The current guild trader system is horrible for buyers looking for a rare item.

Yesterday, I wanted to buy a specific chapter of a rare motif. So I went to one of the guild traders in a main trading city and started a search that would produce only epic quality motifs and motif chapters as a result. And I used an additional text filter (that I only have thanks to the Awesome Guildstore addon) so I would only see the item I wanted in the list. Yet, I still had to browse through like 6-10 pages in every guild stores and had to wait 5 seconds every time I wanted to load a new page, plus sometimes when the interface crashes - which happens quite often - I lose like an additional 10-40 seconds and I need to restart the search.

Of course, the first trader didn't have the item I needed. Nor did any of the other traders in that city. So I travelled to the next main trading city and did the same thing again for the 4-6 guild traders found over there. Rinse and repeat for all main trading cities (I usually check at least Belkarth, Rawl'kha, Elden Root, Mournhold, and Wayrest).

Turns out none of the traders was selling the item I wanted - as it is so often the case when I search for a rare item - and I wasted like 20 minutes just to get that info. Great system indeed... I'll have to waste another 20 minutes in a few hours or tomorrow just to find out that maybe the item I need is still not for sale. Or I could waste like 1 hour to check all guild traders in the game (minus the ones in Outlaw Refuges). But the smaller guilds are much less likely to have what I was looking for.

Here we go again...

PelinalWhitestrake wrote: »

Damn, am I too late?

Hahaha I'm at least to late

Oh and how I would fix it is very simple. Allow guilds of a certain size to always be guaranteed a vendor. Not asking too much imo.

Cherryblossom wrote: »

Please elaborate on "more interesting" "in game trading" "new levels of gameplay"

In most mainstream MMO games with a central base for all says you basically have a system where everyone does the following.
Sort lowest price first > Search item name > Buy/List for 1g less.
With this system it's basically the person who listed most recently always gets the sale and players are forced to continue going back to the AH and cancelling/relisting to try and sell an item. In games where there is a non-returned listing fee you actually waste money or sit waiting for items to expire over and over in hopes someone sees you sale cheapest before someone else undercuts.
Now the same does happen in ESO but you're limited to only 500 players who can undercut you in that one visible location. This grants you more chance to make sales before an undercut and sometimes means you can sell an item higher than its actual value because players can't see the entire market at once.

The current system also allows for something rare in MMO games these days which is a career in trading, whilst this isn't for everyone there are options for everyone to buy here.
If you're just looking for an item and want it fast you can check the hubs, you'll potentially pay more but you'll normally get what you're after fast. If you want a good deal you can put in the footwork and shop around to find what is a good deal.
Meanwhile it lets players who put the footwork in buy low/sell high and make money from something other than grinding for gold/gear.

Now I will concede this current system is not friendly for players looking for non-mainstream items. First the UI by core is atrocious and not user friendly, secondly there is no way to see where the items you want are without manually checking every store.
If ZOS could address these two pain points I think a lot of people would be more welcoming of the current system. I personally don't want to see an interesting and different system thrown out the window and a one size fits all AH placed in rather than give the current system a chance with improved player experience.

Cherryblossom wrote: »

This method is not good for everyone as there is a default finite number of people able to Trade, so you cannot have with this system, a method that is good for all.

I will concede you are correct in this statement, however I will say that right now this isn't an issue and we are far from one.

First of all the traders are finite, but trading is not. Infinite guilds can be created meaning there can always be multiple 500 slot guilds selling in house, with the option to join five guilds you can in theory have access to five stores without ever needing visit a trader (they can be accessed from any bank).

Now obviously everyone wants more visibility than their 500 members and this is where the traders come in. As I agreed these are in fact finite and not every guild in the game can have one. However, there are a great deal of them and we are already very far from seeing all of them utilised to their full potential.
Not every single one of these is being used by a 500 player strong guild yet, outside of the cities this are smaller guilds just starting up with plenty of spaces open for new members.

My annoyance with this argument is many people who make this claim of not being able to partake in guild traders haven't even tried to. Just last week I joined a new trade guild with 24 members, Friday/Saturday they made 50 members and Sunday they got a guild trader with 40k gold donated by the members (that's less than 1k per member).

So within one week a new guild is in the system and doing what everyone is claiming can't be done. Now all this new guild has to do is learn item values and desires and they'll be able to bring in gold with regular sales, they may not have a prime location but with smart selling (undercut trade hubs and sell needed/wanted items) they'll start bringing more customers who know it's a good deal to go there, from there they can move to a city, then maybe eventually a trade hub.

To prove I am not talking BS this is the guilds thread: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/327218/the-royal-trade-company-brand-new-trade-guild-located-in-the-rift

So to finalise, yes this argument can be made, but maybe when it actually becomes an issue, by that time we would have had even more traders added with new content to continue opening up the options for new guilds.

Rene_Valionus wrote: »

Oh look another "I want something made easier in-game coz i'm Lazy" thread.............


Oh and NO.......

Except for the UI issue,. i want that one fix so YES.

It's not about lazyness its about fairness and time btw.

mbaranski15 wrote: »

Weasel_Tunneler wrote: »

Malanthor wrote: »

I just resubbed after a couple of years away. One of the reasons i stopped playing back then was the lack of an auction house. I was/am mostly interested in buying stuff -not selling.
Sadly the whole process with running back and forth and checking out the various guilds kiosks were just too horribly. I play games to have fun, not do chores i might as well do at work. I would assume that most people would want a system that let them easily browse available goods and then make a purchase. Just like E-Bay, Amazon etc. Would anyone here want to get in their car and drive back and forth between stores to find something they were looking for instead of using google or a online marketplace like ebay? I assume the answer is a resounding NO.
Well the same goes for me in game, i don't want to saddle up my horse and ride around to the various kiosks to find what i'm looking for. My time is too limited for that.

Now i am sure there are those who appreciate the way the system works right now. With the limitations placed on selling stuff, there are far fewer sellers than there would have been with a regular global auction house. And thus a sellers market. Asking those sellers what system they want is like asking someone with a limited monopoly if they want said monopoly to go away with the following losses in income. What answer do you expect to get? Its like asking someone if they are ok with cutting their salary.

Remember that most people who play this game are not hardcore sellers, they are just people that from time to time want to buy and sell something. Why make things hard for them?
They by far make up the actual population, and are the ones who keep this game alive. Not the small select group of greedy businessmen who profit from the current system.

Please add a global auction house for the benefit of the masses!

I hate it too, but this might help.

https://us.tamrieltradecentre.com/pc/Trade/Search

It the best AH we will ever have in the game.

Thank you! I'm new to ESO and have struggled to find stuff that I'm looking for.

Oh btw the website does not say when things are sold so you never know when they are actually gone like a true market / AH.

Malanthor wrote: »

alexkdd99 wrote: »

Malanthor wrote: »

I just resubbed after a couple of years away. One of the reasons i stopped playing back then was the lack of an auction house. I was/am mostly interested in buying stuff -not selling.
Sadly the whole process with running back and forth and checking out the various guilds kiosks were just too horribly. I play games to have fun, not do chores i might as well do at work. I would assume that most people would want a system that let them easily browse available goods and then make a purchase. Just like E-Bay, Amazon etc. Would anyone here want to get in their car and drive back and forth between stores to find something they were looking for instead of using google or a online marketplace like ebay? I assume the answer is a resounding NO.
Well the same goes for me in game, i don't want to saddle up my horse and ride around to the various kiosks to find what i'm looking for. My time is too limited for that.

Now i am sure there are those who appreciate the way the system works right now. With the limitations placed on selling stuff, there are far fewer sellers than there would have been with a regular global auction house. And thus a sellers market. Asking those sellers what system they want is like asking someone with a limited monopoly if they want said monopoly to go away with the following losses in income. What answer do you expect to get? Its like asking someone if they are ok with cutting their salary.

Remember that most people who play this game are not hardcore sellers, they are just people that from time to time want to buy and sell something. Why make things hard for them?
They by far make up the actual population, and are the ones who keep this game alive. Not the small select group of greedy businessmen who profit from the current system.

Please add a global auction house for the benefit of the masses!

Not this again. Go to the forums search bar and type in auction house. There will be the countless arguments about auction house. Believe it or not some people like the current system and don't want it changed, definitely not for an auction house either.

To say that the larger part of the population wants an auction house is just your opinion. For all you know the majority likes the current system and would hate an auction house, we just don't know. That is why it's best to only speak for how you feel about it and not what everyone else may or may not think about it.

You can't say with certainty that the masses would see an auction house as a benefit. I certainly wouldn't.

I guess it's a good thing zos has never mentioned implementing an auction house or even getting rid of the traders. If we can keep guild traders for the life of the game while keeping an auction house out the game will be better off for it, imo.

Its based on simple knowledge of human nature and previous mmo experience. The average guy likes things simple, he don't want to run around for hours trying to find something he could have checked for in 20 seconds with a different system. Seriously this is something everyone should intuitively see. Unless the population playing ESO is fundamentally different from the normal human being.

Sure there are some people who like things different -simulates reality or whatever, and don't mind spending hours searching through menus looking for items. But i doubt very much they are are even close to a a significant percentage.
The current system may appeal to a small minority and service their needs, but the great mass of players suffers under it, because it is just that bad.

We have a currently highly non including trade system that prevents a large percentage of the population from effectively buying and selling due to several reasons while on the other hand we could have a highly including system that let everyone sell and buy without any hassle. It should be fairly obvious to everyone to see what system the game as a whole is better served with.

You don't know that. To say that is a fact would imply you have evidence to back it up. Now if you have it then show it, otherwise stop masquerading your opinion as fact.

You don't know what the greater population of eso wants, you are just showing your opinion and assuming others have the same one. It should be fairly obvious that a fact is backed up by evidence where as opinions are not. What you are posting is your opinion.

It is my opinion that the guild trader system benefits the game more than an auction house. You are welcome to your own opinion, but saying any percentage of the games population is for or against something without evidence of that claim is purely your opinion.

Unless you are zos and have sent out a poll to their entire population (and they actually filled it out), then you have no idea what the greater eso population wants.

Really it is all irrelevant what anyone says here regarding the trade system in eso, since zos has never mentioned changing it. It is extremely doubtful that they would scrap one of the few unique attributes of this game because a couple people on the forum whine about it.

Smepic wrote: »

S'yn wrote: »

Turning the entire game economy on it's ear is never a good idea. Is the current system inconvenient- sure. Does it make it hard to find what you're looking for easily- yes. Would some sort of search function make it easier to find what yo're looking for- yes, but it would be extremely difficult to code for. Think of what you are asking:

You want a search function to check every available item in EVERY guild store in real time. Even if you found your perfect item, it could easily be sold out from under you while you are porting to the guild trader.

Extremely difficult to code? Yet we have AwesomeGuildStore.

Lol implementing it into the game is a

Kay1 wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend you talking about auction houses here.

Many guilds are active here in this forum and every single time they see a thread talking about auction house they ask their members to come here and vote No or just to disagree with the concept, they even put it in the motd.

Rich trading guilds have been running the economy for years they decide everything from the price to which of their guilds will use that trader for this week and they feel very powerful doing it so trust me they will never let this happen and if one day Zenimax decide to finally implement it you will see hundreds and hundreds of threads asking for a removal of auction houses.

Lmao. Pulling out the tin foil hats already? I have never once been asked by ANYONE in game to come post anything on the forums. Yet again people just making things up and saying they are facts.

ANYONE that wants to sell in a trader can. It is not a fluke that every week there are traders out there that never get bid on. But yet people want to act as if guilds can't get traders while there are traders not receiving bids. Also it is extremely easy to get in an existing guild with a trader.

Sure you won't get a prime location trader in a baby guild, and you shouldn't. The big guild has been there working at it longer. People just want things handed to them and don't want to put any effort in.

snakester320 wrote: »

pieratsos wrote: »

Hyrianeth wrote: »

Yup, the rich guilds gets richer. There's no place for the little guy trying to sell anything.

Maybe get in one of the guilds with a good trader?

Yeah that's typical ignorance that's expected from players who would cry like a baby if there was a AH..
I've got a trader and my guild prob has sister guilds throwing millions at traders so they can own a lot of the market and push the little guild or ppl out..

Kind of like how you are here crying like a baby because there isn't an auction house? The guilds that have put in the effort will be rewarded. Creating a guild and expecting it to have a trader in a prime location in a week is ridiculous. The large guilds have been putting in effort. To expect to be able to bypass all the work others have done just because is the definition of entitlement. You are not entitled to the prime locations, go build up your guild/ guild bank and bid on it line everyone else did. Crying about it will get you nowhere.

alexkdd99 wrote: »

snakester320 wrote: »

pieratsos wrote: »

Hyrianeth wrote: »

Yup, the rich guilds gets richer. There's no place for the little guy trying to sell anything.

Maybe get in one of the guilds with a good trader?

Yeah that's typical ignorance that's expected from players who would cry like a baby if there was a AH..
I've got a trader and my guild prob has sister guilds throwing millions at traders so they can own a lot of the market and push the little guild or ppl out..

Kind of like how you are here crying like a baby because there isn't an auction house? The guilds that have put in the effort will be rewarded. Creating a guild and expecting it to have a trader in a prime location in a week is ridiculous. The large guilds have been putting in effort. To expect to be able to bypass all the work others have done just because is the definition of entitlement. You are not entitled to the prime locations, go build up your guild/ guild bank and bid on it line everyone else did. Crying about it will get you nowhere.

Also it takes way way way less time to upkeep the guild if your already in a prime location.

Simple solution: Provide a server wide marketer that pools all info from all guild vendors into one location and remove the item limit to search for something.

Easy fix get server wide market + we keep guild vendors, won't solve the monopolies but still its atleast a non time consuming thing.