Auction tips?

[tinidas]

I never spent much time in EC on live, but have been hangin out a bit here on P99 and having lots of fun. Looking for tips to make auctioning more productive, like for instance I find it helpful to put "prices firm" or "offers considered" at the end to encourage or discourage haggling based on what i'm selling. What tips do yall have?

[Tiggles]

Always haggle if you want to sell something for a firm price either sell it for more and get haggled down or sell it to a merchant.



Everyone likes to think they are getting a deal

[Harmonicdeth]

Don't put prices, just put the item up, when people ask for the price, do the high price on the auction.goonquest.com page, and if they want to haggle haggle it down a bit, other than just ask them to offer usually works for me to get a fair price.

There are some people on this server who go for extreme profit and go for WAY more than asking price, and get it because high level rich people pay it... Bartering is a lot of fun if done fairly and friendly.

[Tallenn]

There are some of us that just want to find what we want and buy it, with as little hassle, and taking as little time as possible. We don't want to haggle, and rarely even bother with auctions that don't have a price listed.

In order to sell to us, auction at a reasonable price (higher than what the lowest you're willing to take is, but still fair), and when someone like me sees the auction and wants the item, you'll get a tell that simply says, "I'll take it."

People like me aren't interested in playing the market, or maximizing profit. We just want to get what we need with a minimum of hassle, and without getting ripped off. You'd be surpised how many of us there are.

[inyane]

There are some of us that just want to find what we want and buy it, with as little hassle, and taking as little time as possible. We don't want to haggle, and rarely even bother with auctions that don't have a price listed.

In order to sell to us, auction at a reasonable price (higher than what the lowest you're willing to take is, but still fair), and when someone like me sees the auction and wants the item, you'll get a tell that simply says, "I'll take it."

People like me aren't interested in playing the market, or maximizing profit. We just want to get what we need with a minimum of hassle, and without getting ripped off. You'd be surpised how many of us there are.


/agree

[krforrester]

I am with Tallen on this one. I rarely send someone a tell about what they are selling if there are no prices (unless it is something I really really want).

Also, how do you put an item link in a social macro ("WTS *link*"). I still haven't figured that one out even though there was a post somewhere attempting to explain how. I can't find the post now but it still didn't work for me.

[Lagaidh]

I've had luck so far in simply offering what I can afford to pay. I've only been turned down once.

[Loquan]

ALT+Click to open the item up, and click the picture to link the item in your chat box. That's how I do it, anyways.

[Overcast]

I am with Tallen on this one. I rarely send someone a tell about what they are selling if there are no prices (unless it is something I really really want).

Also, how do you put an item link in a social macro ("WTS *link*"). I still haven't figured that one out even though there was a post somewhere attempting to explain how. I can't find the post now but it still didn't work for me.

I agree too - I'm much more apt to buy with a listed price. If there are two auctions for items, and one I clearly know I can afford, I tend to lean that way.

If it seems like a deal + the price is listed, I might grab it up fast before someone else does..

[Dantes]

I like to see prices listed. If I think they are too high, I will just send a tell with a lower offer.

[Messianic]

I wonder how well a store would do if it stopped putting prices on its items and you had to go ask the cashier what the price was.

[fuji]

Pick one of the hot female chars, giggle a lot and act really really nice to people.

Sales isn't about selling a product, it is about selling yourself.

[Troy]

It's especially annoying when people don't have prices if you're like me: I spend little to no time in EC and have no real idea what stuff is worth. It seems like a lot of stuff is really expensive on this server so it's tough to judge anything.

[Elissa]

I wonder how well a store would do if it stopped putting prices on its items and you had to go ask the cashier what the price was.

A store is a bit different of a situation than bargainers in a tunnel... ECers aren't purporting to be a store; they're people. Stores don't haggle with you but people do! Store = Bazaar (AFK sellers). Thankfully we'll never see the terrible bazaar here.

[Dantes]

It seems like a lot of stuff is really expensive on this server so it's tough to judge anything.

The items in demand can be high price, but anything that isn't 100% optimal pre-planar gear is a damn hard sell. You have to low-ball that stuff or give it away. The brand newbies provide the market for it, but half of them are broke and the other half are bombarded with free gifts so they don't need mid-level gear.

[Troy]

anything that isn't 100% optimal pre-planar gear is a damn hard sell.

And anything that is costs thousands and thousands of plat, there is no middle ground. It's just strange. Stuff is either worth >5k or <500 generally.

[savarin]

If you go to a flea market and ask the price of an item from the seller, they don't tell you to make an offer, they tell you a start price and haggle from there. I don't see the practicality of not advertising the price if you have a certain amount in mind, especially if you tell people the price when they ask.

[Tallenn]

I told you there was a lot of us. If you insist on not advertising your price, then chances are that the people who contact you are the kind that LIKE to haggle. More often than not, they are also going to be the ones that are GOOD at haggling.

[oldhead]

Selling...

never ask your bottom line unless you add firm at the end.

Always give in on the price a little but dont give in to drastic hagglers. Many are just resellers trying to make a buck.


Always ask yourself what is important to you. making an extra couple hundred plat on and item or spending an extra few hours selling for the price you want.

If you have many items for sale fight the urge to sell low to move the items.
Having lots to sell should be the time you are being firm with hagglers.
The logic being... you sell that one item for low to move it... your still going to be in EC selling the other items.

The crap you have left over after you sell everything else... thats the crap you drop prices on to move.

Which brings me to... dont waste time selling one item at a time in EC unless its high end or your in need of gear badly. Stockpile it up and then spend a night selling it off. Consolidate.

While you are selling crap.. keep your eyes out for under value items.
If you got 1000p and see an item like say... A Dark Reaver that can sell for 900-1100p selling for 700p. Send the guy a tell and see if he will take 500p. Dark reavers can be hard to move as its a class specific item and many people get frustrated and sell low. You might be able to pick it up at a good enough rate to make a 30-40% return on investment.

Dont wants your time with 10-20% resells... not worth the hassle or the risk.


These are some of the rules I follow.
I typed this fast and sloppy... so forgive the formatting and spelling.

[oldhead]

If you are unsure of the popularity or demand of an item do not put a price at the end...
let people send you a tell for the price. This will allow you to gauge the market demand for the item even if you never moved it before.

If you dont want to be bothered with alot of tells put the prices on the end of your auction links.

[nafsmar]

There are some of us that just want to find what we want and buy it, with as little hassle, and taking as little time as possible. We don't want to haggle, and rarely even bother with auctions that don't have a price listed.

In order to sell to us, auction at a reasonable price (higher than what the lowest you're willing to take is, but still fair), and when someone like me sees the auction and wants the item, you'll get a tell that simply says, "I'll take it."

People like me aren't interested in playing the market, or maximizing profit. We just want to get what we need with a minimum of hassle, and without getting ripped off. You'd be surpised how many of us there are.

/agree too

[Kevris]

Here's some advice:

Get a friend and do the Sten of Moggok quest a million times.

I started on this server July 23rd; my character is now 5 days 6 hours /played, level 15.

Since I've started, my ranger buddy and I have been pretty much chaining the Stein of Moggok quest to the point where I think we've dropped the value of them to 200pp. It took about 3 hours to sell one tonight, and I only got 200ish for it. Yesterday I was getting around 300 from instant sales. I'm pretty sure we're done selling them now lol.

In the meantime, we've:
Gotten his mule chanter to 12 with 100ish J/C and Blacksmithing

Bought 2x Hero bracers, a crested helm, an SSB, BP of Ro, Greaves of Ro, 2x plat fire wedding rings, 2x jagged bands, Ghoulbane, a CDS, a Brigandine Tunic, some silver plated leggings, DWB's, a runed falchion, a sharkjaw cutlass, some various bronze parts to fill me out, a BS mantle, and a man-o-war.

We still have 882pp leftover too.

WTB Boots or Vambraces of Ro...

Be firm on your pricing, and be direct. It's also a good idea to be polite to people.

[Lazortag]

some decent money-giving mobs are also retardedly easy to camp over and over again at low-ish levels. In runnyeye the goblin king has a 100% chance of spawning and a 100% chance of dropping a decent item. Over the course of a day if you and a friend around level 30 (a little less is fine, but you have to be decent solo classes) duo the room in which he spawns, you'll get tons of these items that you can sell and make quick cash for. I don't know how much I recommend this over normal plat-making strategies, but at least it's extremely one-dimensional and simple.

[William_Munny15]

Whatever you do, just dont be like so many other douche nozzle's and auction 15 things without any price after, i find that u get more reasonable offers putting a price down, i laughed at alot of people asking what they want for an item, then i OOC and say that so and so is overpricing look out

[oldhead]

Whatever you do, just dont be like so many other douche nozzle's and auction 15 things without any price after, i find that u get more reasonable offers putting a price down, i laughed at alot of people asking what they want for an item, then i OOC and say that so and so is overpricing look out

:rolleyes:

[Ashimar]

Linking items in EC tunnel is not classic. It should be removed. Typing in the stats is classic.

[Derpus]

i sell tons of crap on an alt. the biggest part is simply understanding that market, whats selling well, what is not in demand. some items will sell but only to under rare circumstances. the gnomish rebreather is a good example. i only drop prices on items that either i dont have a supply on( i dont make or cant camp the item personally) or im taking out of my general inventory and dont want to look at it any more. i do keep an eye out for exceptionally low prices on strong items, but the market just isn't big enough(total volume) for that to be a large part of the model. i've never sent a tell to a person who doesn't list prices, and often /ignore them if the auction is large. the bread and butter are items that you can camp, quest or make with your own characters. im not gonna discuss the particulars of inventory, but i will give you some general advice, remember this mostly applies to good demand, self supplied stuff sold by someone who isnt desperate for plat.

always list prices, no prices is the second leading killer of sales behind not auctioning.

be firm on pricing, offer discounts on multiple purchases or at certain costs (ie 500+, 1k+)

know the market for your items if nothing else, if you're selling backpacks and someone auctions them for more, figure out if hes a producer or not, if not dont worry.

know when to cut bait, if something sells great for a while the market will be saturated with it, if you are camping the item you will notice the traffic at the camp before the market change anyway. if you are crafting it it can be harder.

if you're low level dont overlook the farming/selling of ingredients/quest related items. laziness is a good sale driver to richer players.

avoid the word "offer", both saying it and dealing with those that do

remember none of this applies as strictly to the top end items (tradable planar, items that no longer drop, event rewards). there is so little movement it these items the seller has more leeway, although not as much some of them seem to think. the market works out prices for these items too, although the spread can be several k.

in all cases the onus is on the seller to begin the price negotiation, if you chose not to list a price upfront, have a starting point ready if someone inquires. a reply of "make offer" in a tell or an auction is a sign that a person is either not negotiating in good faith or is an idiot. avoid both.

[Nikon]

a reply of "make offer" in a tell or an auction is a sign that a person is either not negotiating in good faith or is an idiot. avoid both.

While I agree with most of Derp's post I won't agree with this. I have given away many great deals on items by just having people throw me offers on stuff and I have got some good deals myself. All in all, just communicate. Sometimes people are just looking to get rid of stuff. It doesn't hurt to ask or offer. If someone is giving you a hard time on a price/item then move on. In the end though nothing is more beneficial to buying/selling than doing market research for yourself.

[Derpus]

i didnt mean to imply that all people "taking offers" are shady. in my experience its just not worth the time investment.

edit- here's a tip on an item niche that seems to go chronically unfilled, mid level 2hs. tons of sub 100p ones, tons of 1k+
the 2 items im thinking of are the blackend iron bastard sword and the gigantic zweihander, just dont see to many of them out there, and when i do they get snapped up pretty fast

[Noleafclover]

Beware the reseller. If you see someone on a lv. 1 alt buying and selling, they will be unlikely to give you the good end of the stick whether you're buying from them or selling to them.

Good ways to tell this are - if they are "anon" without a guild tag (almost everyone uses roleplay in guilds), if you wander over to t1 and see them naked and green con, and if they are selling many many items (fallible, if they're selling many items from the same zone they could just have come from camping there). If you have a sense of prices at all, you'll be able to tell them by the fact they WTB everything under, WTS everything over.

So, generally, do a /who of the person you're dealing with. If it's someone in one of the major guilds and anon, they're likely to take any non-ripoff deal - and also likely to have been around and tell you to shove it if you try to rip them off. I also do a /who, and if I see someone 10-30, I'm more likely to say "I'll take it" or "I'll take it, and pay you more for the convenience and 'cause you need it;" so if you're a lowbie leveling up, stay unanon.

[tinidas]

Thanks for all the advice. I actually am doing the resell thing but don't think I'm doing it the bad way Noleafclover describes. Much of my wares are vendor bought (words, griffon wings, minor items) that go for more then the vendor sells but I also will purchase bargains that are offered and resell at a fair price or discount. example someone was selling serpentine bracer for 50p when others auctioned around 100 (even 1 guy asking 250 heh) which I bought and then sold for 75p. I assume original seller was happy with 50, I was happy with 25 profit and last buyer was happy too. I'd guess some folks like to sell below market so they can get back to fighting. I do like to buy under of course but sell fair rather than over.

I hope that falls in the 'good' category :)

[oldhead]

Linking items in EC tunnel is not classic. It should be removed. Typing in the stats is classic.

Nerd

[oldhead]

i sell tons of crap on an alt. the biggest part is simply understanding that market, whats selling well, what is not in demand. some items will sell but only to under rare circumstances. the gnomish rebreather is a good example. i only drop prices on items that either i dont have a supply on( i dont make or cant camp the item personally) or im taking out of my general inventory and dont want to look at it any more. i do keep an eye out for exceptionally low prices on strong items, but the market just isn't big enough(total volume) for that to be a large part of the model. i've never sent a tell to a person who doesn't list prices, and often /ignore them if the auction is large. the bread and butter are items that you can camp, quest or make with your own characters. im not gonna discuss the particulars of inventory, but i will give you some general advice, remember this mostly applies to good demand, self supplied stuff sold by someone who isnt desperate for plat.

always list prices, no prices is the second leading killer of sales behind not auctioning.

be firm on pricing, offer discounts on multiple purchases or at certain costs (ie 500+, 1k+)

know the market for your items if nothing else, if you're selling backpacks and someone auctions them for more, figure out if hes a producer or not, if not dont worry.

know when to cut bait, if something sells great for a while the market will be saturated with it, if you are camping the item you will notice the traffic at the camp before the market change anyway. if you are crafting it it can be harder.

if you're low level dont overlook the farming/selling of ingredients/quest related items. laziness is a good sale driver to richer players.

avoid the word "offer", both saying it and dealing with those that do

remember none of this applies as strictly to the top end items (tradable planar, items that no longer drop, event rewards). there is so little movement it these items the seller has more leeway, although not as much some of them seem to think. the market works out prices for these items too, although the spread can be several k.

in all cases the onus is on the seller to begin the price negotiation, if you chose not to list a price upfront, have a starting point ready if someone inquires. a reply of "make offer" in a tell or an auction is a sign that a person is either not negotiating in good faith or is an idiot. avoid both.

Lots of bad advice in this post.