Guild Wars 2

I guess I just don’t understand the TP in this game. Call me a newb or whatever if you must but after that please answer the following points and/or questions too, lol:

1) It appears as though people are selling mats, drops and many crafted items, especially those in the lower levels to upper mid-range levels for little more than 1c above vendor sale price so my question is…what’s the point? It’s not like they’ll make -any- money on it. Why don’t they just outright vendor it?

2) How, in the name of Gawd, do I actually make any money in this game if I can’t do so by selling mats, crafted items (blues and occasional greens), drops (blues and the occasional greens) etc during the low to upper mid-range levels without using real life money to buy gems and flip them for in game cash?

3) How do I know -what- to even attempt to sell and how much to ask for it and still make a little profit? Keeping in mind, I play the game to…play the game content…not stand at the TP for hours on end playing the market.

4) Does the FIFO system mean that Joe Schmo can come in -after- me and sell the exact same thing as me for the same amount as me and sell theirs first simply because their listed sale is “newer” than mine or the other way around? And if so, then why is anyone even bothering to undercut anyone because it wouldn’t mean squat anyway since the sale is all based on who is first or last in?

5) Does it get better at end game or will I be forced to farm dungeons to make money. I hate farming dungeons over and over ad nausea. It gets hella boring.

Again, call me “newb” or “blonde” etc but then help me out by explaining the above and even adding some constructive suggestions. :P Thanks in advance.

I’ll try and help with some of the questions. I may be wrong

1. A lot of times items are sold at +1c as a way to “vendor” stuff when one is not near an actual vendor. Getting ~85% the vendor value is better than junking.

2. At level 80 you can make 1g / hour if you are just running around doing completions and killing things without trying. If you put some effort into it you can make 5g / hour. Before level 80 if you just complete maps and don’t spend a lot on crafting you’ll easily accumulate money.

3. Take some time to watch and observe. Basically anything with enough of a difference between the sell price and buy price will make you money. If you don’t want to play the TP then don’t. You don’t have to. I haven’t bothered and I was fine for gold.

4. First In First Out – FIFO. That means the first person to put something up for sale will be the first person to sell the item when someone buys it.

5. I haven’t farmed a single dungeon. I guess it depends what you mean by ‘getting better’ if you enjoy doing events you can chain events and make a bundle in Orr. But, since it is repetitive after awhile, it can get boring. You can make money in WvW as well – it really depends what you enjoy.

Basically, I approach GW2 like this: I want to enjoy myself so I do activities as I enjoy. In the process gold accumulates since there aren’t a lot of gold sinks in the game other than travel (which is easy enough to minimize) and repairs (which I have to pay a lot of during WvW).

1. For many reasons. in many cases, people dont understand that the tp takes money from you to list it as well as a cut of the profits. Also, people just want to get rid of it quickly if its taking up space. The sell from anywhere mechanic enables this.

2. There are still some mats that you can make money off of. Crafting is a lost cause due to the sheer amount of people that can craft, this creates a huge supply and not much demand except for a few select items.

3. Do your homework. Try different things and see what works and if you dont want to spend hours figuring out ways to make money, perhaps the TP isnt for you.

4. No. FIFO means that Joe can come in after you and sell the item at the same price, but a buyer will buy your item first. Undercutting is used to avoid this, by listing his item at a lower price, Joe’s item will sell before yours because the buyer gets the cheapest listing.

5. There are many ways to get money besides dungeon runs, in fact that’s one of the worst ways to do it. Dungeon farming is for getting that particular dungeons armor skin.

I hope this was informative.

Supply and Demand – Areanet determines the drop rate.

I dont know what level you are but youre worrying way too much. If you just play the game, especially completing each zone 100% and doing dailies, then you will be just fine. I had the gold for all the skillbooks as I approached the levels needed, I had greens and some affordable yellows for most of the way up and it was perfectly fine, and I even invested in dyes and converted 1+gold to gems for a bag slot upgrade, as well as upgrading my bags to 12 slots and buying a few pricey minis I liked. What im getting at is, gold is not an issue at all unless you spend your time staring at stuff in the trading post. Just play the game as intended, focusing on doing the story quest and completing the various zones, and you’ll have no trouble getting to 80. Once you get to 80 you play the content and complete the world 100% in which time you will get the materials and gold necessary to complete your character goals such as crafting and gear.

I will only sell mats that generate a profit on the TP. I will vendor all other mats that are on the 1c over vendor priceline. If I glut the market on an already low demanded item , I am contributing to my own cash flow issues in regard to TP sales. I salvage blues and greens for the basic mats which usually sell for more than the unit itself.

It’s worth noting, though, that 1c over vendor is still profitable for bulk orders at 6c or less, because when you sell a bunch at a time the listing fee and (more or less) tax are computed on the whole order.

Thanks for the input guys. I suppose I’m just so used to a non-FIFO system and different style of in-game selling/buying from other games which don’t employ this method that I need to just readjust the way I look at this. I’m used to gold being the be all end all of survival in game in order to have good gear, weapons, etc. Plus the trading gold for gems…and gems being needed for things like storage expansion etc…adds to the pressure to make some serious coin faster than I seem to be able to do so atm. Storage is especially a serious problem and, unlike others, I don’t have a large disposable RL income to throw at buying gems willy nilly. Really appreciate the suggestions and input, everyone.

I have not used this a great deal, but I can see the advantage to it

http://www.gw2spidy.com/

Tells you per crafting profession what will make the most profit using real time data, calculating the cost to buy mats to craft and the going rate to sell it.

Pretty awesome. Just don’t tell everyone

Creed.7940:

I have not used this a great deal, but I can see the advantage to it

http://www.gw2spidy.com/

Tells you per crafting profession what will make the most profit using real time data, calculating the cost to buy mats to craft and the going rate to sell it.

Pretty awesome. Just don’t tell everyone

It gives the average sell / buy prices, it won’t necessarily tell you what to buy to make a profit.

Personally, I started with a single calculation (Buy Price / 0.85 = break even price) on my phones calculator app but then I created a speadsheet to do various calculations to work out not only the profit of flipping items but also how much profit is gained compared to the initial investment in buy orders.

These days I only really flip items which triple my money (3c returned for each 1c invested in buy orders).

Jestunhi.7429:

These days I only really flip items which triple my money (3c returned for each 1c invested in buy orders).

Holy poo. I think the best I’ve ever made was about 10% on margin trading. I suppose I’m just terrible at predicting market trends.

sigh clearly I need to hire a broker.

Lucubration.8361:

Jestunhi.7429:

These days I only really flip items which triple my money (3c returned for each 1c invested in buy orders).

Holy poo. I think the best I’ve ever made was about 10% on margin trading. I suppose I’m just terrible at predicting market trends.

sigh clearly I need to hire a broker.

It’s all about finding the right item to flip.

Remember that lvl 80 isn’t all that matters. Think about when you level a char – when do you buy things?

Are there certain levels which you are more likely to replace your gear (e.g. lvl 35 is the lowest level yellow armour / weapons)?

I’ll keep the items that I trade a secret though.

I made almost enough gold in the first 2-3 weeks of the TP to outfit my warrior for his career into exotic gear at 80. This last couple of weeks… way more profit grinding in Cursed shore with the bots. Be sure to group up and run the common events with the zerg.

You used to be able to sit at the TP and make a consistent 10-15% on certain common materials, flipping stacks of 250 several times an hour – it was boring but lucrative.

Now, virtually all the fast moving “stock” is commoditized to nothing, or at best you buy low overnight and hopefully clear 5-10% during peak times. It’s not worth putting the time into it anymore. Tripling your money? Enjoy it while you can but if something has somehow managed to elude the fell gaze of the farmers up until now, just don’t expect it to last forever.

The bots and gold farmers are pretty much running rampant and AN have been applying sticking plasters (anti-farming code and those special recipes to soak up mats) to address symptoms, without tackling a cure. At this stage I hope their dream of a functioning economy are pulled off, but I’m not hopeful.

VendettaDFA.9368:

I will only sell mats that generate a profit on the TP. I will vendor all other mats that are on the 1c over vendor priceline. If I glut the market on an already low demanded item , I am contributing to my own cash flow issues in regard to TP sales. I salvage blues and greens for the basic mats which usually sell for more than the unit itself.

It makes sense to salvage low level items (using the cheapest kit) because the mats you get sell for more than the items do – and you have the 500 salvages for the monthly achievement) but once gear starts to hit around the 30-40c selling price then I’d just vendor it instead. Yellows sell well under lvl 60 on the TP – the market gets cutthroat at 75-80 so it makes more sense to salvage lvl 75+ yellow items in the hope of ectoplasm and high-end mats. Does depend on the item though, some still sell better than the materials you MIGHT get.