Guild Wars 2

I am trying to get my wealth up a bit, I currently sit on ~ 500 gold so I decided I should try to “flip” items on the TP. The general consensus is that the TP is the most efficient way to make gold, by buying items at low prices and selling them at high prices. I’ve been using gw2spidy to find a bunch of items that I believe I can make a profit off of. I have 2-3 pages of buy orders. It seems that in about 10 minutes give or take I am outbid on the majority of items. I’ve been trying to babysit my buy orders by cancelling and remaking them +1 copper to meet the person who has outbid me but it’s driving me mad, having to cancle, collect coin, search item, enter the amount of coin, enter the quantity, hit purchase, then find the next item to cancel for every item I have. Any advice? I can’t make any money if I keep getting outbid, and I can’t have any sanity if I keep doing it this way. lol. Any tips are greatly appreciated.

I think that’s what TP traders largely do. They need to keep an eye on all their prices. There may also be 3rd party apps that can track the prices of items and notify you if you are overbid. It can be extremely boring and is not something that is fun for everyone.

I prefer to set my buy order at a point where I know I can make a profit and where I know it will (eventually) be sold to me.

Then, I don’t worry about them. If I wanted to baby sit my buy orders, I’d stand around Lion’s Arch shouting “WTB”.

mtpelion.4562:

I prefer to set my buy order at a point where I know I can make a profit and where I know it will (eventually) be sold to me.

Then, I don’t worry about them. If I wanted to baby sit my buy orders, I’d stand around Lion’s Arch shouting “WTB”.

Yeah, that is a good point actually. Maybe I would be better off to set a bunch of buy orders and just forget about them instead of babysitting. Does it work out well for you?

Acester.1560:

mtpelion.4562:

I prefer to set my buy order at a point where I know I can make a profit and where I know it will (eventually) be sold to me.

Then, I don’t worry about them. If I wanted to baby sit my buy orders, I’d stand around Lion’s Arch shouting “WTB”.

Yeah, that is a good point actually. Maybe I would be better off to set a bunch of buy orders and just forget about them instead of babysitting. Does it work out well for you?

Just remember that if an item is underpriced and far from equilibrium you can still get overbid.

I had a buy order for this item that I was going to use for luck. It had a sell price of 2.50s but a buy order of 1.40s. Over the course of 2 weeks I was competing against someone else and we kept overbidding each other by 1c. Eventually I overcut him by 50c…but he still kept up at it! I gave up when the price was the same as the sell order.

Acester.1560:

mtpelion.4562:

I prefer to set my buy order at a point where I know I can make a profit and where I know it will (eventually) be sold to me.

Then, I don’t worry about them. If I wanted to baby sit my buy orders, I’d stand around Lion’s Arch shouting “WTB”.

Yeah, that is a good point actually. Maybe I would be better off to set a bunch of buy orders and just forget about them instead of babysitting. Does it work out well for you?

It works very well for cyclical items that tend to go up and down within the same margins. Once you get familiar with your market, you’ll know where you can list. I am a bit more hands on with markets I’m not familiar with, but my rule is that I never change a buy order unless at least 3 days have passed.

Acester.1560:

mtpelion.4562:

I prefer to set my buy order at a point where I know I can make a profit and where I know it will (eventually) be sold to me.

Then, I don’t worry about them. If I wanted to baby sit my buy orders, I’d stand around Lion’s Arch shouting “WTB”.

Yeah, that is a good point actually. Maybe I would be better off to set a bunch of buy orders and just forget about them instead of babysitting. Does it work out well for you?

I’m not a trading pro, I prefer to adventure through dungeons for the majority of my gold. But this is what I do. I set my prices at night and go to bed. In the morning, I sell what I have won, cancel the rest of my order and place orders for the rest of the day while I’m at work. Rinse and repeat. Mind you I only sell a few 100 items a day at 1-2s profit, but it is a few extra gold for a few minutes before bed/work.

*edit typo

Keep in mind that the tp is global and u should place buy orders during the week while selling on the weekend when prices are high, also take to time look for more items so u have more than 2-3 pages, this way if you get out bit just cancel it and move to the next thing. I would recomend looking for high priced items to invest on, once you get to 500g coppers and silver are not that satisfieing to make.

People ain’t gonna overcut you 24/7, unless it’s a bot. You won’t win either way. Just set the order at a reasonable price and it will eventually fulfill. I tend to set my price at ~85% of the lowest point on spidy chart. If it’s a reasonable price, it’ll fill, in a few days or a week.

Also, most important thing is to diversify your market. Invest on some of this and some of that. You may (or will) lose money on some items, but you’ll make those back on others.

In general, the harder it is to make a profit, the more profit you can make. So if you’re being outbid left and right, it’s because the item is severely undervalued and if you do get one, you’ll make a killing. It’s usually more profitable to make 100 low-profit deals than one high-profit deal – due to time used to rebid and being undercut when you do list it. I usually don’t refresh bids or listed items all the time. once a day at most; unless it’s an item I need, like the precursor to a legendary I’m making.

There are general times when it’s best to place buy orders or list items. I don’t really have it down all the way, but I do notice my listed items sell a lot on sunday, and buy orders are outbid a lot in the early weekday evenings. So place buy orders late in the evening (like midnight to 2 am), then list everything sunday morning.

@Aceter, there is some very sound advice on this thread. As well as some great guides online for daily flipping, long term investments ect.
When starting to learn what works for you, never let your emotions control how you are bidding. Its very easy to do if you see you are competing with someone and you let your frustration get the better of you. Always know why you are placing bids on what you are bidding on. Patience and diversity have already been mentioned.

I strongly advise you to stay out of exotics, dyes and lvl 68+ rares.
Very, very strongly.

Tis against the ToS to say why though, but I think you can think of a few reasons.

Usually i babysit between 30-50 items at a time from 5-10 markets and check my bids every hour or two. As some people already mentioned, it good to diversify the markets you invest in nad if one isnt that profitable anymore, i leave it alone for a couple of days and move on to the next one.

The frequency of being outbid also depends on the volume of trading in the market. On some items i dont care if the are 500 orders posted above me because i know, there might as well 1000 be sold in the next 2 hours and some items i will immediately relist my buy order if someone puts 5 or 10 orders over me.

You should also have a good idea about where the item you want to buy comes from because it can give you a good indication on when to place your order to get them filled quickly. If you want some Keeper or Zealot Recipes it makes sense to place your orders 15 min into the Marionette event and babysit it for 30 min because after the event is over, alot of people sell the recipes they get.

In general you can say, the more you babysit your orders, the faster they gonna fill. Its boring sometimes but its what needed to make profit. Most people who complain about the profit margins of TP traders dont realize how much work this can actually be, especially if you look at short term flipping.

The upside of constantly looking at the buy orders and sell listings of the items you invest in, is that you get a pretty good idea about the market movement, which gives you an advantage over other players.

I keep sell listings up at least a week, even if i get undercut because of the weekly game meta. On Weekends there is alot more trading going and alot of items that are used in crafting spike in sell and buy orders on different days of the week.

posting a comment hear Wanze said, “Most people who complain about the profit margins of TP traders dont realize how much work this can actually be, especially if you look at short term flipping.”

That could not have been said better, I have people complain about tp and not making enough money, then find out they are only on it an hour or two at most a day.
Some of the hardcore traders that pretty much only play tp, have that much time in before breakfast.

Ryan.9387:

I strongly advise you to stay out of exotics, dyes and lvl 68+ rares.
Very, very strongly.

Tis against the ToS to say why though, but I think you can think of a few reasons.

my guess is that he would then be competing with you, and you don’t want that.
/wave
Hi competition!

I do it on occasion for an hour or so when I’m buying up rare armors for salvage. But with the collapse of the ecto prices, armor prices are too high to make money on the salvaged mats and runes.

Vol.7601:

Acester.1560:

mtpelion.4562:

I prefer to set my buy order at a point where I know I can make a profit and where I know it will (eventually) be sold to me.

Then, I don’t worry about them. If I wanted to baby sit my buy orders, I’d stand around Lion’s Arch shouting “WTB”.

Yeah, that is a good point actually. Maybe I would be better off to set a bunch of buy orders and just forget about them instead of babysitting. Does it work out well for you?

Just remember that if an item is underpriced and far from equilibrium you can still get overbid.

I had a buy order for this item that I was going to use for luck. It had a sell price of 2.50s but a buy order of 1.40s. Over the course of 2 weeks I was competing against someone else and we kept overbidding each other by 1c. Eventually I overcut him by 50c…but he still kept up at it! I gave up when the price was the same as the sell order.

Am I mean for doing this sort of thing just to lower the profit margin for some one else that’s trying to do the same thing that I am in hopes they’ll just realize it’s not worth the hassle for the tiny profit and leave that part of the market to me?

Differentiate between longterm and shortterm investments.

Shortterm investments have to be closely watched and you have to react fast. You can however make quite some gold in a relatively short time.
Example: The current state of rare greatswords crafting and some endgame consumables.

Longterm investments take less time but some patience. If someone outbids you by a copper – who cares? Stay in for the long run.
Example: Flipping of LS/event-specific items, e.g. wintersday gifts.

Furthermore, it is good to invest excess gold in items that are regularly needed.
As you don’t get interest on your gold, but the price for items raises somewhat linear to the amount of gold floating around, this is a rather good inflation protection.
Example: Crafting materials offer a stable value, e.g. orichalcum ore, omnomberries etc.