Guild Wars 2

Hi, I am a beginner at playing the TP, but I was luck enough to notice a couple nights ago (Jan. 1 -2) there a significant spike in the price of Coarse Leather Squares.

I spent about two gold deconstructing level 40 to 45 leather armors for around 45c to 60c apiece, refining the resulting sections, and turning around and selling stacks of the refined squares for a lot of money; I was getting at least 150% profit per square at one point during the spike, which you can see on the attachment. (A screenshot of http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/19734 – If you go to the link and can’t see the chart up to Jan. 1-2, refresh your page.)

Of course, the price of the Coarse Cured Leather Squares has gone way down since the big spike, but the demand remains is staying high and looks like it is in an upward trend, but I am new at this and can’t be sure.

Would it be a good idea to stay in this market of Coarse Cured Leather Squares?

Any advice, opinions, or insight would really be appreciated!

Personally, I don’t bother with the smaller stuff like that because it’s usually bots/ridiculously rich people manipulating them to get other people (like you) to constantly invest, then they pull the market down on you.

If you want to know a safer method to making money, turn cores into lodestones. It requires skill points, but if you do dungeons in between crafts, you should be fine. Additionally, if you have a high enough crafting profession, you can research what runes you can make with the profession and then sell those runes for profit. Make sure you research before hand and do ALL your math. ALWAYS.

If you don’t do your math, you’ll end up thinking you’re making profit but either breaking even or even going negative. (15% reduction on all sales, 5% from listing, 10% from selling.)

Thanks for the advice Esplen. I do take into account all of the costs, even down to how much it takes to deconstruct leathers and post sales on TP. I understand the math (even though I hate and suck at math). I wonder though if it benefits a rich person to pump that much profit into the marketplace when I could easily diversify/spend the profits. Although I agree market manipulation is a risk inherent in every market. I like hearing new methods of making money – like crafting with lodestones – but that would be a lot of work.

Crafting with cores is a very profitable market which I have been doing for months. My gold typically goes up and down like really unstable stocks due to my wanting to buy something and my wanting to make gold. I also sometimes make extremely bad investments which come back to bite me, but for the most part, I would say stick to a stable profitable item and use it sparingly until it gets worked out.

Example:
Turn [] core into lodestone. Sell lodestone.
Buy 4 [] cores. Repeat.
Repeat with 4 cores. Do not pass 4 so as to cut your losses if it fails.

That’s kind of my new method to make sure I don’t lose out on profit, of course I’m not selling lodestones, but that’s another thing. Always make sure to keep any profit to yourself and close friends because once it gets out, the supply will jump and the demand will either cease or the price will drop due to everyone trying to get their profits (although most people won’t do the math and will just try to undercut).

Another thing is to always~ list EQUAL to the lowest seller. Why? It puts you at the top of the stack, meaning you’re going to sell first if anyone buys.

~: Don’t always list equal to the lowest seller if it isn’t a guarantee sale, like a really unstable market. Make sure you check to see if the stock of a certain item disappear to list things, otherwise it might just be one of those “all the stock is gone, but we’ll be back later!” prices.

Esplen.3940:

Another thing is to always~ list EQUAL to the lowest seller. Why? It puts you at the top of the stack, meaning you’re going to sell first if anyone buys.

~: Don’t always list equal to the lowest seller if it isn’t a guarantee sale, like a really unstable market. Make sure you check to see if the stock of a certain item disappear to list things, otherwise it might just be one of those “all the stock is gone, but we’ll be back later!” prices.

Actually matching the lowest seller doesn’t put you at the top of the stack, it will put you at the end of the queue of sellers who’ve already listed at that price.
For the leather squares market I really have no idea if it’s a good market, that depends on how much you’re making per day.

AirlineDlx.5203:

Esplen.3940:

Another thing is to always~ list EQUAL to the lowest seller. Why? It puts you at the top of the stack, meaning you’re going to sell first if anyone buys.

~: Don’t always list equal to the lowest seller if it isn’t a guarantee sale, like a really unstable market. Make sure you check to see if the stock of a certain item disappear to list things, otherwise it might just be one of those “all the stock is gone, but we’ll be back later!” prices.

Actually matching the lowest seller doesn’t put you at the top of the stack, it will put you at the end of the queue of sellers who’ve already listed at that price.
For the leather squares market I really have no idea if it’s a good market, that depends on how much you’re making per day.

Matching sets you to be the next to get the order filled, I’m quite sure of this.

Esplen.3940:

Matching sets you to be the next to get the order filled, I’m quite sure of this.

Not any more. That behavior was actually a bug with the TP that was patched a couple of months ago.

Having said that, depending on the quantity listed at the lowest price, it can sometimes still be worthwhile to match the current lowest price rather than undercutting.

Unless there are thousands listed, then yes (off course, if it’s thousands listed of a crafting material, you should be okay).

I tried cores → lodestones at one point. Didn’t make very much, but I’m pretty sure I made something. I’m just not so sure the profit is as high as you make it sound. current prices:
charged core = buy order for 1g49s12c
charged lodestone = sell listings for 3g69s50c
Pile of Crystalline Dust = buy order for 5s14c
cost of converting core to lodestone = 2 × 1g49s12c (core) + 25s60c (wine) + 5s14c (dust) + 0.6 SP = 3g28s98c
3g69s50c * 85% = 3g14s07c
now, right now it’s clearly not a good idea to do these, bad example I guess. But I’ve never seen a time when the expected profit would be higher than about 50s. sure, 50s is good, but for the cost required to do it, it’s not that impressive and there are better investments to be had. I see this as more of the best way to turn SP into gold 3g → 3.5g for 0.6 SP. And during that time, I tend to find more cores than I do SP.

Mystic.5934:

I tried cores -> lodestones at one point. Didn’t make very much, but I’m pretty sure I made something. I’m just not so sure the profit is as high as you make it sound. current prices:
charged core = buy order for 1g49s12c
charged lodestone = sell listings for 3g69s50c
Pile of Crystalline Dust = buy order for 5s14c
cost of converting core to lodestone = 2 × 1g49s12c (core) + 25s60c (wine) + 5s14c (dust) + 0.6 SP = 3g28s98c
3g69s50c * 85% = 3g14s07c
now, right now it’s clearly not a good idea to do these, bad example I guess. But I’ve never seen a time when the expected profit would be higher than about 50s. sure, 50s is good, but for the cost required to do it, it’s not that impressive and there are better investments to be had. I see this as more of the best way to turn SP into gold 3g -> 3.5g for 0.6 SP. And during that time, I tend to find more cores than I do SP.

You can do more with Lodestones than just immediately resell them.

Craft runes and sigils for extra money