Gold, or points as it was called back in the day, has been the main driving force behind the development of Bootleggers since the game launched over a decade ago and its sales keep the games servers running and its developer coding. Without gold, there would be no Bootleggers and by buying it, players are not only boosting their own wealth and success within the game but also aiding the Bootleggers community as a whole. But what exactly are you getting for your dollar when you buy gold? Let’s have a look, shall we?
When you buy gold from your good buddy BSF2000 you can either use it to buy items and perks on the gold page, or you can sell it to other players for their hard earned cash. In this article, we will assume that the market value is an even $20,000.
Let's start by clicking on the "Use gold" tab on the gold page. Here we have a wide selection of items, from lottery tickets to Cadillac V16 Armored Limousine's, and perks ranging from "Get out of jail free" cards to "Get out of your crew free" cards. But how much are these item's and perks worth compared to the market value of gold? Let's look at a few examples.
Lottery tickets
For just 10 gold, you can get a bundle of 25 lottery tickets. That's exactly $8,000 per ticket or 3,200% of what it costs down at the Lottery page. Not exactly the best bargain.
Bullets
Also for 10 gold, you can get 500 bullets added instantly to your armory. That's exactly $400 per bullet or roughly 300% of what they cost in the cheapest bullet factories. Although that's generally a bad deal, in gold's defense, we have to take into account the fact that this method of buying bullets is a lot faster than buying from the factories, it has no chance of a bullet shortages, and it also provides a method of buying bullets without making the factory owners rich (they might be your enemies and/or future targets).
Another interesting aspect of these "gold bullets" is their effect on the Bootleggers economy. They create an elasticity between gold prices and bullet prices. Bullets made in a factory can never be sold at more than 1/50th the price of gold. Because as soon as bullets get more expensive than that in the factories, they become cheaper to buy on the gold page. So if you're planning on starting a bullet monopoly, you better also corner the gold market.
Money
This is a funny one. For another 10 gold, you can get $5,000 cash added to your wallet. That's $40 you have to spend for every dollar you get. Well, that's a no-brainier.
Guns and Protection
In order to have the best guns and protection, you will have to spend 150 gold on each. That's $3,000,000 on either one or $6,000,000 for both. For high profile players, $6m for the best protection and gun sounds like a good deal, and it is. However for us on the lower levels wasting $3m for protection, in an environment where people shoot for a sure kill, doesn't necessarily sound too appealing. The $3m for the best gun, on the other hand, sounds like a good bet for anyone who's planning to do a lot of shooting.
This, however, has not always been the case. Bootleggers’ economy is now in a phase where gold is relatively cheap compared to the price of bullets. This means that for the amount of money it costs to upgrade from a Thompson to a Browning at today's rate will only buy you roughly 22,000 extra bullets, whilst for example back in the days when I was shooting for The Order, the amount of money it took to upgrade from a Thompson to a Hitsquad was enough to buy more than 150,000 extra bullets, so I was specifically told not to waste my money on the upgrade but rather use it for more bullets (similar laws apply to buying protection). So upgrading guns and/or protection currently seems like a good use of gold.
Let's keep in mind though that unlike with lottery tickets, bullets or money, this deal is the best of it's kind mostly because it's the only one of it's kind, not a bad one though at all.
Ditch crew
This will be our last example from the gold page and by far the most expensive one. In order to ditch a crew, you must pay 350 gold. That's $7,000,000 or 875 lottery tickets, depending on how you look at it. So in order for this to be a sensible choice you must:
Not be able or willing to leave your crew on a peaceful basis.
Have assets worth $7m or more which cannot be converted into gold.
Not be willing to risk a rank demotion (of 2 ranks the most).
So the "ditch crew" option is really only a good choice for the few high-ranking crew members who have top guns and protection. For others, it makes a lot more sense to just liquefy your assets and turn them into gold before going the hard way (that's a lot cheaper at least).
This brings me to my main point.
Players buy gold not because they can get cool item's or perks for it but simply because it's a solid way to store your money. When you die it goes with you into the next life. When you ditch your crew everything is affected, your rank, wealth, health, items, bullets, everything except your gold which is untouchable. Another important aspect of gold is that you only have to pay transaction fees once, when you're selling it, and, therefore, you can trade with it endlessly without depleting it any further, making it really popular for high-end trading (casinos, bullet factories, etc..).
The bottom line is that gold is generally worth a lot more than the things you can buy for it on the gold page, meaning it's better kept than spent. This causes huge surplus to pile up in the Bootleggers economy, with a lot more gold entering the game relative to gold leaving it. But for some reason, BSF does not create any new incentive for players to use their gold and get it out of the game's system. The gold page hasn't really changed much throughout the years and it doesn't look like it will anytime soon. There are really no good deals on the gold page encouraging players to steadily use their gold and actually benefit from doing so, keeping demand for gold up (meaning more gold being purchased for real money).
In conclusion
Why does BSF have such bad value for gold spent on the gold page itself despite it meaning gold would exit the game at a rate a lot more consistent to that of which new gold enters the game, keeping demand up? Does he not want the gold page to seem more appealing or has he just not put much effort into it? Or does he not want it to leave the game? Has he maybe worked out that the amount of gold in the game should grow steadily alongside its economy in order to keep the Bootleggers ecosystem stable?
Well, I for one am not sure. But I can tell you one thing, I won't be wasting my hard earned gold on lottery tickets anytime soon. And if I'm ever going to start a bullet monopoly. I'll remember to invest all my earnings in gold so I can keep upping the bullet price at a rate that's relative 1/50th to that of gold.
