Richest Players - what do they do?

chess1ukb16_ESO

Hi, it appears to me from analysing Guild Store movement the players who make the most (million+ a day gold) spend majority of their time in Cyrodiil or Imperial City and sell Legendary crafting materials. Is my analysis right?

Mac10murda

Make a guild and charge a fee to members = profit

Heindrich

Mac10murda wrote: »

Make a guild and charge a fee to members = profit

If it were that easy, don't u think everyone would have done it?

Ignorance... *sigh*


I am probably the richest player on EU-PC. I didn't get rich by any single strategy. It's more a state of mind, being open to opportunities and making the most of them before others jump on the bandwagon.

For example at the very start of the game, when there were no guild traders or MasterMerchant addon, u could make huge margins simply trading items across 5 big trade guilds and hopping around zones selling things that were obtained at higher level zones in lower level ones.

Back when Daedric Motif was super rare, I was one of the only players on DC that could craft Daedric Medium armor sets (obviously I bought a Daedric Motif as a huge investment for the time), and made a very nice profit for a few weeks crafting.

When VR5 epic food was the best u can get, and the recipe was absurdly rare, such that there were no major sellers in DC at all, I made a deal with an AD seller (where there was more competition) to buy in bulk from him regularly (oh I bought ingredients cheaply on DC side since nobody had the recipe) and sell in DC at a very nice margin.

When Psijic Ambrosia came out, I bought recipe fragments and sold complete recipes instead of crafting since there was already a lot of competition among Ambrosia sellers.

etc etc

Yes I run a trade guild now, but that's only happened in the last 6 months, and the vast majority of trade guilds can barely break even, let alone make substantial profit on a regular basis.

eliisra

People that sell for millions each week, generally aren't making all that money.

It looks a bit surreal when you see a player that sold for maybe 6 million in a week, but keep in mind he or she probably spent loads of money to make that money. The profit might only be like 25-33% of the sales.

Rich people spend millions on a weekly basis buying stuff slightly under-priced in zones, guilds and other stores, than sell for normal price in prime location. That's their bread and butter income, hunting deals and keeping track of prices and market. Farming the most profitable loot is rather the side active. Farming is only super rewarding after a new DLC is out, when people need to upgrade new gear and buy the new stuff, after that all prices starts dropping rapidly.

RinOkumara

Heindrich wrote: »

Mac10murda wrote: »

Make a guild and charge a fee to members = profit

If it were that easy, don't u think everyone would have done it?

Ignorance... *sigh*


I am probably the richest player on EU-PC. I didn't get rich by any single strategy. It's more a state of mind, being open to opportunities and making the most of them before others jump on the bandwagon.

For example at the very start of the game, when there were no guild traders or MasterMerchant addon, u could make huge margins simply trading items across 5 big trade guilds and hopping around zones selling things that were obtained at higher level zones in lower level ones.

Back when Daedric Motif was super rare, I was one of the only players on DC that could craft Daedric Medium armor sets (obviously I bought a Daedric Motif as a huge investment for the time), and made a very nice profit for a few weeks crafting.

When VR5 epic food was the best u can get, and the recipe was absurdly rare, such that there were no major sellers in DC at all, I made a deal with an AD seller (where there was more competition) to buy in bulk from him regularly (oh I bought ingredients cheaply on DC side since nobody had the recipe) and sell in DC at a very nice margin.

When Psijic Ambrosia came out, I bought recipe fragments and sold complete recipes instead of crafting since there was already a lot of competition among Ambrosia sellers.

etc etc

Yes I run a trade guild now, but that's only happened in the last 6 months, and the vast majority of trade guilds can barely break even, let alone make substantial profit on a regular basis.

how much gold?

failkiwib16_ESO

@chess1ukb16_ESO yes it is mainly correct... of course not in all cases, but the IC DLC has been the main source of income for a lot of power sellers.

Tabbycat

I know a few players who have struck it rich by being in a few trade guilds. Of course you have to be careful what trade guilds you join since some of them charge membership fees.

Waffennacht

Buy low sell high.

Spend lots of time farming

That's all there is outside of membership fees.

Like I don't know any player that has that kind of money and only plays at most 1 to 2 hours a day. Most people I know can spend up to 6 hours a day playing to get the rarer items.

Run multiple dungeon runs per day.

It takes time most players don't have.

Glaiceana

Heindrich wrote: »

Mac10murda wrote: »

Make a guild and charge a fee to members = profit

If it were that easy, don't u think everyone would have done it?

Ignorance... *sigh*


I am probably the richest player on EU-PC. I didn't get rich by any single strategy. It's more a state of mind, being open to opportunities and making the most of them before others jump on the bandwagon.

For example at the very start of the game, when there were no guild traders or MasterMerchant addon, u could make huge margins simply trading items across 5 big trade guilds and hopping around zones selling things that were obtained at higher level zones in lower level ones.

Back when Daedric Motif was super rare, I was one of the only players on DC that could craft Daedric Medium armor sets (obviously I bought a Daedric Motif as a huge investment for the time), and made a very nice profit for a few weeks crafting.

When VR5 epic food was the best u can get, and the recipe was absurdly rare, such that there were no major sellers in DC at all, I made a deal with an AD seller (where there was more competition) to buy in bulk from him regularly (oh I bought ingredients cheaply on DC side since nobody had the recipe) and sell in DC at a very nice margin.

When Psijic Ambrosia came out, I bought recipe fragments and sold complete recipes instead of crafting since there was already a lot of competition among Ambrosia sellers.

etc etc

Yes I run a trade guild now, but that's only happened in the last 6 months, and the vast majority of trade guilds can barely break even, let alone make substantial profit on a regular basis.

Very insightful! I think saving has a lot to do with it also. If you don't go crazy with your gold, you can keep letting it grow each time you play. Also, luck may factor into it, at least for me (although I'm definitely not rich with only 60k gold on my main character at present), but if you find the rare motifs by accident as much as I do, its no problem at all putting them for sale at a competitive price in any guild

ThePonzzz

I wouldn't call myself rich, but I'd just like to confirm that most people making tons of gold a week are usually buying low and selling high. So there is an investment.

My get rich scheme started with materials. I'd buy columbine, bugloss, and mountain flower for 10g and sell it for 200g (right after traders were released). It was a ton of grinding, but it helped me upgrade my bank and bag space to the max and keep gold on me. My other strategy was looting before the bounties were in place. In Shornhelm/Wayrest, you could pull a purple motif about once a day. That was a solid 20000g. You could get lucky later on for daedric/ancient elf in Cadwell's Gold, but it felt much more rare.

When the Psijic Ambrosia fragments started dipping in price, you could buy the fragments for around 20k but sell the recipe for a solid 200k. I probably made a ton doing this. I must have sold about 12 of them in a month. I kept going until I couldn't get 140k for them. Once that happened, I used my last recipe, since I waited it out myself before actually learning the recipe. That way I never got stuck with the investment.

Nowadays, I just make legendary glyphs. But I buy the potency and kuta, so while my weekly hit around 300k to 500k, I'm only making about a 20% profit. And slowly more and more people are mastering enchanting, so buyers are less and less and glyph prices have been dropping.

Heindrich

@RinOkumara The exact amount is a trade secret because I run a trade guild But it's over 100M.

joker0137

Raw materials sell quite good, they are free to find so you don't need to make to much of a profit from them. Sell at a moderate price and sell often, if you sell it, they will come.

olsborg

Pure pvper here, I live day to day trying to keep my gold at or around 100k, costs to keep gear and consumables updated im barely breaking even, guess im poor lol.

Jura23

Like irl, they take money from the poor!

Darlgon

1.) They get to the point where they feel they have more money than the Eight.
2.) They try to earn more, but it feels, pointlless.
3.) They give heaps of gold away to friends and guilds they "used" to have fun with.
4.) They retire from game for 2-3 months, until the next DLC comes out.

DannyLV702

I used to have no more than 5k at all times because I'm a pvp'er lol. I invested 5k into a trading guild (it hurt like a b*tch at the time) but after 2 weeks I was sitting on just a bit over a million gold. Was able to buy myself into having top level gear, all legendary and crafter by me. I have about 1.3 million gold at the moment, but I don't really have any use for it. It will go towards future gear probably if any major changes occur. Luckily I got all my gold in time for orisinium so I can get my all legendary Julianos

The stuff I sold were just things I accumulated over time since the game came out. Nothing fancy.

code65536

Heindrich wrote: »

the vast majority of trade guilds can barely break even, let alone make substantial profit on a regular basis.

QFT.

Trading guilds have huge expenses each week in the form of the trader bid. They collect a paltry 3.5% of each sale. ZOS, on the other hand, takes 4.5% of each sale: an upfront 1% listing fee and a 3.5% bite out of the sale itself.

With just 3.5% of sales going to the guild, those taxes are almost never enough to cover the bids; you're looking at taxes covering only 20-50% of the weekly bid cost. The rest come from member contributions (donations, raffle tickets, or, in some guilds, dues) and/or subsidies by the guild leadership.

I indirectly subsidize my guild's bid each and every week by providing, out of my own pocket, the raffle prizes that I use to incentivize member contributions. The guild "breaks even" only with subsidies from the GM. That having been said, the individual members of the guild can and often do profit greatly from being able to participate in the guild marketplace, but the guild itself does not profit and relies instead on the members sharing some of their profit with the guild.

Now, I don't mind doing this at all, but running a trading guild has been a net loss--what in-game wealth I have was not obtained because I run a trading guild--it was obtained despite that.

Cuyler

@chess1ukb16_ESO
You can easily make 100k per hour grinding in the IC sewers in quiet campaigns. I recommend taking a friend or two to protect yourself form the occasional ganker. Use the trophies to get rings and sell, decon all the drops for mats to sell, use your tel var to buy itade and repora rune stones or leather (less profit on leather but sells faster). Kill trove scamps and event chest for a shot at a Hakeijo which sell north of 40k.

The bonus to this approach vs. the "buy low sell high" approach is your actually still playing the game, collecting CP at the same time.

Flaminir

Depends on how you want to do it, how much time you want to invest, & how rich you want to become.

Buying low / selling high as mentioned above is one strategy. Taking advantage of emerging markets when new stuff is introduced is another. Now that the market is stable due to no new releases for a while there's another strategy......

Just by doing the crafting writs on 4 vet characters each day (About 30-40mins) & selling the proceeds... making a few V16 glyphs with some of the mats, a few nirn items for research etc I make over half a million per week.... and that's 100% profit.. .no margin involved.

I do the writs while waiting for people to group, waiting for queues to pop etc so you can build them into doing other stuff too.

It all depends how much time you want to put into it.

I am a multi-millionaire, but have no need of 100+million... what would I do with it? I can already assist with guild trader bids to any level in the game I want, help all my friends & guildies out with stuff when they need it, help some new players, buy anything I want, have stacks of all mats I need. And that takes me 45mins per day. Pretty easy.

Thelon

I farmed purple motifs in the Wayrest Bank and sold them all when ESO went B2P.

Now I just sell my body.

Nestor

It is possible to get Rich in this game, but the question is, why? Once your bank, horse and bag space upgrades are done, what can you do with the money? Buy Agility/Willpower Rings? OK, that's a quarter million, then what?

People who make a lot of money in this game are playing the trading game to make money. A perfectly fine thing to do if that is what you want, but no different than grinding, farming or running a dungeon for a certain drop or killing mobs for an achievement or anything else. It's just something to do in the game, a reason to play.

Darlgon

Thelon wrote: »

I farmed purple motifs in the Wayrest Bank and sold them all when ESO went B2P.

Now I just sell my body.

Solicitor style or Mercenary style?

CaptainObvious

Also you have to remember all of the node farmers that collected and stocked up on tempers back in the day.

People who cleaned up on the "oops we didn't think of that." crafting resource mistakes didn't have their resources taken from them. So they farmed in time of plenty and sold when the time was right.

Tarukmockto

One of the main requirements for making lots of Gold, that has not been mentioned much, is TIME. Most (but not all) of the wealthiest in game players have the ability to play for 6 to 8+ hours a day.

It takes a lot of time to play the scattered market that the Guild Kiosks represent. In order to constantly scour the listings for the 'deals' and turn them at a profit.

It takes a lot of time to run the IC Sewers repeatedly for profit. It takes time to farm for mats to sell for profit. It even takes time to craft the few valuable items that will actually sell for a profit. By the time you run around to different crafting sites for the different sets that are in demand.

If you are a casual gamer that can't spare the time to play even a couple of hours a day, it will be very difficult to become wealthy in this game.

Haulinash

eliisra wrote: »

People that sell for millions each week, generally aren't making all that money.

It looks a bit surreal when you see a player that sold for maybe 6 million in a week, but keep in mind he or she probably spent loads of money to make that money. The profit might only be like 25-33% of the sales.

Rich people spend millions on a weekly basis buying stuff slightly under-priced in zones, guilds and other stores, than sell for normal price in prime location. That's their bread and butter income, hunting deals and keeping track of prices and market. Farming the most profitable loot is rather the side active. Farming is only super rewarding after a new DLC is out, when people need to upgrade new gear and buy the new stuff, after that all prices starts dropping rapidly.

Haulinash

This. Most of the top sellers you see in your guilds definitely make good gold, but they get there mats from somewhere don't they? I shop traders all the time for deals (and the occasional awesome mispricing) and I have a few friends would rather farm and sell to me for a bit less that avg price than sell in a trader.

If you watch zone chats/guild chats, lots of the top sellers also spam lots of WTB chats all the time.

Pomaikai

I'm making over 100k per week at this point. I sell a LOT of Blue looted set gear at very good prices, and my profit margins are very high.

I also sell a whole lot of Green Intricate weapons and armor for 600g each. Again, I invest small amounts and enjoy very high profit margins. I've carved out a niche for myself where I am the person setting the MM's instead of having to fight the constant downward pressure on prices, and it's working out very well for me.

What I can tell you for certain is that the people who are making lots of money in this game do so by understanding both how the market works, and how item rarity varies over time as ZoS adjusts supply upwards and downwards in order to keep the economy from spiraling into either hyper inflation or deflation. They also know how MM actually works, when and why to completely ignore the MM "price", how it can give you completely useless data, as well as how important those data points are and why.

The people who don't make a lot of money always price things at MM or lower, and treat it like a bible. They get upset in zone chat when people ask for and make more money than THEY think they should make on whatever the good or service is. They automatically believe that discussions about current pricing on items, and why something is almost always priced a certain way is price fixing and collusion. They join Trade Guilds in order to keep the prices lower for everyone else. They complain about the high cost of gear and never seem to make enough gold to afford the best.

It's not that hard to make money in this game. It's even easier to not make much at all.

Listen to the people who are making money in the game, and ignore the advice and opinions of those who can't, or won't.

Ahzek

The richest people obviously always use the "travel to wayshrine" option, no matter from where to where, usually in rapid sucession to not give the increased cost a chance to reset in the slightest.

Haulinash

anyone can always travel for free. usually. anyone of the same campaign in your guilds, or friends list. just travel to them... you could be standing next to someone in your group, travel to them, you'll be at the nearest wayshrine or delve entrance no muss, no fuss, no charge.

Duiwel

Heindrich wrote: »

@RinOkumara The exact amount is a trade secret because I run a trade guild But it's over 100M.

You are an inspiration!

OP thank you for this interesting thread it has been a very worth while read!

failkiwib16_ESO

Tarukmockto wrote: »

One of the main requirements for making lots of Gold, that has not been mentioned much, is TIME. Most (but not all) of the wealthiest in game players have the ability to play for 6 to 8+ hours a day.

It takes a lot of time to play the scattered market that the Guild Kiosks represent. In order to constantly scour the listings for the 'deals' and turn them at a profit.

It takes a lot of time to run the IC Sewers repeatedly for profit. It takes time to farm for mats to sell for profit. It even takes time to craft the few valuable items that will actually sell for a profit. By the time you run around to different crafting sites for the different sets that are in demand.

If you are a casual gamer that can't spare the time to play even a couple of hours a day, it will be very difficult to become wealthy in this game.

@Tarukmockto To an extend that is true, however you don't need to farm IC, do writs or anything other than gameplay+ a little pickups to cash in some gold through a trading guild or zonechat.

I'm in a veteran trading guild, that allows non veterans to join, if they sell flowers and raw materials, low level potency runes and recipes. They don't make as much gold as players with IC access, good network of friends and decent gear - but they still own a well deserved spot in the guild.