by Potjeh » Sun Oct 04, 2009 6:16 pm
Oh, I'm well aware of the low success ratios when smelting gold. But let's do some math: gold success ratio is 1:400, iron is 1:10. Ignoring supply and demand, this places value of one gold bar at 40 cast iron bars. Cast iron is worth 1/4 to 1/6 wrought, depending on vendor. So let's take the average of 5, and say that a gold bar is worth 8 wrought bars. One steel is almost universally priced at 3 wrought (when q is irrelevant), which sets the price of gold at 1 gold for 2.66 steel. Converted to nuggets, taking 10 as the average value, that's .266 steel for one nugget. Let's round it to 1/4, though that is slightly unfavourable for the gold producer.
So, value of a gold nugget labour-wise is 1/4 of a steel bar, and you're asking for 10 bars. That's a 4000% profit margin. I can respect that supply and demand has great influence over the final price, and I understand that the effort to find a gold mine is worth something, even if it's a one-time cost. But 4000% is still ridiculous, no offence.
We might trade in the future when your prices go down, as I'm sure they will. Till then, good luck with your business.

Bottleneck