Merchant or Banker

Freefalling17

You can only pick Merchant from the crown store or Banker from the crown store. What is the best paying for your buck.

SeaGtGruff

Other

It depends on your situation-- that is, how much free bank space you have versus how much free inventory space, as well as whether you like to keep stuff or just sell it, not to mention whether one of them is on sale.

Personally, I would opt for the banker before the merchant, because I like to keep stuff rather than sell it.

But I think I may have bought the merchant first, because it was on sale at the time. I think I bought the banker much later, when it went on sale.

Anotherone773

Merchant

I would go with the merchant, even though i don't have my own for 3 reasons.
1) I tend to be a looty person and i speed loot so i pick up a lot of junk.
2) My bank rarely has more 20-30 slots free even though i sell 50-100 items a week on traders. Sometimes it has only a few slots for a day or two. So it would not be a big benefit to me.
3) You could probably use the merchant buyback as sort of a pawnbroker storage. Sell things you want to keep like green and blue gear to deconstruct to the merchant and then buy it back later when you are back into town. However you would have to figure out how the buyback system works especially on this specific merchant. So that you know when you will lose the ability to buy back. I assume its probably a limited number of items during one game session.

It really just depends on how you play though. Personally i have neither because id rather just go to town and do all my stuff. and do it all at once. You can have 140 inventory spaces plus 60 from horse training, IIRC and i keep my character inventories below 40. I also have ESO plus so the craft bag means it takes a while to fill 100 plus spaces. I don't find it to be a big deal to port to a city and do everything but some people do and rarely go to town. My town of choice is Vivec City in Vvardenfell, but i will use Rimmen in Northern Elsweyr, Solitude in Western Skyrim, or Vulkhel Guard in Auridon. Those are in order of most used to least used for me.

If you get all the crafting stations you could set up both a banker and merchant in your house and basically be able to do everything in your house without needing to go to a city. A house like Mournoth Keep is good for this. When you exit the house its not in a city so you don't have to load a city but its just a few seconds from a wayshrine.

Dojohoda

Merchant

I have both, but based on the fact that one finds more trash loot than good loot, I'd go with merchant.

Nairinhe

Merchant

My bank is permanently full with stuff-for-other-characters, and my inventory is usually almost full, especially during events, and I loot everything from mobs and chests, so...

Jaimeh

Banker

For me it's the banker, if I could only have one, because I play with a lot of characters, and need to withdraw/deposit items in bank all the time.

idk

Other

Why not both? Yes, I know we can only pick one but "other" was an option in the poll.

It really depends.

Banker is great for transferring gear and doing writs. If you do a lot of writs then the banker is a no-brainer. Consumable items for writs are automatic when you interact with the banker. Of course one would have to store those few items in the bank.

Merchant is helpful for players that tend to vendor most of their drops and do not bother with swapping gear or doing writs.

Raideen

Merchant

Merchant because when your bank is full, the bank NPC is useless.

Secondly because of collections there is no need to horde tons of gear unless its a desired trait like divines and its a set you will use soon.

I use my merchant a LOT more than I use my bank. They are both handy, but if I could only have one, it would be merchant hands down.

SeaGtGruff

Other

Anotherone773 wrote: »

3) You could probably use the merchant buyback as sort of a pawnbroker storage. Sell things you want to keep like green and blue gear to deconstruct to the merchant and then buy it back later when you are back into town. However you would have to figure out how the buyback system works especially on this specific merchant. So that you know when you will lose the ability to buy back. I assume its probably a limited number of items during one game session.

The merchant buyback can be tricky, and it's important to understand how it works or you'll mess up and get frustrated (as I well know firsthand).

First, items do not stack, similar to how items do not stack when you deposit them into a guild bank account. If you want to add to something that's already on the buyback tab, you need to buy it back first so it can stack with whatever amount you've got in your inventory, then sell the stack to the merchant, similar to how you have to withdraw an item from the guild bank, stack it in your inventory, and then redeposit it into the guild bank.

Second, there are a limited number of slots on the buyback tab. I don't remember the exact number, but I want to say that it's 1 more than the number of visible rows in the buyback window. Once you've filled up the maximum number of slots, any new items you sell to the merchant will start to push the older items out of the list and they'll be gone forever.

Third, the oldest item will be pushed off the list first, then the next oldest, then the next oldest, etc. Since the list will probably be displayed in alphabetical order, it will probably be next to impossible to be sure which items will get dropped, but if you've got any free slots in your inventory then you can buy back the items you want to keep, sell whatever you don't care about, then finish by once again selling the items you want to store for later. Even if you've got only 1 free slot in inventory, you might be able to manage this if you do it carefully. For instance: Buy back Item 1 because you want to keep it. Stack your inventory so Item 1 stacks with what you're carrying. Sell Item 2, which you don't care about keeping. Buy back Item 3 because you want to keep it. Stack your inventory again. Sell Item 4, which you don't want to keep. Buy back Item 5 so you can keep it, then stack your inventory. Sell Item 6 to get rid of it. Keep repeating this pattern until you've sold everything you don't want and bought back everything you do want. Finally, sell the items you want to store on the buyback tab, being careful not to exceed the max.

Fourth, the items on the buyback tab will stay there until either you buy them back or they get pushed off by newer items. You can log out, change characters, quit the game, etc., and they should still be there the next time you log in on that character.

EDIT/Addendum:

Fifth, each character has its own buyback list, so the items that Character A sells won't interfere with the items on Character B's list.

Sixth, practice using the buyback tab with items you don't care about, so you can verify for yourself how it works, what the max is, and are able to use it effectively without making any mistakes.

Seventh, all NPC merchants share the same buyback list, so you can sell something to one NPC merchant, then buy it back from a different NPC merchant. Also, the merchant assistant's buyback tab is the same as the NPC merchants' buyback tabs. It's all tied to the character you're on, not to the specific NPC merchant.

Anotherone773

Merchant

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

3) You could probably use the merchant buyback as sort of a pawnbroker storage. Sell things you want to keep like green and blue gear to deconstruct to the merchant and then buy it back later when you are back into town. However you would have to figure out how the buyback system works especially on this specific merchant. So that you know when you will lose the ability to buy back. I assume its probably a limited number of items during one game session.

The merchant buyback can be tricky, and it's important to understand how it works or you'll mess up and get frustrated (as I well know firsthand).

First, items do not stack, similar to how items do not stack when you deposit them into a guild bank account. If you want to add to something that's already on the buyback tab, you need to buy it back first so it can stack with whatever amount you've got in your inventory, then sell the stack to the merchant, similar to how you have to withdraw an item from the guild bank, stack it in your inventory, and then redeposit it into the guild bank.

Second, there are a limited number of slots on the buyback tab. I don't remember the exact number, but I want to say that it's 1 more than the number of visible rows in the buyback window. Once you've filled up the maximum number of slots, any new items you sell to the merchant will start to push the older items out of the list and they'll be gone forever.

Third, the oldest item will be pushed off the list first, then the next oldest, then the next oldest, etc. Since the list will probably be displayed in alphabetical order, it will probably be next to impossible to be sure which items will get dropped, but if you've got any free slots in your inventory then you can buy back the items you want to keep, sell whatever you don't care about, then finish by once again selling the items you want to store for later. Even if you've got only 1 free slot in inventory, you might be able to manage this if you do it carefully. For instance: Buy back Item 1 because you want to keep it. Stack your inventory so Item 1 stacks with what you're carrying. Sell Item 2, which you don't care about keeping. Buy back Item 3 because you want to keep it. Stack your inventory again. Sell Item 4, which you don't want to keep. Buy back Item 5 so you can keep it, then stack your inventory. Sell Item 6 to get rid of it. Keep repeating this pattern until you've sold everything you don't want and bought back everything you do want. Finally, sell the items you want to store on the buyback tab, being careful not to exceed the max.

Fourth, the items on the buyback tab will stay there until either you buy them back or they get pushed off by newer items. You can log out, change characters, quit the game, etc., and they should still be there the next time you log in on that character.

EDIT/Addendum:

Fifth, each character has its own buyback list, so the items that Character A sells won't interfere with the items on Character B's list.

Sixth, practice using the buyback tab with items you don't care about, so you can verify for yourself how it works, what the max is, and are able to use it effectively without making any mistakes.

Seventh, all NPC merchants share the same buyback list, so you can sell something to one NPC merchant, then buy it back from a different NPC merchant. Also, the merchant assistant's buyback tab is the same as the NPC merchants' buyback tabs. It's all tied to the character you're on, not to the specific NPC merchant.

So its limited to use it that way as well.

SeaGtGruff

Other

Yes, the merchant buyback tab is limited, but if you familiarize yourself with how it works, and practice using it to get the hang of using it without messing up, you can use it to effectively get about a dozen or so extra slots per character, which is actually a bit more than you get per character by buying both of the inventory pets. Of course, an important difference is that using the two inventory pets is safer than using the merchant buyback tab as far as being less subject to screw ups and quirky rules.

bluebird

Banker

Banker lets you swap around items between your characters. It lets you quickly deposit items in a safe place wherever you are. Found some Treasure Maps and Surveys? Bank them and retrieve them on one char to do them in one go. It grants quick access to consumables from anywhere - suddenly need repair kits for your party member in a dungeon, need some quick bounty-reduction vouchers on a character without having to visit a fence, and without wasting slots of these same items on every character? Banker.

If your bags are full and want to sell stuff to a merchant, it will mostly be trash items so you only gain pitiful amounts of money. If you want to sell gear to a merchant, it's better to decon them for mats, or bank them to decon later anyway, so banker is more useful. Unless your inventory and bank are constantly full so you're desperate to get some small amount of coin for your vendor trash rather than having to destroy them.

Michae

Banker

Personally I use banker more (I have both) but it really depends on your playstyle. I mostly do quests in the overworld, if I PUG I usually do 1 run at a time, and bankers tend to be more scarce in the overworld than merchants. You usually get 1 banker in a zone, but quite e few merchants in every settlement and some wandering ones too, so you can bump into a merchant wherever really. I have 9 alts I'm levelling in crafting, so whetever I get a set item I bank it and decon them on one of the alts later, instant access to the banker helps with that.

On the other hand, when I did multiple dungeon runs in one go my inventory filled up with stuff quite quick, so merchant would come in handy then (I didn't have it at a time).

So it really depends on your playstyle.

belfong

Merchant

I’m in the same predicament as OP, having enough Crowns for just one of these two assistants. After reading some of the posts above, I’m inclined towards the Merchant. The banker is limited to the amount of bank space and I don’t have a lot to spare.

But, I’m currently using the bank for mat storage, so having banker can be useful too, during farming runs.

Arggghh! Decisions! I wish there will be a sale for these assistants in January. That will be really nice indeed.

Danikat

Banker

I haven't bought either because I think they're both too expensive for the convinience they provide. But if I did I'd get the banker because I typically put the majority of the stuff I pick up into the bank (either for another character, to sell on the guild store or to deconstruct) and sell relatively little to merchants.

RunForTheHills

Banker

I have both. It is a close call, but I would get the banker first. I use the banker and chests to pass items between alts. It is really convenient to teleport to your house and visit both after a quest or dungeon. You can also call them up in the middle of an activity and dump stuff to them.

idk

Other

Raideen wrote: »

Merchant because when your bank is full, the bank NPC is useless.

Secondly because of collections there is no need to horde tons of gear unless its a desired trait like divines and its a set you will use soon.

I use my merchant a LOT more than I use my bank. They are both handy, but if I could only have one, it would be merchant hands down.

When most items in one's inventory is not something they want to sell to a merchant the merchant becomes useless. Purple quality and better are worth more deconned. The blue quality or less are valuable selling to the merchant.

Further, if the banker is full that is an issue with the management of inventory which is a mini-game we play in ESO. I always work to make sure that my banker has half the space available so I can deposit gear and drops for decon.

Which is better pretty much depends on how the person plays and what they do. As such, there is not a right or wrong answer. Just one that is right or best for that person.

Merlin13KAGL

Merchant

You're going to run across far more crap you want to vendor than stuff you want to keep.

Enough gold can get you almost anything else you need.

Pixiepumpkin

Merchant

i like merchant because when my bank is full the guy does no good. the merchant lady always has use because she can buy junk that clogs my bags and white and green armor and potions i dont use

if i need a fast bank i just go to the little inn in solitude, when you go outside the bank is right next door

Raideen

Merchant

idk wrote: »

Raideen wrote: »

Merchant because when your bank is full, the bank NPC is useless.

Secondly because of collections there is no need to horde tons of gear unless its a desired trait like divines and its a set you will use soon.

I use my merchant a LOT more than I use my bank. They are both handy, but if I could only have one, it would be merchant hands down.

When most items in one's inventory is not something they want to sell to a merchant the merchant becomes useless. Purple quality and better are worth more deconned. The blue quality or less are valuable selling to the merchant.

With 200+ slots available on a character if someone is running out of inventory, that is bad inventory management, mostly because they are not selling junk with a merchant. If they are a new player, and sub 50 they are better off selling everything as purples are rare while leveling.

idk wrote: »

Further, if the banker is full that is an issue with the management of inventory which is a mini-game we play in ESO. I always work to make sure that my banker has half the space available so I can deposit gear and drops for decon.

Inventory management always starts with the players inventory first. On any given day, or run for a new player or a vet, they will need to manage their inventory by selling junk. Even purples at 50 can be worth more as gold than their decon value if someone already has tons of decon mats.

idk wrote: »

[Which is better pretty much depends on how the person plays and what they do. As such, there is not a right or wrong answer. Just one that is right or best for that person.

They why argue my original point? Especially when its 100% factually true.

Hotdog_23

Banker

Banker because merchants are easier to find in the game vs. bankers.

That is if you can’t have both. Use my banker and merchant daily.

Stay safe and have fun

winterscrolls229prerb18_ESO

Banker

The banker. They don't repair, but i guess that doesn't matter.

Once you find rawlkha the vendor is a really expensive indulgence anyway.

I guess if you wanted to roleplay adventuring out in the wilderness it could come in handy.. that's about it though.

The best part about the banker is with your choice of addon, you can play without eso plus and simulate the crafting bank with the auto deposit feature.. if you have the bank space.

harakira

It would be nice if assistants were selling with conditional discount (-50% for example) for those who already has one of the same type. I have human banker and merchant. Buying cats with full price is too much in this case. ESO+ players have special prices for some items. I think it's not difficult to implement alternatives for other conditions.

the1andonlyskwex

Merchant

Hotdog_23 wrote: »

Banker because merchants are easier to find in the game vs. bankers.

This was my reasoning when I first got a banker, but my actual experience since I've had both is that I use the merchant far more often. Sure, there are more merchants around when questing, but they're still less convenient than being able to call one on demand, and I need to sell junk far more often than I accumulate so much stuff worth keeping that I need to move items to the bank.

I might see things differently if I were someone who passes a single gear set around between a bunch of characters, but that seems like a huge hassle regardless of whether you have a banker or not.

RunForTheHills

Banker

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Hotdog_23 wrote: »

I might see things differently if I were someone who passes a single gear set around between a bunch of characters, but that seems like a huge hassle regardless of whether you have a banker or not.

I don't pass gear sets between alts. However, if I am training crafting on a particular alt, I will put all gear to be deconstructed into the bank and then deconstruct it on that character. Very convenient. You could use chests for the same thing. However, you can deconstruct items in the bank directly without pulling them out so it saves a step. I also have one main master crafter that I use to make craftable sets and upgrade quality of sets for other alts. It depends on what projects you are working on, but I visit both the merchant and banker every day on every alt right after writs and also after dungeons and quests.

bluebird

Banker

harakira wrote: »

It would be nice if assistants were selling with conditional discount (-50% for example) for those who already has one of the same type. I have human banker and merchant. Buying cats with full price is too much in this case. ESO+ players have special prices for some items. I think it's not difficult to implement alternatives for other conditions.

That would indeed be cool! Especially since the 5,000 price tag was initially justified was a reflection of 'their unique convenience, group-wide utility, and practical services'. For people who already own a banker and merchant, they provide no unique convenience or special functionality, whatsoever and are little more than a facelift. They should cost less that way.

There has been much disappointment amongst fans when the Alfiq bankers were added, but cost the same price as the base assistants, even when people had them. And I know a lot of people refused to pay 5k twice for the same functionality.

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Hotdog_23 wrote: »

Banker because merchants are easier to find in the game vs. bankers.

This was my reasoning when I first got a banker, but my actual experience since I've had both is that I use the merchant far more often. Sure, there are more merchants around when questing, but they're still less convenient than being able to call one on demand, and I need to sell junk far more often than I accumulate so much stuff worth keeping that I need to move items to the bank.

I think that's different. If you have both, but find yourself using one more often, that's one thing. But the question is: which one would you rather not have access to at any time? <--- think OP should answer that and pick based on that.

What's the worst / most inconvenient / most annoying thing that will happen if you don't have a merchant?
What's the worst / most inconvenient / most annoying thing that will happen if you don't have a banker?

For me, even if I use the Merchant more often, the benefit of having bank on the go is greater. What do you lose out on if you don't have a Merchant on the go, but visit ingame merchants only? I won't be able to sell trash for 100 gold each? Not a big deal. But what do I lose out on if you have no Banker on the go? I have to visit a Fence every time I accidentally stole something and have no Counterfeit Pardon Edicts on that char, I need to sacrifice inventory slots on each of my characters for common consumables instead of just withdrawing them from my bank whenever I want, I need to visit a town to change sets every time, or keep several monster sets and gear in my actual bags, reducing the inventory I have on that char even further? I need to keep Motifs on myself instead of Banking them into a stack and selling them later? Your reasoning may be different, but which one you use most often shouldn't be the deciding factor which one you get if you can only have one.

the1andonlyskwex

Merchant

bluebird wrote: »

harakira wrote: »

It would be nice if assistants were selling with conditional discount (-50% for example) for those who already has one of the same type. I have human banker and merchant. Buying cats with full price is too much in this case. ESO+ players have special prices for some items. I think it's not difficult to implement alternatives for other conditions.

That would indeed be cool! Especially since the 5,000 price tag was initially justified was a reflection of 'their unique convenience, group-wide utility, and practical services'. For people who already own a banker and merchant, they provide no unique convenience or special functionality, whatsoever and are little more than a facelift. They should cost less that way.

There has been much disappointment amongst fans when the Alfiq bankers were added, but cost the same price as the base assistants, even when people had them. And I know a lot of people refused to pay 5k twice for the same functionality.

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

Hotdog_23 wrote: »

Banker because merchants are easier to find in the game vs. bankers.

This was my reasoning when I first got a banker, but my actual experience since I've had both is that I use the merchant far more often. Sure, there are more merchants around when questing, but they're still less convenient than being able to call one on demand, and I need to sell junk far more often than I accumulate so much stuff worth keeping that I need to move items to the bank.

I think that's different. If you have both, but find yourself using one more often, that's one thing. But the question is: which one would you rather not have access to at any time? <--- think OP should answer that and pick based on that.

What's the worst / most inconvenient / most annoying thing that will happen if you don't have a merchant?
What's the worst / most inconvenient / most annoying thing that will happen if you don't have a banker?

For me, even if I use the Merchant more often, the benefit of having bank on the go is greater. What do you lose out on if you don't have a Merchant on the go, but visit ingame merchants only? I won't be able to sell trash for 100 gold each? Not a big deal. But what do I lose out on if you have no Banker on the go? I have to visit a Fence every time I accidentally stole something and have no Counterfeit Pardon Edicts on that char, I need to sacrifice inventory slots on each of my characters for common consumables instead of just withdrawing them from my bank whenever I want, I need to visit a town to change sets every time, or keep several monster sets and gear in my actual bags, reducing the inventory I have on that char even further? I need to keep Motifs on myself instead of Banking them into a stack and selling them later? Your reasoning may be different, but which one you use most often shouldn't be the deciding factor which one you get if you can only have one.

Okay, fine.

To take it one step farther, when I got a banker it didn't really have much impact on my gameplay. Instead of going to a bank roughly once per day, I was able to just summon the banker. It was nice, but didn't really change my overall gameplay experience much (especially when I was going back to town every once in a while to repair and use crafting stations anyway).

When I got a merchant, it was a transformative experience. It completely eliminated all of the time I had been spending running back and forth between merchants and questing areas (which turned out to be more significant than I had realized), and also saved me the semi-frequent trouble of having to figure out what to destroy when I filled my inventory in a dungeon. I suppose a banker could have helped with some of that too, but my bank is always way too full to also use it for storing junk that I need to pull back out and sell later.

Ultimately, after having the merchant for a while, I would rather quit ESO completely than go back to living without it. I can't say anything even resembling the same for the banker.

All of that said, reading other people's replies really shows how many different ways there are to use the banker (almost none of which apply to the way I play).

RunForTheHills

Banker

If you have the banker, why wouldn't you use where ever it makes sense? Have you ever been at a guild trader and were short gold to buy something? Just call up the banker and withdraw more money. Keeping most of your money in the bank means any alt has access to it.

If you are running dolmens to level new skills and/or farm weapons, armor, and jewelry and run out of inventory room, you could call up the merchant and sell off the junk. However, that only works for two or three times and then your inventory is full of stuff that isn't junk. I keep a couple hundred slots clear in the bank and can dump everything to be deconned straight into the bank and continue to run dolmens without stopping. The same is true for dungeons and quests. Managing free bank space isn't hard. Just deconn stuff at the end of the day. It only takes a few minutes. The sticker book means there isn't much you need to keep and lock the items you don't want to accidentally decon.

I play on PC. I keep a set amount of gold on each alt and use the Bandit's UI add on to automatically move money to the bank or pull it out if I have more or less than that. After I do writs, I visit both the merchant to get rid of the junk and the banker to deposit the extra gold, surveys, master writs, etc on every alt. Bandit's UI can also automatically restock soul gems, lockpicks, and potions automatically from your bank.

zaria

Merchant

With eso+ mercant. Without probably banker

Kallykat

Banker

I had just the dark elf banker for a long time. I only bought a merchant when they released the alfiq one. My reasoning was, as others have mentioned, that merchants are easier to find and access in the game. I found that having to travel to a town and find a bank every time I wanted to transfer items was frustrating. Also, you can add items you want to sell to your bank temporarily to make room in your bag until you find a merchant in game.

belfong

Merchant

There's a sale of assistant now - 4,250 crowns. I bought a merchant.