Firiona Vie Prices?

[ruodrra]

I just started a character on Firiona Vie and was amazed at the low price of tradeskill components compared to more populated servers. Spiderling silks, hides and leather padding have been staples for me to finance equipment purchases but it almsot doesnt seem to be worth it.

I'm fascinated by the differences in the economies between servers. Anyone have any thoughts on why these items are so cheap on FV relative to other servers? Is it fewer tradeskillers (less demand) because almost nothing is no drop? Don't think it is oversupply from more people farming cause I only see one or two sellers at most.

thanks

[Silound]

I have a theory in that, but it is only founded on my limited knowledge of FV's economy. Since nearly everything and its brother is droppable, tradeskill made items are much less desired and bought, because anyone with plat can buy drops of higher quality. Thus, cause and effect makes the raw materials prices drop in the bazaar, since the finished poduct isn't selling for as much. YMMV, that's just my guess.

Silound

[ruodrra]

well, that makes sense except for the fact, that on non-special servers, I am of the opinion that most people don't take up trade skills for the uber equipment they can make but rather for the challenge of mastering a skill (which would make even more sense on a 'roleplaying preferrred' server) and taking a breaking from the xp grind. That's sort of why I posted this question in eqtraders rather than the FV server.

Would people rather go out and kill for plat to buy coldain shawls for example rather than doing the coldain shawl quests which require upping trade skills? Are there really that many fewer people on FV that don't enjoy doing quests for the sake of doing them? It may indeed be true, but I find it hard to accept (again especially on a 'role playing preferred' server).

Absent any other theory however, I guess your answer is the best so far.

thanks

[ChaseFV]

The prices on FV are very low compared to other servers due to a number of factors:

1. Relatively new server - not even 2 yrs old yet. There just aren't that many people scooting around with 200KPP who are willing to spend 50PP on easily farmed tradeskill drops.

2. The nature of the population. The people who buy tradeskill supplies are typically those who feel that tradeskilling is beneath them and are only doing it because it's cheaper and easier to go buy what they need than get their hands dirty themselves. There are a lot of enterprising people on FV willing to go do that dirty work for them (heck, even at 51, I'm farming for one of my 65 guildies so they can keep soloing for good drops, and I can pay them in silks and pelts 8) ). Because there is a lot of competition on the supply side, the price tends to go down.

3. Lack of alts. Very few people have a high level character they can use to act as a sugar daddy for an up-and-coming character, thus eliminating much of the market for lower and mid-tier tradeskilled end products, therefore making it virtually impossible for someone to purchase supplies, skill up, and profit from the sale of the resultant goods.

4. You're right, many of us tradeskill for the challenge of it, rather than the profit potential. And those of us crafting for joy are really, really irritated by the people coming along and power-skilling a new character with e-bayed plat and crashing a market for a few weeks.

5. Silound is also right, high-end tradeskilled goods drop quickly in price because they're competing with some very, very nice drops.

6. Frankly, some of us are skinflints. I have absolutely no desire to pay 25PP for a tea leaf that will make me 6 QAT's I could sell for a total of 60PP, if I succeed. I'd rather go forage my own and increase my profit per unit. If Demi-sec ever drops back down to less than 75PP/bottle, I'll probably stop making it. It's just not worth the hassle at that level.

Bah. Enough rambling.

[Slippyblade]

About the alt thing on Firiona... There are none. You can have one, count em, ONE character on that server. I'm sure that has a LOT to do with it. No mules...

[Delandril]

Trade skill supplies on FV come in waves. I've been pruchasing velium gradually over time at good prices because I do not have the time to farm it myself. There may be a week where some enterprising person notices that I bought all the velium I could find at a certain price. He then goes out and buys all the velium in the bazaar and jacks the price up a bit. After about 2 weeks, he dropped the price back down and I bought him out . Anyway if you are patient on FV, you can usually get the supplies you need at a decent price.

The other thing to think about is FV population is smaller to begin with. And, as previosuly mentioned, no one is buying loads of gear for their twink alts because of the 1 character limit.