Foraging / Fishing supply as a service, viable?

[Hibashira]

Would like all your opinions on the following:

I want to set up a supply "business". I usually do forage or fish on my 2nd account while I play my main. I was thinking, may be I can sell what I foraged or fished, in large quanity, to fund my tradeskill habits. Eventually, I want to establish a line of buyers for certain things and sell to them in bulk.

When I look at bazaar, some of the foraged goodies are in such low quantity that they are meaningless when you want to use them to skill up. 10 vege here, 20 berries there are not enough to skill up brewing. I'm thinking along the line of 100 morning dew, 1000 plat shoots, 500 tufts of dire wolf furs, 200 saltwater seaweed, etc. I've also done things like imbueing large quantity of emeralds, star rose quartz, enchanting clay, and summoning mana vials for friends and guildies.

Do you think this is doable?
If you, as a tradesperson, have such a supplier, what would you like to be supplied with?
What are some of the items that will always be in high demand?

[Verdandi]

Cobalt cod are a good bet, for those practicing their tailoring. I'll never forget the day I sold a HUUUGE batch of cod for 20k. Made every broken pole throughout my fishing career worthwhile!

I've also seen a couple industrious folks selling the fish bones for the Fisherman's Companion quest, the ones fished in Plane of Valor and Plane of Nightmare. If you have access to those zones you might want to check your local market and see if they're already for sale or not. Iceclad cutlassfish would probably go too, if no one else already has em.

With imbuing and enchanting, just keep in mind that people are often not willing to pay a large markup. I used to spend hours locating someone to imbue emeralds for my sickle production, and waiting while they imbued, rather than pay the bugger who wanted 40pp apiece. I'd also definitely check the existing market for mana vials and enchanted stuffs. I'd be surprised if there aren't already at least a couple chanters who have those items for sale on a regular basis. On the other hand, if you have any priests who worship the more obscure dieties (like Erollisi), you could probably make a mint off of those imbued gems.

As for foraging, I'd bet misty acorns and morning dew and dire wolf fur would sell well, and probably quite a lot of other things. Oh and vegetables, they're the lesser known ingredients in several high skill recipes. You probably won't get a lot for them but I'd bet they'll sell very reliably if reasonably priced.

[Maldisdain Atheist]

Some items that come to mind, by tradeskill:

Pottery:
Large brick of magic clay
Imbued Star Rose Quartz

Smithing:
Swirling Shadows
Mistletoe Temper
Blessed Dust of Tunare

Brewing:
Champagne Magnums
**Tea Leaves

Fletching:
Bundled Acrylia Arrow Shafts
___ substance arrow heads

Fishing:
Branch of Planar Oak

Baking:
**Bread Crumbs
**Justice Fruit
**Giant Snapper
**Giant Halibut
**Storm Salmon
**Basilisk Eggs (or other eggs)
**Plant Shoots
___ Filet in Cream

Tailoring:
Sacred Silk of Tunare
**Cod Oil
**Sylvan Berries, etc. (forages needed for the LoY robes)

-----
Obviously, not all of these are fished or foraged. Other items could be subcontracted to newbies (in some cases), or otherwise mass produced.

PoJ forages would probably be the best (since 3/4 result in baking 200+ trivial stuff, and 2/4 are 250+ trivials).

Honestly, I wish I could find someone that I could hire to do forages for me... but it's virtually impossible. There is a balance to be struck between price and value. Frankly, though I'd only pay 5-10pp/bread crumb (for example) when buying small quantities, I'd probably pay up to three times that for a substantial quantity. If you coupled crumbs & PoW fish, I'd pay even more.

If only someone would do this on CT =(.

(edit: moved planar oak to fishing, where it belonged to begin with. must have been a late night)

[Calabar]

I keep reading that bread crumbs and tufts of dire wolf fur should sell well in the bazaar. Perhaps I have horrible luck, but I had a stack of dire wolf fur on my vendor at 1pp each for over three weeks before I finally sold it. And I’ve had two stacks of bread crumbs on my vendor at 5 gold each for well over a month and nobody has bought it. Granted, I only have one account so my vendor isn’t up all the time, but I expected them to sell better than that. *shrugs* So I would suggest trying to selling such items a stack or two at a time before foraging them in large amounts.

[Liwsa]

Calabar,

Tuffs of fur are on my mule for less then a hour before sold at 20pp a piece. Bread crumbs sit a bit more but they sell fairly rapidly also.

[Luclingal]

forage supplies

I personally like to see branch of planar oak, but my use is fishing not fletching.....for PoTC item. And dragon eggs as well, for the same item, those 2 I really don't like to try to gather myself....and I actually can't anymore, my loaner druid is no more. I know I donated probably 10k in branches and the same in eggs to one single person.

I would buy things like celestial essence if it wasn't so much more expensive than making it yourself...on my server. And if you brew...and want to take the time to do this... velium temper is a real pain to make, I would buy it if it were available at between cost of -making it yourself vs. buying it from the vendor- It is my strong opinion that velium temper would get sold always. I've never tried, obviously, because I'm making it for use....

One thing though, I see some really silly prices from time to time, some people just dont realize that their item is part of a whole, and they can't ask half or more of the price of the final item and expect to sell it.

Good Luck

[Lilosh]

Kunzar Koi , if you have a Seb Key.
Cobalt Cod
Clockwork Koi.
Whatever that fish from Eruds Crossing is.

ANY Foraged LoY dye item. (5-10p)
Morning Dew
Misty Acorns.
Yew Leaf
Oak Bark

If I had the time or patience, there would be decent money in that, I'd wager.

Set up a bot in steamfont. Forage Steam Water, And fish for Koi?
PoG, Fish/Forage/Embue Emeralds.


-Lilosh

[Moonlilly]

I also use my 2nd box for a foraging mule...Anything I get I don't use goes on the merchant. Fruit, Veggies, Roots, etc. They all sell.

[Lorthien]

Morning Dew sells well on my mule, as do Cinnamon sticks. But it goes in spurts there are days if not weeks that nothing sells then Ill turn around and everything is gone.

[Quesci]

I suggest to my enchanter friends that they would make more money with distilled mana vials than trying to sell KEI in a saturated market. Everywhere I turn in PoK and Nexus there is a chanter selling KEI. A lot of people think that the chanters are selling KEI five times for one cast, but there are so many people selling that my friends very often have to cast with only one customer, who then donates 50p or so.

On the other hand, for less than half the mana, they could make a vial of distilled mana and sell it in the bazaar for 300pp, a 90p profit. The only difference is that vials of mana require a fairly large initial stake. The big advantage of this is that they can make the mana vials while they are grouped during downtime or even while they are standing in the Bazaar trying to sell them.

The same thing could be said about Imbued Emeralds (and Plains Pebbles). Sometimes there is competition and the emeralds sell for 15-20pp, but very often they are 25-30p. They can be made almost anytime, anywhere and sold at their leisure.

It drives me nuts when I want to skill up and the things that I CAN'T get for myself aren't even available. So my choice would be foraged, enchanted, and imbued items for sale. The more of them the better.

[pennyrose]

On my server, there are some forages I can almost never find in Bazaar:

permafrost crystals (for Divine Glaze for pottery)
mushrooms (the plain ol' Luclin ones are great for skilling up baking)
tea leaves (think I've seen these once)
niflik eggs (from LoY zones, great eggs that make 4 noodles instead of 2)

Slightly more obscure and hard to find at a reasonable price, if at all:

morning dew
oak bark
dragon eggs
Cobalt cod
coiled springs
yew leaves
justice fruit

I'm sure there are two dozen more things, at least, that could go on that list, but those are the ones that come to mind right now.

Pennyrose

[Xefin]

Things I'd love to see (mostly duplicates)

Celestial Essence
Mana Vials
Heady Kiolas

not foraged of course, but you could easily do some trivial combines on things like this while foraging or fishing

Cobalt Cod
Plant Shoots
Branch of Planar Oak
Morning Dew

are probably the forages I most often want and can't find.

[Sionnan]

Excellent idea, Hibashiba, and certainly could become very profitable once you hit on the right items to stock. I have paid more (within reason) for items if a vendor has 200 of something I need lots of than if they have 5 of the same item.

Here's a suggestion for finding regular clientele. If you happen to be at your system when someone purchases all you have of a particular item, send them a tell and ask them if they need more, and what other items they need.

I have a couple of regular suppliers who have sent me such tells, and I now buy from them almost exclusively, as they keep stocked with what I need when I need it. It's very convenient for me and a good source of income for them. They also send me tells when they have new stock for me, before it goes on the trader.

The items I need have varied according to what I'm skilling up on, but pretty much cover the lists other people have previously mentioned.

Besides the income potential, foraging/fishing/enchanting for others is also a good way to make new tradeskill friends. And tradeskill friends are always good friends to have in EQ

[Naukhael]

What a great idea. It seems I can never find a lot of foraged items in the bazaar, or if I do, it is only one and way over priced. I have even made a foraging toon, but seems like I never have time to level her up. I wish more people would sell their foraged goods.


Naukhael Dementia
Sorcerer of Xev

[Lilosh]

I have a couple of regular suppliers who have sent me such tells, and I now buy from them almost exclusively, as they keep stocked with what I need when I need it. It's very convenient for me and a good source of income for them. They also send me tells when they have new stock for me, before it goes on the trader.

Totally agreed. There was somebody who used to stock veggies, Plant shoots, and 600 other different minor foraged goodies, and I would regularly empty half of her item slots. She started letting me know when she had more, and I would ALWAYS look for her when I was in the bazaar.

I miss her.


-Lilosh