Preaching to the choir and banging my head against the wall!

[Lling]

After having someone tell me "<blank> off! I don't want to get ripped off! I know what you people sell this stuff for!!" when I made what I thought was a reasonable offer on a drop of pure rain.

I wish I could EDUCATE non-tradeskillers. I guess I am a fool for trying.

There are some awesome new chain items out there now. Cultural smithing gave us outstanding plate - and really crappy chain. Now with most of the CT stuff being VERY good and the nightmare and hurricane chain being major upgrades, the chain classes have something to wear that is an actual accessible upgrade.

The best upgrade that I've been able to make are the hurricane chain sleeves and bracers:

bracer: AC 17, DEX 3, INT 4, HP 25, mana 35, sv magic 4
sleeves: AC 22, DEX 5, WIS 5, HP 30, mana 40, sv magic 8

Decent AC/HP/saves - and since Tae Ew sleeves and bracer leave a lot to be desired, these 2 items are really good for chain classes, especially shaman.

It takes some very rare components from Bastion of Thunder to make these: sandstorm pearls and Drop of Pure Rain. I've been able to acquire both of these items for about 400-1kpp, depending on how fast I want to make something. I have been able to acquire the components to make only 6 pieces. I can spends days exping in BoT and come out with more aa points than drops of rain, they are that rare.

They are not, however, rare enough to justify charging 5k for one!!!!

Here is why: no one will be stupid enough or desperate enough to make armor at a LOSS. We are not talking breaking even here and we are certainly not talking about a small profit. We are talking about LOSING money.

To try one pair of chain sleeves takes 2 tempers:

3 sandstorm pearls (and I've seem them in the bazaar for 1k each): 3k (and 3 pearls makes enough for 2 tries, so we cut the price in half)
2 storm rider blood: I've farmed stacks but I've seen it for a few hundred pp.
2 drops of pure rain: 5kpp each?!

That is about 12k right there - which is about what the item would sell for, in all honesty. And that is assuming a SUCCESS.

I won't even try a plate BP and people ask for them all the time. A plate would mean 6 tempers - or about 36k for something I would not sell for more than 20k.

I know people think tradeskillers make tons of money and many feel like they should profit from it as well. I have no problem with people farming and selling components. It saves me time and gets them some cash. I have been more than willing to pay pretty well for materials. I can make a lot of stuff myself but I like to buy mana, padding, etc in the bazaar to spread the tradeskill funds around to others.

There is a limit, however, to what makes SENSE to pay.

I know these are rare components - I try to farm my own when possible.

I know people see what I charge for something - and I do try to make the stuff accessible. What they DON'T see is the failures (the forge was possessed this weekend).

The cost of sales based on what some people are charging will mean that this stuff simply won't get made. That would be unfortunate considering how many could benefit from the upgrade.

[kiatek]

re

people on drinal actually put drops of pure rain up for sale at 10-15K each-yes that is not a typo-10,000 pp each. Have no idea if anyone buys them at that rate, although I do know of one person at 15K in bazaar that has had it up for sale for over a week constant. You would think they would get the picture. Most I would ever pay is 3K /shrug Drops need to be increase in my opinion =)

[Ilona]

I was gutted when I got to a trader selling a drop at 1.5kp, only to see it had vanished between the time I saw it on by bazaar search and the time I got to the trader... /sigh

I have bought these at *up to* 3k each (only one at 3k, the rest at 2.5k and 2k). But that is PURELY because I want a few plate items for myself! My cleric cannot wear the armour my pally makes, and can't make her own cultural (yet), and the helmet, vambraces and gauntlets seem better than her cultural anyway.

I wish I could afford to make some to sell too, but I simply don't have access to the zones the pure rain drop in.

I am bitterly regretting using the first two I got to make stormrider leggings to sell... In retrospect I would have saved those tempers for items for myself!

You will NOT be seeing me put ANY of this armour on the market - much as I would like to!

/em adds her scream to Lling's

[Marteeny]

Give it time. Unless people are paying 5k for them, the price will drop. If people are actually paying that much, you are going to either do without or ante up.

Not every item out there is meant to be profitable.

[Serenya]

I have to admit, that I play both sides of the fence. There is a definite top to what *I* will pay for a tradeskill component, and I am boggled by what others will pay. However. If I get lucky and get a drop, or better yet find the item on a merchant, I am not the low seller. Generally, I do a search in the bazaar, and price somewhere between the middle and high end. If it doesn't sell, I move my price down, slowly, because I know the 'list price' in the bazaar is often NOT the 'sell price'. I also will sometimes prices things truly outrageously, because I may eventually use them. My theory is, if someone will actually pay that, great, if not, well, eventually I'll use it myself.

So, one day I got hold of 3 drops of pure rain. Looked in the bazaar, and it ranged from 3k to 8k. Since I can make the tempers, I looked at component prices (high) to see my potential costs/resale if I made the tempers to sell, or bought the armor components to get a good friend to attempt combine for me, and realized that it would be a very costly gamble. So, I listed them at 6kpp 'on spec', figuring if they didn't sell maybe I would risk them on armor. A few days later all 3 sold to one person. Frankly, I think I sold them at an outrageous price, but *someone* was willing to pay it......

[burnttoastv]

Kiatek, you saw them for 10k each on drinal? Few times I've searched bazaar for them they were closer to 15k . It is a completely free economy and as long as someone buys at a price, someone will usually sell for that price. I'm still loving the rare find of almost two stacks of essence of moonlight for 30p each! I didn't even stop to think of telling the guy that other people sell it for more (500p each? right!), I raced pell mell to go buy them before some other high elf smith saw them!