With Guild Wars 2 being so new and people overloading the Trading Post with items from crafting all the prices of items are really low at this point. Over the past weekend I began to realize something that is way too common. Some players just are not paying attention when they are selling their items because they are posting them for less than the actual vendor value after you take into account the fees.
When you are crafting you will pick up a pile of items that are pretty much worthless. You could sell them on the trading post, but the prices are currently so low that you will actually lose even more money if you aren't aware of some of the costs. It is always important to remember that you are going to be taking 15% in fees whenever you sell something. To be safe I have developed the methodology of always figuring it at 16%. I must not be the only one either, but there is a really easy calculator that exists where its creator has done the same.
When you are crafting you will pick up a pile of items that are pretty much worthless. You could sell them on the trading post, but the prices are currently so low that you will actually lose even more money if you aren't aware of some of the costs. It is always important to remember that you are going to be taking 15% in fees whenever you sell something. To be safe I have developed the methodology of always figuring it at 16%. I must not be the only one either, but there is a really easy calculator that exists where its creator has done the same.
I have been using this calculator over the weekend. It's nothing real fancy. It essentially just does the simple math for you and cuts down the the amount of time. I always find it much easier to just plug in the numbers on something like this than punching in the data to a calculator.
Back to the point of this post. Here is just one of many examples for you guys. This item is currently being sold at 52c on the trading post. It's vendor value is 48c. Just glancing at the numbers an uninformed person is going to see this and assume that they will get more gold by selling it on the trading post. In reality they are actually making less copper than if they had just dumped it to a vendor.
If you take a quick look at this picture (You will have to click on the picture to enlarge it since the screenshot is just too big.) You will see the item I am referring to.
The picture you see to the left is the return this person will receive when sell this item for 52c on the trading post. They are going to take in just 44c. That is only 4c less than they would receive from the vendor, but it is still important to be aware of this. I have been looking around on the trading post and I have actually found a few that were being sold for less than the vendor value even. I don't know how someone can do this yet it still happens. You guys should always be aware of the vendor price of your items. Losing 4c seems pretty harmless, but if you are going to be dealing in hundreds of items a day that is going to turn into silver and gold lost in a hurry.
Making gold in Guild Wars 2 is not all the difficult if you know what you are looking for. On the other hand though; losing gold is pretty easy if you aren't paying attention to what you are buying and selling. You always want to be on the lookout for maximizing your profits. Small bits of profit can add up over time. There is also an old business saying that goes, "Even a small leak can sink a ship." That saying refers to having small, seemingly insignificant, losses really add up over time. Make sure you are always eliminating the small losses. One may be harmless, but if you are losing 2-3c each transaction you will lose out over the long run.
This was extremely amusing the first time I seen the trading post, only to realize that 99% of all the low level items were being placed for 1 copper over vendor price.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of players really don't understand the system.
The upside to that is that I can completely regear my character anytime I want and just vendor the old gear with negligible losses.
This is perfect. I know it is a simple calculation to do that takes next to know time, but when I'm playing GW2 I'm pretty much constantly on team speak with my friend who I play with and I can sometime forget what I was supposed to be doing :P
ReplyDeleteGood Morning. I think ArenaNet eliminated the option to sell below the vendor price. Yesterday while trading around, i wanted to get rid of an item and i got the message: "Cannot post offer below vendor price". Personally, i dont like that because it is now not a free market anymore. If there is an overhang of offers or demand, this should get reflected in any price. I assume its the same with the Gem/Gold Ratio, People think its kind of a free floating Currency, but do they really think Arenanet let you buy Gems for one silver, just because the px is down? Does not make sense to me. The conversation price looks like a sideways moove between 17 and 21 to me. Anyway, just remember that the game is brandnew and all we do is walking in unchartered territory, and thats the best part of it. :-)
ReplyDeleteYeah you are right, but when you take into account the auction house fees you can still lose gold so that I what I am referring to.
DeleteAbsolutely. People are not aware of the fair value. This is the best part. We can make huge profits of misprices...
ReplyDeleteSometimes people just want to clear their inventory out in the world (not in town) and aren't bothered with losing 2-3c for that convenience.
ReplyDeleteFull profit must include fee, because if you sell your items, your fee returned to you. TP takes fee only if you cancel your bet )
ReplyDeleteHow do you actually calculate the trading post fees manually? (i.e. with a calculator)
ReplyDeleteE.g. If an item costs 1 silver to craft, and you want to sell it at a 1 silver profit, how do you calculate how much you should sell it for?
I know I can use the calculator, but I want to understand the system, so seeing the math would be helpful.
I've tried to figure it out myself, but my numbers don't seem to come out right.
I'd appreciate if someone could share the math used to calculate how much you should sell something for if you want to sell something that cost 1 silver to make for 1 silver profit. (Or whatever numbers work for you.)
If you want to sell it and get 1s in your pocket, you need to list it on the trading post for 1/85*100 (1.176470588235294) 1s 18c.
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