• Hail Guest!
    We're looking for Community Content Contribuitors to Stratics. If you would like to write articles, fan fiction, do guild or shard event recaps, it's simple. Find out how in this thread: Community Contributions
  • Greetings Guest, Having Login Issues? Check this thread!
  • Hail Guest!,
    Please take a moment to read this post reminding you all of the importance of Account Security.
  • Hail Guest!
    Please read the new announcement concerning the upcoming addition to Stratics. You can find the announcement Here!

Commodity Broker success?

Elric_Soban

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Between the 5% commission and the outrageous weekly fee, is anyone out there having any success and making money with their brokers?
 

Europa Trader

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Between the 5% commission and the outrageous weekly fee, is anyone out there having any success and making money with their brokers?
I guess some are but others arent really, and some shards dont even have more than 8-10 of them. its to expensive its cheaper to have items on a vendor.
I was selling 1000 of each crabs and lobster and I had to pay 7,5m in fees a week. While it didnt really make enough profit to sell after I week i took it down. I could have setup with less than 1000 but I dont like to keep stocking it :)
 

Shiznit Bo'Bourbon

Visitor
Stratics Veteran
I'm having great success selling to one that buys imbuing stuff. Sure it pays less than I could sell the crap for on a Luna vendor, but I don't have a Luna vendor.

Don't sell, buy for a decent but lower-than-Luna price. Then sell what you've bought in Luna.
 
U

unified

Guest
Don't sell, buy for a decent but lower-than-Luna price. Then sell what you've bought in Luna.
Good advice. Problem is, as long as players get smarter, they will find it better economically to make their own crafters and gather their own resources.

Prices of most goods are too expensive, even for hard to get items. Vendor owners will notice a steady decline as players become more self-sufficient. I've watched a dozen really good vendors go out of business over the past year. While some of their offerings were reasonably priced, some things were very overpriced.

I won't mention the name, but one vendor was selling imbued jewlry that I used to buy. My frustration with paying so much caused me to train my own imbuer. I then realized that the things he was selling was among the most easiest to imbue and cost very little in resources.

I do hope the commodity brokers do well. I purchased a very nice Greater Dragon from one of them. :)
 

Aerodice

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I have had some excellent success with my imbuing vendor on Atlantic but that's mostly due to the high demand and price of ingredients. The cost of the ingredients more than makes up for the vendor fees. Unfortunately, that's not the case for other important commodities such as potions and fish.
 

Madrid

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I put two pets on in a stall and my weekly fees were 300,000!

I just laughed at it...

Needless to say I won't be having anything to do with the vendor stalls or commodity brokers. I took my pets down after two days and I have no plans on ever doing any stalls or commodity brokers.

While some of the ideas such as a commodity broker and pet stalls may be a good idea and good for the game. The way they are implemented backfires and it's just another sign of how out of touch the Dev Team is with the playerbase.

Prices are an absolute joke.

There is a reason why they are absolute empty on most shards.

And ultimately the "bottom line" and UO's bottom line is I won't be purchasing another Baazar for my other accounts and if someone i.e. new player ever asks me about the Baazar I'm going to give him solid advice and tell him not to purchase the Baazar pack as it's an absolute rip off.

You guys you favor gold sinks are idjits as are the Devs who listen to them!
 
C

cumberline

Guest
I read a lot of merchants and brokers complain about fees. Well, fees are based on YOUR prices. The more outrageous you sell for, the higher the fees. It's common sense. Please take a look at your prices and see if YOU are being reasonable. This is why I am working on a crafter/imbuing and tamer myself. YOUR prices are unreasonable, and when they are so high and unreasonable, people will not buy and you will continue to pay the fees until YOU lower your prices or stop trying to sell.
 
U

unified

Guest
Prices are an absolute joke.
Sadly, most players are not Economics majors, because it really is a matter of supply vs. demand.

The vendor/broker system deserves another look, in favor of owners. Perhaps the fees should be imposed as a tax that is collected when something actually sells rather than an ongoing fee that can often outpace the true value of the item for sale.

Equally, one should rethink their prices. True new players can't afford some of the items you sell. Those (veterans) who do have the kind of gold you are seeking will most likely have their own means of acquiring the items you sell.

My greatest need is for Gate and Mark scrolls. I couldn't find anyone selling these scrolls, so I made my own scribe. Guess what? Now, I have no need to buy Recall scrolls either. It is so true that necessity is the mother of all inventions.
 

Madrid

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Perhaps the fees should be imposed as a tax that is collected when something actually sells rather than an ongoing fee that can often outpace the true value of the item for sale.
:thumbsup:

Personally I don't believe in any of the BS fees however seeing what is currently in place I'm clearly on the broad side of the other spectrum and would be happy with any change in the system.

The only fees that should be involved is the rent and the labor. That's it! None of this commission erm communism stuff we see in the game.

You pay to rent the space and you hire someone to sell your wares that should be the end of your overhead.
 

Elric_Soban

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I read a lot of merchants and brokers complain about fees. Well, fees are based on YOUR prices. The more outrageous you sell for, the higher the fees. It's common sense. Please take a look at your prices and see if YOU are being reasonable. This is why I am working on a crafter/imbuing and tamer myself. YOUR prices are unreasonable, and when they are so high and unreasonable, people will not buy and you will continue to pay the fees until YOU lower your prices or stop trying to sell.
No, that's false logic.

It works off total inventory value. For a normal vendor, outrageous fees come from having alot of overpriced items.

For commod brokers, the whole point is to deal in BULK. So even if your wares are amazingly UNDERPRICED, if you happen to have ALOT of said cheap resource on your broker, you're going to be paying insane prices.

They need to rework the fee system for commod brokers.
 

Petra Fyde

Peerless Chatterbox
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I have a pet stall on Europa, it's doing a nice turn over and I'm quite happy with it.
 

WildWobble

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
great idea poorly executed! the stall bidding is ok but one week terns are to short make it a month! 1/4 the costs its much cheaper to use a vendor cept for pets. Not to mention Maginca is now an eye sore! Again this dev team gets a failing grade!
 
P

pgib

Guest
The pet-stalls are great: with the right price you can sell anything from all forms of beetles to swamp dragons (barded or naked), golems, lesser hyrius, bouras, cu-sides... everything. And you can safely transfer pets among your characters.

For commodities I have to say that I don't see things i'd like to buy but in the rare case there is something i may need it is usually overpriced.

You can't really sell boards at 16 gp (npc costs 4) or arrows at 24 (npc costs 6).
 

Hunter Moon

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
As a pet vendor, I do very well using these. I also see where it would be a big plus to people to be able to just go and buy what they need instead of spending an hour in Luna spamming or hollering over the help channel looking for a tamer. Plus its much safer to buy a pet in this way. The cost is a bit high, but my sales have well out weighed the price. I'm actually having trouble keeping my pets stocked on there since I try to sell rare colored pets as well as useful work pets... This is on Atlantic so I can't speak for how they are doing on other shards ;)

Hunter Moon [HOT] Atlantic
 
S

sayler04

Guest
I don't have a commodity broker, and I don't really have the time or commitment necessary to operate a player vendor anymore, nor do I have the capital to weather the fees associated with high-end items brokering. And I don't have the patience, anymore, to train up a super-imbuer.

What I do have, however, is a not-unimpressive inventory of imbuing ingredients. After a hard day at work, I like to come home and kill stuff. And the stuff I kill drops stuff.

For those in a similar situation (and I'm confident I'm not the only one), the new mag commodity brokers have been a windfall, thanks in no small part to Aerodice and other similar players. I finally have a fairly effortless outlet for the millions upon millions of gold in ingredients that I didn't want to deal with offloading. Maybe the people running the brokers aren't making alot off them or havn't figured out how to use them profitably yet, but for some of us, they're just great. Finally, the things I enjoy doing in the game and have time for are profitable again.

Thanks aerodice, you're funding the crimson cincture I've wanted for ten years.
 

TullyMars

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I have done well even though I based my commodity deed vendor in Felucca Magincia.
I make my vendor fees and then some.

I have found with good prices to buy items from other players that keeping it stocked is easy.

An occasional rune drop has kept some new customers coming.
I do have to adjust my quantities to equal about what sells in a week (to lower my stock and vendor fees) but right now it seems to be doing alright.

Like Aero's imbuing vendor, on the items I buy from other players and re-sell I make a small commission if that (I think Aero even has some lead-loss items), but it is really is almost a public service as it gives people who don't want to do vendors an outlet to sell their wares.
 
S

sayler04

Guest
Yes Tully, a public service exactly, and I'm grateful for it. Its like a small business stimulus package.
 

Aerodice

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
It can be difficult to set up a commodity broker and make it successful. When I first set up my imbuing vendor, it took a lot of dedication, funds and stock to get it established. At first, there was very little traffic and for the first month or so, there were few sales.

It's important to set your prices at a reasonable level and add buy backs. Simply selling your items will only get you half the customers. What I did at first was set up goods to sell to make a profit, then as the money went up, I added more items for people to buy and slowly started adding other commodities for people to sell back to me (Gathering it all by myself was getting quite tiring).

As time went on, more people started to see the benefit of the vendor as word of mouth and advertising improved traffic to the area. I never thought of how much of an impact the vendor would have to the game. It has become a public service to people looking to buy and people looking to sell, it's almost at a point of being self-sufficient.

As the success of the vendor grew, so did the stock. I periodically raise the buy back amount and recheck pricing to keep things up to date. So far I have had very few complaints and many compliments at how much people have enjoyed the services my vendor has to offer.

Hopefully these tips will help other potential bazaar vendors find success in selling their goods.
 
S

sayler04

Guest
Aero how what were the deciding factors in which commodities to post and at what price? Certain things, faery dust for instance, seem a bottomless font, while others, like lodestones, don't appear at all. I'm assuming this is all based on which ingredients have which effects, supply and demand, etc, is that correct? I'm sure supply and demand play a relevant part, but how much does difficulty in harvesting play into pricing and caps?
 

Shiznit Bo'Bourbon

Visitor
Stratics Veteran
It can be difficult to set up a commodity broker and make it successful. When I first set up my imbuing vendor, it took a lot of dedication, funds and stock to get it established. At first, there was very little traffic and for the first month or so, there were few sales.

It's important to set your prices at a reasonable level and add buy backs. Simply selling your items will only get you half the customers. What I did at first was set up goods to sell to make a profit, then as the money went up, I added more items for people to buy and slowly started adding other commodities for people to sell back to me (Gathering it all by myself was getting quite tiring).

As time went on, more people started to see the benefit of the vendor as word of mouth and advertising improved traffic to the area. I never thought of how much of an impact the vendor would have to the game. It has become a public service to people looking to buy and people looking to sell, it's almost at a point of being self-sufficient.

As the success of the vendor grew, so did the stock. I periodically raise the buy back amount and recheck pricing to keep things up to date. So far I have had very few complaints and many compliments at how much people have enjoyed the services my vendor has to offer.

Hopefully these tips will help other potential bazaar vendors find success in selling their goods.
I know your vendor because it's the only one on Atlantic that buys PVM-dropped imbuing stuff. You really need to update your buy orders constantly, because I will farm you basically infinite ingredients for well below the price a dedicated merchant can get for them, just to be able to avoid setting up my own vendor or spamming in chat.

I hate having to work to sell things. I'd rather do twice as much killing and sell my rewards for half as much, compared to selling for full price but spending half my time messing with vendors or selling in chat.
 

Aerodice

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Aero how what were the deciding factors in which commodities to post and at what price? Certain things, faery dust for instance, seem a bottomless font, while others, like lodestones, don't appear at all. I'm assuming this is all based on which ingredients have which effects, supply and demand, etc, is that correct? I'm sure supply and demand play a relevant part, but how much does difficulty in harvesting play into pricing and caps?
Personally, I just stack my vendor up with all the ingredients as there will always be somebody looking for a certain type of ingredient. Some sit on the vendor forever while others sell out the second they are put on.

Difficulty in obtaining the ingredients as well as the usefulness of the ingredient are both factors in determining the price. Items such as lodestones are not on the vendor because they aren't used in imbuing. There are several UOSA items which drop that have no known use, so people don't collect them.

I know your vendor because it's the only one on Atlantic that buys PVM-dropped imbuing stuff. You really need to update your buy orders constantly, because I will farm you basically infinite ingredients for well below the price a dedicated merchant can get for them, just to be able to avoid setting up my own vendor or spamming in chat.

I hate having to work to sell things. I'd rather do twice as much killing and sell my rewards for half as much, compared to selling for full price but spending half my time messing with vendors or selling in chat.
I update my buy backs periodically. Lately there haven't been as many sales, especially considering a weekend was lost due to the migration (sales are high during that time). Many of the items are max stocked and are up to be purchased. When the vendor does well, its stock increases. When it isn't doing so well, the stock remains at the same amount.
 

Shiznit Bo'Bourbon

Visitor
Stratics Veteran
Aerodice's commodity vendor, and only Aerodice's commodity vendor, crashes my classic client when I try to open it today. I haven't tested it with EC, but all other vendors open fine for me.
 

TullyMars

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Aye me too...happened other day...not sure what he put on or if it was the comma in his vendor name...will try to let him know if I see him on.
 

Korik Bloodguard

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I read a lot of merchants and brokers complain about fees. Well, fees are based on YOUR prices. The more outrageous you sell for, the higher the fees. It's common sense. Please take a look at your prices and see if YOU are being reasonable. This is why I am working on a crafter/imbuing and tamer myself. YOUR prices are unreasonable, and when they are so high and unreasonable, people will not buy and you will continue to pay the fees until YOU lower your prices or stop trying to sell.
If someone is willing to pay a given price for something then the cost is not unreasonable, that's how much it's worth.

You're confusing how much YOU want to pay for something with how much an item ought to cost. Others may be willing to pay more, others may be willing to pay less. But the price a given commodity commands is its price. There is absolutely no such thing as "being reasonable" about prices.
 

TullyMars

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Aerodice's commodity vendor, and only Aerodice's commodity vendor, crashes my classic client when I try to open it today. I haven't tested it with EC, but all other vendors open fine for me.

Lol, got Aero to fix it.
It was the gosh darn comma he put in his vendor name.
 

Merion

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I only use mine to buy things like the mining gems. When I need some, I scatter some runes and that usually works fine. Much more comfortable than having to spam the general chat.
 
K

Kiminality

Guest
If someone is willing to pay a given price for something then the cost is not unreasonable, that's how much it's worth.
Yes and no.
If someone's willing to pay an amount for something, then it's justifiable to make that your asking price, and when you sell it for that... Well done you.
But, if you price something at the upper end of what people are willing to pay for an item, it's unreasonable to expect it to sell in a short time frame, especially if there are lower-priced alternative.

So, the more accurate way to put it is not that people place items with unreasonable prices on items, it's that they price items with unreasonable expectations.
This comes more into play when there's fees based on time and value. If you price something higher, the fee will raise, and so will the time it sits on the vendor. So that's both the factors in vendor fees increasing the nearer you get to the limit of what people will pay.
 

Aerodice

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Lol, got Aero to fix it.
It was the gosh darn comma he put in his vendor name.
Ya really appreciate the help on that one Tully, it could have gone on for a long time as you can't see it causing problems on the customer side of things.
 

TullyMars

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Ya really appreciate the help on that one Tully, it could have gone on for a long time as you can't see it causing problems on the customer side of things.
Hey bud, I hate to say it but the bug is back so the comma thing must not have been it.

It worked when we were there, but something else must be bugging it out.

I got home and tried with another character and immediately crashed.
 

Aerodice

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Arggggggg! I really wish they would fix the neverending problems with these commodity vendors! It's been over a month since I've been able to set prices for my vendor in the classic client, I've been forced to use the enhanced client. Now after all the workarounds to get the pricing working, now my customers can't access the vendor without crashing!

You can probably use the enhanced client to buy and sell for now till I try firing the broker and redoing the inventory. Hopefully that fixes it.
 

Frarc

Stratics Legend
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
My pet stalls sells well on both shards. No overpriced pets to find there. Just the basic needs of a lot of players.

Sold almost for 2 million gold on pets on Drachenfels. The price range is between 5K of gold and 25K . So that is a lot of pets! I have to restock pets daily. And all that on a "smaller" shard. :)
 
Top