Okay, so I have restocked both vendors again. 20 new items for sale, across the whole board: Melee Weapons of all kinds, Metatherics Weapons of most, and even some armor. So I think I’ll answer some questions this time, instead of presenting a long list:
1. How do I know that I bought from you?
When you buy an item, you see the name of the vendor with it. Was that “Trader Asmarin” or “Trader Voranek”, it was likely one of my traders – that is, if noone has renamed their vendors to match the names of mine. If you bought from me: Congratulations, you just made a rather good deal!
2. What do you sell?
As a veteran player, I have access to all locations in the game that are not restricted to missions. Of course, I usually hunt where fewer players are and where better items drop. In my case, hunting is mostly done in the Plateney Woods and the Martuso Mines, although I sometimes also hunt the Tiasa Flatlands or Port Fortfare, depending on what types of weapons I wish to obtain. The Plateney Woods are good for some general weaponry, but mostly the best single-weapon-category elemental weapons of the game (Platen Airris/Firos/Wintros Wands). Martuso Mines are the source of all Kratian weapons – Krati Oak Hearts, Krati Life Pipes, Krati Stone Staves, Krati Grav-Shivs, Krati Mindrods, Krati Jagged Shortblades. This includes the best (non-mission-reward) flesh-primary weapon in the game (Krati Lifepipe) as well as some of the best other weapons – usually they’re on par with what’s best and have little differences (for example, the Krati Jagged Shortblade is about equal in rating with the Serrated Shortblade – the Krati variant has superior speed, though, while the Serrated type has superior damage in this comparison.)
Tiasa is good for most melee weapons and a few other things, and Port Forfare is the best source for some of the best Airwind and Gravity primary stuff (Busted Booster Columns and Busted Stabilizer Rods) and usually yields some other stuff as well.
To shorten this: Usually, I sell stuff that is either the best, or one of the best of its type in the game. Expect ratings 100 and up, usually rather 120 to 250 for weapons, 250 to 310 for armor.
3. How do you price?
Well, I try to do fair prices. I want to sell the stuff, but I want people to actually use it. So I try to make a somewhat fair price with the minimum price acting as a guideline. I don’t go for minimum prices, because it destroys the possibilities for market competition, and it is illogical to sell lower than one should. Plus, there might be some entrepreneurs who rarely play the game but have enough money, that’d buy minimum-priced items out to sell them at tenfold, if the market is weak on that type at the moment.
So, I check in three steps:
Step 1: Is there any identical weapon on the market? (so, if I want to sell a Platen Airris Wand, I look for Platen Airris Wands only)
Step 2: Is there any type-identical weapon on the market? (I want to sell a Krati Jagged Shortblade and found none, so is there a Serrated Shortblade, or a Fine Steel Dagger on the market?)
Step 3: Is there any type-similar weapon on the market? (so, if I want to sell a Light Air Staff (Staves/Air) I’ll look for anything that’s Staves/any, and probably Staves only, too)
Then I compare ratings, and look for prices. Usually, I’ll see either nothing even close to the rating I want to sell, or some of the NPC traders got one item, but sells it at a ridiculous price. Yes, I check all markets, not only the local one – all markets, including all player and NPC markets.
From there on out, different things may happen:
I see the market is saturated on that type or a comparable type of item with similar ratings, and the prices on comparable-rating items are somewhere about where I would put them or above: I check the minimum price and add about 50% on top of it, round it to a ten (up or down, depending on mood, the general market situation as I perceived it, rarity and popularity of the item…) and put it in. (So, a 50 gold minimum priced item will go out for 70 or 80 gold)
I see that while the market does, indeed, have a number of items of this type, none even closely matches the rating of what I want to sell: I’ll put it for sale for about 2x (lots of items) to 3x (few items) the minimum price. (So, a 28 gold minimum price item will go out for about 50 to 90 gold)
I see that the market has few to no items of this type or any related type: I’ll put the price at about 4x minimum price.
You see? Even if no other market (Player and NPC) in the whole game sells an item with the same primary weapon/type, I’ll put up a weapon with some of the best stats for this type in the game for no more than maybe 200 to 250 gold. That’s rather fair for something equalling a monopoly, isn’t it? Still, as this rarely happens (this time, Plant was nowhere available, and Flesh only with a handful of items with about one fifth of the quality of what I’m selling) most items I sell go out for about 40 to 80 gold. Some of the best stuff in the game. (Of course, armor is usually a bit more expensive, as the ratings are higher, and higher ratings mean higher minimum prices. Still, as there is always plenty of armor – and most times even with similar ratings – available, I usually only add the nominal 50% or even less.)
4. How do you collect stuff and decide what to sell?
When I am hunting, and I have defeated a group with viable drops, I check them closely. I rarely loot armor, as it doesn’t sell very well, usually I’ll pick up maybe the best item, if it is an armor type I know and use myself (Fine Scalemail or Fine Chainmail) or if it stands out against all others of its own type, rating-wise (for example, a Krati Heavy Cloak with rating 240 against two with 221 and 216).
Of weapons, I usually loot the best of each kind, and all of them if I know it’s either the best stuff in the game or a rare/sought after type (Flesh, Plant and Airwind primaries, mostly). After looting, I check the stuff and compare it with a) what my group is using and b) what my group has in reserve if I want to change tactics and re-equip. If a found weapon is better than something currently used, I exchange it, if it is similar but may open up new options, I try it. Otherwise, it remains in the pool.
If I have three or more weapons of one type, I’ll usually trash the worst ones, if it isn’t a particularly rare or sought-after type. I will normally keep at least two of each type, one for the party to switch to, if required or wanted, and one to sell. Of course, that means “each type of which I know it is the best with this particular combination of skill types, rating-wise”.
When I come to a market, I’ll usually sell the “worse” items, sorry. They’re still the cream of the crop, though, as likely, I’ll have trashed ca. 1 out of 3 items of the same type I looted, and didn’t loot 3 out of 5 items of the same type that I would have been able to. It does occur, even, that if I find a new, better weapon, I may sell the one that one of my characters has been using for weeks or even months. I continually try to upgrade items by searching for ever-better stuff (see, for example, Cyrette Frostblazes Platen Firos Wand – rating 182, that’s very rare, maybe 1 in 50 drops, maybe even less. For reference, check Boran Pyrebound. He carries the second-best Fire weapon I own, a rating 165 Platen Firos Wand.) and thus, I sometimes end up replacing “good” items by “supreme” ones, and selling the “good” ones afterwards.
5. Why should I/we trust you?
Simple: Check my characters and their equipment. You know that I keep the best stuff to myself, as everyone would do, and sell the second best stuff (as I trash or do not even loot a majority of what I could)… and you’ll see that I sell stuff very similar to what I use myself, and you will also see that the prices match very strictly what I stated above.
6. Why do you trash stuff and not sell it to NPC traders?
Because NPC traders are only available in Martis, Chaduk and Hopitan. Most time I am somewhere around Plateney, near Tiasas Star, which doesn’t have a NPC shop. So I would have to travel a distance with about 6 or 7 fights to get somewhere where I could sell my junk for some 100 gold total. I’ll rather stay in Plateney, trash the bad items, hunt some more and get some good. Martuso Mines (which are directly behind Martis itself) is different: I usually go there on my way back to Hopitan, with little space left. And most of the drops there are of rare kinds that I chose to sell on Player markets anyways.
7. Wow that’s a long text. You do need the money, don’t you?
No. That’s exactly the point. I want people to buy from me, because that way, the weapons I don’t have any use for may be put to good use for at least some time, the people can get some good weapons, but as those weapons are really good (as in: it may be possible that you will find better, but it’s either unlikely, or a rare occasion and will take time and lots and lots of fights) people are supposed to save a bit of money to get them. I, myself, don’t need any more money than I have – I have almost 20.000 gold, that’s more than enough. And during hunting, and the way back, I usually earn about 1000 gold as the gold I loot after the fights.
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