Mini-Pets Mega-Market

ArenaNet surprises once more with an announcement two days ago that mini pets will be moving to the wardrobe in the 9th September Feature Pack. Not only will mini pets be permanently equip-able, but they will be stored in your wardrobe for full account access, meaning you won't have to pass around your favorite mini between your alts anymore! The cost of this privilege is the destruction of the mini, forever out of circulation, forever attached to your account. This is where we come in and by applying simple supply and demand rules we can determine some great investments.

Unfortunately the price of mini pets already exploded immediately after the announcement. This is expected however, and since then the market has calmed down and many mini pets have dropped back down in price. The main mini's I will be focusing on is the unobtainable, supply-limited and/or very hard to get. The first mini I want to talk about is Captian Magnus. This mini is no longer obtainable, and was a semi-rare drop from the Lion's Arch invasions in the first season of the Living Story. Currently there are ~1200 supply on the trading post and a further ~1000 disappeared from the trading post right after the announcement. However, without knowing how the new achievements will work, it is unclear if we will see items like 'collect x exotic mini pets'. If we do, this mini will be an excellent cheap addition to that collection, and the demand will roll in, pushing up the price. Even if such achievements are not added, players will still want to add this mini to their wardrobes, and as with anything in this game with limited supply, prices will naturally rise. I don't expect any spikes in price - in fact I expect a drop in price in the first few days post-patch because of impatient speculators dumping their stock on the market. Be sure to grab yourself a few of these for the long haul and expect a decent turnover in 3-6 months time.

Some other mini's to consider would be Set 1 and 2 that are currently only obtainable through Mystic Forging other miniatures. I expect mini pets from these sets to spike a bit more in price on patch day because the supply is far lower. For now I would advise avoiding Set 3 mini's, as the rare and exotics have already spiked very hard and the more common fine and masterwork mini's are still easily obtainable through fresh supply from the gem store. However, there are a few miniatures in particular that I want to focus on and they are all from Set 2. These are the Twisted Mender, Reaver, Horror and Nightmare. I see these four mini pets as investments with very high potential, because not only are they under the same pressure with low supply being from an early set, but they are also components in a Mystic Forge recipe to craft one of three exclusive exotic Steam miniatures. Since these miniatures are also trade-able, and with the open knowledge of the recipe on the official wiki, naturally the prices of the four component mini pets will rise in line with the Steam miniatures. I believe these to be a fantastic mid term investment opportunity and you should expect good profits in 2-3 months.

In all honesty, almost all of the miniatures will be great long term investments. Just make sure you do not fall prey to the impatient speculators that drop their supply early and crash the markets - this will only be a short term crash and if you are patient enough you will yield great returns on your investments.