Tradeskill Component Pricing Rant......

[Sanna]

Nifty idea, Quesci. Except when you leave 1, to me it looks like that person is undercutting to get rid of his 1. /shrug. Maybe I'm just calloused.


And I generally /agree with the idea of 'if others sell high, sell high too. For all you know, that IS the going rate. Besides, if you sell for 1/4 of what they do, they will despise your undercutting tendancies, and bad blood only breeds more of the same.' There comes a point when too much is too much, yes, but there's also the idea of 'go with the flow.'


And even now, never underestimate the value of vendormining!!! For 20 levels, I've been vendormining anything I see that I can imagine I would want. Thus, I have 12 stacks of leather padding saved up and waiting for me to get to smithing. Heck, I have 2 stacks of HQ Cat, waiting for me to decide I want to get the next 12 points in Tailoring. I have 1.5 stacks of Drops of Mercury, waiting for space on my vendor so I can sell to the dwarves (not that I kid myself that any dwarf on Sullon actually bothers with the cultural, but I buy em anyway). I have 4 stacks of Metal Bits; if I don't use em, I'll put em on the trader. 20 stacks of bone chips to repair my faction with Yeolarn Bronzeleaf after killing a woodelf 5x in Gfay (why he cares about the woodelves, I don't know).

Gah, before I get on a total tangent, the point is:

Look for what you need before you need it. Then, when you need it, you have it.


Yes, there will always be people selling things for obscenely high prices, and there always will be, as long as planar ornate is still worth getting, and as long as *************s.com and other places still sell plat. It sucks, but it's EQ. Gotta do what you can when you can, and take a breath when facing doing what you can't.


Me, I'm just happy I bought my lvl 52 charm spell for less than a certain semi-nemesis was selling it. /shrug.

Gah, did I make my point? Brain swimming so much I can't tell. Stupid midterms.

-- Sanna
Chin up. This is supposed to be fun. When it stops being fun, you have no more reason to play.

[kiztent]

Originally posted by Sanna
-- Sanna
Chin up. This is supposed to be fun.

You start with nothing, you end with nothing. What do you lose? NOTHING.

/whistles

[Sanna]

You start with nothing, you end with experience, you have gained knowledge.
At the very least, applicable to RL in a metaphorical / analogy-like way.
('Analogical'? Sounds like a non-digital watch.)

If you do something with NO net gain, you shouldn't be doing it. Experience, knowledge, (safe) fun, these are net gains.


But now I'm waxing philosophical (darn you kiztent ^_^) and you'd think I'd know not to do that after midnight.

^_^

-- Sanna

[kiztent]

Originally posted by Sanna
But now I'm waxing philosophical (darn you kiztent ^_^) and you'd think I'd know not to do that after midnight.

Hm, I was just quoting Monty Python.

Blessed are the cheesemakers?

Well, obviously, this is not meant to be taken literally. It refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.

Kiztent, who now wishes to be called Loretta.

[Chenier]

Originally posted by kiztent
Kiztent, who now wishes to be called Loretta.

/eye

[Lothay]

Originally posted by kiztent
Hm, I was just quoting Monty Python.

Kiztent, who now wishes to be called Loretta.

Well Loretta, you're going to need a whole new wardrobe.

[Grenoble]

As befits a coal miner's daughter?

[Phabos]

And now for something completely different...

And a bit more on topic.


I understand and sympathize with the lack of plat to spend on tradeskills. I don't, however, feel that high prices are bad (or even good, for that matter). Allow me to explain.

Those who have read my posts will remember seeing this, but for those that haven't and don't want to search (I don't blame you, my posts aren't that exciting to read), in my opinion, EQ's mostly player-based economy is the best example of free market supply and demand. The demand for items of this nature is relatively high, and the supply is relatively low. By supply, one must factor in the time and effort it takes to collect certain ingredients. To use your example of LDoN temper components, a person must either set aside approximately 3 hours in the hope that the various items drop or are foraged, which doesn't always happen, or go to the Bazaar and buy them. (This isn't perfect, as I happen to have 30 or so tempers made with items I have vendor-mined, but the idea still works). Thus, the supply is limited. There are those who will pay a failry large amount of plat for these items. That raises the demand. I can't find fault with someone trying to maximize profits.

On the other, the more items that are in the market, the more the price will fall. Look at the market for LoY words used in research. The higher level spells are available from Adventure Merchants, the words themselves drop in LDoN encounters, so the price has fallen. The market rules the prices, not the players.

As far as a lack of platinum is concerned, you too must exploit the markets. There are several threads and even more posts dealing with the topic of consumables, i.e. those that are in almost infinite demand because they are used up. Think Baking and Brewing as prime examples, although component and subcombine markets can also be used. I'm not a rich player, but I am comfortable. I've made my platinum by finding out what people want and can use, taking the time and effort to do it, and then selling it at a profit.

Money begets money, and in many cases, time is as good as money. You may only be able to play for three hours. You do, however, have the choice of how you spend those hours. Do you skill up Baking or Brewing and then sell picnics or tea? Do you kill spiderlings and greyhoppers to sell leather padding? Or do you do something else that doesn't lead to cash sales? Either way, the choice is yours. Please don't disparage others who have made the choice to spend the time and effort to collect items so that they too can earn the plat they need to buy the things they want.



Phabos Aphsion
Drunken Paladin of Brell
Tarew Marr

[xaanru]

If I am looking to buy a stack of Iron Oxide and I see:

Iron Oxide (20) 25pp
Iron Oxide (20) 45pp
Iron Oxide (20) 50pp

I will buy 19 iron oxides from the first trader and one from the second. That leaves the search like:

Funny part about that is, depending who the next buyer is, they may actually go to the guy with his priced at 50, so as to not have to hunt 2 merchants.

I often find myself going to a higher priced merchant who has large quantities, rather than several lower priced ones with 1 or 2 each.

For example, I have passed over peopel with sarnak bloods for 2pp, and bought them for 5, as I needed about 40 of them, and 3pp difference is fairly small.

Now, for me, 25pp difference is still enough to cause me to chase all the small quantities, but 3pp isn't. I assume, however, that someone out there sees 25pp the same way.