Shortage of BD's

[Ixiola]

I think you're right. On Cazic-thule, I've noticed the price has creaped back up to 500+ now, with one person having well over 100 BDs at 700 ish platinum. I refuse to pay that even if desperate. I can still find BDs rarely on vendors (even in the bazaar!), so I just don't buy from players. Making a reasonable profit for providing a convenience is one thing, but I think the current levels are a bit much. )

What really amazes me is people who sell normal diamonds for more than 210p. Regular diamonds are extremely easy to find on vendors at 210p with 130 charisma. Even worse are the people who sell store bought gems for more than vendors do! I can only think their customers must be people who aren't aware of vendor prices.

[Silverfish]

Two Ways Around Arbitrage

I've encountered a fair amount of arbitrage myself, and I confess that there are times when I take advantage of it, but I never do it in the Bazaar. If I find something on a vendor that I can mark up, I'll do it, but I don't buy out Bazaar vendors and mark it up. My answer to people cornering the market is simply not to play the (seller's) game.

"Farm it yourself" is always a good route to take if you're a buyer. Blue diamonds, for example, do drop from creatures, so if you need them, going somewhere and killing for them is a valid approach (and with BDs especially, don't forget that you can go places like the Plane of Hate or the Plane of Innovation, get experience for your kills, and get armor/drops that can be turned in for gems). It's slow, but it's a lot cheaper than buying at inflated prices, you can get experience while you farm (in most cases) and if demand falls, then prices will follow.

I know there are a lot of people who will complain that farming is dull, but I must respond by saying that if you don't want to spend time farming, then you need to spend money buying. It's stinky, especially when someone sends a jerky message about being one step ahead of you, but the ultimate last laugh to that, in my eyes, is to know you were considering buying a bunch of his stuff, but instead you just got it yourself, and it's his loss.

Silverfish

[alchemyshaman]

BD's by the stack

Have you seen people in your Bazaar lately selling hundreds of BD's? And you think, where the heck did they get all of those?

Well, for 262pp you can go to Nerandis landing and buy as many as you need. Not sure if we are allowed in the zone yet, or what not, but the trader there at the new wayfareres camp has them for sale. Or atleast did a week or so ago.

Hope this helps all you people out there looking for BD's.

~Alchemy

[Footsore]

A little more of my observations as a "professional" NPC vendor miner:

I'm pretty sure "cornering the market" doesn't work. I buy my wares almost exclusively from NPC vendors (though I'm not above buying something from trader that is grossly under priced at the current market - it just doesn't happen often).

There was a time when I would try to match other traders when they boosted their price. My experience in doing that, however, shows that sales slow down and eventually stop when the price is too high. Yes, one or two might sell at the “too high” price, but not often - certainly not often enough to justify the price. Most people seem to exercise their consumer rights and just won’t buy if the price gets too high.

The “acceptable” price does change over time – sometimes higher, sometimes lower – for BDs. When no one is skilling up on BD items, I’ve seen the “acceptable” price drop briefly to 300. Probably lower, but I just stopped mining when they wouldn’t sell at 300. I'm not wasting my valuable inventory slots on something that has a mark-up that low. Not when I can sell other stuff consistently at 500% mark-up.

I’ve never seen them sell fast at higher than 500 (on Zeb). When I’m pricing a regular supply at lower prices, the person(s) trying to corner the market inevitably ends up dropping their prices. (I've even had one of these folks ask me if I wanted to buy their entire stock at half what they were asking in trader - was still too high though.)

The laws of supply and demand are obviously at work, but I’m still sure that demand is the dominant force. Don’t buy at the higher prices and they WILL come down.

[Taushar]

Problem with farming for BD is that they nerfed a few places where BD used to drop a lot, for example in Seb Guard camp. It seems that one of those plat selling companies had a couple of high end characters camping those camps 24x7, probably in shifts, so they decided to make the camp not drop BD at all. This is what I heard not what I have seen so take it as is. However, that camp, along with couple of other camps, were the major sources for BD and they nerfed it, I can see why the supply may have dried up.

Taushar

[Kaysha Soulsinger]

I'm not sure if that's the cause. In the first year of PoP, there was a huge influx of Blue Diamonds and Diamonds, as they dropped plenty in the lower Planes. The initial rush was easily soaked up by a parched crowd, thirsty for them. As they got quenched, more and more remained on the market and prices fell.

With LDoN, many people shifted their hunting grounds to areas that didn't only provide exp, but also fun. Furthermore, in that year a pretty large population also moved from the lower level Planes into the higher ones, only rushing their alts through the lower level ones. I remember that Plane of Nightmare had a population of 40+ around the clock a year ago. Last few times I went there recently, there was hardly anyone. The same counts for other Planes. And I don't have the impression that Blue Diamonds drop as much in the higher Planes, they are replaced by other money drops.

A third aspect might be that people complained that Blue Diamonds were too common and that SOE nerfed the overall droprate of those gems - but I doubt they would tell us, if they did this.

As a result of the well drying up, the amount for sale drops and thereby the price goes up. This is clearly visible on Lanys.

[FeroceFV]

Bazaar price for BD's on Firiona Vie is less than the vendor price.

[Ixiola]

Alchemy, my guess is you got lucky, as someone had apparently sold several stacks of BDs to a vendor there. On a lark I checked in that zone on my server last night and found nothing, as I had suspected. As far as I know, BDs are a dropped gem only.

[qralt]

BD's on Brell

Yeah one guy is attempting to keep the market cornered on BD's. Fortunately a small trickle of BD's are comming in so that I get them 1 or 2 at a time for under 500pp. Time consuming, but less so than farming them.

I used to find BD's on vendors all the time and all over the place. Esp on the magus in adventure camps. But no longer! Although adventure groups will usually let me buy the gem from the group, I never find them in the camps. I refuse to try to mine that merchant though. Way too many folks selling stuff there at all hours to safely mine it.

I actually had stopped picking up BD's off merchants because they were so easy to buy in the Bazaar in quantity. Wish I had stocked up at the time, I blew through my last stack and have been slowly building them back.

As far as buying low and selling high? It's all fair. If the market will support it, why shouldn't you buy it and use your knowledge to profit. I've made more money this way than any other way in EQ.

[Dunthor Warsmith]

Re: BD's on Brell

Originally posted by qralt
I actually had stopped picking up BD's off merchants because they were so easy to buy in the Bazaar in quantity. Wish I had stocked up at the time, I blew through my last stack and have been slowly building them back.

I did that too >< I had 3 stacks of BDs, a stack of Celestial Tempers, and a stack and a half of infused brellium - basically 110 blue diamonds in one form or another. There were tons more available - in the bazaar for 240-260pp (yes, less than vendors sell itfor), and all over the place on vendors. So I stopped buying, figuring I had enough cash tied up in BDs.

Soo wish I had those BDs now lol, either to use or resell for a hefty profit.

[Katrin]

Slightly different route

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I was wondering where do most of you hunt for BD drops? My greatest success so far has been in Dulak, especially off the boats, but also from any mobs there.
Anyone else have a suggestion?

[Taushar]

It seems like everytime I give out hints people take advantage and I am out of luck. However, that won't stop me from giving out advice. The best place for me on BD is Deathrow camp in PoJ. I usually end up with a few two-boxing duoing there per night.

Taushar

[oerin trubble]

I've noticed the prices rising and wondered if they had been nerfed back or cash hogs buying them up.
Even still at 300 - 500 pp is expensive.
But they used to be 1800 - 2200 pp
anytime i had a bit of cash and saw one or two for 2k or less i'd buy and play the diamond market, selling for 2200.
10% profit wasn't unreasonable and at the time a handful of gems cost all the cash i had.
Then came the planes and the bottom dropped out of the BD market. I saw 4 at 1800 and grabbed them quick. Next day BDs were selling for 1600, and every day a little less till they stabalized at about 300. I crushed them into powder and took up smithing.

I'm getting curious.
At one point today there was ONE BD in the bazaar. It was going for 399pp. A bit later there were 8 total on 3 vendors, one had 6 the other 2 had 1 each ranging in price from 350 to 499pp.
I made a quick tour of the LDON merchants and zero BDs for sale.
Was in a group last night and 2 dropped so they haven't dried up.

So what's going on? Either some guilds are on a big resist gear binge, or cultural smithing frenzy. Or perhaps in a form of money laundering some that became cash rich with the recent exploits are diversifying to hide their coin.
Buy em cheap, hold em till the price rises and sell em off slowly for a tidy profit.

If you see these or some other item on a bazaar mule with a huge quantity at an outrageous price it's one of 2 things. Either a guild bank holding mule with no real intent of selling them, or some greedy bastage with more pp than morals who can afford to hold them till someone else with more pp than sense is willing to buy them.

Hold out and the prices will come back down.

[Cedor]

There may have been a shortage on Drinal before. But not any more. There are currently 156 BDs for sale in the bazaar at prices ranging from 425 to 850pp. Although, 73 of them are for sale at 850 and 40 at 800.

[Madbakerhobbit2]

Oerin --

You said resist gear and smithing cultural...

You are forgetting pottery and tailoring. One of my GM skills is Tailoring, and I honestly go through as many of these as I can find on BB for less than 500p.