Proper flow of the economy is probably a topic everyone's interested in. Whether it be for the purpose of keeping CE prices down, or finding a good time to buy particular materials, the flow of stuff in game seems to be very important.

A little while ago, nearly every other suggestion on the forums was to introduce more crown sinks (or means of removing crowns from the economy) because the ever increasing bulk of crowns in the economy was driving the market out of control (inflation). Many of the changes since then have remedied this problem, and the market seems to have stabilized quite a bit.

Yet, at the same time I wonder if the same thing is going to happen to old gear. As more and more people obtain a particular type of weapon or armor, they become less interested in obtaining that same type of weapon or armor again. In fact, many people I know even dislike having that extra stuff around, seeing it as clutter. While I am no economist, what I would predict from this is that equipment prices would steadily fall as the number of people interested in each particular type of equipment decreases (a decrease in demand). Meanwhile, it appears that equipment will continue to be produced at a relativly constant rate with people rolling for Unique Varients and selling equipment in general (constant supply).

Of course, there are factors increasing demand, such as new players being introduced into the game. But in total, while I have not taken the time to conduct an extensive study, it feels like there are more factors decreasing demand than increasing it.

What I would predict from such a trend is that equipment prices will drop, followed by material prices and CE prices (although these comodedies have other factors preventing their prices from dropping too low). This would lead to incresed value of the crown, and probably throttle the recipe resale business. With less availability of recipes, it will become more difficult to obtain more advanced gear.

I would consider that to be a problem, because from what I can tell, most players enjoy getting to the end of their builds and getting high level gear. If the amount of work/time required to get that becomes too high, players will probably get bored and find another game to play. This would lead to players leaving the game as they get to a point where it becomes too long of a wait between upgrading gear.

While there would still be some players who stick around because they like the aspect of collecting gear (such as myself). I hardly think that a player base made up in majority of that type of player would be have a healthy economy or reason to interact with each other. Trading and communication would probably begin to occur less as players seek to fill out their inventories on their own (because they find it more fun, or better economically). Furthermore, I don't think that that type of player is the majority, so as players with other mindsets are turned away, there would probably be a general decrease in player population.

Of course, all of this is pure speculation.

Regardless, what I would suggest to remedy this problem is to introduce an incentive for players to collect equipment. While there is already something like that in place (the acheivements for collecting X number of gear type in your arsenal), I think there are many things that could be done to improve on this concept. Additionally, an elegant solution to this problem would not only encourage players to collect one of each different type of equipment but also multiples of the same type of equipment. This would allow the quicker consumption of types of equipment that are more plentiful, instead of a uniform consumption which would probably lead to greater market instability by increasing the demand for already popular equipment while making already plentiful equipment even less sought after.

One particular solution that I like is to have guildhall furniture be bought with equipment. Ideally, the furniture would be functional, although aesthetic items would also work. For example, in order to buy a token trader for your guild hall, the guild would need to obtain donations of 100 stars worth of equipment. Alternatively, specific types of equipment could be used in combinations (ie 10 Rock Salt Bombs + 30 Miracle Hoods = a Guildhall decoration).

While this solution will in the short term create an increase in demand for gear, it's still possible to max out this sink (ie buy all the guildhall furnishings). Perhaps there's a less permenant, but just as worthwhile use of old gear.

TL;DR Old gear is piling up, and there should be a use for it for the health of the economy. Perhaps buying guildhall decorations with gear would be a good use for this.