20 replies to this topic

[Mamado]

Just like in every other mmo game I've ever played (even in browser games back in the 90's. Loved those) that had a market I've dabbled in it. GW2 has made the market even better than those in previous games that I've played. The only more complex and more realistic market I've ever been in was Eve Online. If only that game was fun outside of the market... I would have never left.

But anyway. Just because everyone around me got tired of hearing me tell them of my successes on the market (and have to console me when I lose a substantial amount of pixellated gold), I've made a few videos geared toward those new to either making gold on the trading post in GW2, or just in general.

I started with an easy topic concerning making gold (at the very low end of the spectrum) with salvage kits.

EDIT: Salvage kits are just the start. They make a pittance. Here are videos I've posted since then.

Playing the Margin
Not being Stupid
Low Volume Items
Holidays / In game events
High Volume Items
Crafting
Seed Money
Cancelling Posts
GW2Spidy API
Picking the right Pick

I have three (new!) questions:

1. Has anyone seen a policy by either Arenanet or NCsoft concerning their own fair use policies? I had one video muted because (I believe) the background music matched the GW2 soundtrack.

2. Does anyone know how to make the video-in-video links at the end of a youtube video? I think it might be one of the partner tools you get farther down the road, but I'd like an easy way to link people from one video to the next.

3. What major flips have you done on the trading post recently? How did you know what to flip? While I've done this for years in this game and others, I'm finding it hard to say exactly what makes a good item to speculate on.

Spoiler

1. With Guild Wars 2 supposedly hitting the more casual market, does that cause a lower or a higher percentage of the player base to be TP players? Is the GW2 player base older, more educated, and therefore more likely to have fun in this kind of setting, or is it online less often, therefore would spend less time and effort in the side-quest for world (monetary) domination?

2. Is my voice really that terrible? Even at 26 I sound ridiculous. I'm halfway thinking of getting a modulator and mixing my voice 50 / 50 with Wesley Snipes. Or maybe Stallone.

3. Markets in most MMOs are divided into much smaller markets- usually by server, some by location, etc. Does the sheer size of this market preclude it from the huge amount of manipulation that we could exert on previous markets? I once dropped a half million gold in WoW to swing a market and made up 750K that weekend. Talk about a rush.

Edited by Mamado, 30 November 2012 - 01:29 PM.

[Ryoto]

Nah you sound fine, this method seems a bit painstaking but it can be kind of safe. Do you think salvaging swords for metal ores is worth it?

[Allmightybob]

While I agree you can make money salvage items into crafting materials, it is mind-numbing boring and time consuming. And is quite arguably slower than simply farming for gold, this is largely because the salvage market is fairly competitive.

Mamado, on 24 November 2012 - 05:57 AM, said:

1. With Guild Wars 2 supposedly hitting the more casual market, does that cause a lower or a higher percentage of the player base to be TP players? Is the GW2 player base older, more educated, and therefore more likely to have fun in this kind of setting, or is it online less often, therefore would spend less time and effort in the side-quest for world (monetary) domination?

Everyone uses the TP, but only a small fraction of players (less than 1%) use the TP as a stock market.

Mamado, on 24 November 2012 - 05:57 AM, said:

2. Is my voice really that terrible? Even at 26 I sound ridiculous. I'm halfway thinking of getting a modulator and mixing my voice 50 / 50 with Wesley Snipes. Or maybe Stallone.

Your voice is completely normal.

Mamado, on 24 November 2012 - 05:57 AM, said:

3. Markets in most MMOs are divided into much smaller markets- usually by server, some by location, etc. Does the sheer size of this market preclude it from the huge amount of manipulation that we could exert on previous markets? I once dropped a half million gold in WoW to swing a market and made up 750K that weekend. Talk about a rush.

Nope, even the largest market pools (copper ore, sticks of butter, iron ore, etc) can be manipulated by a single player with enough money (50 gold or less). A good example of a market that is often manipulated is the Vanilla Bean/Wet Baker's/Omnomberry/Bars market  because of the close relationship of prices between the primary goods to their manufactured products .

Edited by Allmightybob, 24 November 2012 - 07:14 AM.

[Gerroh]

The problem with playing the TP is that if you start telling everyone your methods it immediately stops becoming profitable.

[Mamado]

Ryoto, on 24 November 2012 - 07:10 AM, said:

Nah you sound fine, this method seems a bit painstaking but it can be kind of safe. Do you think salvaging swords for metal ores is worth it?

This method I started with nets 2 copper per. Some higher end items also net a profit from salvaging, but I'm intentionally showing T1 items so that people have to actually think to apply this method to items which net you a real profit.

Gerroh, on 24 November 2012 - 07:33 AM, said:

The problem with playing the TP is that if you start telling everyone your methods it immediately stops becoming profitable.

... Which is the other reason why I'm starting with low end items. I've already moved on from this method. But it gave me my first few gold to start playing with better methods.

[Strik3r]

Ok, I hope you won't get offended by this post but imo there is much better ways to make money in this game. Correct me if I'm wrong but you would have way more than a mere 5 gold and a rare pair of gloves if this was really worth the time.

I will tell you the real ways of making money if your starting out. It's farming orichalcum nodes and doing dungeons.

Now, on farming ori ores. You have 14 regular ores + 1 rich ore and you can farm everyday. Now if you do the maths. That is 1-1.5 gold depending what price the ores are at. Roughly takes 30-60 minutes depending on your speed and ability. Their always in the same spots on your server too untill the server resets and thats usually only every couple days. The best thing about this is that its PER character. So you can basically bank 4-5 gold per day with some work.

The next best thing is doing dungeons. If you take AC speedclear for example, a solid group can clear all 3 paths in 30 minutes. That's a bout 1 gold right there. Average group will take 40-60 minutes for this.  The great thing about this, is you get karma and tokens aswell.

Now that is only if your starting out. Do that for a couple days/weeks and you will have a good chunk of change. After that, its all about investments really. The more money you have the easier it becomes.

I give you a few examples. Last week I bought a Frostfang for 40g when the market crashed. Now it's back up to 80g and it will keep rising. Another investment you could have made is gems. They increased aswell because of the Black Friday. You need to see those things coming. Also, every T6 mats sky rocketed because of the new ascended items. Those would have been great investments when they got announced. so basically with a little bit of speculation and theorycraft you can make a killing manipulating and hoarding some items.

Just one example out of many. Vicious fangs were 1 silver 2 weeks ago. If you bought 10 stacks back then which is only about 25 gold, you would have made money. They are 14 silvers now so you would be sitting with over 300 gold. Anet has a tendancy to use every mats they have and that is good for us. Reading the forums and checking out developpers posts helps alot for this.

Right now, I'm investing in glacial lodestones. If you think about it 3 different type of lodestones we're used for the halloween weapons so glacial are very likely to be used for christmas. I know what your going to say it's a gamble. Well it's not because they will rise regardless just before the event with people hoarding them. So you could have a 100% risk free investment if you wanted to then take a chance or not to keep them and see if they will be used.

Edited by Strik3r, 24 November 2012 - 08:05 PM.

[Lachanche]

buying a precursor for 5 gold immediatly after the beta ended is the biggest profit i have seen in game.

buying gems early on and selling them during the black friday comes close second

buying ancient bones during the days of the labyrint when they were worth less than 1 silver and selling them for 10 silvers now that the event ended is the third biggest in game profit i can think of

Edited by Lachanche, 24 November 2012 - 09:44 PM.

[Duplicated]

Speculating the market is just so much more fun.

[Mamado]

Strik3r, on 24 November 2012 - 07:44 PM, said:

Ok, I hope you won't get offended by this post but imo there is much better ways to make money in this game. Correct me if I'm wrong but you would have way more than a mere 5 gold and a rare pair of gloves if this was really worth the time.

Oh, you are absolutely correct. This is one of the smallest ways of making gold on the market. This is a way with the smallest profit margin and the least amount of risk.  I made perhaps 1g on this method before moving on to other methods. I'll edit in links to my other videos to show some other methods I've used.

In general I'm trying to go from the smallest investment and least amount of risk, and moving to higher end items with more complex ideas.

[ATC_06]

I've done some experimenting myself. Been flipping items, some that includes salvaging and made quite a big profit, though good patience is needed. Recently bought a stack of various items because I think anet will implement recepies for them, just some random logical speculations. Also some rare mats that are only a few silver which might turn into something later on, a gamble in other words.
Another thing I made money off is using mystic forge recepies which used skill points, now I lack them to make the anomaly focus

I spend alot of time researching items and checking the market, though I'm pretty new to this type of goldmaking and I prefer killing stuff but I feel so let down by the DR, low drop rates etc. But I'm not here to complain.

So with most of my gold itemized (in weapons, mats mostly) I'm just waiting for "spikes" then sell them off.

[Mamado]

ATC_06, on 25 November 2012 - 09:11 AM, said:

I've done some experimenting myself. Been flipping items, some that includes salvaging and made quite a big profit, though good patience is needed. Recently bought a stack of various items because I think anet will implement recepies for them, just some random logical speculations. Also some rare mats that are only a few silver which might turn into something later on, a gamble in other words.
Another thing I made money off is using mystic forge recepies which used skill points, now I lack them to make the anomaly focus

I spend alot of time researching items and checking the market, though I'm pretty new to this type of goldmaking and I prefer killing stuff but I feel so let down by the DR, low drop rates etc. But I'm not here to complain.

So with most of my gold itemized (in weapons, mats mostly) I'm just waiting for "spikes" then sell them off.

I received a comment on one of my videos last night which exactly refers to your situation.

Quote

You need to take into account the liquidity of some of these items too. For example, the margin between the buy and sell order of orichalcum insignia/inscription is usually greater than a gold. However, most people who have leveled their crafting skill up to that point are usually capable of crafting them on their own anyway.

Speculating is a great way of making gold. However, it is a long-term prospect. When salvaging items for a profit, I can expect a return on my investment within a day. Playing the margin usually takes 1-2 days to turn a profit. Speculating is a longer term investment.  Such as the recipes you mentioned, or lodestones, like Strik3r mentioned. It will probably be a month or longer to resell those items.

Personally I'm still reinvesting all of my gold every day into the market without doing any real speculation. At any given time I have less than 10% of my net worth in gold. Most of that, however, returns to liquidity within a day and has to be reinvested.

[Lachanche]

sometimes speculation fail...

[HawkofStorms]

Having no watched the entire video on salvaging to see if you mention it or not, it seems you do forget to factor in the cost of the salvage kits themselves into your profit margin.  32 gold per 15 salvages means your profit is reduced per item by ~2.1 copper per item.

[Haze]

HawkofStorms, on 26 November 2012 - 12:58 AM, said:

Having no watched the entire video on salvaging to see if you mention it or not, it seems you do forget to factor in the cost of the salvage kits themselves into your profit margin.  32 gold per 15 salvages means your profit is reduced per item by ~2.1 copper per item.

Watch the entire video.

[HawkofStorms]

Haze, on 26 November 2012 - 01:59 AM, said:

Watch the entire video.

I watched a significant portion of it.  But its nine minutes+ long and half of it is him talking about how this AH is more complex then WoWs.  Its almost 2 minutes into the video before he actually starts talking about what the video is about.  Frankly, its about 7 minutes too long and is describing a pretty simple concept that most of us have already figured out on our own.

A video is just a bad way to portray this type of information, and a written guide would be much faster and more effective at communicating this info.

Edited by HawkofStorms, 26 November 2012 - 02:05 AM.

[Mamado]

HawkofStorms, on 26 November 2012 - 02:01 AM, said:

I watched a significant portion of it.  But its nine minutes+ long and half of it is him talking about how this AH is more complex then WoWs.  Its almost 2 minutes into the video before he actually starts talking about what the video is about.  Frankly, its about 7 minutes too long and is describing a pretty simple concept that most of us have already figured out on our own.

A video is just a bad way to portray this type of information, and a written guide would be much faster and more effective at communicating this info.

You make a fair point. It was my first video on the trading post, so I began with an introduction of sorts- establishing who I was and why I had at least some authority to speak on the subject. Perhaps I should post that in a separate video and edit this one shorter.

I intentionally made it into a video because I have talked with quite a few people in the past who see long guides on how to make money at a trading post / auction house and they have a hard time comprehending it. Yet by seeing someone else doing it in a video they immediately catch on. Different learning styles, I guess.

My later videos do become more succinct. However they are still geared toward a new, learning audience. People who haven't dealt with market mechanics in the past or who haven't done much in the market besides sell gathered materials and purchase new gear.

Edit:

I also added another video link to the main post. Once again, it was an introductory video for people who haven't started and are looking to get into the game.

[Ribolas]

Will you also share tips and Tricks that go further than the "normal" or commonly known things? For guys who managed to earn a few Gold and that are struggling with finding their niche of where to dump their gold in order to increase it?

Of course i dont want you to share your secrets, but rather give hints on how to find your own market. Most guides miss out that part, imo.

Thanks for making the Videos though!

Sry for any mistakes, i wrote this on my tablet and have to get used to it.

[raspberry jam]

Mamado, on 24 November 2012 - 05:57 AM, said:

1. With Guild Wars 2 supposedly hitting the more casual market, does that cause a lower or a higher percentage of the player base to be TP players? Is the GW2 player base older, more educated, and therefore more likely to have fun in this kind of setting, or is it online less often, therefore would spend less time and effort in the side-quest for world (monetary) domination?

2. Is my voice really that terrible? Even at 26 I sound ridiculous. I'm halfway thinking of getting a modulator and mixing my voice 50 / 50 with Wesley Snipes. Or maybe Stallone.

3. Markets in most MMOs are divided into much smaller markets- usually by server, some by location, etc. Does the sheer size of this market preclude it from the huge amount of manipulation that we could exert on previous markets? I once dropped a half million gold in WoW to swing a market and made up 750K that weekend. Talk about a rush.

1. It has nothing to do with age. I'd say a smaller amount but it's just a guess.

2. Your actual voice is fine, but you should improve your breath control. Have you noticed that experienced speakers, or even experienced youtube video makers, never run out of breath? Relax when you speak.

3. Absolutely not.

[Drekor]

If you like playing with the market stuff you should try out EVE online

[Mamado]

Ribolas, on 27 November 2012 - 11:09 AM, said:

Will you also share tips and Tricks that go further than the "normal" or commonly known things? For guys who managed to earn a few Gold and that are struggling with finding their niche of where to dump their gold in order to increase it?

Of course i dont want you to share your secrets, but rather give hints on how to find your own market. Most guides miss out that part, imo.

Thanks for making the Videos though!

Sry for any mistakes, i wrote this on my tablet and have to get used to it.

Sure, I'm working on a few videos of that sort. Personally, I'm of the 'teach a man to fish' mentality. While I started with Salvage Kits, the truth is I'd prefer to stay on the higher level- talking about the theory of making gold. What techniques to try instead of what specific items.

I think I'll do one soon on finding a market. Thanks for the comment.

Drekor, on 28 November 2012 - 01:09 AM, said:

If you like playing with the market stuff you should try out EVE online

I loved Eve... I loved the feeling of the realism of the market. I liked how dangerous it was- and how much you could lose if you weren't careful. It was a big boy's sandbox.

Unfortunately, I just didn't care for the game outside of the market. And I couldn't justify spending $15 a month to play with spreadsheets.

[Eenskolde]

Strik3r, on 24 November 2012 - 07:44 PM, said:

Right now, I'm investing in glacial lodestones. If you think about it 3 different type of lodestones we're used for the halloween weapons so glacial are very likely to be used for christmas. I know what your going to say it's a gamble. Well it's not because they will rise regardless just before the event with people hoarding them. So you could have a 100% risk free investment if you wanted to then take a chance or not to keep them and see if they will be used.

Do you remember what they used for cooking recipes at Halloween? I was looking at some christmas-ish ingredients for food.