Another Failure of the Guild Trader System!

FlopsyPrince

So I need a Harmony Ring to research my final JC spot.

I went through the first 2 pages on TTC (PC EU) by both low cost and recent listings. NONE of the guild vendors had the ring, even a couple that showed listing it less than 10 minutes prior.

And we are constantly told that a central AH would drive up prices because some would corner the market. Right.

Really frustrating and annoying that I blew the time I could have done my riding and daily crafting and could even find what I needed!

Tell me again how great the current system is! I guess I need a full time job to find something....

ceiron

You could also ask a guild mate or even in zone chats to craft you one to research. Assuming you didn't just search for exemplary rings also?

thorwyn

If the items did not show up on the guild traders, you probably had the wrong search filter. I had the same problem once, no search results until I noticed that I was in the wrong category or had checked the wrong item quality.
Pressing R also hepls from time to time.

Xinihp

The guild trader system is pretty awful not gonna lie. Only the endless rows of player stalls in the original FFXIV before A Realm Reborn (I STILL have nightmares about those) was worse for time and use efficiency in my entire MMO history.

They should just make a central AH and make it so to post you need to be in a guild with a trading license to post on it. No more bidding wars on traders. No more relying on ad-filled 3rd party apps just to not spend 14 hours finding one thing for a terrible price.

Do something interesting with the existing guild kiosk NPC's like let guilds earn achievement stuff like furniture and cosmetic unlocks and sell them at a guild kiosk they rent, and earn profit that way. Or you could just make it so renting a kiosk would increase your guild's share of the tax on sales (otherwise the bulk of the tax would serve as a gold sink).

But I would rather they add a cosmetic system for customizing the color/appearance of spells so whatever.

FlopsyPrince

thorwyn wrote: »

If the items did not show up on the guild traders, you probably had the wrong search filter. I had the same problem once, no search results until I noticed that I was in the wrong category or had checked the wrong item quality.
Pressing R also hepls from time to time.

Nope, I checked my filters and even looked at all jewelry and NOTHING that matched was there.

Things should not be this hard!

Chilly-McFreeze

So someone checked TTC too and was faster than you by buying the market clean. Same could happen even more easily with a central AH. Don't understand the fuzz about it.

kargen27

Bargains are almost always gone before they get posted to TTC. The information there has never been current.

FlopsyPrince

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

So someone checked TTC too and was faster than you by buying the market clean. Same could happen even more easily with a central AH. Don't understand the fuzz about it.

At least I could find the item!

I was noting that I spent the time completely uselessly and still didn't get what I needed. I really don't have hours to run from trader to trader.

That is why I switched from looking by price to looking by posting time, even if it was a fair bit more expensive. None had the item. That is a serious problem!

And the repricing is the exact danger we supposedly avoid when it is completely bogus. At least a Central AH would tell me how much I would have to pay and I can decide if the cost is worth it!

jecks33

exemplay jewels go for 1k gold, general merchants give you 500 gold, it is not worthwhile to sell them through guilds.

That's the "inflaction" someone is talking about....

robpr

TTC uploads and updates the stuff on the website when the seller logs off or do /reloadui. Depending what they are doing it can be few hours after the listing, so the item might be long gone. It's the limitation of the addon API, that saves the the price tables into the saved variables file that the client can send to the website only on reload/logoff.

And no, despite how terrible the trader system is for the buyer, removing it at this point will completely destroy the economy. Trader system is the only major gold sink in the game, removing it would lead to Venezuela level of price inflation.

jecks33

atm on TTC there are 2 pages of harmony rings on sale, are you really sure that you search with the right filters?

SainguinKrist

This doesn't sound like a failure of the guild trader system.

It sounds like the item you wanted just wasn't available.

A global AH wouldn't fix people not selling the item you want or the item being sold out.

That happens in games with global AHs all the time.

Grizzbeorn

The people who stalk the guild traders to buy items out from under you aren't going to just vanish if the devs were to change the system.
If a change makes it easier for you to find and buy, it would make it easier for them, as well.
They'd simply be able to buy out from under you even faster in a centralized market.

joerginger

Are you still searching? If yes, just contact me in game. The name is the same (yes, on both servers).

Danikat

This is why I don't like the guild trader system either. It's ok for sellers who get full control of the market, especially when all the guilds in a town collaborate on prices, knowing it's too much hassle for many people to look anywhere else (or even to find out the prices they're seeing on all those traders are artificially set). But it makes buying anything an absolute pain. Which actually will affect sellers too because it means many people don't bother even looking.

Before I discovered TTC I never used guild traders at all because I didn't want to waste my time trawling random merchants with no way of knowing which ones might have the item I want. Even now I only use it for things which are just as much hassle to get from other sources, like hard to find motifs. Most things simply aren't worth the trouble to buy, so I never buy them.

I know a lot of sellers worry about the increased competition from a more accessible system but I'm pretty sure it would be more than balanced out by an increase in buyers if only finding what you want was simpler. Especially since ESO uses a megaserver system so you'd be selling to everyone on the same platform and region, not just the minority on the same server as you.

They could even keep the current system for sellers so the current limitation on the number of sellers remains in place, and just add a system like TTC but build into the game so buyers can search all the guild traders in one go and get current results - ones that are actually still there - instead of having to waste their time checking individual traders for something they might never find.

ceiron wrote: »

You could also ask a guild mate or even in zone chats to craft you one to research. Assuming you didn't just search for exemplary rings also?

thorwyn wrote: »

If the items did not show up on the guild traders, you probably had the wrong search filter. I had the same problem once, no search results until I noticed that I was in the wrong category or had checked the wrong item quality.
Pressing R also hepls from time to time.

You don't get 2 pages of results if your search failed. The OP means TTC listed lots of traders which apparently had the ring but all but the most expensive had been bought out before they got there, even ones seen just 10 minutes earlier.

ceiron

Also those of us not on pc like myself do not have ttc as an option either.

Yes the trading system is awful but its never going to change.

Think i missed your point earlier too. There was items available but none at the price you wanted or saw on ttc.

So the major complaint was you couldn't get the bargain easily rather then you couldn't find the item ...

tonyblack

I would bother with ttc if it’s expensive item (>100k gold) but with something as cheap as harmony jewelry (2-10k max) you better of check most popular places to save your time. Craglorn, mournhold, vivec always have those.

alanmatillab16_ESO

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

So I need a Harmony Ring to research my final JC spot.

I went through the first 2 pages on TTC (PC EU) by both low cost and recent listings. NONE of the guild vendors had the ring, even a couple that showed listing it less than 10 minutes prior.

And we are constantly told that a central AH would drive up prices because some would corner the market. Right.

Really frustrating and annoying that I blew the time I could have done my riding and daily crafting and could even find what I needed!

Tell me again how great the current system is! I guess I need a full time job to find something....

You WILL play "sim-shopping" and be happy about it, dragging yourself around vendors claiming to be the biggest and best on the server only to find they have jack squat in the way of stock.

Any suggestion for a central AH or central search feature will be met with severe resistance here.

PrimusTiberius

The current system is just fine, I would however argue, that we need more traders. Would like to see 2 or 3 traders added in the locations that only have a single trader. More stores, more opportunities.

bmnoble

Why don't you just buy some of the trait mat Dibellium and get a crafter to make you a ring and necklace for research, most will do it for free if you provide the mats.

BlueRaven

bmnoble wrote: »

Why don't you just buy some of the trait mat Dibellium and get a crafter to make you a ring and necklace for research, most will do it for free if you provide the mats.

This.

I have guildies hitting me up for Nirn stuff all the time. I make it for them, I don’t mind. Similar issue really.

(Edit: I just realized, if you a railing against guild traders, you might possibly not be in a guild?

If you don’t want to join one, maybe zone chat can help you.)

Dark_Lord_Kuro

Im on console
It took me a whole 2 minute to find 8 jevelery pieces with the harmony trait all under 15k some under 10k
I know stuff are sold at a higher price on pc put avaibility should still be there, i mean most stall of mournhold add some

Either you aent searching right or youre problem is not finding the item but the price of them

redlink1979

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

(...) I went through the first 2 pages on TTC (PC EU) by both low cost and recent listings. NONE of the guild vendors had the ring, even a couple that showed listing it less than 10 minutes prior.(...)

Players need to be aware that they aren't the only ones searching for items on TTC/guild traders: beside you, there's the people who need them and also the people who just want to flip items. You got to be quick and lucky to grab what you are looking for.

If you have the trait stone, you can ask in one of your guild if someone can craft it for you. It will be quicker and cheaper than searching.
If that isn't an option, I can help you and craft it for you.

BloodyStigmata

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

And we are constantly told that a central AH would drive up prices because some would corner the market. Right.

Until you can think of enough gold sinks to both make up the difference and surpass the amount of gold spent on trader bidding by guild leadership each week, a central marketplace will continue to be a bad idea.

eovogtb16_ESO

Just introduce a system where items that are bought cannot be resold. All Problems solved.

freespirit

Just a thought.... Zeal of Zenithar starts in less than a week!

Personally I wouldn't do jewelry master writs involving the harmony trait but maybe others are intending to and are buying that trait item up for research in preperation?

I destroy all my writs that aren't arcane, healthy or robust, not everyone does. 🤔

Troodon80

Just a quick look on PC-EU, left the wayshrine and looked at some of the traders for Harmony jewellery near the Vivec wayshrine:

So I hopped on PC-NA and the first trader in Vivec I came to (right by the archway):

I don't know what to say. It's pretty clear if you absolutely 100% cannot find an item as common as Harmony jewellery, you're probably looking for the wrong thing.

kringled_1

Possibly the OP got their guild store filters into an incompatible state. Every so often I get this and have to reset the search

TaSheen

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

So I need a Harmony Ring to research my final JC spot.

I went through the first 2 pages on TTC (PC EU) by both low cost and recent listings. NONE of the guild vendors had the ring, even a couple that showed listing it less than 10 minutes prior.

And we are constantly told that a central AH would drive up prices because some would corner the market. Right.

Really frustrating and annoying that I blew the time I could have done my riding and daily crafting and could even find what I needed!

Tell me again how great the current system is! I guess I need a full time job to find something....

I'll make you a Harmony ring on PC-EU, if you'll pm me your user ID there.

JKorr

bmnoble wrote: »

Why don't you just buy some of the trait mat Dibellium and get a crafter to make you a ring and necklace for research, most will do it for free if you provide the mats.

:shhhh: Don't bring logic and practicality into this. After all, some players are guild-phobic, don't want to ask for a crafter in zone chat, and look for more "reasons" to ask for an auction house. It apparently makes more sense to ask to disrupt the present system and make massive changes to the game instead of asking guildmates/random helpful players for help.

I don't normally reply to "crafter wanted" in zone chat, however someone asking for a trait item to research I will answer. I don't charge, but do ask for the trait mats for jewelry and nirnhoned items. I ask in my guilds if anyone needs research items every time I log in.

Freelancer_ESO

BloodyStigmata wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

And we are constantly told that a central AH would drive up prices because some would corner the market. Right.

Until you can think of enough gold sinks to both make up the difference and surpass the amount of gold spent on trader bidding by guild leadership each week, a central marketplace will continue to be a bad idea.

What make you feel that is hard to do?

ZOS knows that amount of gold spent on Guild Traders per week as well as the bids. Just set the fees for the Central Market at a higher rate that the current sink of the traders.