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This is an introductory guide to buying and selling, hopefully some of the newer players will learn a few things from it. For the more advanced players, constructive criticism is always welcome, and hopefully this guide will have some nuggets of useful info for you guys as well.
Before I start I'd like to say a few things on buying and selling in general.
Buying: While elementary, the price you see in the trade channel almost always up for negotiation. I find I can get a 5k discount just by getting their "lowest" price and saying something like "ok 25k and we have a deal". Keep in mind the demand for the items, sometimes you can play hardball and because of the low demand for them, people will rather get something than nothing (in one case for a +30hp hammer grip the guy wanted 15k, and I said I would buy for 10k, he refused, but he messaged me later, and I got it for 10k). Using supply and demand in your favour pays off.
Selling: When selling an item, chances are people will try to get a deal from you. When they offer a lower price keep compromising. For example, if say you are selling an item for 30k, and the person wants 25k, you can say, "27.5k :)" and usually the person will oblige you - 1.5k for 1 line of text - better than farming eh? Also, you have lost nothing if it doesn't go through, so its a win:win.
Here are the 4 types of rarity you'll find, and what to expect from them:
The 4 colours of magical items and their value:
Blue - good for unlocking and salvaging the mods to mod a starting out weapon.
Purple - Usually middle - upper middle class upgrades, sometimes worth salvaging and selling the upgrades or modding your weapon. People will spend less on a purple weapon than a gold weapon with the same stats. Price range can be 3-20k, sometimes more, depends on the weapon/mods/req.
Gold - (Max damage is assumed) This is par for selling, just like we trade with gold money, people generally only trade with golds. Its the standard high end brand that comes with (potentially) the best mods in the game. For the value, if you get a good skin, with some good mods, and a good req you can start getting pretty decent money (~20k min), just for a vague idea. The values of your mods can really make or break a good gold weapon skin/req.
Green - Most of them now are worth 5-10k, some outstanding ones are Razorstone Axe, Malinion's Shield, Ragos Staff/Wand, Tanzit's Cleaver, and some emerging offhands, if you're looking for a not bad-decent green weapon, pick one up for around 5k in Lion's Arch. Check the Green Item Condensed Price List for price details.
Well, the update has really negatively affected the upgrade market, decreasing prices on all upgrades, so a lot of the lower upgrades are pretty worthless:
For Upgrades:
elemental upgrades can sell for 300-500g each.
lower end upgrades are not worth trying to sell, middle upgrades can go for like 1k (aka: 30+, +25 is where its worth something to sell, 1-10% chance, 5% you can sell) like 1k and up. For something where the max is 5 like an insightful staff head, the price for a +4 is 5-10k, and a +5 15-20k. Theres a large price gap in 10/9, 10/10, and +29-30+, quite sizeable.
Swords are the most in demand, as such their upgrades have retained value better than the rest (+30hp pommel selling for 80-100k).
*As always, the higher the demand, the more you can charge*
Here is why you dont modify weapons you plan to sell:
Lets say, for instance, you have a sword worth 15k. And a mod worth 10k. You put mod on said sword and ask 25k.
Buyer comes along, looking for a sword with a different mod. they are not going to see 10k of added value for the mod you added, when they are simply going to replace it. The buyer will either offer you less money or simply not bid at all. You have now alienated a potential buyer. If no one else bids on the sword, you may end up selling it to that buyer for less than you would have gotten if you sold the sword and the mod seperately.
In short:
Modifying weapons alienates buyers.
For Weapons:
The Requirement:
(Max damage assumed; S:15-22, A:6-28, H:19-35, B-15-28, W/S:11-22)
12-13: *some* people will buy these, but most stay away, it decreases the value of the weapon and as such people if they buy will be buying to salvage the mods, so if the weapon's got a good mod on it, salvage for that and try to sell it alone.
10-11: a bit high, but acceptable. Not too much of a price drop here, maybe only like 10-15k, sometimes 30k if the weapon has perfect mods (though its hard to individually gage the price affects per part on a weapon, because its the sum of its parts). Well within selling req, real no problems.
8-9: Perfect, this is the sweet spot, the prefered req range, for a 9 req it can still be considered perfect, and for an 8 req the price can go up, leveraging the req.
7: To get a max damage weapon of req 7 is really something semi-rare, and to get a good gold of it, especially of a good skin just shoots the value up in the sky. Req 7 max damage weapons you can unload to pretty much anyone for something, (esp in ascalon) because its the lowest req possible and people's lowbie chars can have max damage at an incredibly low level.
Bow - skins: Storm Bow, Half, Eternal, Shadow, and Short.
Rod/Staff/Wand - skins: Fire wand, Healing rod, Smiting rod, Fire staff.
Hammer - skins: Mursaat. There's not many discriminant hammer users.
Demand for Damage Mods:
highest-lowest
15>50 swords will garner a lot of money, skin increases its value.
15 (enchanted) - a decent mod, can rebound weapons sellability.
20<50 - *debatable* good switch when < weapons but not primarily used, people will only spend maybe 35-40% of what they would if it was 14-15>50.
15 (stance) - not bad for some builds, a 15/stance green bow is going around for 5k though, so salvage for mods unless its mods are really good.
20 (hexed) - pretty bad, salvage for mods on weapon if it has that.
Demand for Shields:
(max armor assumed 16)
For Reqs: I've seen a lot more people ask for strength req sheilds than tactics, but there are some builds that are heavily into tactics, so either one with a low req (8-9) is ok to sell.
Any shield without a +Health mod of some kind is junk.
The max +Health always mod is +30
The max +Health while enchanted is +45
Damage -2 or -3 while enchanted really makes a perfect shield when tacked on with a high +Health mod. Damage -2 or -3 (hexed) is still sellable, though a lot less than (enchant).
Generally, any max armor skin will do as long as it has good mods (high +Health always standalone, or a combo with damage reduction).
Demand for Staffs:
(max stats assumed, 10+ energy, 11-22dmg)
With the collectors allowing you to have a 20/20 for whatever you specialize in, and the green staffs covering a lot of the mod front (+5 energy, 60+ hp staff, 10%/10% cane), you really need something out of the ordinary for it to be worth something, like high hp/energy with a high + to a secondary attribute (25-30k, more if perfect) or a high 9/10, 8/10, 10/9 cast/recharge to all skills bonus on it, to sell.
Its really just better to get a collectors staff, mod it with +5 energy (20k, 15k if you can get for a deal), and a +30 hp mod (~35-40K) to make a perfect staff.
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Misceleanous Information:
General Prices on Gold Unid'd Max Damage Weapons (presumably from SF):
Swords:
10k - flamberge, wingblade, fellblade (usually a bit higher than flamberge)
5-8k for the rest - falchion, sparta, etc
Axes:
10k - Summit axe
>10k - for the rest
Hammers:
5-8k - for all skins. I wouldn't buy them because 15>50 is really rare and hammers arn't in demand so even the upgrades arn't worth a lot.
Bows:
~25k - Storm bow (note: it has to be good req and you can't get it from SF)
10k - for rest, sometimes people will charge 15-25k for eternal/shadow bows.
Armors:
5-10k - For GOLD armors, some people might try to charge a bit more, now that runes are shooting up in value.
1-3k - For PURPLE armors, mainly just good for unlocking majors.
500g - For BLUE armors though I havn't see many people sell them, just id them for the unlock.
Best Places to keep up on Prices and to Sell:
** Prices are always, always in flux, so its good to check up on them and discern the shifts, before you buy or sell. **
LION'S ARCH - The infamous District 1. Pretty much all LA districts are buzzing with activity, enable the local channel, or you might miss some deals (and those infidels complaining about WTS spam in the local chat )
Ascalon City - More for the lower end, less elite/perfect item/upgrade trading, often good deals are to be had there. Definately the 2nd trade center of GW.
Deldimor War Camp - Really busy and people there tend to have money and are farming for high end stuff, greens can go pretty well there too.
Droknar's Forge - More for material trading, but runes and some decent weapons can be sold there.
Temple of the Ages - Any ecto/shard sellers should hit up ToA after LA. There's also a good amount of people there strangely even when we don't have the favour.
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If theres anything else you'd like to know, just message me. If theres any comments, questions, suggestions, feel free to post below.
I'll just add one comment to this excellent guide.
Instead of selling unidentified armors, one can also expert salvage it and get the unidentified rune (100% chance), which offers the double advantage of:
- telling you which profession the rune is for
- telling you which rank the rune is (minor, major, superior)
You can then target more effectively potential buyers, at the cost of perhaps not being able to sell all superiors for 10k, now that people can't gamble on getting a sup vigor or absorbtion.
However, in the case of a vigor rune, its distinctive graphics will let you identify it without having to "identify it", thus allowing you to sell it for unlock above the trader price. Big bucks. :happy34:
Personally, I find that buying an unidentified armor is a silly bargain. Assuming you're fishing for one particular rune, you have one chance in about 50 to get what you want (gold armors can contain major or superior runes).
ah, I'd love to but I seem to be unable to edit the post. strange. In any case, Rare is just gold whereas Perfect is: Gold, Max Damage, +15% Damage While Health is above 50%, +30hp, 10/10 sunder or 10/10 furious (sometimes a perfect vamp mod will subsitute for the sunder/furious). Low req isn't especially neccessary, but its a pretty good complement.
*And Perfect in the terms in of Upgrades means the max of, like 20% on enchant/mastery, 10/10 sunder/furious, 3:1 sword/axe | 5:1 bow/hammer.
hi, i'm really new to selling and buying, and was wondering if u could answer i question that i had for a while now. THe thing is that i have alot of runes in my inv and stash, and its starting to take alotta room cuz i never really knew wut to do with them. THey consist of many minor and some major runes of all sorts. How do i know how much i can get from them and where?
sry folks if this question sounds really dumb, but i'm just really new to this. THx!
chances are they're going to be minor and major runes, just go to the rune trader in ascalon or Lions arch and sell them at the price the trader gives you. the market for runes is pretty good now at the trader. minor and esp major don't fetch good prices though but it doesnt look like that's going to change.
Add on to that: if you have a lot of very cheap runes (so the trader is only giving you 10-20 gold for), you'll probably find you can sell them to the merchant for more instead. In fact there are a couple of major runes which the trader will give you 10 gold for while the merchant will give you 125 for - also you may find you'll get more money for monster armours with runes on then for a salvaged rune itself; it's often a good idea to check though all the traders and merchants first before deciding what to do with a rune, especially if you're just starting out or are low on gold and need every little bit you can get.
Add on to that: if you have a lot of very cheap runes (so the trader is only giving you 10-20 gold for), you'll probably find you can sell them to the merchant for more instead.
With a recent update, the rune trader will never give you lower than the merchant price
Actually, it still does. I checked a major water rune today at the trader, said it'd give me 25g for it. Instead I sold it to the merchant for 58g. I'm so rich...
An add on to that: If you identify an an armor and its a minor/major rune, check the price of it on the rune trader - compare it with the actual sell price of the armor with the rune (on there but not salvaged) - esp with major you'll get more from the armor sale to merch than the sale to the rune trader. I bought 8 golden armors and 7 of them came out to be major, instead of selling them to the rune trader @ 25g a piece I sold the armors to the merchant for ~344g.
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