When I start to overthink and analyze the BK pet/item trades, it doesn't make sense to me. The values of certain items don't like up with related items. And when going between items to pets, well, pets get the short end of the stick. A lot of this I believe is caused by the markets being dictated by us users. Prices get set and they stick, giving others a baseline to work with when pricing their own items.

Vermillion + Researched Pets::
This is one of the big things I've noticed here. In the item trades, Vermillion will usually sell for 1k per 1 Vermillion. To fully research a pet it takes 20 Vermillion (and 2k silver). That comes up to 22k. A fully researched pet can not be expected to sell for that much in the pet trades though.

Deviants + DCAs::
This is someting I've recently discovered, and logically I can't wrap my head around it. DCAs improve the change of deviance in offspring, but it still isn't a guarantee. Deviant pets, however, are obviously deviants. DCAs sell for 1 mil silver and deviants lately seem to be selling for less and less. At the time I'm posting this the highest bid on a deviant in the pet trades is 30k.

Deviants + Liquid Deviance + Liquid Vermillion::
This is fairly similar to what I've noticed with deviants and DCAs. However, the value of Liquid Deviance being so much higher than the deviants themselves is more reasonable in my opinion. They are both only available during certain times, but the difference is that Liquid Deviance accomplishes something unrelated to deviance; it's used to awaken eggs to get wild Lykos. However, the items themselves, Liquid Deviance and Liquid Vermillion, are far more valuable than the Lykos you would get from using them on an egg. Have you ever seen a Lykos sell for 2 mil silver?

Buying Food Items::
Unless you're buying 1k food for 1k silver, or some other amount of food with a ratio of 1:1, it isn't a fair trade. If you don't have the food in you warehouse 1 silver for each food you are short of will be deducted from your account at the day change.

Gold:Silver Conversion::
Some items are difficult to price because they're priced in gold in the Premium Shop and there is no official conversion for the currency. With some thinking you can get a rough idea of what the value can be though. Magic Food is 1 gold and will usually sell for 5k. That is 1:5k. That ratio is far from perfect though. Magic Food can be found in explore, like some other Premium Shop items. Items that are exclusive the to Premium Shop are obviously going to be more valuable. That ratio also doesn't seem to be applied to other Premium Shop items that are found in explore. It works with Energy drinks that are 5 gold and usually sell for around 25k, but I see Rainbow Drinks usually priced at 80k when they would be priced at 50k if the ratio is being used.

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Let me know what you think, and if there are any other instances of these peculiar market doings that you know of that I didn't include. I think it would be nice if some sort of consistency can be established.

I dissagree with most your points...you gotta count in the rarity of the item, the price of aquiring the item and the demand of the item...thats what raises the price so incredibly high. There is a set baseline we all made that every user goes by and everyone is satisfy..if there were a set price for these things by the admins it would make many people upset, plus if you look at the set prices in the stores here we players actualy cheapen the items..

Let me try to rephrase some things in an explanation here... it's easy for me to think of things and agree with myself, but communicating my thoughts in a way that I'm understood for what I meant can be tricky since words are always up for interpretation.

For one thing, us users cheapening items is not always true. Take the item exchanges for instance, where it is practically filled with unfair trades. Some people set up fair exchanges, so if you are one of those people then don't take this personally as it is not directed at you, but it's ridiculous what some users expect to get in return for their items. Offering 9 Vermillion for a Rainbow Jar, 1 Energy Drink for a Stable (lvl 5), 8 Laminaria for an Activated Egg (lvl 1), 50 Stone for 1 Yellow Fish Eggs, and 1 Vermillion for 4 Mutagen are examples of this.

But that is unrelated to my main post. One of the things that just doesn't make sense to me is why pets are valued so low compared to items; this is a pet breeding game after all. The price for items can be so incredible high but as soon as they are used on a pet you can't expect to get your money back out of them. This isn't a problem for a lot of users, of course, since some breed just for their own personal projects, but for those who take the time to breed excellent pets to put on market can be sorely dissappointed by what they can get for them.

with pets, it is very easy to breed another one of similar quality if you own the parents. on the other hand, you put more effort gaining the valuable items from islands and its not always guaranteed to get one.

I think that is why there is a discrepency between the two. this is a pet breeding game which means pets are common and it is not hard to get a very good one.

Example: unicorns are one of the most common and popular pets, so much so that the breeding offers page and occasionally pet trades have very good gened GP3 unicorns for sale dirt cheap...

Its all about supply and demand.

Too many pets to meet the demand = cheap pets

Too few/too rare items to meet the demand = valuable items.

hvae you ever looked at who and when set up the trade? they are old trade done by new players who have no idea...ppl often forget bout hte trade exchange so they stay up...

and exactly as @Liandralithe says...the chance of what an item can give you will always be more valuable than the pet it self....

There is something you forgot to mention:

For some reason, there are a number of beasts, in the Pet Trade, that have starting bid at 1 silver, or around 100, even though if you were to pound them, they are worth 100 silver, which, imho, is just really odd. I, personally, would place them for at least 500-1500 silver, because that is how much you'd make for voting for the game, it's not much, but it doesn't de-value the pets. 

Anyways, vermillion, I wouldn't say is worth 1k, as the main supplier, Lytala, usually sells them for around 200-500 silver. -- Though I get what you're saying, the problem with this is that beasts are immorta, they don't dead, and the only real what to 'kill' them is S.P.S or system event, there is also the reserves, but you can bring them back for 10 gold, so usually, and is kinda expected, that they would be worth less.

As for DCA and Deviants, you're forgetting double deviants (or I'm totally wrong and it doesn't work that way). When you're talking about deviant value, they are usually referring to only single deviants, not double -- then there is also the fact of time in which it was sold, or who and to whom it's sold.

For you're lykos bit, I'm pretty sure none of them are Wild, which the Eggs give you, so there may be your reason.

As for buying food, I would say it has to do with how you can make a golem out of some of them, though I'd have to agree with you, I don't get how their market price is around 10, when they are valued at 1, unless an event is going on.

Finally, for Rainbow Jars, I would say it's because they are exceedingly rare, I think it's around every 5 or so Energy Drink, you'll find 1 Rainbow Jar, though I could be wrong (Haven't been exploring much lately. -- Though I also agree with you here, as Energy Drinks has a purpose, restoring Energy, while Rainbow Jar is just visual.

This thread was actually what prompted me to concentrate on selling vermillion.

I do so much exploring with only the occasional breeding spree that I'd wind up leaving tons of vermillion on the islands but seeing its average price made me realize that I could make a fortune even if I sold it at a fraction of the average. As a bonus, I figure that once I've pumped enough cheap vermillion into the market the other vermillion sellers will have to start asking for more reasonable prices.

Hee, I doing something similar, though instead of lowering I'm trying to raise it :P, too bad I don't think it's going well, since I don't explore much. (Get sick of it after around 6, unless it's an event -- literally sick, where I first start experiencing a headache / migraine, if I continue, I start getting nauseous and feel like throwing up, though I don't really)

Just wanted to leave my bits here that I think, when it comes to Deviant pets, it's very relative to their `desireness`, be it color or pattern. I recently paid nearly 100k for a deviant [ consider, too, that I made a buyout because I'm paranoiac like that ], so their prices is not set in stone. Who knows how many people do like me, and prefer to buyout things rather than to bid on them?