Knowing When to Sell
If getting decent value for your goods is important to you, please remember to
check the commodities TICKER that is located within the city. Use the map to
find it. It's located two blocks west from the decorated tunnel. The commodities
ticker will tell you what the current market prices are for each item when you
LOOK at it. An
experienced broker will most likely get you a better deal than the price
currently offered on the market.
The money you get from selling items can
fluctuate, depending on how many of those items are being sold in a short span.
If there's a lot of an item being sold, the market value can drop drastically.
This screws EVERYONE over IF they (or you) are trying to get good value for the
refined/foraged items. By selling through a broker, you will lessen the rate at
which the value drops. Brokers lower commodity market values about one-third of
the reduction non-Bureaucrats cause when they sell normally.
For example: Sirolei ivy is sold at a base price of $10 a unit. Now say you just
sold one bundle of sirolei ivy (equivalent of 50 units) and got $500. When you
sell another bundle, the value of the ivy would have dropped and you could get
something like $450 for the second bundle. Now imagine everyone selling bundles
of sirolei ivy within a short time span. From $10 a unit, you could end up
selling for $0.50 a unit!! That's a BIG value difference.
Using a broker won't stop the market value from dropping when a huge bulk is sold, but it will slow down the reduction rate, and save you time if you have a huge load of items to sell and don't want to keep typing "get ivy, sell ivy, yes" over and over. :)
Tipping
It would be a nice gesture to offer a monetary tip
to your broker as a form of thanks. Or you could offer the broker some errand
items (which you can learn about later) that are often found through hunting
critters that drop boxes or made by certain professions. Not all brokers accept
tips. Some expect payment. Some just do it for kindness or for experience and
feel offended if you tip. I like tips. *ahem* :)
Further Info on Price Fluctuations
(Learnt from Kelasa Quaylin and Trevor "Boss Man" Rage) Selling
commodities, potions,
tinctures and other finished alchemical products through a broker WILL affect
the market value, but not as severely as if you sold it yourself. (Market value
reduces about 1/3 in comparison to non-broker selling)
For each commodity sold, the price will be reduced for the next SAME commodity sold.
If you brokered 10 bundles of ivy at the same time, you'll get full market value
(plus the broker's bonus), but the next person who brokers ivy will suffer the
price drop that 10 bundles of ivy caused.
When you broker though, the price reduction is less than if you were to sell it yourself. So again, it's a good idea to sell through a broker.
Do You Have to Use a Broker?
You are not required to sell only through a broker. But you will get less
value than what you would normally get if you sold through a broker. Brokers
also have a bonus where they can get you a percentage higher than what you can
get on your own.
If you choose not to take advantage
of a broker's service, you can SELL your item at places like the pawn shop and
alchemy shop. Skinned items like pelts, fangs and the like are sold at the fur
shop and can't be BROKERed currently. Remember, you don't HAVE to sell through a broker, it's just a
courtesy to other people in the game and does benefit you more if you're just a
forager type.
Should the market value of an item crash and you're in desperate need of funds,
you can opt to seek a buyer willing to pay somewhat above crashed price so that
you don't lose out completely or feel forced to wait for the market to improve.
Obviously, you won't be able to get full market price, but it will be better
than the crashed market value.
I personally recommend not going into a rampage whenever the market fluctuates
against you. These things happen, you have to learn to adapt to the system.
What's Good about the Market Crashing?
1. If you're a potion-maker, you can save yourself time and energy
foraging by buying commodities cheaply from the Commodities Market when an
alchemy item has crashed in value. Sure, foraging is cheap, but sometimes you
want to make a potion right away and you're sick of foraging. This is a good way
to get a few full bundles of alchemy ingredients without sweating it.
2. For those with money to spare, this is a good opportunity to take advantage of your standard market system. Buy low, sell high. In other words, stock up on a bunch of a crashed commodity, and wait for the price to rise. Words of warning for those who think they can make easy money: Remember that the Ticker lists the prices of what the market will BUY from you. It's NOT the same as the price you pay when they SELL you the commodities. Also, when an item crashes, it sometimes stays crashed for awhile. Be prepared to lug around those stocks until the prices go up.