[Question] Appropriate in-game price of Pokemon

[fr0styguru]

Like the title says I could use some peoples input on something. So here's my question.

If you had the option to buy a Pokemon in a game not counting legendaries just any regular stage 1 Pokemon of your choice from any Gen what would you be willing to pay? 5000 Pokedollars? More? Or less? A high price early game that would take a while to save up for, an affordable price mid game that would be easy enough to get with a few battles worth of money, and late game would be no problem at all. I think between 5000 and 8000 would be the best, but what about you, the players?

 

[Schrroms]

I don't know how good of a reference it necessarily is, but you could compare with the Game Corner prizes in gen 1 and 2.

500 coins costs 10 000$ in the games, so converted to pokedollars, this is what each Pokemon costs in Pokemon Yellow:
Abra: $4 600
Vulpix: $20 000
Wigglytuff: $53 600
Scyther: $130 000
Pinsir: $130 000
Porygon: $199 980

But the Game Corner prizes are notoriously expensive. Just compare with the prices of the TMs.
Dragon Rage: $66 000
Hyper Beam: $110 000
Substitute: $154 000

For comparison, the Hyper Beam TM sells for $7 500 in gen 3, so almost 15 times less than its Game Corner prize. You could probably adjust the price of the Pokemon in the same way by dividing them by 15. Not sure how this would fit in gameplay-wise in your game, but I think it should be a good starting point.

 

[fr0styguru]

I'm going to have them all the same price originally. So I was trying to figure out what a good price would be. Maybe i'll just start with 5000. Cause I plan on having vouchers for a free pokemon. So early game you'll have a way to add pokemon to your team so making that 5000 isnt your #1 priority. Just trying to find that right balance between hard early, normal, mid, and easy to obtain late game.

 

[Worldslayer608]

I think you should really flesh out your game economy before deciding on what is the right price. Base it on how much the average battle winnings are as well as average cost of items necessary to play the game using currency.

Without having a baseline, you are really guessing at what it may be and you could just be entirely off the mark for better or for worse - and it kind of just wastes time and effort into using the mechanic of buying mons.