Kurisutaru wrote:
... because of the relative cheapness of that particular prize a lot of people i've talked to are concerned that it will take a long time for the items to be worth more....
Most hoards take a long time to pay off, because demand of the item seldom picks up and you are waiting ages for the supply to dry up, meaning longer time for the price to increase. The ones where 'natural' demand is higher (like, say, seasonal items like MVC and Xmas PBs) have too much competition and hence higher chance of failure.
Now, you can pump up demand artificially, but as per Neo rules, you are not allowed to do it collectively anyway - doing it on your own also create a bigger hole in your pocket (specially for cheaper items). So, you are nearly always talking of longer times anyway.
That said, older AC items have picked up prices within 2 years, and even I myself bought them only in last year or so. In fact, for RI key-rings, I had bought for 400 nps, and sold for 20,000 np. Which basically is, I think, 5000% in 1 year. But that one I should say was exception, I did not expect that much - I expected 200-300% profit at most, and I am getting that for most AC items, except AC II backgrounds, which due to the 'stupid' release of AC3 backgrounds have in fact depreciated.