Guild Wars 2

I had an old post, but it was in the Back Lion Trading Co message board and couldn’t be edited (gerrr) so I’m relisting it here with some updates:

I wanted to share some knowledge, so I decided to make one thorough walkthrough and just direct people here:

Section A) Table of Contents

• B) General Tips
• C) Producing your own gold / farming
• D) Converting other currencies
• E) Trading: Spread / Speculation Crafting / Precursor/ Bag
• E) Trading: Ecto Salvage
• E) Trading: Basic Salvage
• F) Miscellaneous

Old Guide

Section B ) General Tips
1) Almost always buy through buy orders and sell through sell listings. It takes longer, but it saves you gold. Also, usually, you should undercut and overcut by 1c; not all the time, but at least do it on the slow items (fast ones it can be better not to because it saves you time and 1c).

2) Grouping several gold-producing methods together makes them more effective. This saves the 15% TP tax, resulting in higher profits.

3) When you buy anything, always have an idea how long you plan to hold onto it, and how much you will get from it. And be realistic. “I will buy this expecting the supply will go down in ~6 months, raising the price 1000%” vs. “I will buy this, salvage it, sell it for 20% more”.

4) The decision to relist or not should almost be a willingness. Are you willing to accept less profit from a quicker sale. You would be less willing when selling long-term investments, because what’s a few weeks when you’ve held it for so long. And you’d be more willing to sell instant profits quickly so you have the gold again to use. And be realistic. If it’s a high turnover item, it’s not as important to have the absolute lowest sell listing, because prices will swing often.

5) For how much gold you have I recommend different proportions of TP investments:
 <1,000g = 100% instant profits (meaning you buy and sell in about a day)
 1,000g – 3,000g = 90% instant + 10% long-term
 3,000g – 5,000g = 80% instant + 20% long-term
 5,000g – 10,000g = 50% instant + 50% long-term
 >10,000g = ~5,000g instant + rest in long-term
You should always keep at least ~10g+1% on hand. This is an emergency fund, in case you need to pay listing fees, or relist, or you spot a really good deal, etc.
These all, of course, dependent on your preferences.
Instant profits usually yield better returns over the same time period (because they compound), but there is a limit to how many you can do. There are only so many exotics to salvage, materials to craft, items to flip, etc. before you’re far enough down the list of good deals that it’s no longer worth your time to keep going.

6) To salvage or not to salvage? If you are looking for gold (selling the item vs. selling the material), there is usually almost no difference. I’ve heard you should salvage cloth because that material is worth more, but selling cloth items also get you as much more, so I say it doesn’t matter. You should do the same thing to everything to save you time deciding what to do. There are exceptions such as exotics and some rare weapons (unique, greatsword, staff, dagger), so I would price-check those first. Just be sure to use the correct kit if you salvage and which ever choice you prefer is fine.

Section C) Producing your own gold (farming)
1) Guild Commendations

• Guild missions can be done once a week and take about 1-2 hours. Bounty, Rush, Challenge, Puzzle. Total, you get at least 2g, 8 rares, and 6 commendations. The commendations can be turned into Sentinel’s Inscription/Insignia and sold on the TP for ~5g. That’s ~8g/hour (@ 40s/ecto).

2) Daily Dungeons

• Each dungeon path gives extra loot the first time you do it each day, whih resets at the daily reset. Easy ones: CoF 1(2), AC 1(3), SE 13, TA UF, CM 3(1), CoE 12, HotW 1, Arah (123). ~5-10g/hour.
• Fractals of the Mists has tiers that you can each get daily credit from: 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-40, and 41-50. FotM is better for account-bound loot: ascended items and fractal relics and karma, but it does give decent income as well; ~3-4g/hour.
• Edge of the Mists is similar to Fractals in that it’s better for karma and badges, but can also give a decent income, especially if you actually fight the other zergs.

3) World Bosses

• Less lucrative than they used to be, but if you hear that one is going on, go there. Can take less than 5 minutes and you get 1+ rare. That’s ~5g/hour (@ 40s/ecto), but obviously can’t be done continuously as there’s not always a world boss going on.

4) Harvesting

• Ancient wood and orichalcum are the obvious choices, but there aren’t very many of them.
• There is also Iron ore, Platinum ore, Soft wood, Seasoned wood, Hard wood. Each of these sell for over 1s, and there are hundreds of nodes.
• Some node farming guides:
  http://www.gw2nodes.com.
  http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Node_farm
  http://pwniversity.com/gw2/farming
• It’s nice to park alts near patches and farm from them once a day (or hour, depending on the patch)

5) Champ Trains

• Frostgorge Sound. ~5g/hour.
• Silverwaste chest train. 15-25s/bag x 100 bag/(hour+hour to get crests) = 7.5-15g/hour depending on if you include karma and Spirit Shards.
• Regarding if it’s better to open champ bags on a level 55 (and get more T4 mats) or a level 80 (and get more rare/exotics), they are too close to say one is better (source). However, I recommend doing the one you consume more materials from (if you use lots of platinum and linen, use 55. If you use lots of ecto, use 80). This will save you from selling what you don’t need and buying what you do, which saves the 15% tax. Masterwork bags should be opened on a level 55, as they can’t drop rares and exotics.

6) Farming Locations

• Too many to list, here’s a good guide: http://www.almarsguides.com/gw2/farming/

7) Daily login rewards

• After 28 days of logging in, you have 55 laurels plus other things like coins, materials, exotics, and BLSK.
• As mentioned below, laurels are worth about 1g each. That’s 55g+ per month. With multiple accounts, that’s not a small amount.
• Manually log in yourself, do not use any programs to help you, don’t going over 25 accounts.

8) There are more things that can go here, but too many to describe. Hot maps, Raids, event farming, EotM, Fractals, etc.

Section D) Converting other currencies
1) Map Completion

• Can only be used to make a legendary. My order of making a legendary for profit is: Gift of Mastery, Gift of Fortune, decide which legendary will give the most profit, Gift of Legendary and precursor. If you pick the right legendary, you can get upwards of 800-1000g profit.
• This can help you decide which legendary to make: GW2Profits Forge Legendaries Tool
• Worth up to about 300g each gift of exploration, or 600g for map completion. This can take ~60 hours, 10g/hour.

2) Spirit Shards

• Promoting T1 basic refined materials to T2, but it’s very hard to convert a lot. Up to 1-3g/SS.
   GW2Profits Forge Materials Tool
• There are a lot of Mystic Forge items that use Eldritch Scroll. The non-‘Mystic’ ones can give ~50s-2g/SS profit, especially the ones that require dungeon tokens.
   GW2Profits Forge Weapons Tool
• Making a legendary to sell. Requires other currencies, ~80s/SS, uses ~350 SS (see “Map Completion” above).

3) Karma

• Beaded weapons give ~20-45s/1000 karma (but take a long time to purchase the beads).
   GW2Profits Recipes Tool
• Bloodtide linen armor (Archen Foreland, near Sorrowful WP, Bram Dawnrazer, fine Cloth Crab Grabbin’ Gloves), throwing it in the MF, and salvaging the output gives ~8s/1000 karma (@ 5s/linen scrap), but takes a while to buy and MF.
• Lost orrian jewelry boxes is the easiest and fastest but only gives ~3.5s/1000 karma.
• Making a legendary to sell. Requires other currencies, ~25s/1000 karma, uses ~1,000,000 karma (see “Map Completion” below).

4) Laurels

• Heavy Crafting Bag gives 3 T6 fine mats for 1 laurel. ~1g/laurel

5) Map-specific currencies

• Bandit crests can be converted through Bandit Skeleton Keys (“Champ Train” above, ~15s/crest) or Bag of Stolen Goods (~40c/crest) or Sandy Bag of Gear (~20c/crest) or obsidian shards (210 karma/crest)
• Geodes can be converted through Clay Pots, ~4s/Geode from T6

6) Guild Commendations

• As mentioned above under “Producing your own gold / Guild Commendations”, Sentinel’s Inscription/Insignia is your only method.

7) Dungeon Tokens

• http://www.gw2profits.com/ecto_salvage.php
• Level 68+ rares to salvage for ectos gives ~1s/token (@ 40s/ecto).
• Exotics and salvaging for inscription/insignia gives ~1s/token (@ 40s/ecto + 2g/inscription + 1g/DM).
• There are crafting and MF recipes that call for the Gifts or Offerings. ~1-20s/Token
   GW2Profits Forge Tool
• Making a legendary to sell. Requires other currencies, ~25s/Token, uses 500 Tokens

8) WvW Badges

• Siege equipment is the best option, usually Arrow Cart or Ram. ~50c/badge
• Making a legendary to sell. Requires other currencies, ~25s/badge, uses 500 Badges

a quick break from our regularly scheduled program in case I need this space in the future.

Section E) TP Trading
1) Spread

• Buy order low, sell listing high. The plan here is, for example, to buy items for 1g and sell them for 2g.
• You should use a website to help you locate where these spreads are and a spreadsheet to keep track of everything.
   GW2Profits Spread Tool
   http://www.gw2tp.com/search
• If you see a spread that is too good to be true (such as buy for 10s, sell for 10g), it is.

2) Speculating

• Buy an item for cheap, wait a few months, sell it for expensive.
• Limited-time items are a good bet (Living story, holidays, Gem Store dyes, Black Lion specialist weapons, etc.).
• Sometimes you can predict when a common thing will go up due to an update, such as when ascended armor was coming out and people predicted T2-T6 cloth and leather to increase, because that happened when ascended weapons came out.
• Stay current on recent news and general trends. The quicker you respond, the more profits you can make.

3) Crafting Disciplines

• If you need to level your crafting discipline for the cheapest price: http://www.gw2crafts.net/
• Almost all limited-time recipes are profitable to craft, as not everyone can make them. Potent Potions, Halloween and Crown Pavilion sigils/runes, etc.
• The intermediate items (components, inscriptions, etc.) are also profitable and usually have higher velocities than completed items.
• Time-gated materials are usually profitable. Ascended materials, Plates of Plant Food, Grow Lamp
• GW2Profits Craft Everything Tool
• GW2Profits Recipes Tool

4) Precursor Crafting

• One thing to keep in mind: sample size. It’s only a gamble if you do a statistically insignificant amount of it. With a large enough sample size, you will receive the average.
• Find a precursor that sells for a lot, and the items that go into the forge to make it are cheap. Expect to pay a LOT (10,000’s of gold), then sell a lot of precursors (100’s). Not all at once, because you can sell the precursors as you make them, but you do need a large initial investment.
   GW2Profits Precursor Tool
• Don’t blindly throw weapons back into it. Sell the expensive ones on the TP and use that cash to buy more than one cheaper one.
• Some numbers I’ve found that others have reported (reddit’s Nugkill):
   1 in 128 attempts produces a precursor from exotics
   1 in 782 attempts produces a precursor from rares
   Average level + (5 to 12) = product’s level, so an average level of 75+ is recommended (80+80+80+60 for example)
   Only a level 80 product will have a chance to be a precursor.

5) Bags

• A lot of bags are profitable to buy, open, sell ingredients. This is fairly time consuming and gives less than 1s profit per bag, but a good source of cheaper materials.
• GW2Profits Bag Tool

6) Ecto [and Inscription/Insignia] Salvaging

• Buy level 68+ rare and exotic items, salvage, sell ectos.
• It helps to know the drop rates:
   68+ Rare with MSK gives 0.875 ecto
   68+ Rare with BLSK gives 1.25 ecto
   68+ Exotic with MSK gives 1.27 ecto
   68+ Exotic with BLSK gives 1.66 ecto
   68+ Exotic with MSK gives 0.52 Glob of Dark Matter
   68+ Exotic with BLSK gives 1.00 Glob of Dark Matter
   Inscription/Insignia with MSK has 42.55% chance
   Inscription/Insignia with BLSK has 60.88% chance
• “MSK” = Master Salvage Kit or Mystic Salvage Kit. Master is cheaper unless you have free Mystic Forge Stones from achievement chests. Free Mystic kit > Master kit >>> paid Mystic kit
• For salvaging rares and exotics, you should use at least a master kit, see Luck Salvaging below for reasons
• “BLSK” = Black Lion Salvage Kit
• With the high price to buy gems with gold, BLSK is very rarely worth it. I made a formula for deciding when you should use BLSK:
   If 1.41 x socket_sale_price + 2.66 x ecto_sale_price + 1.35 x inscription_sale_price + 5s > price_per_100_gems, use BLSK, otherwise use MSK
   For a gem price of 25g / 100 gems and 40s/ecto, that means the socket and inscription combined need to sell for at least 17g25s (after TP tax).
• If you have more BLSK than you are able to use, just reduce this limit until you are using as many as you are getting, but don’t use all on cheap stuff or you’ll regret it when you have an expensive thing and no BLSK.
• Inscriptions/Insignia can drop from exotic weapons/armor with the stats of Cavalier (Tpf), Dire (Ctv), Magi (Hpv), Rabid (Cprt), Sentinel (Vpt), Shaman (Vch), Soldier (Ptv). This includes named exotics. They do not drop from crafted items (Pearl, Quaggan, Draconic, Emblazoned, Exalted), or from any of these weapons: Guild Defender, King’s Remembrance, Poyaqui’s Noggin, Occultist Flame, Scepter of the Highborn, Defiant Blaze, Faithful, Monsoon. All dungeon tokens except CoF have exotics that can be salvaged to get inscriptions/insignia.
• Glob of Dark Matter can be worth around 1g/glob (by making ascended inscriptions/insignia). Check some recipes before you decide which to make. Don’t get into it unless you have a fair amount of Globs (21k karma to buy each recipe). Inscription require 10, Insignia require 5.
• Named rares and exotics drop sockets that are more expensive than normal, and they aren’t as obvious that they do, so you can often get better profits from them.
• GW2Profits Ecto Salvage Tool

7) Basic Salvaging

• GW2Profits Basic Salvage Tool
• The most profitable way to max your magic find is to salvage blues and greens. (up to ~1s/item).
• Average drop rates:
  Weapons
   Long Bow / Short Bow / Staff / Trident = 1.85 Wood Logs
   Scepter / Torch = 1.1 Wood Logs
   Focus = 1 Wood Log
   Hammer / Harpoon Gun / Spear = 0.9 Wood Logs + 0.9 Ore
   Axe / Mace / Pistol / Rifle = 0.6 Wood Logs + 0.6 Ore
   Shield = 0.5 Wood Logs + 0.5 Ore (sometimes give wood planks)
   Greatsword = 1.8 Ore
   Sword / Dagger / Warhorn = 1.2 Ore
  Armor
   Heavy Coat = 2.45 Ore
   Heavy other Armor = 1.35 Ore
   Medium Coat = 3.1 Leather sections
   Medium other Armor = 2.1 Leather sections
   Back Piece = 2 Leather sections
   Light Coat = 3.1 Cloth scraps
   Light other Armor = 2.1 Cloth scraps
  Trinkets
   Amulet = 1.5 Ore
   Ring = 1.6 Ore
   Accessory = 1.5 Ore
• Level ranges:
   Green Wood 1-20, Soft Wood 16-33, Seasoned Wood 31-48, Hard Wood 46-63, Elder Wood 64-80
   Copper Ore 1-23, Iron Ore 19-55, Platinum Ore 49-62, Mithril Ore 63-80
   Rawhide Leather 1-18, Thin Leather 16-33, Coarse Leather 31-48, Rugged Leather 46-63, Thick Leather 61-80
   Jute Scrap 1-18, Wool Scrap 16-33, Cotton Scrap 31-50, Linen Scrap 46-63, Silk scrap 61-80
• Salvage Kit info:
   Crude: 2c/use, ~10% chance of promotion, ~5% chance of socket
   Basic/SoM: 3c/use, ~11% chance of promotion, 20% chance of socket (use if socket > 9c)
   Fine: 11c/use, ~13% chance of promotion, 40% chance of socket (use if socket > 40c)
   Journeyman: 32c/use, ~14% chance of promotion, 60% chance of socket (use if socket >1s)
   Master: 61c/use, ~15% chance of promotion, 80% chance of socket (use if socket >1s47c)
   Free Mystic: 10c/use, same as Master (use when you get Mystic Forge Stones from achievement chests)
   Paid Mystic: ~14s/use, same as Master (never use)
   Black Lion: ~3g/use, ~17% chance of promotion, 100% chance of socket (use if socket + inscription/insignia > 70% of price to buy 100 gems ~10g)

Section F) Miscellaneous
1) Item Storage (@100 gems = 25g)
15-slot Bag = 1g = 6s66c/space
18-slot Bag = 2g = 11s11c/space
20-slot Bag = 10g = 50s/space
20-slot Halloween Pail = 3 Candy Corn Gobs = 3×2g = 6g = 30s/space
20-slot Fractal Box = 150 fractal relics (2-3 fractal runs)
Bank Expansion = 6×25g=150g / 30 spaces = 5g/space
Guild Bank 50 = 2,500×20c=5g / 50 spaces = 10s/space
Guild Bank 150 = 22,500×20c=45g / 150 spaces = 30s/sapce
Guild Bank 250 = 52,500×20c=105g / 250 spaces = 42s/space
New Character + 4×15-Slot Bags = 8×25g+4x1g=204g / 80 spaces = 2g55s/space
New Character + 4×18-Slot Bags = 8×25g+4x2g=208g / 92 spaces = 2g26s/space
New Character + 4×20-Slot Bags = 8×25g+4x10g=240g / 100 spaces = 2g40s/space
New Character + 4×20-Slot Halloween Pail = 8×25g+4x6g=224g / 100 spaces = 2g24s/space
New Character + 3 Bag Expansions + 7×15-Slot Bags = 8×25g+3x4×25g+7x1g=507g / 125 spaces = 4g5s/space
New Character + 3 Bag Expansions + 7×18-Slot Bags = 8×25g+3x4×25g+7x2g=514g / 146 spaces = 3g52s/space
New Character + 3 Bag Expansions + 7×20-Slot Bags = 8×25g+3x4×25g+7x10g=570g / 160 spaces = 3g56s/space
New Character + 3 Bag Expansions + 7×20-Slot Halloween Pail = 8×25g+3x4×25g+7x6g=542g / 160 spaces = 3g38s/space
Collection Expander: 8×25g=200g / ~349 ‘spaces’ = 57s31c/space. Getting 1x collection expander is worth it if it saves 40+ bank spaces (or 80 spaces on a new character)

2) Websites
http://www.gw2profits.com
 I made this, I use it to find ways to earn gold.
http://www.gw2spidy.com
 For the graph, you can click on the labels to turn each on/off. I like to get rid of all the averages.
 You can get an idea of how many sales an item has by looking at the Sell Listings Volume. It’s not perfect, but if you count every time the volume decreases, that will usually be a sale. That can help you identify at what price an item will sell.
http://www.gw2tp.com is another good one, it updates more often than spidy and has different data representation.
https://gw2efficiency.com account viewer and various tools
https://www.gw2bltc.com looks pretty good at managing all your sales and reporting successes.
http://gw2.ninja/collections calculates cost of completing collections
http://mygw2.wvwintel.com account viewer
http://www.gw2bank.info account viewer
http://orikaru.net/files/games/gw2/misc/bankValue.php account viewer

3) API

• API is basically a website that you go to and it gives you information. Examples:
   https://api.guildwars2.com/v2/items/30689 returns information about Eternity
   https://api.guildwars2.com/v2/commerce/prices/30689 returns some sales info about Eternity such as lowest sell listing price
   https://api.guildwars2.com/v2/commerce/prices?ids=30689,30703,30704 returns some sales info about Eternity, Sunrise, and Twilight
   https://api.guildwars2.com/v2/commerce/prices?page=1&page_size=200 returns some sales info about a lot of items
• Data is returned in json format which can easily be decoded into an array for easy data manipulation.
• Some websites such as spidy and [link=https://www.gw2tp.com/api]gw2tp.com[/link] provide their own API’s that make it easy to download all item prices.
• If you’re going to work with API stuff, I highly recommend saving the data you download instead of having to retrieve it every time you go to use it. Easier to work with and won’t kitten off those who provide API’s.
• There is too much to cover in one thread, so here’s some websites that should help:
   https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API:2
   https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/api
   https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/api/Guide-to-the-Black-Lion-Trading-Co-API/page/2#post4612445 (useful to me at the time, but I think it only pertains to v1)

4) I am Evon Gnashblade

• If you type “I am Evon Gnashblade” into the TP search, it will show more items per page. You can type it in again to reverse it. I think it is also undone when they apply a patch? Mostly, it stays even after you logout.

That’s everything I can think of. If you find an error or have comments or suggestions, let me know!

another blank space if I need it

Mystic.5934:

20-slot Bag = 10g = 50s/space
20 slot bags for Candy Corn Cobs are alot cheaper
2) Websites
There are many price-tracking websites out there, pick one and use it.
My go-to for tacking prices is gw2spidy.com
 For the graph, you can click on the labels to turn each on/off. I like to get rid of all the averages.
 You can get an ideal of how many sales an item has by looking at the Sell Listings Volume. It’s not perfect, but if you count every time the volume decreases, that will usually be a sale. That can help you identify at what price an item will sell.
gw2tp.com is another good one, it updates more often than spidy but less user-friendly imo.
I dont see how gw2tp is not userfriendly, i prefer their graphs, as they have separate ones for price and supply/demand. Spidy has a better crafting section but gw2tp also has scroll downs that show every buy order/sell listing, which is quite handy to see where supply walls are located or the bulk of buy orders is at. But to each their own.

That’s everything I can think of. If you find an error or have comments or suggestions, let me know!

Some bolded suggestions. Maybe you also want to cover using API keys. There are some neat websites out there, i usually use gw2bltc.com to summarize my trading activities.
It especially comes in handy to calculate the value of all your listings, see your sales history by item and average sales price or your flipping history.

Under Current listings you can also check, if you got outbid or undercut on your bids/listings.

There are some more websites that calculate the value of the items in your material storage, bags and account banks (guild bank API coming with HoT) also.

Here some screenshots from gw2bltc.com, showing the overview, sales and flipping history:

Wanze.8410:

Mystic.5934:

20-slot Bag = 10g = 50s/space
20 slot bags for Candy Corn Cobs are alot cheaper
2) Websites
There are many price-tracking websites out there, pick one and use it.
My go-to for tacking prices is gw2spidy.com
 For the graph, you can click on the labels to turn each on/off. I like to get rid of all the averages.
 You can get an ideal of how many sales an item has by looking at the Sell Listings Volume. It’s not perfect, but if you count every time the volume decreases, that will usually be a sale. That can help you identify at what price an item will sell.
gw2tp.com is another good one, it updates more often than spidy but less user-friendly imo.
I dont see how gw2tp is not userfriendly, i prefer their graphs, as they have separate ones for price and supply/demand. Spidy has a better crafting section but gw2tp also has scroll downs that show every buy order/sell listing, which is quite handy to see where supply walls are located or the bulk of buy orders is at. But to each their own.

That’s everything I can think of. If you find an error or have comments or suggestions, let me know!

Some bolded suggestions. Maybe you also want to cover using API keys. There are some neat websites out there, i usually use gw2bltc.com to summarize my trading activities.
It especially comes in handy to calculate the value of all your listings, see your sales history by item and average sales price or your flipping history.

Under Current listings you can also check, if you got outbid or undercut on your bids/listings.

There are some more websites that calculate the value of the items in your material storage, bags and account banks (guild bank API coming with HoT) also.

Here some screenshots from gw2bltc.com, showing the overview, sales and flipping history:

Thanks for the tips on things to invest in. Do you think the price will rise on any of that small stuff now?

kitten amazing job with this Mystic

eithinan.9841:

Thanks for the tips on things to invest in. Do you think the price will rise on any of that small stuff now?

Thats all stuff I already sold, so its yesterdays news. What you are interested in is probably my purchase history, which i didnt post.

Great post again, Mystic. Thanks.

Mystic.5934:

• Regarding if it’s better to open champ bags on a level 55 (and get more T4 mats) or a level 80 (and get more rare/exotics), they are too close to say one is better (source). However, I recommend doing the one you consume more materials from (if you use lots of platinum and linen, use 55. If you use lots of ecto, use 80). This will save you from selling what you don’t need and buying what you do, which saves the 15% tax.

The link is misleading. It’s true that exotic bags are equally good for level 80 or level 50-55.

But, that’s not the point. Bags that are worth opening on low level character are Bag of Gear (masterwork) and other green bags (for exemple when you Key farm R.I.P.).

Wanze.8410:

I dont see how gw2tp is not userfriendly, i prefer their graphs, as they have separate ones for price and supply/demand. Spidy has a better crafting section but gw2tp also has scroll downs that show every buy order/sell listing, which is quite handy to see where supply walls are located or the bulk of buy orders is at. But to each their own.

that’s probably why I think it’s less user-friendly :P data is too segmented
completely forgot about candy corn bags. don’t use them myself, but they should be included (I had full fractal bags before those candy corn ones were cheap… I should mention those too)
wanze has 44kg in items for sale you got more wealthy since we chatted last
seems only polite I should share the same screens. this info is weird… doesn’t really repesent how much you have, only how much has gone through you. and looks like it only goes back to June 24. I wonder if it includes the fees you pay to relist an item. “COGS” = “Cost Of Getting Stuff”?

Thaddeus.4891:

The link is misleading. It’s true that exotic bags are equally good for level 80 or level 50-55.

But, that’s not the point. Bags that are worth opening on low level character are Bag of Gear (masterwork) and other green bags (for exemple when you Key farm R.I.P.).

I was hoping not to make a big deal out of that… the link is to my own post, so, yeah. :P only wanted to give something that backed up that claim. I agree that masterwork bags are much better to open on low levels, but most people never mention those and only mention champ bags, but I’ll edit it.
key farm is dead? but I was just there 2 days ago!

Scientia.8924:

kitten amazing job with this Mystic

thanks

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Great post again, Mystic. Thanks.

thanks

Hmmmm, there was one website I found a while ago where it would list everything all your characters had, sorted by value. So you could easily find high-value things. Can’t seem to find it right now, anyone know what I’m talking about?

Mystic.5934:

I was hoping not to make a big deal out of that… the link is to my own post, so, yeah. :P only wanted to give something that backed up that claim. I agree that masterwork bags are much better to open on low levels, but most people never mention those and only mention champ bags, but I’ll edit it.
key farm is dead? but I was just there 2 days ago!

It’s not a big deal. I already had 9 slots (8 char + 1 for key farming) when the HoT Pre-order gave me 2 additional slots. So I have one empty slot to create a free level 50-55 character to open them, but for most player, you don’t receive enough of those to be worth it. But ya people make a big deal out of that for nothing since the vast majority of bags are worth opening on a low character anyway. (don’t receive that much masterwork bag of gear tbh).

Yup I know they Killed it with today’s patch a couple hours ago. You are now limited to one key per week. I’ll continue to do a key run, but 52 keys a year instead of my usual 300-400 a year will make a big hole in my budget ; ). I’ll need to switch to other source of income apparently.

Mystic.5934:

wanze has 44kg in items for sale you got more wealthy since we chatted last
seems only polite I should share the same screens. this info is weird… doesn’t really repesent how much you have, only how much has gone through you. and looks like it only goes back to June 24. I wonder if it includes the fees you pay to relist an item. “COGS” = “Cost Of Getting Stuff”?

You forgot to group your items on your sales history.

Youre right, the overview doesnt really show your overall wealth. Last time i checked my bank and bag wealth it was about the same as my listings but most of my items are stored in guild banks anyways and for that we dont have API endpoints yet.

Not sure what COGS means either, apart from it being what you paid for items on the TP in the last 90 days, thats how long it tracks purchases and sales.

oh, you can click ‘report by item’. :P here’s the top-10:
hmmmm. a lot of those were flipped, but weren’t on the flipping page because they were purchased like a year ago.

Thaddeus.4891:

Yup I know they Killed it with today’s patch a couple hours ago. You are now limited to one key per week. I’ll continue to do a key run, but 52 keys a year instead of my usual 300-400 a year will make a big hole in my budget ; ). I’ll need to switch to other source of income apparently.

awww. what’s even the point of having keys then? oh, you get 5 from vw. guess I have to change the guide :P

OHHHHHHH BLACK LION KEY FARM.
from your context, I thought you meant silverwaste key (chest) farm. you get far more masterwork bags from silverwaste farming.
hmmmm… to add bl key farming to the guide or not… hardly seems worth it now. although another thought just came to mind :P

Mystic.5934:

OHHHHHHH BLACK LION KEY FARM.
from your context, I thought you meant silverwaste key (chest) farm. you get far more masterwork bags from silverwaste farming.
hmmmm… to add bl key farming to the guide or not… hardly seems worth it now. although another thought just came to mind :P

I wouldn’t add BL key farming at this point: to turn a profit, you have to be able to farm in bulk and that has been nerfed.

I added the bit about Daily login rewards. honestly not sure if I should have it there or not. yes, it gets you gold. but it also isn’t playing the game.

You should mention the Silverwastes, to my experience it is by far the best source of income atm. 15g / hour on avarage, depends on your luck.

(unless I missed it)

it’s under champ trains

ok so the 2 big “BLTP forum specialists” (RIP) whipped out their kittens.. anyone around who can match them? Wanze has said he doesnt collude with others outside of a few friends he has since early on. Are you completely solo now wanze?

how about you mystic? do you have any partners or is that mostly solo?

no tin foil hat stuff here, just asking.

The SW chest train is likely to die after Oct. 23, so that will be gone soon, and I seriously doubt there will be a profitable farm in the new areas.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

to turn a profit, you have to be able to farm in bulk and that has been nerfed.

Not quite.

Celtic Lady.3729:

and I seriously doubt there will be a profitable farm in the new areas.

Then why would it die? Maybe it’ll die down for a little while, but the need for gold will draw everyone back if the HoT zones have no replacement source of income that’s as easy. And the content will be exhausted after a few months. Maybe just VW will get a short holiday.

Mystic.5934:

although another thought just came to mind :P

I wonder if we are having the same thought? ;-P

eithinan.9841:

ok so the 2 big “BLTP forum specialists” (RIP) whipped out their kittens.. anyone around who can match them? Wanze has said he doesnt collude with others outside of a few friends he has since early on. Are you completely solo now wanze?

how about you mystic? do you have any partners or is that mostly solo?

no tin foil hat stuff here, just asking.

It was so sad when they closed the BL forum. discussion forum is basically useless because there’s so much different stuff going on that everything you might be interested gets burried. That was basically when I stopped frequenting these forums, though I do peek around sometimes. I thought of applying for that job when it was first announced, but I don’t think I’m active enough to satisfy it. I do answer questions when I see them, just not as regularly as that job needs.
Personally, I don’t collude with anyone; not because I specifically try not to, more that it doesn’t come up. If someone asks, I give help, even tell them what I’m invested in and my trading tools I use: If I tell someone I have 10,000 unid dyes because they will be worth 1g in a few months (true story, happened ~8 months ago when they were worth 30s), they might go buy some and make them worth 1g that much sooner. If I tell someone that yakkington armors are almost always profitable to buy and salvage, it doesn’t change the supply very much because of how huge this economy is. I see it as a better feeling you get from helping someone than it hurts my ability to make a profit.
But I just don’t get asked for help very often :P Wanze is much more popular, so I assume people go to him first. I’ve even asked him a few questions from time to time. If I was bothered more often, I might feel differently? I hope not. But for the most part, all my trading is just me. My guild thinks of me as a TP baron :P they don’t do much trading.
who were the BL trading forum specialists? I don’t remember ever knowing.

MashMash.1645:

Mystic.5934:

although another thought just came to mind :P

I wonder if we are having the same thought? ;-P

Oh, we are
Mine was remembering about the daily login reward scheme.

eithinan.9841:

ok so the 2 big “BLTP forum specialists” (RIP) whipped out their kittens.. anyone around who can match them? Wanze has said he doesnt collude with others outside of a few friends he has since early on. Are you completely solo now wanze?

how about you mystic? do you have any partners or is that mostly solo?

no tin foil hat stuff here, just asking.

I did an Investment Club for my social/wvw guild years back, where guild members gave me 100g and i paid dividents every 1 or 2 weeks but i dont do that anymore.

Some super rich players pooling their gold to manipulate markets are simply ineffective for various reasons. First of all, we dont have a good trading infrastructure in game.
If those people would decide on a market to invest in they would act as competition, outbidding and undercutting themselves, so you would need a separate trading account for it, which has to make all the trades. That account has to be maintained by 1 person (which we did back then, i still use those accounts for trading and extra guild bank storage) otherwise you break the ToS. That person would have to do all the work and he would have to manage a trade volume multiple times higher than a single big trader, which is alot of work. You cant just invest 50k gold into a couple of items, you have to diversify your investments into a couple of hundred different items. Once youre done placing all your buy orders, half of them will be outbid already and you have to start over, its very ineffective.
And if you have a high trading volume its also very hard to calculate how much profit you actually made to distribute interest to the other investors and with gold sending restrictions these days, its even harder to send all that gold.

When i did it, I did it basically for charity to my guild members, spending lots of time, which i couldnt use to make trades on my own account or play the game.

MashMash.1645:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

to turn a profit, you have to be able to farm in bulk and that has been nerfed.

Not quite.

Well. It’s worth doing the key per week, but it won’t be a big source of income. In a year we’ll get only about 2-3 claim ticket.

Mystic.5934:

I added the bit about Daily login rewards. honestly not sure if I should have it there or not. yes, it gets you gold. but it also isn’t playing the game.

The rate may be lower than a gold per laurel. I tested a full monthly cycle (55) a few months ago and got around 70s each. I’m about to try out 500 laurels within the next week which should produce a more reliable result.

@mystic @wanze

thats what i thought TBH. especially the point wanze made about the effort involved for a conglomerate. Thanks for the answers guys.

Ayrilana.1396:

The rate may be lower than a gold per laurel. I tested a full monthly cycle (55) a few months ago and got around 70s each. I’m about to try out 500 laurels within the next week which should produce a more reliable result.

nice, let me know what you come up with. of course, the number will change constantly as the T6 mats change.

I buy Tier 6 bags every week with laurels and I get after fees and taxes roughly 85-95 silver each on average but it all depends on what you get (RNG), what the market is doing and what your tactic is in selling them (high bid, undercut low ask, sell above current low ask).

Thank you very much @Mystic for writing this guide, it is very kind of you for taking the time to help out the community by sharing your views and experience.

@Wanze – I’ve been following your posts since the old BLTP forum and always came out richer if not on gold at least in knowledge. Again I would like to send a heartfelt Thank you for everything that you’ve shared with the community.

Just some extra info for newer players or older ones who might not know this:

If you type: I am Evon Gnashblade

into the search bar on the trading post, item icons will shrink to the size of the text, so you can see about three times more items in the window and have to scroll less.

Looks like this:

Wanze.8410:

Just some extra info for newer players or older ones who might not know this:

If you type: I am Evon Gnashblade

into the search bar on the trading post, item icons will shrink to the size of the text, so you can see about three times more items in the window and have to scroll less.

Looks like this:

Nice tip about Evon.

Can I ask something else? I see you’re selling a bunch of blues and greens. I’ve always seen people on the forums say to salvage all. You don’t salvage yours?

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just some extra info for newer players or older ones who might not know this:

If you type: I am Evon Gnashblade

into the search bar on the trading post, item icons will shrink to the size of the text, so you can see about three times more items in the window and have to scroll less.

Looks like this:

Nice tip about Evon.

Can I ask something else? I see you’re selling a bunch of blues and greens. I’ve always seen people on the forums say to salvage all. You don’t salvage yours?

i just opened the sell window to show an example. Thats my loot, which i didnt salvage yet, so its still in my bags. I usually salvage all those except medium armor which i sell to vendor.

Wanze.8410:

Not sure what COGS means either, apart from it being what you paid for items on the TP in the last 90 days, thats how long it tracks purchases and sales.

In accounting, COGS stands for Cost of Goods Sold.

Good stuff on this guide, thanks Mystic!

Ayrilana.1396:

Mystic.5934:

I added the bit about Daily login rewards. honestly not sure if I should have it there or not. yes, it gets you gold. but it also isn’t playing the game.

The rate may be lower than a gold per laurel. I tested a full monthly cycle (55) a few months ago and got around 70s each. I’m about to try out 500 laurels within the next week which should produce a more reliable result.

Over long periods of time, I’ve tracked the TP value of the average value of the Heavy Crafting Bag — although it varies, 1g/laurel is a decent rule of thumb.

• That amount depends on selling at a custom price close to the lowest sale offer.
• It ignores fees, which many people do when they report earnings.
• It can vary a lot for small numbers of laurels, since unlucky folks would get a lot more dust or venom than average.

It’s gone down as low as 70s/laurel and as high as 1.4/L — 1g is just easier to type/say and it’s been very consistent over time.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Ayrilana.1396:

Mystic.5934:

I added the bit about Daily login rewards. honestly not sure if I should have it there or not. yes, it gets you gold. but it also isn’t playing the game.

The rate may be lower than a gold per laurel. I tested a full monthly cycle (55) a few months ago and got around 70s each. I’m about to try out 500 laurels within the next week which should produce a more reliable result.

Over long periods of time, I’ve tracked the TP value of the average value of the Heavy Crafting Bag — although it varies, 1g/laurel is a decent rule of thumb.

• That amount depends on selling at a custom price close to the lowest sale offer.
• It ignores fees, which many people do when they report earnings.
• It can vary a lot for small numbers of laurels, since unlucky folks would get a lot more dust or venom than average.

It’s gone down as low as 70s/laurel and as high as 1.4/L — 1g is just easier to type/say and it’s been very consistent over time.

It not including TP fees makes sense and was something I had assumed people had factored in. I was taken by surprise a month or two ago when I was using the laurels to fund something and I wasn’t getting the 1G/laurel rate that I was expecting. In any case, my next account that is due to complete its monthly cycle is on Subday night so I’ll have the numbers then.

I don’t trust the Mystic forge at all because I always get burned.

Therefore, I diversified and simply flip weapon skins, pets, and basic exotic weapons in between PvP matches.

Here is my history:

Mystic.5934:

Ayrilana.1396:

The rate may be lower than a gold per laurel. I tested a full monthly cycle (55) a few months ago and got around 70s each. I’m about to try out 500 laurels within the next week which should produce a more reliable result.

nice, let me know what you come up with. of course, the number will change constantly as the T6 mats change.

I had enough to reach 500 so I went ahead and cashed out. Looks like I can blame the horrible sample size I originally used which is a relief. I’m making slightly over 98 silver per laurel based on a sample size of 500. This is based on the profit projections off the TP using sell prices.

Ayrilana.1396:

Mystic.5934:

Ayrilana.1396:

The rate may be lower than a gold per laurel. I tested a full monthly cycle (55) a few months ago and got around 70s each. I’m about to try out 500 laurels within the next week which should produce a more reliable result.

nice, let me know what you come up with. of course, the number will change constantly as the T6 mats change.

I had enough to reach 500 so I went ahead and cashed out. Looks like I can blame the horrible sample size I originally used which is a relief. I’m making slightly over 98 silver per laurel based on a sample size of 500. This is based on the profit projections off the TP using sell prices.

If you watch those prices for a week, you’ll see a lot of variation by day and by hour.

I think some of the new API-using websites have widgets that keep track of the current values, usually with post-tax, custom sale prices. (They assume, as I do, an even distribution of the 7 mats, with 3 dropping per bag.)

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Ayrilana.1396:

Mystic.5934:

Ayrilana.1396:

The rate may be lower than a gold per laurel. I tested a full monthly cycle (55) a few months ago and got around 70s each. I’m about to try out 500 laurels within the next week which should produce a more reliable result.

nice, let me know what you come up with. of course, the number will change constantly as the T6 mats change.

I had enough to reach 500 so I went ahead and cashed out. Looks like I can blame the horrible sample size I originally used which is a relief. I’m making slightly over 98 silver per laurel based on a sample size of 500. This is based on the profit projections off the TP using sell prices.

If you watch those prices for a week, you’ll see a lot of variation by day and by hour.

I think some of the new API-using websites have widgets that keep track of the current values, usually with post-tax, custom sale prices. (They assume, as I do, an even distribution of the 7 mats, with 3 dropping per bag.)

The prices were roughly the same. It was just the composition was better.

Ayrilana.1396:

Mystic.5934:

Ayrilana.1396:

The rate may be lower than a gold per laurel. I tested a full monthly cycle (55) a few months ago and got around 70s each. I’m about to try out 500 laurels within the next week which should produce a more reliable result.

nice, let me know what you come up with. of course, the number will change constantly as the T6 mats change.

I had enough to reach 500 so I went ahead and cashed out. Looks like I can blame the horrible sample size I originally used which is a relief. I’m making slightly over 98 silver per laurel based on a sample size of 500. This is based on the profit projections off the TP using sell prices.

Well assuming even distribution that’s 1.04 g per crafting bag before fees and taxes, 88s after.

Behellagh.1468:

Ayrilana.1396:

Mystic.5934:

Ayrilana.1396:

The rate may be lower than a gold per laurel. I tested a full monthly cycle (55) a few months ago and got around 70s each. I’m about to try out 500 laurels within the next week which should produce a more reliable result.

nice, let me know what you come up with. of course, the number will change constantly as the T6 mats change.

I had enough to reach 500 so I went ahead and cashed out. Looks like I can blame the horrible sample size I originally used which is a relief. I’m making slightly over 98 silver per laurel based on a sample size of 500. This is based on the profit projections off the TP using sell prices.

Well assuming even distribution that’s 1.04 g per crafting bag before fees and taxes, 88s after.

I’m not sure where you got your numbers but the 98 silver I got was after fees.

Edit: Never mind. It finally clicked that you weren’t referring to what I got.