How do low priced items sell in just a few seconds on a trader?

SilverBride

I was quickly putting a lot of items up for sale at our guild trader and wasn't paying attention. I missed the last 0 on 2 stacks of crafting mats. I realized it a few seconds later but before I could remove them they were sold. It was almost immediate. How is this possible?

colossalvoids

If it's PC then it's add-on quickly showcasing a "deal" range with colour when browsing, it's pretty common to spot such things right away to snap without even thinking about price more than a second.

endgamesmug

Flippers doing their favoured playstyle, i used to naively think id put up some goods at a cheap price for anyone hard up boy was i wrong 😆

Kite42

Pretty easy to automate that. Probably against the terms of service or whatever this game calls it, but those sorts of things are almost never enforced. Hard to prove etc.

katanagirl1

I’ve had some low priced motifs sell almost instantly, we don’t have add-ons or automation.

EDIT: I wish the autocorrect would quit making “add-on” into “add-ones”

kargen27

Kite42 wrote: »

Pretty easy to automate that. Probably against the terms of service or whatever this game calls it, but those sorts of things are almost never enforced. Hard to prove etc.

Automate what exactly? You can visit only one trader at a time. Your settings are saved so if you choose the first thing you see it the great deals. You wouldn't want a script to just start buying though even if one were available. You might end up with a bunch of worthless jewelry writs and some things no matter how good the price just don't flip.

Some player just got lucky with accessing the trader just as the bargains were listed.

SilverBride

Are they standing at the trader while they do this? Even if they are it seems that it would still take more than a few seconds to go to the item and make the purchase.

To clarify, there were 2 stacks and they were purchased by 2 different players.

I am going to test this tomorrow by putting an item up at the guild trader rather than at the bank which I normally do. I'll make sure no one is standing there when I do it to see if that has anything to do with it.

FeedbackOnly

Flipping is a play style. It's how they play the game

Kite42

Having no one next to you won't help I suspect, since the game instances the physics model, but trader prices and inventory will be the same for all instances.

Basically, it would be super easy to just have characters stay at a trader and scoop up good deals, flip them, and sell the gold for real money (often called RMT).

It was a thing for ever in Eve Online, and that was when each account would need a 15 buck subscription. In a free to play game like this, there will definitely be automated bot characters.

There's probably a farm within 100 km from me, but since I live on the Pearl River delta, I'm cheating a bit (as are the bot farms).

aaisoaho

I think I can give you some insights into this. I sometimes do flipping, if I do not have anything better to do in-game.

If I'm time-starved, I only visit the traders/locations where I have previously gained some deals. This is because often the same guilds and traders do the same kinds of deals every day.

When I arrive at the trader, I either sort only materials by newest listing first, or all items by newest listing first. This works on the assumption that there is other flippers visiting the trader from time to time, reducing the probability of older listings containing deals. The materials filter is because usually materials are what sells the fastest, and getting a deal on a material means, that I can make quick profits listing them. I have managed to find some bargains being listed in real time as I have just opened the trader and begun reading the listings.

For pricing, some of the items I know the price because I have sold them a lot. Also if I know the price, I often remember the per item price that gives profits. If the listing is below that profitable price, I know to buy it instantly. Other times I either browse the sales history of that item to find the highest point that has a lot of sales to determine the price, or I check TTC price check if the item is rarer and has very little sales data. For these items, I pop open my calculator to find the price point of the item being profitable.

FrancisCrawford

I've had some very high-priced items sell almost immediately at guild traders too.

FrancisCrawford

SilverBride wrote: »

I was quickly putting a lot of items up for sale at our guild trader and wasn't paying attention. I missed the last 0 on 2 stacks of crafting mats. I realized it a few seconds later but before I could remove them they were sold. It was almost immediate. How is this possible?

Did you check whether the buyers were in your guild?

Danikat

Something similar happened to me once. I'd recently joined a new guild with a trader so I put a bunch of stuff up to see what would sell and while I was still adding stuff all the provisioning materials I was added started selling, they were literally going as fast as I could add them.

I mentioned it in guild chat and it turned out the answer was very simple: someone in that guild was shopping for provisioning materials at the same time and was buying everything on our store that wasn't over-priced.

It's less likely if the guild doesn't have a trader, because then only guild members can see the store and in my experience a lot of people in those guilds don't even think to check it because they assume no one uses it. In guilds which do have a trader a lot of members will check their own guild store first, both because it's more convenient since they can access it from any bank and because buying from there means the money goes to the guild. Since it's likely people in the same guild will be online around the same time it's not surprising they'd be buying at the same time you're listing stuff for sale.

(It happens in real life too. I used to work in various shops and more than once someone would ask if they could take stuff out the boxes before I'd even gotten it on the shelf, or they'd just take it.)

shukkig4

The most likely scenario is that somebody was just browsing the items by newest listing and happened to buy it just as you were listing it, doesn't even have to be a flipper, could be just ordinary buyer. The higher traffic trader it was, the higher chance somebody would be browsing the trader just as you were listing your items. If you list items significantly below their market value in places like Mounrhold or Vivec, it's pretty normal to have them sell within couple minutes.

Danikat

I think it's normal for low priced items to sell relatively quickly, although I'd measure that in hours, not seconds.

I use TTC when I'm buying (on PC EU) and I always sort the list by lowest price, and I gave up checking anything in the first page or two which has been up for more than about 10 hours because if it's below market value it's very likely it's gone. Although there are exceptions - if it's something with a very high volume and lots of similarly priced items or I suspect the price is currently dropping I might check slightly older listings. Or if it's a trader in an outlaw refuge because I think they're less popular.

HedgeHugger

I've bought things as they've just been listed. Just happening to check the shop at the right time.
If it's a shop I check regularly in passing, and I'm not looking for specifics, then I search by time listed. The newest at the top. Means I can sometimes grab a bargain for a change. Or find something I've been looking for, before the mob finds it.
Usually has 1mo as it's timing. As in 1 month.

Dr_Con

if you suspect foul play, which is entirely possible, report the incident to ZOS and they can look into it.

all of the other posts on here are valid, but they do not invalidate your concern. Your transaction is in the guild store's logs, get the name of the person who insta-bought your items and submit a good faith report if you suspect foul play.

TybaltKaine

This thread makes me nostalgic for the guild I was in on Xbox that sold everything, literally everything, for 100 gold. We didn't care if people were flipping it or whatever, cause either way it was helping folks out. It's all digital anyway, so it's not like there suddenly won't be any more of whatever I'm selling (Unless ZOS slaps it back into the vault).

Anyway, like others have said, it was likely not automated and was just someone shopping. There are so many players on at any given time it can certainly feel like these things happen faster than you can react. If you do still suspect something shady, go ahead and look in your guilds history and see if that person is in the guild or not and if they have a history of buying cheap things or just sniping good deals.

I mindlessly buy most things under a set point (usually 500 gold) and either add it to my craft bag or donate it to my own guild to help folks, so even then it may not be sinister.

Just providing a different perspective is all.

jle30303

Even if there's nobody standing at the guild trader, there could be somebody in the guild, standing at a bank, that you cant see because he's somewhere else.

Or there could be somebody else standing at the guild trader in another instance.

xilfxlegion

as a flipper -- - first thing i do is check the guilds i am in --- always newest first.

then i do the same thing at other traders ---- sometimes you just luck out and find stuff cheap that was just listed. there's no magic to it -- just at the right place at the right time

jaws343

A large amount of players sort by newest when doing general guild trader browsing. Anything older than a day is likely not a good deal. It's why a lot of trading guilds I am in recommend relisting everything after a week to keep it towards the top of the listings. So, when a player hits the search button and you just listed the item, it is generally towards the top of the first page, making it an easy pickup and find.

jaws343

Dr_Con wrote: »

if you suspect foul play, which is entirely possible, report the incident to ZOS and they can look into it.

all of the other posts on here are valid, but they do not invalidate your concern. Your transaction is in the guild store's logs, get the name of the person who insta-bought your items and submit a good faith report if you suspect foul play.

I'd argue that reporting someone for buying something from the guild trader is not a good faith report.

Players need to stop weaponizing the report system like this.

whitecrow

I've wondered about this as well. Even with the explanations above, it seems impossibly fast. They were items of all price ranges, and never from within the guild.

XSTRONG

SilverBride wrote: »

Are they standing at the trader while they do this? Even if they are it seems that it would still take more than a few seconds to go to the item and make the purchase.

To clarify, there were 2 stacks and they were purchased by 2 different players.

I am going to test this tomorrow by putting an item up at the guild trader rather than at the bank which I normally do. I'll make sure no one is standing there when I do it to see if that has anything to do with it.

Many players stand in the bank to check whats on market in their guilds. So you would have to check every bank in the game.

SilverBride

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

Did you check whether the buyers were in your guild?

I did and they weren't.

Dr_Con wrote: »

if you suspect foul play, which is entirely possible, report the incident to ZOS and they can look into it.

I am suspicious but I have no proof that there was any foul play. I came this close [] to messaging the buyers and asking how they found these items so fast but I figured if they were up to no good they wouldn't tell me anyway.

Jhava

If you're in a backwater guild then you can recover from dropping a zero. However if you're listing in a prime spot, the vultures scan all day.

Sometimes though its as simple as people were looking while you listed.

SilverBride

We are a very successful trading guild in a prime spot. I won't go broke from my mistake but I was shocked how fast these were found and purchased. It was literally seconds.

Zodiarkslayer

SilverBride wrote: »

We are a very successful trading guild in a prime spot. I won't go broke from my mistake but I was shocked how fast these were found and purchased. It was literally seconds.

And there is your answer: very successful trading guild.
It was most likely a guild mate, that purchased from you.

That happens to me every day, if I offer the intricate platinum jewelry from my daily crafting rewards for below 700g. Alkost instant sales.

When I noticed that first, I got suspicious and asked in guild discord what was going on. Turns out a new guy had an addon to detect good deals and auto purchase them.
He isn't in our guild anymore.

SilverBride

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

We are a very successful trading guild in a prime spot. I won't go broke from my mistake but I was shocked how fast these were found and purchased. It was literally seconds.

And there is your answer: very successful trading guild.
It was most likely a guild mate, that purchased from you.

That's what I thought at first but neither of the buyers were in our guild.

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

Turns out a new guy had an addon to detect good deals and auto purchase them.

Is using an add-on to auto purchase from guild traders allowed, or would this be considered a type of bot? @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin

kringled_1

If it's a prime location there are almost certainly multiple instances, whether it's mournhold or vivec city, etc.

Varana

If it's in a prime location, I really wouldn't think twice about this. At some point, someone is guaranteed to be in the right place at the right time, and the probability is higher the more popular your guild trader is, and with a very in-demand good like raw materials.
Esp. if it's a one-time occurrence. And even when it happens multiple times, but with different players.
It's just a function of numbers.