Secon-Hand Dealers - Love 'em or hate 'em?

[Orelli Virbonus]

I made my first few pieces of GM armor the other day. I priced it fairly high considering I was able to get all the materials at a bargain, but still half what others were asking. (I figured even if it doesn't sell, I can use it myself in a few levels.) A few minutes after my trader goes up I get a sale, and now I see it marked up considerably on another vendor.

I can't really complain since that tidy profit will go a long way toward working on my tailoring - I just wish I could get my hands on more materials to keep producing it. He didn't buy me out though, so anyone who does a search will see that I can at least make that armor if I don't have much in stock.

Overall I'm really happy with the new cultural changes, with one exception. Why no vendor prices on the dropped pieces? These first few weeks of them dropping would have made for some great diving sprees, I bet.

[Zopharr]

Overall I'm really happy with the new cultural changes, with one exception. Why no vendor prices on the dropped pieces? These first few weeks of them dropping would have made for some great diving sprees, I bet.

Maddoc (IIRC) decided that he wanted the new items to not be sellable to vendors. At least the Tungsten is going for less in bazaar than Sunshard Ore.

Garshok

[TessVaz]

I farm my own nodding blue lilies and make celestial healing X potions. Since I am doing them mainly for skillups I don't really care how much I sell them for, as long as it's above 7p5g (vendor price). I see it more as a service to the community. I sell them for ~10p (depending on how competetive the reseller wants to be that day) so people don't have to buy them for ~40p from a vendor. 100 combines cost me ~80p with a ~500 potion yield making nearly 5k in profit.

The only thing that bugs me is when the reseller buys out my stock, and when I refresh it they try to drive my prices down, with the potions I made. But like I said, it's nothing I'm going to stress over. If they sell, they sell, and if not some NPC vendor will end up with ~3.5k potions on him and the market price for them will float back up to 25p.

[Akael]

I know NOTHING about coding. I just want that to be clear, so no one goes nuts and starts making demands, because my suggestion may well be next to impossible to implement. But, just in case: is there any way items could be given a limited number of times they could be traded?

I know I would tend to be a LOT more charitable if I knew that noob_01, who's going all googly-eyed over some peice of junk I was just going to bazaar off for cheap anyway, could be given an item and NOT be able to resell it.

I'd sell potions just a few plat above cost with no remorse whatsoever, if I knew that the buy was buying them to USE, rather than to markup. I'd be a lot more willing to part with old tradeskill junk as well if I knew it was going to become no-drop after it left my hands. I want to be able to write For Deposit Only on my EQ goods.

I think this is the most brilliant idea that I've had in a week, and I KNOW that means it's impossible. >_< But you know, just in case it's not...

[Aldier]

The closest thing is Attuneable items to what you are referring to, but it almost sounds like you want bazaar sold/traded items to be no drop after they have been traded once.

Well, that would be difficult because not all sells are done in trader mode, and a lot of people transfer items to trader mules to sell them.

I would be against that as many times if I am on my main and in the bazaar, I might buy things for my tinkerer. Or for a friend or guildie that is a tradeskiller or needs something.

Also, that is part of the price, whether or not an item can be resold. Compare a 150hp/mana item that is attuneable to a 150hp/mana item that can be resold on the bazaar market. Or any 2 comparable pieces.

[Akael]

The closest thing is Attuneable items to what you are referring to, but it almost sounds like you want bazaar sold/traded items to be no drop after they have been traded once.

Well, that would be difficult because not all sells are done in trader mode, and a lot of people transfer items to trader mules to sell them.

I would be against that as many times if I am on my main and in the bazaar, I might buy things for my tinkerer. Or for a friend or guildie that is a tradeskiller or needs something.

Also, that is part of the price, whether or not an item can be resold. Compare a 150hp/mana item that is attuneable to a 150hp/mana item that can be resold on the bazaar market. Or any 2 comparable pieces.

I was hoping for an optional flag - you make a stack of potions (or have any other item you're getting rid of) and *if you choose to,* you can set it to become No Drop after the next trade. Now, if someone's set their stuff that way while AFK in the bazaar and you want to buy for an alt - tough. Either you run your alt there, or that trader doesn't make a sale that day. I know I personally would be willing to sacrifice a few sales in exchange for being able to get my products out to end-users rather than selling to middlemen. I don't want ALL trades to result in No Drop items, or ALL bazaar sales - I just would love to have the option there when I wanted to use it.

I also realize that being attuneable lowers the price of many items - and I have every intention of taking that into account. But when someone's in the bazaar with their first 1000 plat burning a hole in their pocket, which does them more good? Being able to buy an attuneable upgrade, or only being able to look and wish at that same non-attuneable upgrade that's been snatched up and had the price tripled by some reseller? I think it's worth missing a sale or two to make that one.

[Roanne]

You could always assume the burden of making sure your stuff gets to the end user rather than a reseller instead of placing it on the coders and system. Go back to the East Commonlands way of trading your stuff by using the /auction channel and dont make the trades with people you see are resellers.

I dont really care who buys my stuff if he or she is willing to pay what Im asking.

This is an okay idea in theory but I would rather have the coders and developers bringing their limited resource to bare on higher priority projects.

[Akael]

I could assume that burden - or I could do what I'm doing now: Outgrow a peice of gear, and then either tribute, vendor, or delete it.

I have a real life, and don't have all day to sit around trying to sell junk off - I'm not getting paid to play EQ (much as I wish I were!), the developers ARE getting paid to develop it, however. Even if I were interested in spending all afternoon trying to sell items, have you taken a look at the health of the bazaar these days? You can hear a pin drop in there. Using the /auc channels has become the EQ equivalent of talking on the tube - you just don't do it.

And finally, as for higher priorities - I don't know what yours are, but I think anything that makes this game a little less *cough*completecrap*cough* for newbies should be waaay up the list. Have you tried playing a low level untwinked character without a high level sugar daddy lately?

There are no groups - you won't even SEE another low level character in most newb zones after the tutorial. There are no decent upgrades to be won, because the tutorial has already outfitted you with gear that's better than any drop you'll be able to get for a good 20 levels. You won't be able to explore more than the first few dozen yards of any low level XP zone - you WILL be overwhelmed by orcs/bandits/goblins/whetever else, because you WONT have a tank, a healer, crowd control, and DPS all in one zone, let alone one place. You won't learn how to play your class, because no matter what you're playing, you're tanking. And of course, you won't be able to save up and buy upgrades, because people like me are deleting crap rather than line the pockets of the avaricious, and everyone else is living in a super-inflated economy.

Sound like hyperbole? It's not. Maybe you play on a wonderful server full of happy new players and rainbows and gumdrops and fluffy white ponies, but most of us are watching the game stagnate, the servers become more and more top heavy, and new players are leaving within their first week. I can think of NO higher priority than making the game more friendly to new players, personally.

And now, I must apologize for completely derailing this thread. I'm done now, I promise.

[Bobaten]

I know I shouldn't continue this tangent...but yes, I have started untwinked characters (different server) recently, and most of what you wrote was not my experience. TSS was a complete revamp to the newbie experience (and does a better job than the tutorial). Playing from level 1-51 I have always had at least 10 quests going in the quest window, and frequently have to wait to finish one before I can get another. There may not be as many people as there were in the old days, but 5-10 people in Crescent Reach, Blightfire Moors, or Gorukar Mesa is not uncommon. Thanks to resellers in buyer mode (look, I almost got back on topic!)cash is easy to acquire just by selling the loot you get while working on your quests (not that I spend money on anything besides potions, tribute items, or spells). However, I realize this can vary from server to server, so your experience may very well be accurate for your server.

[KyrosKrane]

I consider this topic to be a healthy one, and finding new ways to help newbies (or even lowbie alts on fresh servers) to be worthwhile. However, it frequently does involve some amount of venting, as does the original topic of resellers. So I'm going to move this thread to Primal Scream, but leave it open for discussion.

[Flehmen]

but yes, I have started untwinked characters (different server) recently, and most of what you wrote was not my experience. TSS was a complete revamp to the newbie experience (and does a better job than the tutorial).

Akael, and everyone,
Bobaten's experience has been my experience also; however, I had to change servers(I've started 4 new characters on the new server with no twinkage and been much happier than my old server). Recently, since start of the school term, I've noticed many lowbies(as many as 10-15 in each of the three new lowbie(below 50) TSS zones). About half those lowbies are newbies by how they act and the questions they ask. I've been trying to show them the advantages of temp, grouping and more.

Outside of those three zones and on other servers your experience is exactally what I've always had. PLers killing everything in zone so you can't play or empty zones.

As always with EQ, one bad decision when you start out can completely alter your EQ experience. If you choose your normal starting city and try to XP there rather than the new CR option, you'll leave in disgust after a week.

I stand by my SIG, you learn nothing about how to play your toon below about level 40 when you usually have an example of all your tools, maybe even 50. Everyone screams through those levels, if they choose, PLing if they have been around for a while. The abilities of the mobs become different after they hit 50 or so. (although the TSS again improves this with level 40 summoners and stuff) I really really hope SoF will complement TSS with a great set of newbie zones in addition to everything else.

Long story short, I sell a bunch of below 50 spells in the baz for huge mark-ups(people don't even see the spells unless I'm over 1k because they filter out the "low priced crap") and hand them out for free if I suspect that someone might actually use em. I actually have trouble, at any price, finding gear in the baz that is an upgrade and useable at a low level compared to the TSS quests/tasks. As a matter of fact, my new 52 cleric bought a ton of stuff in the baz to make him better, then looted or quested replacements to it all between 49-52. I was really happy although I had wasted the money in the baz.

Let's all get on the eliminate the levels 1-50 bandwagon!

[Elyssanda]

normally I don't care about resellers....... but.
Reseller comes along, buys em all, and pops the robe and pants up for 400K and the sleeves for over 200k
if someone takes the time to /tell me, they will find out what I can do for them in a reasonable price range.

Just a quick update here... reseller kept buying out individual pieces from me til he owned 1 complete set. I used his PP to make many more sets.. I keep 1 or 2 on my baz chickie at prices much lower than his still, though he HAS come down a bit finally......

a 57 drakkin necro came and bought robe and pants from me at the prices I wasn't really comfortable with.... so I tracked him down (/tell player1 where are you and can you come to Baz?) and gave him an early B-day present..

I started making Drakkin GM leather armor, just a set of pants at first.. reseller bought them, I used his PP to make a full set (not that my price was high, just component prices were LOW) now I have 2 sets of GM silk and 1 set of GM leather and I'm happy to take his pp.

[hiyawathadan]

/snicker

Now that SOF is live, I am trying to move all my old Elaborate. We got one guy on my server who is going around scooping up all these things, all Elaborate stuff, and reselling. My 25k cuirass he trying to sell for 60k

He's in for a shock, EVERYBODY wants the new stuff, and he has a white elephant on his hands likely. I hope he buys ALL my stuff, more room for me to move Exalted Symbols

[Unapuma]

There's someone who was buying up all kinds of loam, ores, etc to resell. But some that he's buying up aren't used and he might be holding on some space waster for a while. Still easy money for me.

Then there's the hate relationship to the reseller. Once in a blue moon I make a pricing mistake on my stuff and someone takes advantage of it. Be it in barter or trader. One lucky reseller got my Amulet of Necropotence cheap because I missed one more zero and ended up at 20,000 instead of the intended 200k. He never offered it back and never responded to a tell I sent.

Another time I bought 3 metallic drake scales in barter at 125k because I forgot to delete the '1'. In most case buyers or sellers do let me know of the mistake and offer to return or compenstate me but there's a few who simply never said anything and got away with it. Not much I can do since it was a client side mistake a petition would go unanswered.

[Darinthal]

We have a couple of these on my server. One of them keeps buying items from me then turning around and selling it for twice the price.

I managed to wipe out his bank account buy just going and farming the items that he was buying from me. When he couldn't buy any more from me I put the next ones out for 400 pp lower than I was selling for before and he was left trying to sell the items at a price way over what I was selling at so he undercuts me to get rid of items losing about 500pp per. Then I drop it even lower and in the end the Item that took me all of 2 minutes to farm I was selling for 2pp and he was selling the ones he bought from me for 1pp net loss of about 3k each then as soon as he got rid of his I quickly tossed my price back up to my original price and left it for him to buy them again. Which he did foolishly enough and returned to the original double the price I had it at again. Rince and repeat.... Some times I really wonder if people ever learn and price wars are a sellers friend and a resellers bane.

I also do a little re-selling every now and then. I search what people are buying then checke what people are selling and buy up the items being sold at a lower price than the buyers are buying at then turn around and hock them off to the buyers. I have made about 100k so far in the last 2 weeks just doing this.