Over the last year, prices at the Auction House have tripled. It is crazy to see things that were worth 500k a while back, easily going for 1.5 - 2 million now.
Despite increases on literally everything else in the game, on Lakshmi, teleport prices have not gone up 1 gil. I added "on Lakshmi", because if you read through thread on other server forums, you will see that on more than half of them, teleport prices have gone up.
To point out the obvious, prices tripling means that 500 gil today is worth less than 200 gil just a year ago. There are much better ways to make money than porting, even for white mages.
But, white mages making money off of teleporting is a good thing! The reason this all came to me is because the last few weeks I found myself asking for a teleport for 20 minutes or longer.
I know this has come up before, but I strongly believe it would be in the best intrest of everyone in Lakshmi if the porting prices rose. I would glady play 4k for a teleport-altep when I really needed it. But, I am not saying prices should increase that much. I think for right now, a price of 800 for Dem, Holla, and Mea; 1200 for Altep and Yhoat; and 2000 for Xcarbard would be good. An extra 2 or 3 hundered isn't going to hurt anyone, but it will make a difference over a night for a white mage.
I did try this. There were no porters for half an hour today. So I quit trying to find a teleport and did ports myself. I asked for the 800 and 1200 prices. What I found was a very mixed reaction. On top of that, I was not surpirsed at all that three white mages appeared right then to offer the traditional prices.
I took note of these mages, and after my shout stating my prices, I mentioned the names of the porters offering traditional prices so whoever disagreed with me could grab a port with one of them. I really was not doing this to cash in. I got better things I could be doing as a 75 paladin to make money.
Many people sent me tells such as, "Thank goodness, it is about damn time someone raised prices. There are never any porters." But, probablly a larger gave me tells telling me that I am a cause of the poor economy and a "greedy *******".
I value my reputation on this server, and do not want to be on a lot of people's blist. But, I honestly think we should follow in other server's footsteps and raise these prices a little bit, for the good of everyone.
Let me know what you think. If I am out of line, let me know. If you strongly disagre, rate me down. I won't say I don't care, because I do.