One of the most important things to understand about Entropia Universe (EU) is its economy; since most newcomers in the beginning have problems understanding prices, here is a quick guide.
Each item in EU has a "tt value". TT stands for Trade Terminal, where you can buy / sell things directly from / to MindArk.
The tt value is what you can always get back by selling items to the TT.It also determines how long limited items (those with a (L) in their name) will last before breaking for good.
Unlimited items can be fixed at a repair terminal by a selectable percentage.
This just transfers money from your PED Card to the item; if you would sell the item to the TT later, you would get the money back with no loss.
Most items you should
not sell to the tt though, since they are worth more than just their tt value, and this is where it might get confusing.
Items that are not account bound will have a "Market Value" besides their tt value. The Market Value is the "tt value" (or, in EU slang, just "tt") of the item plus an added "markup" (in short "MU").
For some items like Vibrant Sweat, Stones/Fruit/Common Dung,Nova/Blazar Fragments,Calypso Bone Samples etc... the Market Value is orders of magnitudes more than their tt value (which is close to nothing).
Never sell such items to the Trade Terminal!Example:Let's say an item X has a tt value of 20 PED. Lets assume this item has a MU (markup) of 100 PED. If you would like to buy this item, consider you would have to pay around 20(tt)+100(MU) = 120 PED.
This kind of markup is called the "plus" markup since it is given as a "+" which is added to the tt value of the item. The + MU applies to unlimited items, since their tt value is irrelevant (you can fill the tt up anytime at a repair terminal).
To see if a price is cheap or expensive, it's enough to look at the Markup.
Example:Let's say you are interested to buy 2 other "X" items.
Player A offers an item with 5 PED tt for 110 PED.
Player B offers an item with 1 PED tt for 109 PED.
Player C offers an item with 20 PED tt for 130 PED.
Player D offers an item with 12 PED tt for 115 PED.
Markup for Offer A is 110 PED - 5 PED = 105 PED.
Markup for Offer B is 109 PED - 1 PED = 108 PED.
Markup for Offer C is 130 PED - 20 PED = 110 PED.
Markup for Offer D is 115 PED - 12 PED = 103 PED.
So even if offer B seems to be the cheapest at first (only 109 PED total), offers A and D are in fact better deals.
Offer D is the best deal even if it is the second highest total price, followed by offer A.
(Please note that this assumes you are actually planning to use the item. If you buy decoration for an appartment, for example, where the tt value is not that important, you might well go for offer B.)
Now when playing EU you will come across a lot more "stackables" and (L) items, all of which do not have a "+" markup, but a "%" markup.
Keep in mind that 1% can be written as 0.01 and vice versa, makes it easier to understand sometimes.
The reason for this is that those items usually are "consumed" (like (L) guns) or bought in different quantities (like crafting ingredients: oils, ores, etc.).
Example:(To make it simple, we will use a fictional "Foobar Oil" and assume it has 1 pec tt value per can.)Assume you need 4321 Foobar Oil for something.
Now imagine there would be "+" markups on stackables; you would find something like:
Offer A: 5927 Foobar Oil for 65.00 PED.
Offer B: 7581 Foobar Oil for 79.99 PED.
Offer C: 4410 Foobar Oil for 49.99 PED.
Now to find out which is the best offer, you'd need to calculate for each stack:Price per can for offer A is 6500 PEC / 5927 = 1.0967 PEC.
Price per can for offer B is 7999 PEC / 7581 = 1.0551 PEC.
Price per can for offer C is 4999 PEC / 4410 = 1.1336 PEC.
It turns out that the best price per can you would get when buying the biggest (most expensive) stack (B), not the cheapest one (C).
As you surely will have noted, this is some calculation; imagine having to do it for hundreds of stacks. And this is exactly the reason for the % markup.
So instead of the +MU examples above, you will find something like this:
Offer A: 6500 Foobar Oil @ 104.37% (total stack price will be 6500*0.01 PED*1.0437 = 67.84 PED)
Offer B: 8000 Foobar Oil @ 103.99% (total stack price will be 8000*0.01 PED*1.0399 = 83.19 PED)
Offer C: 4500 Foobar Oil @ 105.50% (total stack price will be 4500*0.01 PED*1.0550 = 47.48 PED)
Written like this it is quite obvious that the stack with the best price per can is the one with least markup (B).
For stackables, the % markup is more convenient since it shows the price per unit more clearly.
For limited items, you can get the true markup (depending on the current tt value) more easily with a % markup.
A last example for (L) items:Imagine a (L) tool with 20 PED max tt value.
Offer A: Item @ full tt (20 PED) with 110% MU (20 PED * 1.10 = 22 PED)
Offer B: Item @ half tt (10 PED) with 108% MU (10 PED * 1.08 = 10.80 PED)
Since (L) items can not be repaired once their tt value reaches the usability limit, the markup on them should also be linear.
A (L) item with 0 tt value is useless except for special purposes (decoration, vehicle wreck storage box...), so there should be zero or next-to-zero markup on it.
For Offer A, we have 10% MU for 100% remaining tt value (10/100 = 10% true markup)
For Offer B, we have 8% MU for 50% remaining tt value ( 8/ 50 = 16% true markup)
Obviously offer A is the better deal.
This is a "trap" a lot of newcomers step into, since often they can't / won't invest enough money to buy full tt limited items, and end up paying a lot more relative markup than necessary!Again, this only applies if you intend to use up the (L) item. Flying vehicles are not attacked by mobs for example and thus should last a long time, even if not at full tt anymore.
Ask your mentor if you have questions, that's what they are there for!
Please post questions/comments below so I can update this as needed.
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