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 Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:19 am
Introduction
Welcome to my market whoring guide. Inside is a beginner's guide to making money through the marketplace. There is no "one way" of market whoring. I hope this guide helps you get started and eventually develop your own ideas.
I will update this as often as possible. Most of this comes from my own experiences, and others may have different experiences. I am still learning more about market whoring, and it's something that is constantly changing.
If you are wondering if it is worth the hassle, yes. On a decent day, I make 10 to 20K in gold, and some days 50K. I've made a lot of mistakes and could have made more. So I am not a great market whore, and I still made a ton of gold, and I hope you will too.
If you disagree with any of this or want to share your own strategies, please post them here too. I love hearing from others and learning more about the market.
Post 01 - Introduction - You Are Here
Post 02 - How To Vend
Post 03 - Understanding Ranges
Post 04 - Inflation
Post 05 - Donation Day
Post 06 - Preferred Items
Post 07 - Links
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Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:20 am
How To Vend
In a nutshell, buy low and sell high rofl Simple, yes?
But how do we do that? Well, first we need to understand that people sell for different reasons.
There are the market whores, who try and get maximum value out of an item. Then there are regular sellers who may be selling items for a quest or to help a friend, and need gold quickly. Finally, there are crazy peeps, either people who are leaving Gaia, people who made a mistake in pricing, people who didn't look up the current market price, or people desperate for gold.
For example, lets take a guitar of angellus. The marketwhore checks the lowest price in the marketplace and sees that it is currently 19K. So the item will sell for 19K, but the marketwhore might have to wait an hour. The regular seller might sell it for 18, and it should sell within 20 mins, while the crazy person might sell it for 15 and have it sell instantly.
Patience is a key virtue of the marketwhore. They are willing to wait to get more out of an item than the average seller. In a way, it's like the bookie taking bets on sporting events. He may get $100,000 in bets, but he doesn't earn $100,000. He takes a commission (the vig) for doing the work. I have over 9 million gold in sales, but I don't have 9 million gold worth of stuff. I have earned a bit in each sale.
You don't need a lot of gold to get started. There are good deals in every price range and I will discuss that later in the guide. However, the more gold you have, the more flexibility you have in snaring deals.
There's 3 good ways of vending, and it does depend on your connection speed. If you have high-speed internet, you can do all 3. If you are on dial-up, look at 2 and 3 mainly.
1. The Marketplace
http://www.gaiaonline.com/gaia/vend.php?mode=view
That is your office. Most marketwhores go there, refresh the page and look for a deal, and if they don't see one, refresh again. If they see a deal, they buy it.
However, you have dozens of marketwhores going for the same items, so speed is of the essence. Even with a high-speed connection, you'll miss out on half the deals you spot usually because someone has beat you to it.
To improve your chances, check the time of day. The morning (EST) is slower than the evening. If it is the morning, you can usually get deals on page 1. The higher the item is on the page, the better your odds of getting it. 3 seconds can be the difference in getting the item or losing out.
You should also copy your password, so you can quickly paste it instead of re-typing it. That way, you can buy that within 10 seconds of it appearing on your screen. Simply click the BUY NOW button, click on the password field, and hit CTRL+V on your keyboard to paste your password, then hit ENTER. It takes some practice, but this trick will save you a lot of time.
2. The Gaia Exchange
http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=22
This is a forum where people post items they are selling, and you can make offers on them. You can find really good deals here. It also means you can make offers on items without needing a lightning-fast connection.
The items in the Exchange often go for less than the marketplace, otherwise people would buy it from the marketplace. As a result, many market whores go to the Exchange to buy cheap and then sell in the marketplace.
Using the guitar of angellus example, if the value is 19 in the marketplace, you can often find it for 17 in the exchange. Just buy out of the exchange, sell on the marketplace, and you've made 2K profit in one deal.
Another advantage is that you can use the Marketplace to look up the current value of an item. As many items fluctuate, this gives you the opportunity to check the current value to make sure you're not getting ripped off.
3. The Wanted Thread
http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11111793
This is my Wanted Thread. It is pretty complicated and requires some set-up time, but works well when you bump it frequently. Basically there's a sub-section of the Exchange called WANTED, and you can ask to buy stuff there. People come and make you offers, you haggle back.
In mine, I posted what I will buy and what I won't buy to avoid silly offers. This is an excellent idea as it saves times for all. The WANTED sub-section is also good because it attracts crazy peeps who are desperate to sell their items, so you can get really good deals.
However, it is very hit or miss. Sometimes you get ten deals in ten mins, sometimes you get no deals for an hour.
Finally, there is no definitive way of doing things. So long as you make money, it's good. And sometimes you'll lose a bit, but so long as you make more than you lose, it's fine.
Here's an example of what I mean. I found two staff of the angels for 27.5K. The lowest in the market was 34K.
I could sell both for 34K and hope they get bought, making 13K, but I would have to wait a while. Instead, I sold them both for 30K and they sold within minutes. I only made 5K instead of 13K, but I got it instantly instead of waiting all day for it. And the market price may shift and lower.
Am I right? Am I wrong? There is no single answer. I made a quick profit, and I'm happy. Someone else might do it differently, and that's great too.
One final note about undercutting and selling. You don't have to undercut by a LOT. In my examples, I undercut by 500 g but the reality is you only need to undercut by 1 g. If a person has a choice of buying something for 7,000 g or 6,999, they will buy it for 6,999. That one gold is enough.
Also, if you have duplicates of the item (3 whips of fire as an example), don't list all 3 at once. It establishes the market price at that low rate, which means others will undercut you. If you only list one, it looks like the lowest. Then when it sells, you can put up another.
Post 01 - Introduction
Post 02 - How To Vend - You Are Here
Post 03 - Understanding Ranges
Post 04 - Inflation
Post 05 - Donation Day
Post 06 - Preferred Items
Post 07 - Links
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Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:22 am
Understanding Ranges
Item prices are constantly fluctuating. A simple way of vending is buy in the morning, sell in the evening. That's because the odds are the item will increase at night due to more buyers.
Why do items fluctuate? Well, it varies depending on the number of sellers. And every seller wants to have their item gone first, so they sell it lower.
Lets take the example of the guitar of angellus for 19K. If there are 3 sellers, they look at the 19K...one will sell for 18.5. Then the next will mark theirs at 18. Then the other will mark theirs for 17.
The 19K item is suddenly selling for 17K because there are more sellers than buyers.
However, if there are more buyers, they might buy up the 19K guitar and the next lowest is 21K. Then the sellers would price theirs at 20 or 21K, and if they get bought quickly, the price may stay at that level.
Each item has a "low" and a "high" which varies. Often, if you can buy for a low range, you can sell for a high. As an example, Kiki kitties go for 24 to 30K. If you buy one for 25K, you can wait and then sell it for 30 when the market goes up.
To understand an item price range better, I would recommend only tracking one or two items. You don't have to even buy them or pay much attention, just over the course of the week check the lowest price on them and it will give you an idea of the fluctuations that may occur.
I keep an eye on the market constantly so you can also PM me for info, but this is constantly changing. As an example, the Kikis were as high as 40K, then the Coco Kitty came out and knocked it down to 22K...now it's back up to 27K, all within two months.
So long as you're buying on the lower end of the fluctuations, you should be able to turn a profit.
Ranges can also be misleading, and looking at the lowest item isn't the best indicator of the value of an item. Instead, look at the 5 lowest, as the lowest might be a crazy person trying to sell quickly.
Lets take an example from today, the Zony Discman. The lowest in the market was 26K, so does that make the value of the Discman 26K?
Well the market fluctuations from the past week showed it to go from 24 to 35K even. And today, the lowest was 26, but the 2nd-lowest was 29.2K, the 3rd lowest was 29.5K, and the 4th lowest was 30K.
So the item value is really around 29.5. I bought it for 26, re-sold for 29K, and made 3K profit.
Don't judge by the lowest price in the market; look for big gaps between the lowest and 2nd-lowest. Also, if you see a lump of items at a price (Coco kitties, dozens at 10K), that tells you that they aren't selling for 10K so you'll have to price lower.
Post 01 - Introduction
Post 02 - How To Vend
Post 03 - Understanding Ranges - You Are Here
Post 04 - Inflation
Post 05 - Donation Day
Post 06 - Preferred Items
Post 07 - Links
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Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:24 am
Inflation
There's two types of inflation. 1 is the natural inflation of an item. As more people join Gaia, the item may become rarer and rarer, and the price goes up, or as it's popularity gains, the price goes up. Kiki kitties used to go for 10K, but because of their popularity they went up.
The other type is artificial inflation, which is when market whores buy a ton of the item and change the lowest priced item. This is what really sent the Kiki skyrocketing. In this scenario, one or more marketwhores buy up all the cheaper items and raise the price.
Lets say there's 10 Kikis for 25K to 29K. One marketwhore buys all of them and then sets the price at 30K. They have artificially inflated the market temporarily to 30K. It will stay at 30K unless someone puts in more Kikis at a lower price and the market whore doesn't buy them.
Artificial inflation is dangerous because it can crash at any time. Anyone can inflate the market, but the item has to have buyers or else it will come back down. As an example, someone artificially pushed the price of kitsune masks from 53K to 90K, but no one would buy so the price went down to 70K...then they tried to do it again, pushing the price up to 80K but again it is coming back down...there aren't enough buyers for the kitsune mask.
That is why understanding ranges is important, because you can tell what is artificial inflation. If you are going to deal with items that are artificially inflated, you need to sell quickly and make your profit. However, there is a big risk/reward scale. A friend bought a kitsune mask for 60K, and sold it for 64K...they then inflated to 80K. Had he waited, he could have made a lot more. But if the market crashes and comes back to 50K, he could lose money.
Post 01 - Introduction
Post 02 - How To Vend
Post 03 - Understanding Ranges
Post 04 - Inflation - You Are Here
Post 05 - Donation Day
Post 06 - Preferred Items
Post 07 - Links
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Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:26 am
Donation Day
My favourite day of the Gaian month heart
This is the day that the donation items are released, and the market goes crazy. You can easily make 10K in an HOUR!
First thing is first, if you can wait for the donation item, you're better off selling your letters or items. Sealed envelopes can be bought for 5.5K to 7K depending on the month. When they turn into donation items, their value jumps up for the first day because there are so many people who want to buy.
So if you sell the item on day 1, you get the highest price for a while. After a day, the item price will drop and continue to drop for a long time before bottoming out and coming back up, sometimes taking months.
As an example, lets look at October 2005 and the coco kitty/wind security blanket.
The sealed envelopes were going for 6K that month. When the item got released, people were buying them for 16K on day 1! And then it dropped...and dropped...and dropped...til you could get it for 8K. It has climbed back up to 9.5 now.
If you bought a sealed envelope for 6K and kept the item, you'd save yourself 2K from the cost of buying a Coco. But had you sold it on day 1, then bought it when it bottomed out, you'd have the Coco Kitty still and an extra 8K in gold, enough to buy another if you wanted.
Another way of making money is re-selling the items. People always undercut by so much, they don't understand that 250 g is a lot of gold especially on donation day because it sells within seconds. If your donation item does not sell within 5 mins on day 1, it is the wrong price, because there is a massive rush for these things. As a result, if you find someone selling their donation item for 250 to 500 g less than the lowest price, buy it and re-sell. Small profit, I know, but you can do 20 of these deals in an hour and make 5 to 10K profit without much effort.
Finally, open letters. I'm going to guess that people don't know the item is in the letter or something, because the letter is always cheaper than the item. For Cocos, the items were going for 16K but letters were 14 and 15K. Find a cheap letter, open it, sell it for 16K.
Donation day is also good for finding deals on other items. Many people are desperate to get the new items, so they will sell something they own for super cheap to have the gold to buy the new item. They think that they may lose a few K on a deal, but they get a new item out of it so they don't mind.
Post 01 - Introduction
Post 02 - How To Vend
Post 03 - Understanding Ranges
Post 04 - Inflation
Post 05 - Donation Day - You Are Here
Post 06 - Preferred Items
Post 07 - Links
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Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:27 am
Preferred Items
In my mind, there are three types of items. High-demand, average, and crappy. Each have their charms.
High-demand means it sells quickly. Unfortunately, it means there's more people competing with you to buy/sell, so your profit margins tend to be lower. An example is the Kiki kitty. I don't mind buying one for 26K cuz I know it will sell quickly, however I don't make a lot of gold on it.
Average items mean it sells eventually. You have to be patient with it, and the longer you wait, the more chance there is of someone undercutting you. However you tend to find good deals on them if you have the patience to do it. An example is the lunar cloak, which you can find for 10K and sell for 11 to 12K with patience.
Crappy items take forever to sell, however they often have the highest profit margins. Crappy items can also be super expensive and highly-wanted, but fewer people can afford them. An example is the nitemare headband, which goes for 180K. You can sell for 185 to 190K, but it can take a week before someone buys it.
You also don't need a lot of gold to do vendwhoring. I have put together a list of good items that sell quickly for various price ranges, depending on how much gold you have. These numbers do fluctuate so please check the market before diving in.
Under 10K in pure?
- grunny slippers: Find them for 1.5 to 1.9K, sell for 2.25 to 3K
- old cans: Buy them for under 5 g, sell for 9 g. Usually works best if you sell in 100s. I made over 40K in cans alone in one month because a lot of newbs think they're regular trash so you get good deals.
- pandy pack: Find them for 2.7 to 2.9, sell for 3 to 4K.
- pimpin' cane (any colour): Find for 4K, sell for 4.5 to 4.9K.
- angelic collar: Find them for 2K, sell for 2.5 to 3K.
- prisoner shackles: Find them for 2K, sell for 2.5 to 3K.
- Gaia 2nd Anniversary balloon: Find for 100 g, sell for 500 to 600 g.
10 to 30K in pure?
- guitar of angellus/demona: Watch out for inflation on these items. But sometimes they pop up for 16 or 17K, buy and then sell for 18 to 21K. Demona is worth more.
- Sealed envelopes: usually go for 5 to 7K...check the market rates, but you can usually find cheaper ones and sell for 250 to 500 g profit, and these move QUICK. You need to check on these daily, they fluctuate a lot.
- whip of fire/ice: Whip of ice is more valuable and rarer, but both go for the same prices, though the whip of ice tends to move quicker. Find for 6 to 6.5K, sell for 7.5 to 8K.
- lunar cloak: Find for 11K or less, sell for 11.5 to 13K.
- solar cloak: Find for 9.5K, sell for 9.8 to 10K+.
- coco kitty: find for 10 to 11K, sell for 11.5 to 13K
- Demonic pendant: Find for 17 to 19K, sell for 20 to 22K.
- joker wand (any colour): Find for 20K, sell for 22 to 30K.
Over 30K?
If you have over 30K in pure, you should still do all of the below as they turn out good profits. It just means you have more flexibility for high-priced items.
But more expensive doesn't necessarily mean better. It often means fewer people can afford the stuff. As an example, I bought a Kiki for 26K and made 1K. I bought a spirited scarf for 1K and made 2K. What's the better deal, right? wink
However, there are a few items that are very popular and do sell well over 30K.
- horns of the demon: Find for 105 to 108, sell for 110 to 115K.
- steel-plated ninja band: Find for 90 to 99K, sell for 105K+.
- Zony mp3 player: find for 25 to 27.5K, sell for 29 to 40K. This is a wide range because these items have fluctuated so much the past few months.
- kiki kitty: Find for 25 to 27, sell for 27 to 30K. Check the market before diving in, these items have fluctuated a lot recently.
- demonic pitchfork: Find for 28 to 30K, sell for 31 to 33K.
- staff of the angels: Find for 28 to 30K, sell for 31 to 33K.
- Parisian fan: Find for under 40K, sell for over 40K.
Post 01 - Introduction
Post 02 - How To Vend
Post 03 - Understanding Ranges
Post 04 - Inflation
Post 05 - Donation Day
Post 06 - Preferred Items - You Are Here
Post 07 - Links
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Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:28 am
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Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 10:38 am
And done sweatdrop
Hope it all makes sense. If anyone has questions, please let me know.
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Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:46 pm
~just blinks then drops to her knees~ eek
We're not worthy! We're not worthy! We're not worthy! xd
~slaps the mega-impressive ( sweatdrop ) Vi seal of approval~
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Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 6:21 am
Vivid_Illusions ~just blinks then drops to her knees~ eek We're not worthy! We're not worthy! We're not worthy! xd ~slaps the mega-impressive ( sweatdrop ) Vi seal of approval~ That is a mega-impressive seal of approval too xd I plan on updating this thing with notes and stuff but I hope it was okay to read, I know it's a bit long sweatdrop
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Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 6:57 pm
Long, but good info, especially about donation day. I found that out when someone traded a demonic pendant to me for a coco kitty on donation day. You can get some good deals, I just have to remember it's all a game, I feel bad sometimes when some poor 12 year old trades away something good cause they don't know any better. But we can't save em all huh.
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Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:53 am
jailai Long, but good info, especially about donation day. I found that out when someone traded a demonic pendant to me for a coco kitty on donation day. You can get some good deals, I just have to remember it's all a game, I feel bad sometimes when some poor 12 year old trades away something good cause they don't know any better. But we can't save em all huh. Yeah, though if they do it, some vendwhore will just take advantage of it. For those kids, I try to give them something back or give them more...if it's a fellow vendwhore, screw 'em blaugh
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Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 9:30 pm
polkaroo79 jailai Long, but good info, especially about donation day. I found that out when someone traded a demonic pendant to me for a coco kitty on donation day. You can get some good deals, I just have to remember it's all a game, I feel bad sometimes when some poor 12 year old trades away something good cause they don't know any better. But we can't save em all huh. Yeah, though if they do it, some vendwhore will just take advantage of it. For those kids, I try to give them something back or give them more...if it's a fellow vendwhore, screw 'em blaugh Polky says while twirling his pimpin cane. mrgreen
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