Economics Challenge Series 2025 – Challenge 2: Buying and Selling G...

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the Economics Challenge Series for 2025. For July and August, I am running an economics challenge series. The series consists of six challenges. All the challenges will commence in July and early August. I will publish and announce the results in August.

Five of the seven challenges from last year's Challenge Series return. The Auction Challenge is replacing the Complement vs. Substitute and Tax Game challenges. This year because of time constraints, I have reduced the number of challenges from seven to six. Below is the list of challenges.

Challenge 1: Game Theory Game
Challenge 2: The Buying and Selling Game
Challenge 3: Pick-a-Door
Challenge 4: Ice Cream Game
Challenge 5: Auction
Challenge 6: Even-to-Win

Each challenge could reward winners with as much as 60 Hive Power. The value of the prize will depend on the level of participation. For each new participant, the prize will increase by 4 Hive Power. This increase will continue until 60 Hive Power is reached (15 participants). The first 15 participants will also receive a 50% upvote from this account.

In addition to the prize money, the top few participants will be given points. These points will be used to determine the overall challenge series winner. This winner may receive as much as 80 Hive Power. The value of the prize will equal the sum of the number of participants across all challenges. This will continue until 80 Hive Power is reached.

Welcome to the Buying and Selling Game.

The Buying and Selling Game (Original Version) was my longest-running contest series. I ran this contest every month for several years. After that, I included it once a year in my economic contest series and once in my economic challenge series. Now that I’m focused on the Sapien Loop quizzes, the economic challenge is the only time I am running this contest.

To become more familiar with this contest/challenge as well as how the results are generated, I recommend taking a look at the links below. Last on the list is the original Buying and Selling Game from the 2018 Challenge Series. This is the only challenge to appear in all six challenge series.

The Buying and Selling Game is also explained in the following original video:

How to Play?

The ‘Buying and Selling’ Game involves three simple steps.

Choose one or more of six goods to buy.
Choose the city, town, or planet where you will be buying these goods.
Choose the city, town, or planet where you will be selling these goods.

All the information you need to know to play the game is provided in the question; i.e., no external research is required, as all prices are hypothetical and locations are fictitious.

All entries must be made in the comments section of this post.

Each account is only permitted one entry.

Objectives of the Game

The objective of the game is to make the highest profit from the sale of all the goods you have bought. If two participants make the exact same profit, the participant who entered first wins.

Game Assumptions

All goods of the same type are identical; for example, Good A bought in Town X is the same as Good A bought in Town Y.

There are zero transaction and transport costs.

All cities, towns, and planets use the same currency.

What Information is Provided?

All the cities, towns, and planets are provided.
All the goods that can be bought in the game are provided.
All the buying prices of the goods are provided.
None of the selling prices of the goods are provided. Instead, a possible range of prices is provided. This range is represented by maximum, minimum, and mode prices (i.e., the most frequently occurring price). See the diagram below.

Selling Price Distribution

Note: Triangular Distribution

How Are the Results of the Game Determined?

A Microsoft Excel model is used to determine the selling prices of each good in each city, town, or planet. These prices will be used to calculate the profits made by each participant. In the results post, the calculation of the selling price will be presented in a video. To learn more about how the results are calculated and presented, click on one of the results post links provided earlier in the post.

Challenge Prizes

The total prize for this challenge could reach as high as 60 Hive Power. The number of participants determines the value of the prize. For every entry, the prize is increased by 4 Hive Power until a value of 60 Hive Power is reached. The winner will receive 2/3 of the prize, and second place will receive 1/3. The first 15 entries will be given upvotes.

The most profitable buying and selling price combination is also calculated. If the winner adopts this strategy and the value of the prize is below 60 Hive Power, he or she will receive an additional 5 Hive Power. The winner of this challenge will be given 30 points, second place 15 points, and third place 5 points. These points will be tallied at the end of the challenge series to determine the overall winner.

Let the Challenge Begin!

Participants have been allocated a budget of $40,000 to buy 1 or more types of bats, rackets, and sticks from one of the following 5 towns or cities.

Rolling Town
Bouncing Town
Rinkville
Roar Town
Score City

See map below:

Map of Towns and Cities

Image generated with the help of Grok

All of the following bats, rackets, and sticks are available in all 5 towns and cities:

Tennis Racket
Cricket Bat
Hockey Stick
Baseball Bat
Badminton Racket
Lacrosse Stick

Table 1 contains the prices of each type of bat, racket, and stick in all the towns and cities.

Table 1: Prices of Bats, Rackets, and Sticks for Each Town and City

Note: bats, rackets, and sticks can only be bought as whole pieces. For example, a participant could only buy 851 cricket bats from Score City, as there is insufficient money to buy the 852^nd bat.

After buying the bats, rackets, and sticks, the participant must then sell all that he or she has bought on just one of the towns or cities named in the question. Remember, the selling prices are revealed in the results post. These prices are determined using the information provided in Tables 2, 3, and 4.

Table 2: Minimum, Maximum, and Mode (Rolling Town & Bouncing Town)

Table 3: Minimum, Maximum, and Mode (Rinkville & Roar Town)

Table 4: Minimum, Maximum, and Mode (Score City)

Entry Format

For this challenge, I expect to see entries made in the following format:

Buying
Name of town or city:
Goods purchased:
Number purchased:
Amount spent on goods:

Selling
Name of town or city:

Example of Entry

Buying
Name of town or city: Rolling Town
Goods purchased: Hockey Sticks
Number purchased: 1250
Amount spent on goods: $40,000

Selling
Name of town or city: Roar Town

The closing date and time for this challenge is 6PM coordinated universal time (UTC) 23/07/2025. Responses after this time will not be accepted. Next month, the answers will be provided in the results post along with the video containing the generation of selling prices using the model.

I hope everyone has fun and enjoys this challenge. I look forward to your participation in the remaining challenges. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments section.

The Sapien Loop Series

I am writing a trilogy of books titled Sapien Loop. The first in the series is Sapien Loop: End of an Era and the second is Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time. I published both of these books as ebooks on Amazon, and I have posted completed chapters to my @captainhive account. I anticipate publishing the third book in early 2027. I expect to title this book Sapien Loop: Worlds Collide. In 2025, I plan to write short stories about some of the characters and their adventures. I will post these to my @captainhive over the course of the year.

Brief Summary of Sapien Loop: End of an Era

This story is based on the fictional planet Sapia and its sole country, Sapey. Sapey is portrayed as a form of utopia for all its citizens. No poverty. No war. Almost no crime. Opportunities for all.

This was enough for most citizens, but not all. In one of the small regions, some of the citizens had become discontent. They felt something important was missing in their lives. Their discontent did not go unnoticed. Some of the Sapey elite wanted to weaponise this discontent to gain more power. This created more chaos than they anticipated. This led to further widespread social unrest.

On top of the chaos, ambition and greed provoked another enemy. This enemy was on a mission to settle both new and old scores.

Brief Summary of Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time

This story is based six years after the original story. The Downs Region is still suffering from a serious health crisis caused by the contaminated water. The main characters are desperately trying to a find a cure for the illness that has been caused by the water.

One of the main characters has discovered frozen humanoids in hidden chambers. It appears they have been frozen for a long time. These chambers connect to a vast network of tunnels. While exploring the tunnels, one of the frozen humanoids disappears. It appears he has been stolen.

The story takes a step back in time to tell the story of the frozen humanoids. How and why were they frozen? This part of the story also explains the fall of ancient Sapey and the birth of the Sapiens. Can those from the past be able to coexist with those from the present?

Economics Challenge Series 2025 – Challenge 2: Buying and Selling Game