Bosstinytitan's Merching Guide!
**WORK IN PROGRESS**
Hey guys! Been a while since I made my own post on here, usually just browse the threads. I have decided that since I have some spare time, imma make a guide for some tips and exact numbers I have used for merching. Btw shoutout to Jagzilla from long long ago for leveling bosstinytitan from like lvl 65-75, I LOVE YOU! <333333
General Tips! (Pretty much everything that I've screwed up with)
1) Do NOT buy something "cheap" just because it's low priced in cs (Obvious but quite important, has screwed me over multiple times)
2) Do NOT buy something that is going to be a pain in the butt to sell! This was my BIGGEST MISTAKE, and I'd made it over and over again over the years.
2... Let me further explain. Lets say I have 500k, and its the most I've ever gotten. I find a guy selling a L45 mega staff set for 500k(Lets pretend its worth 650+, but hardly any demand for it). I'm like "Ooh boy, what a good deal! Let's buy it!" If you buy it, and there is hardly any demand, you are going to be stuck with it for a while. This is going to be one of the worst roadblocks, and can deter you from you merching experience.
3) Make sure you know how to "Cut your losses."
This is quite a difficult one for me, but it is the most important for merching. Lets put it in terms of hypothetical modern events. Last week I bought a L80 elite Talon from some guy in shadow for 2m, super cheap! I sold it less than a day later for 3.2, what a profit! I end up buying another one for 2.5, and before I know it, cs has dropped down to 2.7! I decide I want to wait a bit for cs to rise again, and in the meantime I just play a different game for a while, since I'm only left with 400k gold to spare. Some guy offers me 2.4 for the talon the next day, and i say no, because I don't want to lose money! This is a common mistake I've always been prone to doing. Cs eventually drops to 2.3 cs, and now I'm left with a frown and a dent in my pocket. Sometimes it's important to make the sacrifice and lose a bit of gold on a purchase! That gold you make will be more important, and you will easily make back your loss with it!
**NEW TIPS** (As suggested by Fossilize!)
4) When you are starting out as a merch, it is very natural to strive to get the maximum you can get for an item, but that's not always the right thing to do! If you spend all your 20k gold on an item that can get up to 60k, don't spend much time trying to get that! If you get offered less than the maximum, and you don't have much other stuff to merch in the meantime, take it! Once you start having more gold, you can afford to let something sit for a while, as you still have more to merch!
5) Similar to what was suggested before, if you see something out of whack in cs, such as something priced super high, and the same one for far far lower also in CS, stay away! Often these are done to manipulate you into thinking the lower one is an amazing deal. Try finding out more about the item first!
For starters! Lets say you are starting from scratch here. Just farm and get (25-100k needed, but you can keep doing forever!)
What I did as I started out was crystalline! This was one of my favorite items/sets to merch, and I did even until I got to 2m+. (Keep in mind I have no idea what current prices are)
First Step!
Feel free to ask around! Never any harm in doing so, and it will help sooooooo much! It will help you make new friends too! Just ask some people what the current prices are on each crystalline/onyx/earthquake set is. People who know such things usually tell you politely and it will help you in your merching career!
Step Two!
Start buying! For crystalline, there is a lot of supply, as well as demand. Let me break it down. It is quite an easy drop for farmers, as well as people who loot while on there way to a new level. This makes a decent supply. On the other hand, there are quite a few people who would love to have the set, but don't have the means(plat), patience, or they just don't need to waste their time if they have enough gold. This is your target audience!
Step Three!
Now comes the profit! It can come in many ways, and there a couple of different strategies.
1) Sell in cs. If you know your prices and what people generally buy for, this may be the way for you!
2) Try to advertise in balefort. That's what I spent my days doing, and it's probably not the most efficient, but it works for a lot of people.
3) Join a pvp game and see what's up! I made quite a few sales with people in pvp arenas who were missing parts of a set, or the entire set, and were willing to pay a decent enough price for the items.
Now that you've got the basics, this whole process is going to seem repetitive, boring, or maybe just not making u the rich person you wanted to be. You will now start advancing in the merching career!
(300k-3m in gold)
This is the most crucial part of your merching stage! This is where you are starting to learn how to manage your gold, but still aren't ready for high-end sets that the "pro merches" in bale fort advertise.
To Start!
1) Learn your prices, learn your prices, learn your prices! If you can start figuring out how much sets and set pieces pieces cost to buy/sell/resell, you can explore a whole new world of PL gold moneymaking! This is really the part of PL that started entertaining me, as it can be really fun to do!
2) Scout cs, but don't rely on it. I made so much gold off selling things to merches as discounted off cs. This is because the consignment store is completely controlled by players, and if YOU know the real price, you can get a good value for something that may be high in cs!
3) Start to buy sets rather than pieces! This is important as very very often, pieces are much harder to sell, and you are starting to get enough gold that you can afford to merch them!
List of some items I used to merch from 0.1-3m! I've underlined ones where I feel the best profit lies
Crystalline! (<3)
Bone Mantles/Helms (Not sure on current demand)
L30 Swamp Stuff with Wizzy! (<3)
L50 Hate/Death/Shadow pieces-sets if in your budget
L51-55 Raid Roach/Sewer King/Mega Mage (When I was L50-55, I was OBSESSED with sewer king bows lol, back when nobody knew me [2012ish])
L55 Enchanted/Fortified
[U]L56-60 Glyph[/U] is rly fun to merch
L60 Demonic Pieces (This is what got me from 900k--->2m+)
L61 Vampyr/Sang Set
L65 Crafted Sets
L66-70 EVERYTHING! I owe my entire PL success to buying random hula and islander crap from ppl and selling them to this one merch dude who bought like everything I had. It was the first time I made like 1m gold in a day!
L71 Flying/Sharp/Beastly
L75 Swift/Savage/Fiery
Gem Regalia/Alien Mirage/Coin Shields
Charred Antlers/Bulb Racks(<3)
Now you can be proud to call yourself a merch! But it doesn't end here, and if you wanna hook yourself up with the latest pvp jazz, or just pump yourself up with vanities (BULB RACKS 4 LYFE!), excess gold can be a very good thing to have. Lets continue on our journey!
Experienced! 3m-10m with knowledge on current prices
Now is the time where you start seeing your gold multiplying faster then rabbits doing arithmetic! (thought would be funny, then cringed after reading it again)
This is the time when you have to set your priorities straight and not get caught up in having waaaaaaay too many items! At one point in time, I spent 3 hours making a back to back list on a sheet of white paper of every pink I had, along with its value, and calculated my total net worth. This is when I realized that its SUPER SUPER important to
1) Keep track of what you have, and don't buy too much at a time!
2) Always keep some gold handy in case you find a good opportunity! (i.e. Farmer with no idea selling a red armor for 1m, but you only have 700k :(...not cool, this kinda thing happened to me so many times)
3) If you find yourself stuck with an item, sell it off super cheap. May be counterintuitive, but here's what I think. Let's say you have 1m. You bought a Sea Devil Staff for 900k, but you tried for 2 weeks and can't sell it. You will be better off selling it for 700k or something, and using that 800k you have left to make it back up. It is more efficient in the long run.
More strategies!
1) Save up some plat, 45 to be exact, and make a L4 premium character! This character will have many slots in which you can post many items in cs, a HUGE bonus!
2) When you have duplicates of an item, post one for op in cs with your alternate character, and advertise the other with your main toon. This will cause the item to appear to have a higher value then it really is (kinda mean, but sometime's completely changes the item's price for a while) I once sold a L75 winter fest ornament for 2m, and the next day someone posted one for 10k the next day in cs. Feel so bad for that guy lol.
3) Farm! Tbh farming actually sucks for people without patience/plat/luck (---------->ME!)* but.....I guess it works for some people. And make sure you know the value of the item you farmed! Very important so as to not lose potential gold.
*Fun Fact: Bosstinytitan has never farmed any pink that he has not liquidated or given away. Yep its true, best farm I ever had was a hate armor worth 100k at the time which I gave to a friend. Never farmed ANYTHING else. Sts can go suck a lemon if they think its fair for everyone : P
Specifics on the Current Market! This is going to be very hard for me, but I think it will be incredibly helpful.
IMMA UPDATE THIS AGAIN!
**Prices are going to be rising on everything! Also, cs prices are going to be whack, so you might be able to snipe a good item once in a while.
L80 Arzac Talon Set - 25-28m as a set
L80 Magor Wand Set - 25-27m
L80 Warat Sword Set - A bit less than the other two
L75 Fiery Wand Set - 500-700k
L75 Swift Talon Set - 1-1.2 I'd say
L75 Savage Set - Up to 1.5?
L71 Flying - Quite hard to find nowadays, but some people willing to pay at a decent price
L70 Crusher - I think you can sell for around 2.5m, quite a nice set
L61 Sang - Sang sells 2+ quite easily to pvpers.
L61 Orlok - Can sell 3.5+ I'm sure
L61 Lilith - If someone wants it, you can get 4m+ from this one.
Welp I had good notes on prices of these demo sets, but idk what happened, PL's demo prices just went through puberty
L60 Demo Mace Set - 12+
L60 Demo Wand Set - 9+
L60 Demo Xbow Set - No clue, need a pc
Starries! I recommend selling em off for now lol, at least until price stabilizes
Be careful on these! Things changing fast af!
Yellow - Buying for anything less than 8m will get ya some nice profit.
Pink - Not too many in circulation rn. Looks pretty sexy though, so if you can get one for less than 14m, its a good deal.
Blue - Buying 16m or less will give you some profit, and some people willing to go pretty high on it.
Never was very knowledgeable about prices of very low lvl items, but hope this helps! Will try to update if I see a dramatic change.
<3
Bosstinytitan
