Starting a New Shop

[Obsidian]

I'm starting a new shop. What are are the best items to sell? I remember a recommendation saying to sell consumables because the buyers have to keep coming back for more. I suppose that includes arrows/bolts.

What else do you recommend? Is there a market for bandages or enhanced apples (not sure how to make them). I'm looking for a long-term presence and will build appropriate characters to keep the shop going. Just need some initial advice.

Thanks!

-OBSIDIAN-

 

[Jesara]

Arrows, bolts, and potion kegs sell well for us. Good luck to you

 

[DVDA]

I honestly believe that at this point in game running a shop is more time consuming and less rewarding then it once was...

Fight alittle to acquire an arty or a PS and you got about 10 mil, you spend the day making kegs, apples etc and you make a couple of 100K

Gone are the days of selling a full Valorite platemail suit for 25K and thinking you were rich.

 

[Silverbird]

Depending on the chars you are having ...
- reapair deeds of all kinds
- runebooks + maybe recalls (dont stock too many)
- bos + powders
- pof
- exceptional musicinstruments
- maybe kegs for gardening (gheal, gcure, gpoison and gstrenght)
- arrows and bolts (but those are very hard to keep stocked without overpricing)

 

[Sarsmi]

I honestly believe that at this point in game running a shop is more time consuming and less rewarding then it once was...

Fight alittle to acquire an arty or a PS and you got about 10 mil, you spend the day making kegs, apples etc and you make a couple of 100K

Gone are the days of selling a full Valorite platemail suit for 25K and thinking you were rich.

I don't recall them asking what to sell to make the most money.

There are shop owners who sell just for the fun of selling things. I have a pretty time consuming shop, I spend 90% of my UO game time doing things directly related to it. So my advice to the OP is figure out how much time you want to devote then go on from there. There is nothing worse than a shop that never stocks. If you have lots of time you can get into the potion/repair deed/scribe/engraving tool business, the returns are poor but with a regularly stocked shop you will get business and lots of returning customers.

Also consider how you spend your time now and what you enjoy doing. If you like growing plants you can sell the spares. If you like killing things you can harvest leather to sell, if you like LJ or mining...etc. If you fill lots of bods but don't use all the rewards make a reward sales vendor. If you dont' have time for that you can still get bods and just sell them as is. You can always make some money selling junk bods for people to refill and good bods for a bit more (tip: sell the whole books of junk bods in lots of 100/200 etc).

Weapons sell poorly though that might change a little when SA comes out. Armor sells ok as long as its pretty decent, jewelry can sell ok as long as its decent to really good, etc. Since people are going to need stuff to imbue you could make bags of 25 junk items to sell for 5k gold or whatever for people to unravel.

You can do furny or stoneware vendors, tho those can be very slow sellers, especially on a lower population shard. Though SA should boost furny sales with new and returning players needing to spruce up their houses.

If you *are* going for gold, currently the most money I make in a consistent fashion is off of my tailor/smith bod reward vendors. Runic hammer sell really well. I also get nice items from camping idocs, then I can resell those low and do well, but for most players those aren't really something they can do regularly or often.

 

[Calis M^N]

doesnt matter what you sell as long as you keep it stocked... people will come bacl... dont have a vendor for something you cannot restock... i myself make sure i can stock something twice...

 

[Obsidian]

Good advice! Thanks.

For those that sell arrows, how do you acquire them? Centaurs or is there another effective method?

-OBSIDIAN-

 

[Mapper]

I hunt harpies for the feathers and then make the arrows with my fletcher but you dont need any fletching skill to make them if your willing to fail a few times.

 

[Wilde1]

Scrolls of Transcendence, deco items, plants, basic resources (eg, wood, ingots, the resource-related gems).

 

[Connor_Graham]

Good advice! Thanks.

For those that sell arrows, how do you acquire them? Centaurs or is there another effective method?

-OBSIDIAN-

Centaurs in Ilsh are the most efficient method, plus they also give 12 spined leather each. If you bring a bunch of Quiver of the Elements you can use them on your packy/beetle to carry twice as many arrows before you have to recall out to unload.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

I'm starting a new shop. What are are the best items to sell? I remember a recommendation saying to sell consumables because the buyers have to keep coming back for more. I suppose that includes arrows/bolts.

What else do you recommend? Is there a market for bandages or enhanced apples (not sure how to make them). I'm looking for a long-term presence and will build appropriate characters to keep the shop going. Just need some initial advice.

Thanks!

-OBSIDIAN-

Whats you goal with your vendors?

Gold? Service? Both?

Where is your place located?

I have a bunch of information for you.

How many vendors are you going to have?
Is it at your house or are you renting a spot?
If its your house are you going to rent vendors?

 

[Black Sun]

I run a shop at the entrance to Destard, so when you read the rest of this post remember that I have more natural foot traffic than most other non-Luna shops.

Of the 8 vendors on my house, 4 are mine. They all sell consumables. Bandages, Recalls, Arrows and Bolts, and usually Bags of Sending and Powder. Lately I have stopped stocking the Solen vendor because the time requirement vs. the payoff was too low for the work I was putting into it. I'm not sure what I am going to restock with yet. Generally my vendors will be emptied out in a 2 week span if I don't restock. (Keep in mind, I'm right outside Destard, and the bandages are always needed by tamers in there) I try to keep them fully stocked as much as possible. So my advice would be to determine how much time you want to invest, and take into consideration your location before you decide exactly what to sell.

 

[Obsidian]

My goal is just to be self-sufficient and be able to obtain some of the nicer arties in the game eventually. I usually play 2 hrs per day due to work/family. If I am able to make a little virtual income while I'm away, that would greatly help me out.

So yes, I desire to make gold. Not necessarily crazy amounts of gold, but I'd like a steady stream coming in and eventually a pool oof return customers. Eventually, in addition to consumables, I will also deal arties, power scrolls and such using the buy low, sell slightly higher principle where marketing and a consumer base will help me to sell items.

Right now my shop is on one of the lesser US shards and south of Luna along the road. Depending on how SA housing goes, I may move to the vicinity of Ter Mur or find a better vacated location when folks move out.

-OBSIDIAN-

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

Rule #1
well a rule anyway.

Be informed about changes in the game. You come to stratics so you need to use the information.

SA will bring tons, yes tons, of changes that can be profitable for a merchant.

Tips:
Read up on the supplies needed for imbuing. Buy them now, sell them later.

Read up on what type of items gives the best ingredients when unraveld. Buy them now, unravel them later and sell the ingredient

Pay attention to current game changes. For some reason Yew runic bows can be bought for 600k. They have 25 charges. Sure you might make a nice bow. But do they make nice items to unravel? I dont know and will find out.

Now what you can sell stuff for...

On atlantic you can sell arrows and bolts for 20 gold. More if you want to package them in groups of 10k. Why? Cause there is so much gold in the game people pay for convience.

Price to make a profit not what the game should have items at or merchants should sell them at. I sell at at least a 20% mark-up when being a merchant. On other charactures I will give players million gold checks to buy a home. Be smart the game isn't real life.

What to sell.

Arrows and bolts.
Ingredients.
Potion kegs.

All new stuff when it comes out. For instance I took my old Cloaks of corruptions and sold them for 3 million to 5 million 3 or 4 weeks ago when they were hot. SELL FAST buy back later.

Finally, make a rune book to all the vendors you like. Buy up their stuff if the price is fair for a mark-up and load up your vendor. You dont need to make a killing on a vendor.

Take 1 million spend it and mark up stuff 20%. When done with fees you might make 100k. As you get to know what sells spend 2 million and mark it up 20%. Before you know it your on your way. Use one or two vendors for this.

Have some standard vendors that only sell ingredients, or potions or things that will keep players coming back like repair deeds.

Having low to nil profit vendors is good too. Like furniture or plants. When people need that they will come to your place and check out your other stuff.

 

[Stupid Miner]

I hunt harpies for the feathers and then make the arrows with my fletcher but you dont need any fletching skill to make them if your willing to fail a few times.

Failing at fletching any amount of arrows results in the loss of 1. Much quicker way to get Arrows would be to kill centaurs at the Spirituality Champ Spawn. Meer Captains for Bolts.

 

[wanderer1origin]

best bet run solon items bos, powder trans, and smithing pof rest doesnt matter, arrows and bolts sell well, buy ish gypsies flip sell for 10 15 per sell out every day ingots iron can do same

My goal is just to be self-sufficient and be able to obtain some of the nicer arties in the game eventually. I usually play 2 hrs per day due to work/family. If I am able to make a little virtual income while I'm away, that would greatly help me out.

So yes, I desire to make gold. Not necessarily crazy amounts of gold, but I'd like a steady stream coming in and eventually a pool oof return customers. Eventually, in addition to consumables, I will also deal arties, power scrolls and such using the buy low, sell slightly higher principle where marketing and a consumer base will help me to sell items.

Right now my shop is on one of the lesser US shards and south of Luna along the road. Depending on how SA housing goes, I may move to the vicinity of Ter Mur or find a better vacated location when folks move out.

-OBSIDIAN-

 

[Blesh]

I remember always going nuts trying to find a vendor that sold bone machetes for a fair price. could stock those!

 

[Merik]

Here is how our new mall is setup on Chesapeake. Still building it

2.Tink, Carp Repair
3.Smith Repair
4.Tailor Repair
5.Arrow Bolt
6.Regs Mage and necro
7.Lrc Suits
8.Rune Books, recall, gate, mark & Bod book
9.Bola and Enhanced bandages
10.Golem Kits
11.Balms
12.Enchanted foods, cooked and uncooked fish
13.Kegs
14.Posion Kegs
15.Gm Instruments
16.Bags of Sending and Powder
17.Pet balls, Powder
18.Dragon Barding
19.Ropes & Machete
21.Petals Purple and orang

 

[Storm]

Rule #1
well a rule anyway.

Be informed about changes in the game. You come to stratics so you need to use the information.

SA will bring tons, yes tons, of changes that can be profitable for a merchant.

Tips:
Read up on the supplies needed for imbuing. Buy them now, sell them later.

Read up on what type of items gives the best ingredients when unraveld. Buy them now, unravel them later and sell the ingredient

Pay attention to current game changes. For some reason Yew runic bows can be bought for 600k. They have 25 charges. Sure you might make a nice bow. But do they make nice items to unravel? I dont know and will find out.

Now what you can sell stuff for...

On atlantic you can sell arrows and bolts for 20 gold. More if you want to package them in groups of 10k. Why? Cause there is so much gold in the game people pay for convience.

Price to make a profit not what the game should have items at or merchants should sell them at. I sell at at least a 20% mark-up when being a merchant. On other charactures I will give players million gold checks to buy a home. Be smart the game isn't real life.

What to sell.

Arrows and bolts.
Ingredients.
Potion kegs.

All new stuff when it comes out. For instance I took my old Cloaks of corruptions and sold them for 3 million to 5 million 3 or 4 weeks ago when they were hot. SELL FAST buy back later.

Finally, make a rune book to all the vendors you like. Buy up their stuff if the price is fair for a mark-up and load up your vendor. You dont need to make a killing on a vendor.

Take 1 million spend it and mark up stuff 20%. When done with fees you might make 100k. As you get to know what sells spend 2 million and mark it up 20%. Before you know it your on your way. Use one or two vendors for this.

Have some standard vendors that only sell ingredients, or potions or things that will keep players coming back like repair deeds.

Having low to nil profit vendors is good too. Like furniture or plants. When people need that they will come to your place and check out your other stuff.

I would go with this very good ideas ...not sure I agree with kegs though I sell mine for way cheep and have had same kegs on there for 8 months or so my most expensive ids dp and they sell for under 8k