Guild Wars 2

So in my ventures into Cooking, I’ve tried a few times now to make some money off of tray items. They require a pretty hefty investment with a mystic forge recipe, but the profit margins wouldn’t take too long to make that money back. Or, at least, that would be the case, if tray items ever sold. I’ve never successfully sold a single one on the seller’s market, the buyer’s market is never profitable, and it seems like an ever increasing exercise in futility. Given their utility, this surprises me quite a bit. What is it about tray items that makes them so hard to sell?

I don’t know about others, but the only time I see trays used is once or twice on friday when we’re queueing up wvw. Maybe that’s why?

Trays are only useful if a lot of players are around to use them. So, Tequatl sized events in PvE, or WvW reset night. That’s when you see them.

You wouldn’t use a tray for a specific dungeon or fractal. There are only 5 people in the party.

the only trays I’ve ever seen:
+100 power food trays near the WP in wvw or near the zerg getting ready for teq
health regen trays before a public guild rush

all others were meant to be funny (IA while ago I saw someone put down like 40 different trays of food around the MF in LA)

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

Trays are only useful if a lot of players are around to use them. So, Tequatl sized events in PvE, or WvW reset night. That’s when you see them.

You wouldn’t use a tray for a specific dungeon or fractal. There are only 5 people in the party.

… and in those cases it wouldn’t be surprising if people in the guilds(assuming there is one one) organizing for those events have someone doing all the cooking already so they wouldn’t need to buy them.

Most things that sell well are for one person use only, that person who buys it gets the full benefit of it. In the case of trays, other people are getting the use. You could say that that indirectly benefits the buyer but, speaking in rational economic terms only, an individual is better off financially to let someone else buy, make and put down the tray. If no one does then they are still better off to use their own private food buff.

Because it’s a philanthropic gesture to make these trays and since people are individually better off not buying and making them, that means they won’t sell to everyone. Demand is low.

Khisanth.2948:

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

Trays are only useful if a lot of players are around to use them. So, Tequatl sized events in PvE, or WvW reset night. That’s when you see them.

You wouldn’t use a tray for a specific dungeon or fractal. There are only 5 people in the party.

… and in those cases it wouldn’t be surprising if people in the guilds(assuming there is one one) organizing for those events have someone doing all the cooking already so they wouldn’t need to buy them.

That’s how we do it.

rare veggie pizza sells for a decent, but unprofitable amount. Usually I drop trays of various sorts before guild missions and guild rush(usually health regen there), but I make them myself. I also used to drop trays of health regen before Ulgoth when folks used that event chain for leveling. Sometimes I drop a couple in front of the bank (formerly in LA, now at vigil)