History of the British Rare Values Market
The history of the British Rare Values Market is an extensive one, and being one of the bigger hotels was well tracked and documented in its long and broad history. In many cases, inter-trading between the hotels and inter-trading between Habbo and Runescape often took place on the British hotel because the furniture on the British hotel was deemed to be more expensive and also easier to trade on as the hotel had more users than say, the Singapore or Russian hotels.
In the earlier years, the trading market of the hotel was very much stable with rare prices barely ever shifting, and indeed if they did - it was often over a very long period of time. However, after v7 was installed which included the famous sets of recolours, the original rares which included pre-v7 rares and Habbo Club rares started to rise in value substantially as the 'population' of the hotel swelled enormously and supplies of rares such as the Silver Elephant and Bronze Elephant dried up quickly as they were released back in the days when the hotel only consisted of a few thousand users.
The introduction of the v7 rares and the new influx to the hotel also brought about other changes, such as the boom in casino dealing. Beforehand, casino dealing had very much been the preserve of a very small 'elite' on the hotel and was not widespread at all - due to the reason that as rares barely moved in price, had you lost a bet you had very little hope of returning to any status of wealth once you had lost everything; essentially, you would be 'locked out'. With the growth in the trading market, the casino market also benefitted from traders who were new to the game - and in many cases this helped shift the wealth from the older 'upper class' of Habbo users to the new 'middle class' who worked their way up - and who were prepared to take on many more risky and larger bets than the older Habbo generations were.
The impact of the new set of v7 rares on the trading market were also profound - a new rare would now often be released every month (or more) which allowed poorer Habbos to purchase with their credits, and then immediately sell on for a high price which helped shift the wealth of the hotel from the 'elite' down to the poorer and newer members of the game. The introduction of these rares also meant that there was now a lot more choice offered, and although you'd think this would have a negative impact on the older rares - it had the opposite effect. The likes of the Dragon Egg, Disco Light, Throne, Silver Elephant, Bronze Elephant and many others actually jumped in value - and quickly. The reason behind this sudden change? simply because they now had a 'classic' status and were still favoured by older Habbos, as well as becoming more and more scarce as the numbers of Habbo users increased.
With the steady stream of v7 rares hitting the rare values market, it became more and more volatile as seen particulary in summer 2006 and summer 2008 were the rare values market experienced massive 'credit bubbles' where previously lowly priced rares reached amazing values and very quickly - this mostly however did not last, and both at the end of summer 2006 and January 2008 these booms came to an end, resulting in a loss for almost all Habbo users with some hit more than others depending on the items they had invested in.
A number of rares on the British hotel were given or earned special status such as the Frost Dragon Lamp, Golden Dragon, Silver Dragon Lamp, Bronze Dragon Lamp, Infobus, Disco Light, DJ Turntable, Strobe Solarium, Red Laser Door and the Green Wooly Pillow mostly for being strangely expensive, or were just simply very popular and highly valued when compated with other items. Other rares also gained special status among Habbos such as the Club Sofa and Throne for being the currency of the rares market as well as the Russian Samovar for being involved in the Samovar Crisis.
The British Rare Values Market is an example of a largely free market economic system, but simply put into Habbo from on the hotel. The main sites which listed the rare values can largely be seen as 'credit rating agencies' who assessed the willingness of buyers to buy X for Y price. The main site providing values and still to this day has been Habbox, but other brief alternatives have existed throughout time including the now defunct Vodor.net and Habbo Hotel Guides HHGS.
Key & Summary (for Graph above)
I. A steady rise throughout time without boom and bust (due to the Club Sofa being a stable currency/'amount of credit') - prices rose over time usually in line with how long the item in question had been released in circulation for.
II. Famous 2006 summer rise, prior to this the hotel had not seen anything like it.
III. The 2007 Depression in the aftermath of the 2006 summer market boom, prices and the overall market value crashed to around 2003 levels. This remains to date the worst slump in rare values history.
IV. The 'Second rise' was caused by continued speculation throughout the summer months that there would be a repeat of the 2006 summer boom. The rise did occur, only later than expected, and saw rares reach a much higher price than they did in the 2006 rise - notably with the v9 recolour rares. A slump followed although unlike the 2007 slump, this was stunted rather than immediate.
V. The 'Rapid rise' starting in the autumn of 2009, reached its peak value in the first days of 2009 whilst at the same time its sudden collapse caused an instant depression in the market which also caused the value of the Club Sofa to crash - a trend that would continue for months afterwards leading to the end of the Club Sofa as a mainstream currency.
VI. The merge between the English hotels caused the values to flucuate wildly here, so its hard to gauge a good picture of the market at this time. Overall in this period however, values continuted to plummet generally and the Club Sofa continuted its sharp decline in value. (Note: some of this period took place pre-merge due to the fact that the announcement of a merge between the English-speaking hotels caused values to shift before the merge had actually happened).
VII. As prices settled after the merge, there was a small rise in the mid-period as items which were seriously undervalued due to rarity regained some value. By this time the Club Sofa (CS) had all but lost it's status as a currency and had been fully replaced by Credits (C).
VIII. The slump continuted in many items, with the market sluggish and losing value overall. The Throne continuted to slip from its position as a currency (but also in value in the 2011 period) due to both the replacement of the Club Sofa and the introduction of Credits, with Gold Bars being seen as a safe holding in uneasy times.
IX. From 2012 to early 2013, the market was gradually recovering and rares are beginning to properly adjust to suitable values. It was worth bearing in mind that judging by the pattern of past stable and successful market booms (2006, 2008) - we could have been be looking forward to a repeat scenario occuring in 2013/2014, however this did not materialise fully and in 2013 the market generally held up well although with a slight ongoing slump in prices.
X. 2013 continued onwards with an ongoing steady slump in prices, although rather steady as a whole. At this point the market was exhausted, having just settled with a large re-adjustment to prices following the price rises in 2012. In short, a rather uneventful year that could be classed with one phrase: stable decline.
XI. In 2014, the slide continued in the first two months, although around February to April 2014 the market took a real hit (mostly in regards to Super Rares) due to heavy restrictions placed on betting and dealing on Habbo. As a result, many classic items took a huge fall as they were at such high prices solely because of casino demand.
XII. In later 2014, from the summer onwards, prices have in many unusual items been rising rather quickly due to the collapse in Super Rares which were not rare themselves but which held such high values because of reputation and betting. As a result of their collapse in earlier 2014, the attention of traders has turned towards other items such as Pillows, Marquees and Fans as the unlikely stars of quite a revival. Indeed, in the closing months of 2014 this revival in the rare values market has proved to be rather firm and rather rapid towards the end weeks of 2014. Who knows what 2015 may bring?
Early years (2001-2006)
In the earlier years of the hotel, rares were often seldom released. Usually, items would be released every few months in the catalogue, with a number of them being weekly or monthly prizes. The earlier years of the hotel were a period where growth in the market was stable, steady and on the whole profitable most times. The risks for those trading at the time were seldom there, and the market rarely had the same flucuations that it has done from 2006 onwards.
Summer Rise of 2006 and aftermath (2006-2007)
The boom of the rare values market in the summer of 2006 was an unprecedented event in rare values history and took place from the spring of that year to the end of August. The resulting collapse took place quickly at the end of August and continuted well into the next year of 2007 where rares struggled to sell and the price of the Club Sofa and Throne both rocketed in price as people flocked back to holding a currency rare which would at least retain its stable value and was tradable. It was in this period that the value of the Club Sofa went from around 30 RD to an eventual 60 RD to 80 RD in later years.
The Boom of 2008 and the resulting collapse (2008-2009)
The Boom of 2008 took place over a longer period of time than the rise of 2006 did, and achieved a much higher overall value - mainly because of the avalibility of more rares two years later. The boom took place from the middle of the summer (around June/July of 2008) and collapsed eventually in the January of 2009 - and in a much more dramatic fashion than the 2006 bubble did. An example of the value changes in this period would be the rise in value of items such as the Vanilla Ice Cream Machine which went from a value of 0.8 CS in 2007 to a value of around 5 CS+ at the peak of 2008. One other example would be the recently released Peppermint Ice Cream Machine, which saw it's value jump from under 1 CS to an incredible 12 CS - with the Elf Green Ice Cream Machine rising from an equally as low value to the high teens. This of course, was completely unsustainable given the numbers of ICMs, Pillows and Dragons that existed and eventually did come to a quick end.
The Merge (2010)
The merge between the English-speaking hotels saw an end to the British Rare Values Market and thus began a fundemental shift in values and the entire market as in many of the other hotles, the likes of the Purple Dragon Lamp for instance were simply normal rares. The process of the merge took place over a matter of months, and Sulake did 'refund' people to an extent by giving out differing 'Fish Fountains' which varied in their level of rarity. This slow process and refund system in many ways helped richer Habbos retain their wealth and limited the shock to the system - although it did not stop for instance, the likes of the Gold Feather Pillow rise from a price range of 2 CS to 4 CS to an incredible price range of 20 CS to 30 CS. This also included the price of a Blue Ice Cream Machine as it was currently being sold on Habbo.co.uk for a price of 4CS and rose to an astonishing 35CS, although this was a high price after a month of the merge prices suddenly dropped back to old prices.
More to add..
The Market Today (2011-present)
The market today is largely completely different to that which existed beforehand, although in some rares the impact of what status and value they held on the British hotel still effects them to this day - the Purple Dragon Lamp being a key example that, although not rare on other hotels, demand on the new merged hotel has remained high for this rare from British users who can now own the once-incredibly rare and expensive Purple Dragon Lamp. Of course, with newer and foreign users this is not the same case so it's potential will always be limited along with other rares who share the same status.