The following is a list of all board game mechanics I know in this category, and that aren’t too niche. Card game mechanics are also included. I’m posting this mainly for my own reference.

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Commodity Speculation: A subcategory of Investment in which players buy and sell commodities of various types and quantities as they change value throughout the game.

Commodity Speculation includes both Investment games in which players have some indirect control over asset values, but have a hard time hurting others without hurting themselves; and Collusion games, in which players have huge direct control in manipulating asset values, forcing players to help others and manage shifting alliances.

Compound Interest Mechanisms: Actions or investments grow in value over time based on compound growth principles. The timing of investments becomes critically important, with early small investments potentially outperforming later large ones. Players must balance immediate needs against exponential future returns.

Delayed Purchase: Items that are purchased do not enter play right away but arrive on a future turn.

This is a typical default characteristic of most Deck, Bag, and Pool Building games such as Dominion where purchased cards are placed into the discards.

Other examples of this mechanism include World in Flames, which uses a “Production Spiral” so purchased troops, planes and fleets come into the game several months (or years) in the future depending on how long they take to build.

Elastic Resource Valuation: The value of resources dynamically shifts based on scarcity, abundance, and patterns of use. Resources that become overused decrease in value, while neglected resources become more powerful. This creates natural balancing and encourages players to discover underutilized strategies rather than all pursuing the same optimal path.

Investment: Players purchase an interest in a game entity, in order to generate a monetary or VP benefit, the ultimate value of which is determined over the course of the game.

This differs from Ownership in that Investment does not grant special actions or other “game effect” privileges based on the investment.

Acquire is an early example of the Investment mechanism.

Market: Players may buy from or sell resources to Markets, where prices and quantities can vary. This is often a primary feature of Economic games, but sometimes only a secondary mechanism.

Many games use a “market” to price cards, tiles, etc available for permanent purchase by players, but this is a type of Open Drafting and should be classified as such.

Stock Holding: Stock Holding is a subcategory of Investment, in which players may buy and sell (or retain) defined interests in a shared asset, such as a company, commodity or nation. This will often grant certain privileges of Ownership.

Notable examples include Acquire, where players can purchase shares of companies, and benefit if those companies grow before being bought out, and Imperial, where players are purchasing bonds in European nations which grant not only a dividend and points at the end of the game but also the right to control that nation’s actions for as long as you are the majority bondholder.