Trading Guilds charging 15k/week now WTF

RobDaCool · July 2017

That's a bit of gold. Then again it's the PS4, they're probably saving up for the virtual anime game coming.

Epona222 · July 2017

Daganerabus wrote: »

Those of you on PS4 -
You should hit-up the Real "Spirit_WolF" of the real "ShadowForce-Guardians".

They are amazing! They have maintained "Traders" since forever, and "Top" traders on major patch releases. They are a "FREE" Guild and literally give a new meaning to the word "Free Guild"!

For almost 2 years, they have given hundreds of millions "free" in crafting, motifs, ingame sought after items, and so much more! Individuals in their guild never seem to be concerned for "gold" because if someone needs something, they are like family and collectively go get it.
They "Give" gold away.

It is amazing how organized they are, and how they do so much for everyone in their guild, and even those not in their guild!

They have an amazing coordinated team.
They run all kinds of "EVENTS" - and this one in particular which they call "HUMAN DARTS" and offer 5k a win! Wow! So much fun! Creative!

Spirit_WolF built a Labrynth maze obstacle course. Its is amazing fun! He offers 50k to anyone who can beat current records which is around 2m 20sec. But also offer everyone 25k if they get through it within 15min 1st time in, and 10k if you get through it within 25min first run!

"PaintBall/MudBall fight on their Island! With barriers set-up to run amd dodge, and so much more fun! Winners take home gold!

Spirit has this "Freely received; freely given" philosophy which remains unmatched.

Spirit's guild is active 24hours a day! He has these things he calls "blocks" - a set of coordinators and officers all whom agreed on "Shifts" and each group on their shift; runs their own agreed and coordinated events and contests, all the while, they all encourage "POSITIVE SOCIAL INTERACTION". Their main chat being chat-2. The level of respect and compassion he has for his members is unmatched, unsurpassed.

Countless "Trolls" have attacked him and his guild, causing grief and heartache. And much to the amazement of countless individuals. Sadly though; "ZOS" never did a thing to help, nor even banned the worse of the worse. But, he never gave-up! He just keeps on giving and giving! He has made such a positive impact on thousands of "eso" members. He even "supports" other "guildmasters" and as long as they adhere to specific standards, morals, virtues; Spirit and his guild will assist those guildmasters in the development of their respective guilds, or the overall improvement of their guilds.

They have regular meetings. After each meeting, Spirit gives away 50k free in a instant win "pick the number" contest.

They run pvp, pve, dailies, crafting, gbank banking bonanza (free give-away) - and that event is really fun! He rotates theblock unlock feature of the gbank, its all timed. Keep what you can take! Spirit receives financial support from some of his top supporters. He turns around and "gives" the gold back to guildies freely! Freely for maybe ranking up, or for being socially active, or for helping others. He always tells his members to "just pay it forward".

Duplication is paramount. It is the key to creating a more improved, better quality, and overall experiences for the entire eso online community.

The lists go on.

He positively encourages everyone. He does so much behind the scenes with his companions. He asks for nothing, accept that; people enjoy their gaming, their explorations, and enjoy meeting and making lasting friendships; which in turn, could eventually be taken to other games in the future. He brings people from all walks-of-life and of various ethnicity, and brings them together in ways, no-other can match.

Spirit_WolF does not boast about the things he does. He does so much behind the scenes and on a lowkey. He encourages and positively reinforces his members. He is always telling them just "how great" they all are. How valuable they all are.

The real Spirit_WolF has the "L" in his name and not the capital "i" which the trolls had created. The trolls were using the fake spirit_wolf to be extremely mean towards others, and to bash them. And the real Spirit_WolF would get all the "hate mail" and public harassment by many; whilst the "trolls" would remain in public voice, and zone text chat, and would say very shocking, hateful, trolling things, and would harrass him everywhere he went. Even as far as taking it to other social media. But "zos" would do nothing; despite the recorded, witnessed, and proven serious breach of "tos" - "terms of service".

SHADOWFORCE-GUARDIANS TRULY IS A ONE-OF-A-KIND Stand-alone Guild!

If ever your lucky to be a part of it. Hang onto it! Because you will never really want for much. Because there; you would have it all.

Everyone who is a solid person. They become a part of the "SFG FAMILY".

In conclusion;
Gold is not everything; if you are a part of an active guild where everyone works together on behalf of one another.

Your here to enjoy your experiences, and possibly make new and lasting online friendships.

"Let the game be your escape from the realities some of you may face daily. But, do not let it become your reality in which you cannot escape."

Happy Gaming!

I have an entire guild recruitment thread on the NA/PC recruitment forum that is not that long

If anyone hands you a cup that looks like it might be a sugary drink and suggests that you ought to drink it quickly, I'd suggest putting it down and running. (j/k of course!)

DuchessPoptart · July 2017

I don't mind paying dues for the prime spots. if they are able to keep a secure spot each week then i will pay my dues. If you arent making enough cold for it to be worth it leave the guild or making sure you're pricing correctly

Takes-No-Prisoner · July 2017

I was in a handful of trading guilds at one point. I left only because I could never fill the 30 slots on the trader. That seemed more of a waste to me imo.

Obviously I couldn't be in trade guild that charged 10k or 15k a week.

DuchessPoptart · July 2017

I am obsessive with farming. I am in 5 trading guilds with good spots and keep all 30 filled in each and still have 200 things in the bank waiting to go. Lol if Eso had a hoarders forum..

Cryptical · July 2017

Runs wrote: »

I think on console this happens because it is way easier to track guild donations than it is to manually write down every sale then tally them.

On PC we have addons that track users sales, so GMs know who is performing and who isn't by just a quick glance, thus no reason to charge a weekly fee.

This^

On console, the treasurer is tracking everything by hand. Looking at the screen, manually punching the info into a spreadsheet on a different electronic appliance. On a solid trader that fills 8 to 10 pages per hour with transactions, it is simply not possible to use the 'minimum sales' method. That's 8 to 10 pages on the slow weekdays. And the pages update as you turn them, so something that pushes a transaction from page 8 to page 9 could be mistaken for a separate line.

Dues for a competitive trader are a simple fact, as unquestioned as gravity itself.

Front row of wayrest xb-na are, last I checked, all 10k per week. Most of the wall row are 5k to 10k. I don't keep track of elsewhere, but the common dues per week are 5k for aboveground in a medium city, 10k for a good spot in an undaunted enclave city. Meh, rather less for those in the wilderness that can dance by on 50/50 raffles and 3k donations.

This is life on the console. All that high-minded talk about leaving a guild for the outrageous sin of having dues, is just stank gas.

DuchessPoptart · July 2017

Not everyone on console whines about it lol. I happily pay dues in all 5 guilds each week. 3 are 10k 1 is 7k and 1 is 5k. They always maintain their traders. It is gold well spent. I don't envy guildmasters. Its a lot of work.

gp1680 · July 2017

DuchessPoptart wrote: »

Not everyone on console whines about it lol. I happily pay dues in all 5 guilds each week. 3 are 10k 1 is 7k and 1 is 5k. They always maintain their traders. It is gold well spent. I don't envy guildmasters. Its a lot of work.

Same here. I'm in four trader guilds. Three are in high traffic areas. I pay about 30-40k a week and clear wayyy more than that easily. It does require some farming and buy low/sell high strategies, but once you have a system going, it takes maybe a half hour a day. Everyone enjoys eso in their own way. If you don't feel your guild is spending money wisely and you're not getting your money's worth, get out. Plenty of really good guilds to become a part of.

Prof_Bawbag · July 2017

Anyone who thinks 500/500 people donate a-week, then use that to conjure up a figure needs their head examined. You're doing well if 1/3 of that 500 donate. Yeah, some of that is offset by others donating more than the 5k fee, but it still falls short.

I don't run a guild, but if you pay attention to what ends up in the guild bank after each week, without the GM removing any funds, you'll see most do well to even hit the 4m mark. Then they're bidding around 5m on that Mournhold trader. That 1m doesn't just suddenly appear from someone lining their own pockets, that's coming from the GM's own account.

There are some really shady guilds on PS4 EU whose GM's remove all gold under the guise of "competitors not seeing the final amount", but if someone was so desperate to report back to others on such things, it's not too difficult to tot up what's been put through the guild during any given week. A poor excuse usually made up from those either funding other guilds, that don't benefit those donating the gold, or are looking to line their own pockets at the expense of their members. Absolutely no reason why GM's should be removing gold before bidding other than to deceive their members.

Ostaradoe · July 2017

This is why I have not joined a trade guild and think it is unfair that gamers like myself who are not interested in farming lose out. I would love to join a trade guild that is happy for players to post stuff for sale as and when they want to, and not have it become a commitment. Nothing in an MMO should be a commitment. But can I find one? Nope!

Cryptical · July 2017

And with the next update, spies will not be able to predict trader bids by tracking the guild bank balance.

Universe · July 2017

I donate 30k-50k+ gold per week to my Mournhold guild.
I don't have to donate that much but I'm generous and I make a lot of gold per week

Also, the donations really help in the long run, if trader is lost and there is a need for a very high bid to reclaim it.

But if this guild is forcing you to donate 15k gold per week, something is clearly wrong.
Most competitive guilds in prime spots require players to donate 1k-5k gold per week(PC EU server, if sales are not enough).

DurzoBlint13 · July 2017

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

I'm sure it's 15k donation or X amount in sales.

Competitive trading guilds require you sell a lot (I know one Rawl'kha guild has a 400k/week sales requirement).

no, it is 15K per week just for Trader access (ps4/NA). All the "top" traders on ps4/NA are charging this. They say it is "due to the high bid costs" to maintain a decent spot for the trader. And then some of them require you to be paid 2 weeks in advance for Trader access.

I sell more at non-prime location traders than I do at the "good" ones anymore. It is not worth it

GreenhaloX · July 2017

andreasranasen wrote: »

These GM's have turned into Zenimax. [PS4/NA]

No.. Sopranos..

medusasfolly · July 2017

I seriously think that most of the people that badmouth guild requirements have no clue as to what goes into running a successful guild that maintains a premier guild trader. It doesn't happen by magic.

I'm sure there are plenty of guilds out there that may appear shady. I think with a majority of them, it may be more a case of inefficiency. 15k per week is high for a weekly tithe. But believable if the guild isn't doing anything else to supplement their trader fundraising.

My guild has been consistently in Rawlkha since Dec 16. We require a weekly 5k donation OR 10k raffle ticket purchase OR 150k sales. I think that's very reasonable considering where our trader is. However, in order to keep things reasonable, we do multiple raffles, weekly auctions and group mat runs to raise gold and auction offerings.

Also, we offer 2 shard runs per week (normal and cyrodiil), have trivia and other games with small rewards, run trials every saturday, and have competitions on an average of 6/year. ALL OF THIS TAKES ALOT OF ADMINISTRATIVE EFFORT. Our leadership/administration team is about 10 deep and often times, we find this isn't enough.

Prepping for an Auction takes around 10 hours per week (logging all donations, setting up the auction list). Running an auction takes 3 people dedicated for 4 hours every Friday (3 hours for the actual auction and an additional hour to collect gold and send winning lots out). Raffles administration take another 4 hours per week (logging all gold donations to the bank and then running the actual raffle). Roster management takes another 5 hours per week (calculating weekly sales, donations, and raffle ticket purchases then promoting, demoting and kicking non-compliant members - also maintaining the waiting list for new members) . Then we are constantly recruiting and grooming farmers for our auctions and dungeon leaders for the trials runs. Doing all of this requires good management, willing volunteers and efficient processes. So unless your guild has this down to a science, they are going to need to raise the weekly tithe in order to secure trader.

The trick is finding a trading guild that has maximized the efficiency of the fundraising so that it doesn't become burdensome on the members. And when that guild is found, learning to appreciate what they do. Our poorest members tend to be the leaders. Because they are too busy running the guild to actually play the game and make money.

hiyde · July 2017

Ostaradoe wrote: »

This is why I have not joined a trade guild and think it is unfair that gamers like myself who are not interested in farming lose out. I would love to join a trade guild that is happy for players to post stuff for sale as and when they want to, and not have it become a commitment. Nothing in an MMO should be a commitment. But can I find one? Nope!

Some random thoughts & comments. I'm only familiar with PC-NA.

First off, set out to join a guild that matches your trading style.
If you're an occasional trader look for a guild outside the Top 5 hubs.
The financial needs of the guild will swing greatly depending on where they are located.
If you're a very infrequent trader, consider a guild with no regular kiosk. You've still got 500 potential customers.

Don't try to join a Mournhold/Rawl/Wayrest/Elden Root guild if you only trade now and then.
While you only may need to sell things once in a while (nothing wrong with that), they still have to win the bid every week.

There are guilds advertising all day and night in zone chats and the overwhelming majority have small (or no) requirements.
"No requirements" doesn't mean never selling anything or contributing. Again, they gotta spend significant gold every Sunday to win a spot. If you can't toss in a few thousand a week to help the cause, why do you need a trading guild?

Most "guild minimums", if everyone met those numbers and nothing more, wouldn't even come close to covering the bid. They are to ensure a minimum level of participation and I think that's fair.

If you're a high volume trader and want to (obviously) be in a high volume location, then prepare to support the guild accordingly. Be proactive, ask the GM what the average cost per member is and try to meet or exceed it!

I can't say there are no crooked GMs/Guilds out there. Always gonna be bad apples...
...but I can say that trading guilds I'm familiar with work their butts off every week to put a competitive bid together with sales tax only covering a fraction of what is needed. If you are in a guild you don't trust, find another. There are plenty of honest ones out there that work their hearts out to provide a stable selling experience & have fun along the way.

-H

NinthPrince64 · July 2017

I really don't have a problem with it. If your sales aren't enough to justify the fees, then just join another guild.

With respect to the notion that GMs are systematically abusing guild members, I just don't think that is the case. I suspect most GMs end up putting in more gold than typical members. I do know that they are putting in large amounts of time each week (not to mention the time that was invested to build the guild). That is time that they could have been doing something else (like making money or having fun) in the game. Even if GMs are taking money out (and to be clear, I DO NOT think that is what is happening typically), I don't have a problem with that either. There is an opportunity cost to all of the time they spend running their guilds. I don't have a problem with them benefiting from their efforts.

the_man_of_steal · July 2017

andreasranasen wrote: »

These GM's have turned into Zenimax. [PS4/NA]

I don't blame the GMs I blame ZOS for not giving us enough guild traders or implementing a free trader for those who can't afford it... Even 10k per week is 520,000 gold per year. Pretty insane to consider over half a mill per person is spent on this nonsense when ZOS can fix it quickly by adding more traders or making a public trader!

Inarre · July 2017

The best trading guild im a part of creates farming opportunity for their members by holding runs biweekly... which acts as a way for members to socialize with each other and have fun, make money. One of those runs is for the members, the other for the guild. Donating an hour of time once a week while having fun is much easier to swallow than dues, especially since its never forced.

Guilds that ask for dues usually aren't doing much for their members in my experience beyond bidding on a trader. Leave and find a guild that puts effort in both making the money to cover the trader and their members, because that encourages the members to appreciate and give back.

Its a symbiotic relationship, not a parasitic one.

idk · July 2017

Find another trade guild. There are plenty that don't charge and are on decent locations.

timidobserver · July 2017

the_man_of_steal wrote: »

andreasranasen wrote: »

These GM's have turned into Zenimax. [PS4/NA]

I don't blame the GMs I blame ZOS for not giving us enough guild traders or implementing a free trader for those who can't afford it... Even 10k per week is 520,000 gold per year. Pretty insane to consider over half a mill per person is spent on this nonsense when ZOS can fix it quickly by adding more traders or making a public trader!

+1 for Public Trader.

TARAFRAKA · July 2017

Inarre wrote: »

The best trading guild im a part of creates farming opportunity for their members by holding runs biweekly... which acts as a way for members to socialize with each other and have fun, make money. One of those runs is for the members, the other for the guild. Donating an hour of time once a week while having fun is much easier to swallow than dues, especially since its never forced.

Guilds that ask for dues usually aren't doing much for their members in my experience beyond bidding on a trader. Leave and find a guild that puts effort in both making the money to cover the trader and their members, because that encourages the members to appreciate and give back.

Its a symbiotic relationship, not a parasitic one.

How is it a parasitic relationship if you are paying for a service? You pay and you get access to a trader in a very High selling area. They get the money they need to get the trader from you and you get access to sell that you need. That is the definition of symbiotic. You both need each other to survive.

I ran my own Guild for a year-and-a-half and we had a trader for a few months out of that time. It was incredibly stressful. Most people didn't pay even though it was only 2K and we were only bidding for Cold Harbor! I was having to put out a million gold a week for that bad location. I went broke doing it because I constantly had to supplement the money with my own gold just to make a decent bid because I didn't want to let the people down that had actually paid their dues.

This is the way it works: if youre in a guild in a great location and they very rarely lose their trader, then 5k to 15K gold week is nothing. That is literally a drop in the bucket compared to what they pay out for good locations.
Anybody that gets on here and says they don't pay anything and they never have and they would leave their Guild if they had to pay? They are parasites.

They want access to a trader with a great location but they don't want to have to put in anything for it. That sales tax covers nothing. And all 500 people do not pay that fee. You're lucky if you get 20% to do it on time. And then you're still going to come up short so you have to rely on your top donors to make up the difference for you or it comes out of your pocket. If you dont put your own money in, you risk losing a trader for an unknown time and that makes you hemmorhage paying members. They may not leave but they definitely arent paying dues so you dont have the $ to bid high to push someone else back out.
Our Trader system is a mess. It's not good for the people who maintain the best spots and it's not good for the people who can never get one.

andreasranasen · July 2017

TARAFRAKA wrote: »

Inarre wrote: »

The best trading guild im a part of creates farming opportunity for their members by holding runs biweekly... which acts as a way for members to socialize with each other and have fun, make money. One of those runs is for the members, the other for the guild. Donating an hour of time once a week while having fun is much easier to swallow than dues, especially since its never forced.

Guilds that ask for dues usually aren't doing much for their members in my experience beyond bidding on a trader. Leave and find a guild that puts effort in both making the money to cover the trader and their members, because that encourages the members to appreciate and give back.

Its a symbiotic relationship, not a parasitic one.

How is it a parasitic relationship if you are paying for a service? You pay and you get access to a traitor in a very well High selling area. They get the money they need to get the trader from you and you get access to sell. That is the definition of symbiotic. You both need each other to survive.

I ran my own Guild for a year-and-a-half and we had a trader for a few months out of that time. It was incredibly stressful most people didn't pay even though it was only 3K and we were only bidding for Cold Harbor. I was having to put out a million gold a week for that bad location. I went broke doing it because I constantly had to supplement the money with my own gold just to make a decent bid because I didn't want to let the people down that had actually paid their dues.

This is the way it works: if you have a spot in a guild in a great location and they very rarely lose their trader, then10k gold or 15 K gold week is nothing. That is literally a drop in the bucket compared to what they pay out for good locations.
Anybody that gets on here and says they don't pay anything and they never have and they would leave their Guild if they had to pay? They are parasites. They want access to a traitor and a great location but they don't want to have to put in anything for it. That sales tax covers nothing. And all 500 people do not pay that fee. You're lucky if you get 25% to do it on time. and then you're still going to come up short so you have to rely on your top donors to make up the difference for you or it comes out of your pocket.
Our Trader systems is a mess. It's not good for the people who maintain the best spots and it's not good for the people who can never get one.

You wrote "traitor" twice in one comment. I can't take you serious.

TARAFRAKA · July 2017

andreasranasen wrote: »

TARAFRAKA wrote: »

Inarre wrote: »

The best trading guild im a part of creates farming opportunity for their members by holding runs biweekly... which acts as a way for members to socialize with each other and have fun, make money. One of those runs is for the members, the other for the guild. Donating an hour of time once a week while having fun is much easier to swallow than dues, especially since its never forced.

Guilds that ask for dues usually aren't doing much for their members in my experience beyond bidding on a trader. Leave and find a guild that puts effort in both making the money to cover the trader and their members, because that encourages the members to appreciate and give back.

Its a symbiotic relationship, not a parasitic one.

How is it a parasitic relationship if you are paying for a service? You pay and you get access to a traitor in a very well High selling area. They get the money they need to get the trader from you and you get access to sell. That is the definition of symbiotic. You both need each other to survive.

I ran my own Guild for a year-and-a-half and we had a trader for a few months out of that time. It was incredibly stressful most people didn't pay even though it was only 3K and we were only bidding for Cold Harbor. I was having to put out a million gold a week for that bad location. I went broke doing it because I constantly had to supplement the money with my own gold just to make a decent bid because I didn't want to let the people down that had actually paid their dues.

This is the way it works: if you have a spot in a guild in a great location and they very rarely lose their trader, then10k gold or 15 K gold week is nothing. That is literally a drop in the bucket compared to what they pay out for good locations.
Anybody that gets on here and says they don't pay anything and they never have and they would leave their Guild if they had to pay? They are parasites. They want access to a traitor and a great location but they don't want to have to put in anything for it. That sales tax covers nothing. And all 500 people do not pay that fee. You're lucky if you get 25% to do it on time. and then you're still going to come up short so you have to rely on your top donors to make up the difference for you or it comes out of your pocket.
Our Trader systems is a mess. It's not good for the people who maintain the best spots and it's not good for the people who can never get one.

You wrote "traitor" twice in one comment. I can't take you serious.

My voice to text autocorrected to traitor instead of trader and disrupted your poor spelling sensibilities! Really? Not everyone is typing their replies on a laptop or desktop computer. Considering voice to text was even able to do that well is a victory in my book.

Betheny · July 2017

The problem...is the system...that expects players to come up with the fees to buy an extremely limited trading spot.

Blame ZOS for this.

mvffins · July 2017

CavalryPK wrote: »

That means they are not selling well.

a good trading guild already has the sales to get the spot.

Or they keep losing bids, out of spending time throughout a number of guilds I've noticed that the ones that don't have a trader are more likely to increase the dues.

Tapap · July 2017

Yea almost every guild on xbox is 7k-10k unless it's rawlkah then it's 15 (

jaschacasadiob16_ESO · July 2017

What if that Guild that you pay 15K/week loses the trader in the best city? Because you could be right saying you pay for that service. Once that service (top spot) is not provided anymore... refund? I don't think so.

Has anyone here ever been refund by a Guild for losing their trader in the best spot?

I don't like the attitude of charging me for a service:

You can't guarantee.
I already pay for with the cut of each thing I sell.

If you want gold do some smart fund raising.

Diminish · July 2017

EDIT: A specific GM seemed genuinely upset about certain posts so out of respect for them I have decided to edit my posts and remove what I have contributed to this conversation.

NBrookus · July 2017

Taxes don't just fail to meet the cost of traders in good locations, they don't begin to cover the very cheapest traders out there.

One casual guild I am in, the GM seems to have put her foot down on padding the bid from her own pocket. Whatever the proceeds from the raffle + donations + trade taxes are is the bid that week. I think about 480 guild members who previously were not contributing toward the cost got a splash of ice water to the face.

If my second-tier trade guild instituted a 15k per week instead of their minimums, I would pay it. I make a lot more than 15k per week selling through them. It's worth it to me.

If the guild is not worth 15k a week to you, leave it. Find a guild that suits you better.