's limited his work to one item of late.
"I actually am only really messing with beer lately. All the others sold and sometimes I’ll buy a few of them here and there when I see a really low price compared to what mine sold at. Some of those bottles went even higher too :/ probably should have held onto them. "
TheMac told the Times that his interview with our paper came about because he wanted to set the record straight on a couple of things. Now that he's done that, we decided to ask him about the future of trading in Torn City. Because if one player with a relatively low networth like TheMacNamedDre can change the price of beer in just a few months, what could others with deeper pockets achieve?
"Personally I believe any item in theory could be manipulated but I would say the items that are limited on how many are added to circulation every day would be the best ones to look at. Especially consumable items with a limit like beer because in my mind I always figured as the player base grows the demand for them will become greater unless that amount thrown out from bobs grows or they add another way to get mass amounts of them."
"I haven’t really looked into it much but I always felt like empty blood bags could possibly be susceptible to something like this happening. FHCs and xanax and stuff like that could always be susceptible too but it would take a massive bankroll to make something like that happen or a coordinated effort by multiple ppl with really good NW."
Shot, Chaser
Item manipulation is an interesting trend in Torn City. This practice is neither illegal nor frowned upon and is pretty much an expected occurrence by most players. However, I suspect this lax attitude towards manipulation would change quickly if more important items were being affected, as few would tolerate an artificial rise in the likes of Xanax, especially if its price grew as quickly as Beer did.
If TheMac is right and most items could be manipulated, it stands to reason that many of them already are. TheMac says that he doesn't want to come across as an expert on this because whichever item you choose to play with has an element of risk, but he feels that every item is indeed manipulated to an extent, but the will of the consumer tends to shift their prices back towards normality over time.
"The prices are what the players want them to be really. The only reason I ever see ppl start undercutting really bad is because of panic selling over something they heard or some just doing it because they would rather the quick sale... You never know how many ppl have and when they could throw them up for sale and just take advantage of the new price you created and unless you have a way to buy them out the undercutting just starts from there unless someone else starts helping you. Lot of stuff that can go wrong really."
Despite these risks, many players seem to enjoy the thrill of playing with the item market, knowing full well that their efforts will affect thousands of individual players. An inactive trader called El_Generale reportedly has over 5 million bottles of beer languishing in their unused bazaar. Another trader called Cony_Cage has 10,000 in their display and 20,000 for sale at $4,120 a pop. And dohop0 claims to have started beer manipulation back in 2019, and believes it is he who is the true Torn City Beer Baron, not TheMacNamedDre.
There are many who claim to be the real Beer Baron, and without delving into their inventories and trading histories, it may be hard to know who has had the most influence on the market. It could be one, none, or all of these traders. For all we know, the real Beer Baron could be someone else entirely, someone who prefers to keep quiet, as they continue to price gouge our pints in secret.
tl;dr: Beer items provide 5x nerve from 12:00 TCT 5th-7th.
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