Guild Wars 2

So I am getting bored with playing the game and thought Id play something different… TP flipping. But I’ve run into an issue. I’m making so many transactions that it is really difficult to get an accurate guage of my profit, let alone if I am making a profit. Do people keep records? I originally was listing stuff on notepad, but there are so many variations to keep track of. Like I put in a buy offer for 100 of X and I get 17 of them and use those to craft Z along with the 30 of Y that I also put in a buy offer and then have 13 of Y left…. it gets too much. It seems like the only way to do it, with a lot of things is to base of current numbers rather than off what the numbers were at the time I got the buy offer. Everyone else do this or do you keep records?

Spreadsheet works wonders for things like this. Use them a lot in EvE online and while I don’t play the TP I’m sure they can help you get the read outs that you are seeking.

Microsoft Excel FTW. But really, as long as you know what your bottom line is, you should never lose money. That is, unless you purposely go below the profit thresholds.

And if you don’t have Excel, you can use Google Docs’ spreadsheet which is a good, and free, alternative. But yes, a spreadsheet is the way to go for these sorts of things if you really want to offload the tedium.

I can’t imagine you finding flipping more non-boring than playing the game. Flipping is about as boring a thing as you can do in a game. I indulge in between blocks of normal gameplay, and even with constant profits, I’ve become reluctant to keep up a proper schedule. But, of course, that’s just me.

LibreOffice is a great, I highly recommend. Compatible with all M$ documents as well and is free.

You will no doubt have to put your info on a spreadsheet if you want any kind of organization.

I only keep record of the stuff I’m buying/bought, the price I got it and the breakeven price. Quantity I don’t keep as it doesn’t matter for me.

I don’t keep track of any of the items I buy or sell, but that’s because of the way I’ve “programmed” my database.

If my database tells me it’s profitable at the margins I’ve set up….then it’s profitable. I work in high volume markets, so when it “says” it’s profitable, I place as many buy orders at 1c over the current buy price as I can until I’m out of gold. By trading in high volume markets, any fluctuations that occur in the market are quickly averaged out…..just make sure there are enough buyers for the items you’re wanting to sell. If you try and sell too many of them, you may saturate the market and your items will sit there forever (and likely be undercut).

On general checking of overall results…..I’m always in the black by the approximate profit margin % (+/- 2%) that my database is programmed for in the given market.

My advice would be to work on creating a tool that’s flexible and allows you to monitor multiple markets simultaneously. That way, when a market is profitable, you’ll know where to invest. I continually analyze new markets to add to my arsenal so that I’m never in one place too long, but can always go back to a previous market later. Even if your analysis shows that the market you were considering isn’t profitable, don’t delete your work….you never know….it might be a profitable market in a couple of months due to a change made in the game.

Ask yourself some of these questions and they can lead you to potentially profitable markets:

• What are the things that players want to buy?
• How many of them are available for purchase?
• How can I get some of these items?
• What’s the price difference between the current buy and current sell?
• How rare is the item I’m considering?
• How do I calculate whether this item will be profitable?
• etc.

Once you answer those questions and do the math, you can find out whether that market is worth investing in. It’s a VERY low risk proposition. The only thing you’ve spent is time. Once you start analyzing different markets, you’ll get better at picking different things out. Remember, there are over 20,000 different items that trade on the Trading Post…..that’s a LOT of potential markets you could be playing in.

Good luck and happy trading!!!

I just manually put everything in a spreadsheet dedicated to GW2. Simple formulas built in to calculate the other stuff.

My spreadsheet (which was originally based on some other person’s work) consists of:
-Metaevent tracker for up to 6 characters
-Crafting calculator (i.e. you want to craft 70 rare greatswords – how much is it going to cost you in mat amount and gold?)
-Purchasing history and trend

I hand calculate to determine my price point when buying rares to salvage into ectos and then maybe into dust. Since the price of ectos and runes vary day to day long term records really doesn’t help in my case.

OpenOffice also works. Just make sure that you know the threshold with which you can make profit or at least break even. So many times I’ve thought I was making profit when really I was either going negative or just making a few coppers. My money was going up, but that’s because I was using materials I already had like Ecto’s or Orichalcum, etc. I’m honestly okay with that, though, because I don’t have much use for them at the current moment. (Although I wouldn’t mind using Ecto’s to get shiny item skins, I don’t really need/want them).