Spiral Knights - Is there any point in trying to sell mats?

Is there any point in trying to sell mats?

17 replies [Last post]

Thu, 05/05/2011 - 23:18

Corinthian

Legacy Username

This is not a complaint, it's a serious question, I'm just curious.

I've noticed that, short of a few big 5* mats, it seems very difficult to sell mats at all. And I know people talk about the Auction House, but I'm wondering if even that would change things. Seems like everyone has way more mats than they need, and not enough crowns. Which makes sense - if you're buying energy with crowns so you can play more, you have less to buy mats with. All the people I've spoken to are in similar situations, with a glut of mats, only buying the much rarer ones like Sun Silver or whatever. Lately it seems people are more often crafting an item outright and then selling that, rather than trying to sell the component mats.

So is anyone out there having a lot of luck selling mats? Any other thoughts on the situation?

Thu, 05/05/2011 - 23:34

Eruzei

It seems to me to be a better

It seems to me to be a better idea to craft something in demand and sell that, rather than try to sell the mats a lot of the time.

But then, there are also people who are mass-crafting certain items for UVs, who should always be wanting mats. So it may just be the disorganized nature of the current Trade chat that is making finding the right customer harder than it should be?

Fri, 05/06/2011 - 08:48

Corinthian

Legacy Username

That's possible, the Trade

That's possible, the Trade channel did become a cesspool almost right away :P

Fri, 05/06/2011 - 09:49

dmosinee

Legacy Username

It's not difficult to sell

It's not difficult to sell your mats if you lower the prices.

Yes there may be 1000 yahoos standing around haven screaming "WTS any shard for 50cr please please someone buy!", but notice when someone says "WTS any shard for 25cr" you only see that message up once or twice because they sell all of their stock quick and easy.

Fri, 05/06/2011 - 09:57

kakelgis

Legacy Username

@dmosinee - Except then

@dmosinee - Except then everyone starts lowering their prices because they're desperate, and then the lower price becomes the common price. Then the process repeats itself until a shard would be worth 2cr each. And that's only because the vendor price is 1cr.

This is the main problem with the economy - There are no material sinks for high end materials, materials are too common, and equipment does not require enough materials for crafting. So essentially, there's an infinite supply, with incredibly low demand.

Crafting ends up focusing too much on recipes, CE and crowns rather than materials. (even on old days when five stars were over 30K - You wouldn't spend more than 60K overall in materials, usually. CE and crowns will solely cost you 35K crowns, and recipes can add up to about 66,5K, so it pretty much goes over 100K)

When the auction house is released, unless we get some sort of material sink or balancing on crafting/drop rate, you can expect no material to be worth anything anymore.

Fri, 05/06/2011 - 17:58

Pawn

i find it easy to sell mats

I find it pretty easy. I rarely even advertise on WTS 'anything'. I'll just keep on eye on the tradechat, wait for someone to say WTB, and if it's something i have and that i can part with i shoot them a price. My most common items are iron gears and swordstones 400. Fine fabric 500. Owlite featheres 500. If it's a blaze pepper/miracloth/acid/4stars i usually go 1-2k. I'll adjust my prices slightly up or slightly down based on my stock. Oh yeah, and blue shards, anytime i see WTB blue shards i sell them for 100 each if they want 5 or more, 150 each if they want less than 5. Some people won't buy them for that high, but that's what i sale them for, and i'm almost always sold out. Then i'll buy more when i see wts all shards 50 each, or 25 each. Another tip, if u see WTB 50 yellows for 40 each, whisper them and say '50 yellows, 50 each--2500', most people will pay more than what they advertise.

Main thing, i always quote someone a price i'm comfortable with. At that point if they want to buy, i'm happy. I bought a recipe today and had 100 crowns and 6 CE. Then someone offered a recipe in tradechat for 6.5k that i needed. I asked them to give me 10 minutes, they said okay, and over the next 10 minutes i quickly raised 7k. I bought the item and then raised another 4k in another 10-15 minutes.

Perhaps one of the reason i'm successful is that i enjoy it. Also, i personally have much better luck selling low/common mats than the rare ones.

One last thing, if you haven't played around in the trade chat because it looks like no fun, give it a chance. Me and my friend both thought this, then had to sell some items to make money, and both realized we really enjoyed the wheeling and dealing of selling stuff. It can be a blast, and almost as fun as playing at times :)

Fri, 05/06/2011 - 18:28

Corinthian

Legacy Username

I'm an old hand at wheeling

I'm an old hand at wheeling and dealing in MMOs, and i'd like to do more of it, but this particular economy just seems so mat-heavy at the moment that selling mats in particular seems not worth the time to me. Hopefully things will change.

Sat, 05/07/2011 - 00:26

Raul

The mat market is dead, I'm

The mat market is dead, I'm FINALLY in T3 and I'm thinking about quitting.

As a material seller I can no longer make any profit, I have to continue to drop my prices WAY BELOW market value and for no profit, it also doesn't help the stupid noobs keep underselling everything.

There is very little demand for materials and it's not worth standing around all day spamming WTS *insert sales pitch here*

I had 5000ce and due to prices of things and no way to make money, I'm back down to 2300ce. Waste of money.

Sat, 05/07/2011 - 00:43

raycap

Legacy Username

Yes, there is a point

The point is, some money (crowns) is better than NO money. So yes, there is a point to selling materials.
But if it takes too long, then I can understand why it might be better to just carry on running missions down the dungeons or something else.

Sat, 05/07/2011 - 01:12

Shani

Legacy Username

I don't advertise mats under

I don't advertise mats under 4*s and I don't respond to any buyers unless they list a price at which they're buying at.

It's worked out for me. I have more than a full set of 5* gear and enough CE for around 40 more hours at my burn rate.

...Also, how on earth does selling under market value work? Market value is effectively defined by what people are willing to trade at. If everybody is under market value, then your perception of market value is skewed high.

Sat, 05/07/2011 - 01:12

#10

Pawn

If you don't like the price

Negotiate. I find on about 90% of my sells or buys, i can getter a better price by negotiating. Whether or not it's enough of a change to motivate an exchange is another case. But very few people are not willing to negotiate. Someone said, WTB chroma mask 6.5 WON'T PAY ANY HIGHER. I whispered, i have it but i can't go less than 7.5k. They didn't tell me to screw off, they paid the standard 7k for a 3star recipe :)

Sat, 05/07/2011 - 06:43

#11

Asanagi

I just hang around in

I just hang around in Moorcroft Manor and scam the noobs that come down the lift with exorbitant prices on iron gears, swordstones and blue shards. Or I make a useless 2* sword like the spur or flourish for them in exchange for all their crowns and materials. Mostly they walk away very satisfied and wanting to add me to their friends list (I always accept these for potential future 'marketing').

Its probably even easier to scam them if you get a friend to stand around in noob gear to do an act giving the impression that you are totally legit. So far I haven't seen a need to be that elaborate though, predating on noob gullibility is already plenty profitable as is.

Sat, 05/07/2011 - 07:48

#12

jooozek

Legacy Username

Scam the noobs eh? They

Scam the noobs eh? They aren't noobs, if anything they are newbies, the noob is you.

Sat, 05/07/2011 - 08:46

#13

1dinosaursqw

Legacy Username

Thats not very nice methanol

Its people like you that make others want to quit

Sat, 05/07/2011 - 14:27

#14

Wire

Legacy Username

more use for mats

What we need, in my opinion, is more uses for materials. That will take many off the market.

Sat, 05/07/2011 - 14:34

#15

Shani

Legacy Username

And not only more uses, but

And not only more uses, but more uses that are perishable. How about being able to turn mats into vitapods or pills at the waypoints?

Sat, 05/07/2011 - 17:38

#16

Pawn

@shani

Hey that's a good idea. It would be very useful to make vials out of items. Even if they had a restriction like u could only make t1 vials for t2, t2 vials for t3, i'd still be turning some of my items into vials. Way to think outside the box and come up with a great suggestion.

Sat, 05/07/2011 - 18:40

#17

Loest

You can sell mats. It seems

You can sell mats. It seems to be more an art of opportunism--finding people who are looking for something and being there to provide it--than one of setting up a shop (i.e. spamming the trade channel).

Anyway, I don't sell a whole lot, but I do sell a bit, and every sale is basically pure profit, since you accumulate mats basically for free (I mean, if you're not making enough crowns alone to keep buying CE to run dungeons, you're doing it wrong--mats are entirely superfluous in terms of the economics).

You don't really make money as fast selling mats as you do running dungeons--or I don't, anyway, but dungeons take energy and concentration, while mat selling takes neither. I often leave my game open in a background window and just watch what people are saying in local chat--snagging them when I see that they're looking for mats to craft something right away or whatnot.

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Is there any point in trying to sell mats?