I've been keeping an eye on the market/auction house for a while now. I've played another MMO where you could actually just hang around and play the market to make a few extra bucks and it was pretty fun. I was hoping to do it here, but I can't seem to find a good angle. The turn around and profit of the energy market is too small/slow to play it actively. Additionally, the auction house is really hit or miss. With the long duration of auctions (4 hours min), you can't just watch the prices and buy/sell your way around. By any chance, am I missing anything? I'd like to do something productive when I run out of energy. Thanks.
Is it worth playing the market?
Tue, 03/19/2013 - 18:14
Wed, 03/20/2013 - 02:46
#2
I don't think you missed anything
It can be worth playing the market but don't expect it to replace Vana runs overnight.
You could be looking at selling something days/weeks/months after initial purchase and to effectively maximise your chances of spotting profitable bargains in the AH and the trade chat, you need quite a lot of money (several hundred k is not easy to come by if f2p). Additionally, AH fees prevent you from selling things in the AH persistently unless you're sure it would sell. If you're using trade chat, you can spend hours advertising what you want to sell.
The upside is that the markup ceiling is very high (you could be looking at a profit margin of x00% if you're really patient and/or if you find "the epic bargain").
If you have money to burn, I'd say go for it. Otherwise, the most productive thing you might do is watch and stalk the AH to improve market awareness (bid on that Snarbolax Coat Shock High that's currently at 10k, there's no hope in hell you'd win but you'll see how much it will go for when you check your bids history).
Wed, 03/20/2013 - 16:02
#3
It's not about the money,
It's not about the money, it's about the game. Trading is mostly a waiting game here; it's not dynamic. Right now, I have a low bid for some CE and a high bid to sell it. My profit margin (after the transaction fee) is just over 2%, not much at all, but I'll be leaving these bids on the market for a day or two before they turn around.
To compare, there's another MMO I played for a while, Dead Frontier. The market was pretty fast paced. You could just hang out there buying and selling all day, and it would keep you busy. This was largely due to there being no auctions. People would post for what they would sell for, new sellers would undercut, etc. You had to keep an eye on multiple items in the market in real time so you would know when to buy low and sell high.
I don't know of any way to actively play the market in game. The only thing that comes to mind is working the CE market, but shoot for a miniscule profit margin (maybe 5-10 crowns per trade). However, considering that the bids hover between 7-7.5k (a good chunk of change), you're not going to be able to run too many trades at a time unless you're already loaded (100k+).
Wed, 03/20/2013 - 16:17
#4
...
wait until promo/events comes most likely. Some high demanded UVs also have potentials.
Wed, 03/20/2013 - 19:19
#5
i don't really care about the
i don't really care about the money, I just want to actively buy and sell, even if the crowns are just trickling in. I'm working the CE market a little, but it's not keeping me too busy.
Wed, 03/20/2013 - 21:11
#6
The Market
In Spiral Knights the market is more in the items than the CE. CE goes up or down at the speed of a glacier with the exception of events such as market turmoil or OOO promotions. If you really want to make CE or CR fast, play the item market, but be ready for a rough ride.
Thu, 03/21/2013 - 00:17
#7
One word...
"MONOPOLY"...of rare item...and you'll get like hell lot of cr...see people selling cheaper than yours...don't hasitate, buy it and then sell back...but I think you know it already...
Thu, 03/21/2013 - 04:55
#8
@Kneller
2%??
Playing with the ce market??
That's actually a lot more than I expected :O
Thu, 03/21/2013 - 09:11
#9
2% might have been a bit of
2% might have been a bit of an overestimate or high end assessment. More accurately, it's probably between 1-2% a trade, and it's slow going at that. Depending on how many trades I have going, I -might- make a dozen trades in an hour. Usually, I just set it and forget it and wait for notifications. In fact, it's actually less profitable to actively play the market. The margins are so slim at any given time, you're better off keeping low CE/high crown bids running in the background and let time sort it out for you. But, at that point, you're better off doing JK or Vana runs (which have much better/faster returns). At least then, you're doing something, instead of sitting around and doing nothing.
The problem with the item market is that it's bid oriented, so you have to wait for the auctions to end before anything happens. There you're looking at 4+ hours for any kind of turnaround. It's just another waiting game to me. I mean, sure you have the Buy it Now auctions, but I just don't see a lot of movement there.
I would love it if the market worked like the CE market. Just post a price and let the market do its thing. Nevermind bidding and waiting for auctions to come up.
Thu, 03/21/2013 - 11:56
#10
I usually play with market in promos
I usually do like 30-40k ce in promos (only market). But first.. you need to knowing the market and have a good amount of CE / CR
Thu, 03/21/2013 - 15:59
#11
2% a day is good enough for me :3
Thu, 03/21/2013 - 18:04
#12
@ Nexassasin
Not really, if
@ Nexassasin
Not really, if you think about it. It works out that I make only about 50-75c a trade most of the time, but my net worth currently is barely 15k, so I can only have two trades going at the most. If it takes about 10 minutes for a trade to cycle (which is a good day), then I'm only making 450c an hour at best. Even if I had the bankroll to have 10 trades going, I wouldn't actually make crowns 5x as fast, unless 5x as many people were active on the market. That last bit is a huge contributing factor in the time for a turnaround. But that creates another problem. The more people that are active on the market, the smaller your margins (more competition), so it evens out.
But, the bottom line is that there's about a 10 minute turn around. I might be able to cycle around within about two to three minutes, but I'd have to shrink my margins by a factor of 10 (and really undercut both ends of the market), and that would be really inefficient. There are better ways to make money, and actively working the market would actually be a waste of time.
Thu, 03/21/2013 - 19:27
#13
I may have found the solution to your problems.
Fri, 03/22/2013 - 20:26
#14
Yeah, I'm not really into
Yeah, I'm not really into that 4x rts thing. I prefer playing just a single character with some gear and some action. I would have stuck with Dead Frontier (great market), but the character mechanics were too linear and grindy. I like the gameplay and everything else with this game, I would just like more by way of market features (and maybe more guild features, but that's another conversation).
Fri, 03/22/2013 - 21:31
#15
If you're going to be playing for a while, taking advantage of limited edition items can earn you a forturne. Item values can quadruple over the period of a year, and you can earn a decent profit from recurring, predictable promotions too.
Sat, 03/23/2013 - 06:29
#16
@kneller
TEACH ME
how to CE market
Once you figure the price of items, especially UVd items, Accessories, Furniture and Costumes, you can make money off the auction house. But frequently you need money to make money, and business is a little slow due to the small number of people who player Spiral Knights compared to other games with Auction Houses.