The DoN Cultural lottery

[Xulan]

Armor is a low volume business as stated above. When I started with GM gear, the only thing I could do is combines for other people because I only had about 5kpp total to my name. Once I got enough plat from combines and tips of MDS or payments of MDS in lieu of plat, I started to make a couple of items. This went on for a couple of months before I had enough to have a full set for sale. Also, for a while, the other person selling the same armor only had bp/legs, so I only sold the other parts, and did well. Eventually I was able to make the bp & legs.

Even then, they just didn't sell very much. I think I only sell a full set worth of GM armor every 2 months or so. Also, do you have a full set of master's gear for sale as well? I sell a set or two a month of master's level gear.

What is the competition like on your server? Are there other people selling the same armor? I've had direct competition on my server from day 1 (actually they were selling first) and still do ok.

The "real" money is in the symbols. If you have a good, complete set of symbols (not necissarily your deity), you can sell lots. I think I sell about 10 a week on average. A full master's set of augs for your deity will not hurt either. Even though you may not make as much on master's gear, it acts as a calling card. Where will most people go to get their GM gear? To the same place they got their master's gear.

[Xenephex]

I haven't done any of the symbol quests yet. I've started on the GM one, but have a long way to go.

There are two other people selling Stormguard armor regularly in my bazaar. One is pretty friendly and I talk to him occasionally. He has, typically, 3 to 5 pieces of GM stuff up for sale - he's the one who said he does sell it, but slowly. The other person evidently has both a gm dwarf and barbarian, as she sells both types, plus symbols. She always has a full set of everything (gm level) up for sale. Last time I checked, she had 5.5 million plat worth of items for sale. Her prices are higher than either myself or the other guy.

I only have two pieces of masters up for sale; making a full set makes sense. I guess I'll go ahead and do that.

And yes, I'm looking forward to the next expansion to see if there's anything new. I've never gotten in on the ground floor and I'm hoping that that might make a difference. I would like to have some plat in the bank before that happens though, so I'm crossing my fingers for a couple of sales.

Thanks for the advice and the encouragement. It's much appreciated.

[Verdandi]

The trick with tradeskills is having the skill and capital at the right time.

Bingo. When the potc quest and blue diamond cultural went in I made money hand over fist on misty thicket sickles and armor, and that was starting at skill 190ish, so the failure rate was high. I traded eight pieces of barbarian cultural to a guild who then let me loot a raid bp that I never could have gotten otherwise. There were so many orders for sickles I would sometimes refer people to a couple other smiths who were making them because I was already backed up for several days. It's all about having the skill and enough cash to get you started when the hot items are still hot, and before the market is saturated.

When rare or time-consuming ingredients are involved, don't be afraid to offer discounts if those ingredients are provided. I don't know if that is all that helpful where DoN armor is concerned, but it worked for me with booms on several occasions (blue diamonds for cultural, imbued emeralds for sickles, silk swatches for wu's armor - that's going back!).

[Skaith]

I'm pretty much the only wood elf smith on my server thats actually making things to sell at the Grandmaster level (I know there are others with the skill,, they just aren't using it for the bazaar). When I started selling GM Wirewood, there hadn't been any for sale in the Bazaar for a few months, so I had an immediate rush and probably sold 3-5 full sets in a matter of a couple weeks, taking the small profits from a sale and using it buy more scales to fill my orders, then I had enough to buy few hides as well to add GM Growth symbols.

I'm still pretty much the only one selling GM Wirewood on my server, though another person does have a BP for sale, but at about 25% more than I sell mine.

I agree with person suggesting putting some Masters armour for sale as well. It doesn't sell often, maybe 2-3 peices of Wirewood and 2-3 pieces of Bramblewood a week, but since I farmed all my own Yttrium and Scales and use the cash drops from the farming to pay for the mithril, anything I sell is pure profit. I'm at the point now I wish I had kept more of my skill up items (I was told they don't sell, so I only kept a couple bags of each type), as I'm running out from slowly selling it over the last couple months, but that has netted about 50K plat, which since I have the bazaar mule up anyway, is just extra cash flow.

I also agree that Symbols, at least for me, seem to be the best sellers. Right now, after that initial demand for the GM wirewood was met, I sell maybe 1-2 pieces a week, but I will sell 6-10 symbols in that same time, and could probably sell more, but I have a cut off on how much I'll pay for scales and hides, and right now its rare to find them under that cost. And I'm only making Growth Symbols. There is a bigger market, but I just don't have the supplies to meet a larger demand, and don't want to have to raise my prices to meet that demand by buying overpriced components.

In addition, I spent some time watching other smithing markets and can supplement my stock of items for sale by picking up fairly priced Meldstones, Lightning Cores and damage magnetic armour and turning those into finished products and selling at a reasonable price. Since the failure rate on those items is so small, I can keep my prices close enough to the components price that I can sell fairly quickly even in a saturated market, and still make a small profit. While I don't make huge profits on any one sale, I do enough sales that I am making a decent amount of plat for other things.

[Kibber]

Making money on selling the GM dwarf items would require me to be able to farm the scales myself.

A Dwarf BP goes very slowly on The Rathe for about 80-90k. And if you buy 3 scales in the bazaar... thats 75-80k for an attempt. I finally gave up trying to make items and then selling in the bazaar, mostly because I didnt want to keep a trader mule on all the time.

Eventually I just let people know I had the skill and mastery + salvage AA's, and I get tells now and then to make some stuff. They bring me the scales and I do the attempt. I let it up to them to decide what to pay me if I succeed, and I don't charge anything for a fail.

Anything from 2k to 25k for a succesful combine is what I get, and I'm happy no matter what the amount is

I'm not making loads of money, but I made all my own gear, and I'm helping others as well.

Kibber

[binlaen]

Personaly I do very well in the gm items. I stock full suits of them at all times. I dont sell one every day, but id say every 2 days at most, then its generaly 2 or 3 pieces.
Were lucky on my server, we have a number of high end raid guilds that make bazu stones and last bloods.
Importantly, i answer tells i get when in trader mode. Often ive made up experts stuff with $0 profit and 2 weeks later their back buying the gm items.
Also if a person asks me to do a combine and how much, i offer for donation. they will quite often pay me well, then 2 days later buy a piece i have stocked.
Dont give up on gm armor, ive enjoyed it and do well at it.

bin

[Zacatac]

My problem isn't selling it so much as it is the sheer cost and risks involved. See previous post ( http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/showthread.php?t=24640 ).

Example - Spend 100k on 4 augment combines

Fail 0, profit = 60k net
Fail 1, profit = 20k net
Fail 2, = 20k LOSS
Fail 3, = 60k LOSS
Fail 4, = 100k LOSS

I have 315 skill modified, and still fail often. My last 2 trips were 3 fails, and 2 fails, so 80k loss for 8 attempts. Earlier, I had spent 250k to make BP/Legs and 2 augments, failed a couple combines, and came out ahead by 80k.

So after 450k worth of risk, I had zero profit on the 3 runs combined.

I make more money doing BD cultural and Master level stuff, at least it makes a profit!

[tuis]

I make more money providing food, drink, and armor dyes than anything else. Kaladim Consitutionals are a staple item, everyone wants em. Misty Thicket Picnics are easy to mass produce and still decent stat food. When I get the time I whip up a load of Halas pies, but they sell quicker than I can replenish my stock. Holy Cakes sell well - but farming brownie parts just sucks.

I've sold a few pieces of GM Human armor and might try to tinker up some GM stuff, but sales are rare. Still chipping away at the task to make GM symbols, though.

Nnow that I have the skills already in place (300 all, a near-master tinkerer, a master forager), I'm ready for whatever the next expansion is going to bring to the table.

[Xenephex]

Well, I just sold the 3 GM pieces I had in a package deal for 270K, so I guess I'm off and running. Now have to buy some more drake scales and head back to the forge.

I had also done 2 combines for a guy in the meantime - cuirass and gloves. I succeeded on both but lost a drake scale in the pre-combine. I asked for a donation and got 5K .

Anyway, that means I am now two for two on 3 sheet combines, and while I am perfectly aware that randomness is not cumulative, if you think I can escape the feeling that I am DUE for a failure, then you're much more logical than I am.

At the moment I have 400K in the bank which is almost twice what I've ever had before. Weird.

Thanks again for all the information and encouragement.

[Fonceur]

I agree with what others have said, due to that artificially high failure rate on DoN GM armor and symbols, you better have deep pockets and be prepared to have the stock on display for a long time before actually making a sale, let alone a profit... While I tend to carry the full set of GM bp/leg symbols (yes 34 symbols as it is a great advertisement), some other symbols and some HiE/hfl/barb/gnm armor made directly or sub-contracted, even by asking twice the cost of the components, reallistically the profit is still only 10-25% if you are lucky... If you don't have deep pockets, using 15 scales for some single GM leg, 14 hides for 5 symbols or 8 hides for 2 symbols can be killer blows (those symbol examples are just from the last week)... Whenever people try to haggle down to near the cost, I will offer them to provide the material and charge 5k per successful symbol or 10k per successful armor piece. People don't want to pay twice the cost of the components, but when you offer to move the gamble to their side, they tend to change their mind or get a reality check after a few failures...

[Cloud]

I have tried a few times to make a profit in trade skills but have always ended up loosing more plat then I make. Imo its best to just do trade skills for the fun of it (to get the master title is at least the reason why i did it) and do combines for free. I always do combines whenever people need them and ask for nothing, sometimes they give 100pp and i have had others give 20k for a combine.

Just don't expect to make money and any plat you do get be glad.