Guild Wars 2

Expensive items, such as legendary weapons, usually present a huge difference in buy and sell price on the Trading Post. Which one of the two is what it actually costs, though? Do people buy for the bigger sell price, or do they go for the lowest buy offer? For example, the “Bolt” is currently at 2751 gold for the buy price, whereas the sell price is much higher. Any chances of acquiring it at around the aforementioned amount of gold? I’m trying to calculate how much certain legends would cost if bought on the Trading Post, so that’s why I’m curious.

The reason there is a such a large gap is because lets say I list something for 1150 gold on bl. I would only get 1000g because the listing fee is so high. Luckily when you are the buyer you have no extra fee’s so just post above the highest buyer, unless you are in a rush.

Kronos.2560:

The reason there is a such a large gap is because lets say I list something for 1150 gold on bl. I would only get 1000g because the listing fee is so high. Luckily when you are the buyer you have no extra fee’s so just post above the highest buyer, unless you are in a rush.

Alright, so let’s say I want to purchase the Bolt for one gold more than its current highest buy price, which would make that 2752. Would someone actually sell it for that price? If so, how long would it take? You reckon less than a day? Or more?

It all depends on luck and the waiting game. Although a lot of the times I find that a game of outbit the other will go on between buyers until it closes the gap a ways. Wish i could tell you a timeframe, but at least if you are the highest buyer you are the first choice if someone wants to sell for a price cut.

With bolts now prices if you outbid the 2752 guy by a gold lets say, you might get a seller or you might have to play outbid back and forth for a while. If you want it quickly i would say bid somewhere near 3000g (still saves you a couple 100g) and will probably get it pretty quick. But it really depends on how long you want to wait/save.

People charge what they feel it is worth to them.

If someone decides at their time is worth 2751 gold and they want the money now, they may fulfill the order.

However, there are a number of factors that go into the pricing of the legendary:

1. How much the precursor cost them. This varies. Some went the mystic forge way, others bought off the TP, others were very lucky drops.

2. What gold cost do they consider the time it took them to obtain the account bound components: Map completion, dungeon tokens, mystic clovers, obsidian shards, etc. This part will vary from player to player.

3. The prices of the mats that go into the legendary.

A site that tracks progress has the total cost of the buyable with gold items for the Bolt being: 2243g 36s 43c. And you’re wanting other players to value the non-buyable items at 507g 63s 57c. And if the sell prices for the Bolt have been pretty consistent, why would I want to value my time at that price if other people can get more for their time out of it?

The prices may come down some in the long run due to WvW being removed from map completion and will likely come down when HoT is released as some will like the HoT version of the legendary sword better.

But both of those are likely long term price fluctuations. I wouldn’t expect anything to happen to the prices soon. It may even go up in the short term as those who did do WvW exploration but hadn’t finished the legendary yet are going to factor in that lost time that now means nothing toward the legendary. Their now wasted time. Especially if they transferred.

The way I determine my offers for high-priced items is to study recent and long term prices. Check out gw2tp.com or gw2spidy.com, which make it easy to do that research.

If I see offers for 800, 801, and 802, I know that 803 is likely to get overbid, so (all else equal) I’d aim for 820 (something to discourage someone else overbidding). But I’m (a) prepared to wait and (b) prepared to be outbid by a lot and not get anything.

Similarly, if the historical lowest-sale offer is 1,000 over the last two months, but now it’s gone up to 1,200, with a similar increase in highest buy offers, I’ll offer a lot more than if the lowest-sell is going down.

Another way to look at things is to compare the highest buy offer with the lowest sell offer and decide how much you are willing to pay to have the item now versus how long you are willing to wait to get your preferred price. In the case of bolt, with 2751 the highest buy and 3189 the lowest sale, ask: are you willing to pay 400g to get that legendary right now? Are you willing to wait for 2-3 weeks to save 400g? Are you willing to micromanage your offer to always have the best buy offer?

I trade a lot, so saving money on each transaction is worth my time overall. Plus I enjoy trying to out-think the market. On the other hand, I know a lot of people who are less patient, hate market research, and/or want to spend as little time worrying about their bids as possible. If those people are willing to take any risks, I usually advise them to offer a bit below the lowest sale offer, e.g. 3000g: that’s a healthy round number that will make a seller happy and still feel like a bargain to my friend (189g savings from ‘retail’).

In short, like most things that involve other humans, the best strategy depends on a lot of factors. Take in everyone’s advice and figure out your personal comfort zone; price accordingly. Good luck.

For really expensive items like legendaries and precursors, I think of the low sell price as the price nobody is willing to pay.