What sells well these days?

[Tanivar]

I've been back a week after years away. Vendors which used to be everywhere are now fairly rare. Even Luna (on Chessie) has less vendors. Has selling things gotten that bad?

What sells these days?

I've seen arrows on vendors priced at 26 gp each when the NPC vendors sell them at 5 - 7 gp each. This a storage trick or do they sell?

I'm feeling like I've come in halfway through the movie.

 

[Tuferon]

good luck
I took my vendors down 2 yrs ago cause I am not into the rares thing goin on. Resources sell but the traffic and profit is too low to make it worthwhile for me.
If you get a good answer here i would be thrilled to use it too!

 

[Basara]

When an event publish occurs, or when town vendors reset from an event, the prices go back to default.

So, you have people pricing arrows at 26 per, because that's comparable to the Luna NPC price, but in those towns that have had invasions, the arrows rest back down to 5 default, until bought back up again.

So, it's a matter of vendor players not paying attention to the market, or trying to rook people who aen't paying attention.

I personally have been stockpiling normal leather from the tanners and leatherworkers in towns, immediately after the invasion forces are defeated, to train one of my tailors.

 

[Setnaffa]

The only crafted items that sell well are Runic-made Armor and weapons. I have Luna Vendors on Napa and Pacific and I make a very decent profit selling armor (Barbed Kit made) with over 60 Resists, LRC 15% or more, or Luck over 130.

BOD rewards sell very well. I'm selling PoF's, Runic (Bronze and higher) Hammers, ASH Hammers, CBD's, 120 Scrolls, and colored anvils at a brisk rate (I can barely keep them stocked).

 

[Tanivar]

<<The only crafted items that sell well are Runic-made Armor and weapons. I have Luna Vendors on Napa and Pacific and I make a very decent profit selling armor (Barbed Kit made) with over 60 Resists, LRC 15% or more, or Luck over 130.

BOD rewards sell very well. I'm selling PoF's, Runic (Bronze and higher) Hammers, ASH Hammers, CBD's, 120 Scrolls, and colored anvils at a brisk rate (I can barely keep them stocked). >>

BODs... From the Act of Stupidity expansion that trashed Crafting in the first place. Wonderful, the AoS Curse is still alive and well, and Crafting isn't.

Ah well, maybe they will un-foul-up-beyond-all-recognition Crafting in the *NEXT* expansion.:bowdown:

It's a bummer I just sank $80 into expansions to bring my account up to date and get a few handy things. Supposedly ML was *good* for Crafting. Shoot, apparently that was used-car-salesman talk. Let the buyer beware.

This part of why I was able to place a 14x14 house in a good spot in fifteen minutes of wandering?

<<So, you have people pricing arrows at 26 per, because that's comparable to the Luna NPC price, but in those towns that have had invasions, the arrows rest back down to 5 default, until bought back up again.>>

Arrows are worth 26 gp each these days?! Yikes... <g>

I may have to stick my former Archers ammo stockpile on a vendor at 20 gp each and laugh all the way to the bank in spite of the hernia that much gold gives you.
I was going to give Archery to my Fisher once I found a powerscroll for him but he'd just be throwing money away. 1 hit out of seven shots is 182 gp per hit on a monster. An ebolt costs zip with 100% LRC armor on. Much cheaper.

So vendors for ammo, all five repair deeds, and resources should do alright. Vendors for Slayer and good bonus spellbooks (full), Kegs of Potions, and scrolls might at least make enough to support themselves? I'd have a couple more to put good items on that I find while hunting but those didn't earn their keep before.

Guess I'll go until I
--------------------------



<<wince...>> <g> You've a sick puppy somewhere UO.

 

[Basara]

Apparently, your memory is VERY faulty.

BODs were around LONG BEFORE Age of Shadows.

Age of Shadows: first Quarter 2003

Tailor BODs: July 2002

Smith BODs: December 2001 (effectively - the publish notes for them are Nov 30).

 

[Basara]

Only the foolish or those in too much a hurry pay 26 per arrow, BTW.

Arrows start at 5 GP per, then go up 1 GP per for each 1000 sold by an NPC, until the NPC resets. Only the lazy don't leave Luna to find cheaper prices. For that matter, you can farm ratman archers in Ilshenar and collect 5k arrows an hour, if not more.

 

[Tanivar]

Apparently, your memory is VERY faulty.

BODs were around LONG BEFORE Age of Shadows.

Age of Shadows: first Quarter 2003

Tailor BODs: July 2002

Smith BODs: December 2001 (effectively - the publish notes for them are Nov 30).

I came to UO fall of 2000 with UO:renaissance. UO:LBR gave us customized housing and Ilshanaer. UO:AoS is where BODs were a big thing. It's what redefined the AoS abbreviation in my mind. I'd of had real fun with LBR. <g>

Either way. BODs smoked Crafting. Something that was well liked by players who just didn't care for all combat games. The fault most games out there have. Heck, there were players who loved the Herding skill. My thing was gathering the resources and making things for people. The combat my characters saw was primarily just my Miner and my Logger defending themselves.

UO was a game the PvP types could enjoy, the PvM types could enjoy, and the non-combat Merchant types could enjoy. Those of us who enjoyed the making part of the game instead of the breaking part of the game got the fun taken out of the game for us. It's still not back. Ever consider it's part of the reason for less crowding in the game.

 

[Basara]

Actually, again your memory fails you.

Ilshenar was around since 3rd Dawn. It was only 2D that didn't get Ilshenar until LBR.

And, personally, I find the BODs one of the most enjoyable parts of crafting. Because, without the tools they provide, there is no need to collect resources, and no one wants items crafted with normal tools.

If not for BODs & Runics, even if we were still using the pre-LBR ruleset, everyone would be wearing looted magical armor, not crafted armor, as by this time the market would be saturated by uberloot gathered over so many years.It wasn't until about 2005-2006 that runic-crafted equipment, for PvM types at least, reached high enough commonality that mindless farming of creatures with the high-end loot for good items (that would hopefully survive enhancement), started to fade away.

When I started playing, in 2003, all the vendors were filled with ONLY loot off creatures - most still labeled for the old "descriptor" bonuses. Crafting was dead long before AoS, and didn't start coming back until 2005-2006.

 

[Setnaffa]

I agree with Basara. BODs actually give crafters a reason to make craft. I enjoy just sitting at my computer for an hour or so filling BODs. I even like playing the turn-in lottery.

Most gripes tend to come from those that don't craft much.

 

[Tanivar]

Actually, again your memory fails you.

Ilshenar was around since 3rd Dawn. It was only 2D that didn't get Ilshenar until LBR.

.

I've normally played only the 2D Client. 3rd Dawn ran so slowly on my system that hunting was suicidal for my characters. I would often get to watch a monster walk up to my character, waste him, and wander off screen without being able to do anything about it. My Client was apparently a good 30 seconds behind the UO system. Oddly enough, things sped up when they were ghosts. It was play 2D or not adventure.

And no, it wasn't an underpowered system.

My first trips to Ilshanar were UO:LBR.

And, personally, I find the BODs one of the most enjoyable parts of crafting. Because, without the tools they provide, there is no need to collect resources, and no one wants items crafted with normal tools.

Those tools from BODs were to rare and took too much time to get.

With the monster loot vastly better than anything a Crafter could make without those rare tools, Crafting was hurt as well. Those of us with only a few hours a day free time to spend in a game were unable to put the time into the BOD system for those tools. Perhaps it was the better than non-BOD-tool-Craftable monster loot that arrived with UO:LBR and made the BOD system stand out. Been a few years and other game systems in between then and now.

uberloot

Yes, it was a great game unbalancer. Mega-bonus items you had to practicaly live in game to get. I never had that much playtime to waste and wasn't into PvP anyway. Some find overpowered characters fun to play, I don't. Learned that in D&D.

Gonzo the Behemoth, with biceps the size of a dragons thighs, swings his mighty forty foot sword FlamingColdInstaDeath + 900 at the 10,000 charging Great gameworld gods and their 50,000 massive red dragons and wastes them all in that single hit. He is so great and mighty. <yawn>

When I started playing, in 2003, all the vendors were filled with ONLY loot off creatures - most still labeled for the old "descriptor" bonuses. Crafting was dead long before AoS, and didn't start coming back until 2005-2006

2003 was after Crafting got trashed. You never saw the good days of it.

Go back in the Forum Archives and browse the player posts on the crafting change topics from UO:Ren to UO:SE. You will see a lot of negative reaction to the Crafting changes from the Crafting players. We got screwed over badly. I think my logon name back then was Oldfogy. Do a search using that to find the topics.

 

[Jusdon]

Wow, this has been a bit of an eye-opener for me. I also played for many years, left the game and came back about 3 years ago and found all sorts of new lands and skills available. I started playing back in '97 or early '98 when it was only Fel. I did it all, PvP with a Guild, PvM alone or with Guildmates, and after a few months playing decided I needed to be self-sufficient so I built a craftsman (GM miner, smith, carp, tink, tailor...) and decided to open my own vendor house and made a killing selling the things people needed on Fel when dealth came to us all far too frequently and you lost whatever you had (no insurance then, and very few "blessed items"). I left the game in the summer of '01 about a year after UO opened Trammel as I was getting tired of the game, and had been just logging in to refresh my homes (you could have one per char then that had to be refreshed weekly) and spending money to keep 2 accounts running with little play time so I gave them away and moved on to other things.

About 3 years ago I started playing again with all new accounts (the old ones are long gone). First order of business for me was to rebuild my mage, my archer, and my craftsman. As I did not want to go through the pains I did the first time around with harvesting resources I bought $10M in UO gold (chump change now - people are selling the potted plants I had on my original accounts for $1-2M each now that I was buying for a set of armour back then - inflation in UO is off the charts!) so I could buy my resources. Once I had my craftsman rebuilt I opened a vendor house to recoup my gold and mostly lost money. I found that potion kegs sold, bulk resources sold (I sold my leftovers), but the old money makers like colored armour and GM weps did not. I understand now that everyone wants runic crafted items... (this thread filled in that blank for me - I just figured that since players don't lose their armour anymore there just wasn't enough demand to support a vendor) although I did fill a couple of special orders for armour - the stock on vendors mostly just sat there... BTW GM is not good enough - the players want you to be at least a high skill elder (115) or better yet legendary (120) now before they place special orders. Home craftables sold fairly well but again a fully stocked vendor may lose money and with all the rugs available now the old abbatoirs and pentagrams that use to be high value items just don't sell anymore.... Oh full spell books and rune books (enhanced even better) do sell as do repair deeds. High level monster loot will sell eventually. The prices in Luna are extreme so I'm not sure I'd use that as a benchmark.

What really killed the vendor trade in my opinon isn't BoD's or any of that it was the introduction of Trammel and the end of involuntary PvP combined with item insurance that did in the old vendors... I made a killing selling "just killed kits" that included 5GH 5GC 2TR and a reg bag with 25 of each in them. Of course I also sold lots of armour and weapons from my two story located near a major guild warring location... ah the good ol days.... You could make a killing on other folks carnage

The upside is that I can go PvM anywhere on Trammel and not have to worry about seeing a Corp Por directed at me when I'm at 30HP and running away from a monster to heal. I enjoy playing the game playing solo with my now 10 chars over 2 accounts and with item insurance and so on when I die I rarely lose anything, and if I do I can always make another. GM Armour works just fine for PvM.
-
I remember barly being able to keep my vendors stocked and working hours to make sure they stay stocked with 'consumables' each day in the old days and I don't think there are any items in game that sell that well now but if you're willing to run a house at a more relaxed pace you may find enough items to make a profit. The potion kegs sell pretty fast (needed by all the plant growers but don't make DP as only an Assasin can use it, and the the plants require Greater Poison. Good Luck.

 

[Setnaffa]

I wouldn't exactly blame insurance for the crafter's problem. I'd blame CHEAP insurance. Personally I think it should cost 500K or more to insure an item. People would be less inclined to insure every item if they were going to lose 4-5 million every time they died.

 

[Tanivar]

I found that potion kegs sold, bulk resources sold...
Home craftables sold fairly well...
...full spell books and rune books (enhanced even better) do sell as do repair deeds...
The potion kegs sell pretty fast (needed by all the plant growers but don't make DP as only an Assasin can use it, and the the plants require Greater Poison.
High level monster loot will sell eventually.

All I really require is that the vendors make enough to support themselves. I make decent gold mugging monsters that attack my foragers. I'm glad the above products can probably sell well enough to pay the fees. I moved this last weekend and set up the new place with a spot in front for just five vendors instead of the twelve to eighteen the old place was. I'll see how it goes.

 

[Spree]

You can sell cloth all day on siege for 300 to 500 a bolt and bones for 100 each.

 

[Taylor]

Has anyone tried selling arrows and aids in Doom?

I've bought arrows from the Doom vendor. He sells them for 114g each. Still, buying a couple hundred arrows at that price is better than buying another golden skull.

If I'd pay that much, maybe someone else would, too. *shrug*

Anyone tried it?

 

[Basara]

it used to bring big money doing it, and in fact, the 1 GP differential meant that money was actually being removed from the system, while lowering prices for other doom-goers. That went away with the changes where all vendors always pay less than the default price when buying stuff, because someone found a way to exploit a bug, that allowed selling of items at a higher price than the buying price.

 

[Taylor]

Ah, I see. I hadn't even thought about selling the arrows to the doom vendor! Good idea, were it not for the objections you raised.

I think I miscommunicated. I meant to ask, can you make money selling arrows/aids/pots to other players?

 

[Basara]

You could, theoretically, but you'd still end up with the gold transport issues out of the dungeon that is the reason no one loots gold in Doom, except for a quick, expensive resupply. In the old days, you could carry 16000 bandaids/arrows/bolts down in a beetle, plus another 4000 on you, and drop the prices by 20 per, by selling the items to Nix, 500 at a time. If you were overweight, each sale would result in a check in your bank. So, as long as you had over 32 free spaces in your bank, you'd do this until the prices dropped below your costs or you ran out of stuff to sell, and end up with more than enough gold to pay for your skull (at the prices listed above, the break=even point for buying a skull would be around 2k to 3k into the sales, with the rest as profit).

 

[Warrior of Time]

Actually, again your memory fails you.

Ilshenar was around since 3rd Dawn. It was only 2D that didn't get Ilshenar until LBR.

And, personally, I find the BODs one of the most enjoyable parts of crafting. Because, without the tools they provide, there is no need to collect resources, and no one wants items crafted with normal tools.

If not for BODs & Runics, even if we were still using the pre-LBR ruleset, everyone would be wearing looted magical armor, not crafted armor, as by this time the market would be saturated by uberloot gathered over so many years.It wasn't until about 2005-2006 that runic-crafted equipment, for PvM types at least, reached high enough commonality that mindless farming of creatures with the high-end loot for good items (that would hopefully survive enhancement), started to fade away.

When I started playing, in 2003, all the vendors were filled with ONLY loot off creatures - most still labeled for the old "descriptor" bonuses. Crafting was dead long before AoS, and didn't start coming back until 2005-2006.

Talk about selling things. What can a tinker sell that has any real value. Well lets scratch the Sewing kits, smith hammer, mortar & pestle, shovel, saw. Ok so we have a couple magic items thrown our way. Lets face it there really is nothing that is normally used we can make and sell.

The smith is a given selling, runic, colored items. The tailor has the armor and colored leather.

The bow craftsman has been given new woods to help them along. (With UO/SA for how long)

The thing that needs a lot of help is the tinker. So what if he makes a val hatchet, skinning knife, or cleaver. Who in UO wants them.

With UO/SA we have a chance to make a common item that the tinker can make and sell on an everyday bases. I want the tinkers to get the throwing items. The bow makers will still most likly have a super bow that can made. Maybe even use the special woods on them.

I think it is time to make something the tinker can sell or enhance on a regular bases.

You may be able to farm arrows, so at least the bolts can be made. A new weapon that uses them would help the fletcher.

It only takes about 40 skill to start making shovels. No need to GM tinkering there. These was already know so most likly I am boring people.

What would not bore the tinkers would be throwing items that are wood with metal tips for throwing. I am not talking about just for the begginer. Enhance the ones you find to make them even better. The smith, tailor, and fletcher, all have a reason for people to make one.

Now is the time to help a tinker with a new race, and new weapon style and type. Look through the boards and see how many times a tinker is even had two cents of real input. I do hope that this at least will be worth reading.

Talk about 2003, What about 2009.

 

[Sarsmi]

I find my tinker very useful for making tools, but little else. I do craft what I can with them since I have furniture/light source/etc vendors. And they can make really nice jewelry with the right ingredients, but I haven't messed with any of that stuff really.

 

[Kallie Pigeon]

Long ago my tank mage took up tinkering to make some gold. He made and sold butchers knives to the npc. There was no loss of ingots on failure in those days. After that changed I did mining because my friend would pay me 5 gold per ingot (only iron in those days). Then I figured out he was making money smithing and selling to the npc so I made a smith and cut out the middle man so to speak. Then he got enough skill to do gating and the problem was solved. I don't really try to make gold these days but then I am not the high end gamer kind of a guy.

 

[Warrior of Time]

I just feel that all the trades in UO needs to be like in real life. Who would fix cars if it didn't pay.