Odd prices in guild traders

moo_2021

Just noticed apparently some people are buying cheap purple or blue gears, golden them and reselling at hundreds of thousands or even millions. (EDIT: or selling craftable items; I mean people would make them for free if you ask)

Also some recipes and lower level runes readily available in overland merchants were being sold at much higher price in traders, apparently bought low and resold high.


But why would anyone buy them or go through the trouble to resell them? The first one was annoying when there is a shortage but the second seems completely pointless.

Sluggy

Laundering.

moo_2021

Sluggy wrote: »

Laundering.

How does that work??

Kaelthorn_Nightbloom

When I first started playing, I would buy crafted gear from traders. Gold wasn't an issue because I was selling crowns. I didn't want to deal with other players, so it was faster for me to just buy the gear off traders. Now that I have all traits unlocked, I craft my own gear.

Same with recipes.

As far as runes go, I didn't know you could buy cheap runes from the vendor until 6 months after playing. All my runes came from hirelings, harvesting, etc. If I ran out, I would buy them from traders. So this is a real thing that inexperienced players will buy runes off traders.

"laundering" 🤣

belial5221_ESO

It's also to skew list and sales pricing for addons to artificially bring up or down prices.Only good thing is,addons remove outliers,so harder to do it,unless you get a few guilds of ppl to do it,and that don't really seem to happen.

Zodiarkslayer

It's a bet on some inexperienced guy to come along and spend gold on something easily accessible.

This is part of some pro traders "portfolio".

Danikat

Another possibility is inexperienced players who aren't using trade addons getting something they think is rare or in high demand and selling it for what they imagine it's worth.

I've encountered a few players who are told 'end game gear' is golded set gear and think that means literally any set gear upgraded to gold is BiS. Usually they just end up wasting materials and their own time trying to use whichever sets they have or can get most easily, but it wouldn't surprise me if they try to sell it as well.

(Topics like this remind me of the first time I played the social deduction game Blood on the Clocktower. I had one of the specialist roles which I had to keep secret and I didn't really understand it so I was making choices each night pretty much at random. Some very experienced players noticed the strange choices and kept talking about strategies they'd seen used or theorised at conventions, speculating that someone even more experienced than them was running some elaborate scheme. I kept pointing out that half the group had never played before and it was equally likely this person didn't know what they were doing, but they were so excited at the idea of this amazing meta-game someone was running they ignored me.)

Kisakee

As laundering gold from gold sellers sadly is an option to factor in there is another fact that comes into action: Laziness.

People are lazy and they will always be, there's quite a market targetting those players (especially PvPers). I'm into this market myself, doing this exact thing: Get some good items at low quality (farming or buying), upgrade and sell them for a good profit. To make this work you want to be in a guild with a good trader location as lazy folks are not going to any hideouts or far away islands for the most part.

At this point it's as much of a social thing as it's about trading, market economy is also a thing. No need to sell something if a 100 other peeps are already doing so unless you can undercut their prices and still make enough gold to justify the effort. It really helps if you like market simulator games.

Tenthirty2

moo_2021 wrote: »

Just noticed apparently some people are buying cheap purple or blue gears, golden them and reselling at hundreds of thousands or even millions. (EDIT: or selling craftable items; I mean people would make them for free if you ask)

Also some recipes and lower level runes readily available in overland merchants were being sold at much higher price in traders, apparently bought low and resold high.


But why would anyone buy them or go through the trouble to resell them? The first one was annoying when there is a shortage but the second seems completely pointless.

caveat emptor
ESPECIALLY with guild traders.
I've seen some crazy pricing on mediocre items likely hoping to take advantage of players who aren't informed.
Always research before purchase.

I_killed_Vivec

From the very early days of trading there have been guides that suggest that you improve the gear you're selling. Maybe to shift it faster...

I could never see the point myself - tempers are too valuable to waste on something that might not sell even if golded - but I imagine there are noobs who would prefer to buy a gold item than upgrade it themselves.

I never understand why people put base style stones on sale for more than 15g each when you can now buy them from traders...

zaria

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

From the very early days of trading there have been guides that suggest that you improve the gear you're selling. Maybe to shift it faster...

I could never see the point myself - tempers are too valuable to waste on something that might not sell even if golded - but I imagine there are noobs who would prefer to buy a gold item than upgrade it themselves.

I never understand why people put base style stones on sale for more than 15g each when you can now buy them from traders...

Some players might not know.
ZoS even exploit this in that you can buy vampire and werewolf cures in the crown store while you can get them from npc for some hundred gold.