sport and news: Mists of Pandaria Beta: Grand Expedition Yak price doubles to 120,000g

Monday, 2 July 2012

Mists of Pandaria Beta: Grand Expedition Yak price doubles to 120,000g

WoW Insider has received a tip that in the latest beta patch, the Grand Expedition Yak (the new MoP mount with a portable reforger) has had a substantial, above-inflation price hike. Its price has gone from "Blimey, that's a bit steep" at 60,000 gold to "How much?! That's insane!" at 120,000 gold. My 85 mage took the screenshot in the header, but I took my 85 shaman up to the Grummle Bazaar to re-check the price and found it to be 108,000 gold rather than 120,000. I'm assuming this is because of reputation discounts; my opinion reinforced by how Uncle Bigpocket referred to my shaman as a "friend of the Grummles." A Battle.net forum thread indicates the same, saying that the price can come down to a far more reasonable (ahem) 96,000 gold.

I can only imagine that this price increase is in response to the decision to make all but PvP reward mounts account-wide, including the jewelcrafting mounts and the Grand Expedition Yak itself. I'm not sure whether this is good news or bad overall. The gold sink of the jewelcrafting mounts was certainly compromised by rendering them account-wide, so perhaps the Grand Expedition Yak was upgraded to gold sink status. However, what with this mount being so much more than a vanity choice, the punitive price seems prohibitive to its principal market: raiders.

Sure, the Basil Berntsens of this world will consider 120,000 gold small change, but for most of us common folk, that is more gold than we're likely to have our greasy paws on at any one time. I can see a few people irritably scrubbing out "earn 60,000 gold to buy yak" from their Cataclysm bucket lists!

Does the price increase mean you are ruling out this mammoth as part of your mountable menagerie? Or is 120,000 gold well within your reach?

[Thanks for the tip, Tesliana!]

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