Noob question about trading guilds

Sophocles1 · June 2018

So I’m not totally noob but still I’m confused by this. What is the key point of joining a trading guild? dues seem nontrivial. When I go to traders I see people trying to unload minor motifs for a couple hundred gold, big items sitting for weeks without selling. Can somebody map out for me how this is really worth it? Do you have to be somebody with such a huge backlog of the rarest items for it to be worth doing?

Jim_Pipp · June 2018

I didn't use trading guilds for my first three years playing and it was a huge mistake.

I'm a fairly casual player but after most gaming sessions I have a few extra furniture plans, motifs and odd gear sets. I list them under the average price and most things sell getting me an extra 20k a week and hopefully helping out a few other players.

Aside from the gold my trading guild has access to an amazing house with all the set crafting stations and that is the biggest advantage of staying in the guild.

cjhhickman39 · June 2018

Now this is just my take on the situation,a trade guild will ensure a prime trade spot in a major trade hub or the new dlc release as well as having a large membership to sell to.
Now if you don’t spend a lot of time farming for high price items to sell probably not worth the fees for membership.
Some players prefer to play a economic game and this is great for them.
So it comes down to how you want to play? Quester,PVP,Raider or mogul

VaranisArano · June 2018

There are lots of trading guilds. Pick one who's dues fit the way you like to make money.

For example, I farm a lot of raw matierals and potion reagents, which are always in demand, so I can reach higher sales requirements if I want. But one if my guilds only has a 1k sale requirement, which I pass easily.

The fees and such go towards funding the weekly guild trader bid, so usually the better the trader location, the higher the requirements.

JKorr · June 2018

I'm currently in 4 guilds. Two regularly get a trader, one in vulkhel guard and the other in eastmarch. Neither one has any dues or sales requirements. One has a voluntary participation raffle and auction. The other doesn't [I think the gm and officers support the trader bid]. The only requirement for both of them is that you log in at least once a week. Really can't get too much more trivial than that. I've sold motifs, mats, tempers, and recipes on both. :shrug:

davey1107 · June 2018

I belong to 3-4 trade guilds at a time, with dues of 5-15k per week. All together I guess I’m paying 35k for 120 slots in prime locations. Because I’m good at the selling game and like it, I sell over 400k per week in items. You have to keep your store stocked with items priced well in order to warrant a trade guild.

I focus on selling a diversity of desirable stuff. In any given store, I’ll stock 3-5 motifs...usually the current delve daily ones everyone is farming. I’ll sell some mats. I do daily writs, and gold mats are always in demand. Like one tempering alloy per week pays for the store. I sell some gold glyphs. Furniture also sells...which people forget. Collect a couple of nice item recipes, then keep a store stocked with one each of those items. If a dining room table sells for a good profit, just keep replacing with another of that item. The basic low level mats also sell well...wood, metal and cloth. And of course, junk I pick up.

Beardimus · June 2018

Dues are a platform / region thing.

Xbox EU and the top traders don't change a fee. You need to keep your slots full, and not go offline for a few weeks (without telling the GM) which is fair.

NA seems to charge, which is strange. Just a culture thing i guess or a PC thing from other MMOs

Gains. Are the obvious, selling stuff..sure you need to know what's hot at the moment to make big coin but that's not hard. Also being able to text chat WTS / WTB or crafting requests as where there are traders there are crafters

Lastly by joining a few traders you can access their wares from any bank in Tamriel. Handy

Asardes · June 2018

Definitely worth joining them. I've had between 2 and 4 since my first months playing and I've made quite a lot of gold. They were especially important for the first 2 years when I played without subscription and I had to sell materials away because I didn't have space to hold more than one stack. Nowadays I'm a bit more choosy about what I sell, but I have no issues meeting the 30-50K/week sales minimum in any of them. I only join those that can regularly get a trader in one of the better spots, such as the main city in a big DLC, the alliance capitals, Craglorn or Rawl'ka.

If you're on PC it's essential to get one of the addons that checks the prices such as Master Merchant (MM) or Arkadius Trade Tools (ATT) since you'll need to price your items right for them to sell. I usually discount more popular items to MM -5-10%, and less popular ones at MM -20% in order to ensure I don't needlessly clog up the slots for a long time. I never farm materials, and rarely farm motifs or set pieces, I mostly sell what happens to drop. As long as MM price is higher than what I would get by deconstructing or selling to NPC I usually place it on the guild store and it sells in a few days, provided the guild has a trader; according to MM statistics around ~85% of sales are made trough the trader. Another useful site/addon is Tamriel Trade Center (TTC) but the difference from the former is that it doesn't show you the sale price, but rather the price for which items are listed on various guilds. I only use that one in order to find rarer and less popular items.