Explaining Merching

[Alphung]

Hello everyone,

This is kind of a reply to another post titled "Let's talk about Merching" and they asked questions like why do they low ball so much? why do they offer such low prices?

I saw a lot of comments and replies to the thread with people that said put them on ignore list, waste their time, and even report them ...

I'm going to be explaining what merching is, why people offer low prices to merch, and why you SHOULD NOT put them in your ignore list.



First of all, for those who don't know:
Merching is when a player purchases an item for a cheaper price than the value of the item and sells it at the valued price point for a marginal profit.

Now for Merchants to make gold, they need to purchase for at least 15-20% less than what it's worth, and sell the item for 5% less than the valued price.
These percentages vary on many factors such as: rarity of item, demand, future value.

TO THE GOOD PART
--------------------------------------

Why do merchants offer low prices?

In order for merchants to sell their items, they need to list them in the auction. They can of course spam chat, but the chances are slim. Not to mention if it was possible, the person with the item originally would just sell it at original value in towns.

SOOOOO merching happens when a player can't sell an item and just wants to get some gold to get a decent portion of it's value to get rid of it.


Now that we know merchants HAVE to auction, we should know the auction takes away 5% of the value you list it for. Example: if you list a 100m item, 5m will be taken by auction.

In that example, if the player wants to merch an item worth 100m, they HAVE to buy that item for 5% less for auction fees and 5% less to beat competition prices.

Meaning right off the back they HAVE to offer 10% less than the value. Now for them to make gold and make it worth their while to check forums, list on forums, check auction daily, list on auction whatever they would like a 5% - 10% profit.

Meaning if they want to merch an item, they have to offer 15-20% ATLEAST less than the original value.

Now some item are really hard to sell. Meaning the merchant has to:

List in auction
Advertise in town
List on forums

and check all 3 listed above daily ^^^

That's effort people who sell to merchants don't want to go through. That's why merchants exist.

SO
--------------------------------
If you want to sell to a merchant, make sure they offer 15-20% of what your item is worth. MINIMUM


NOW why do some merchants offer 10-15m for a 30m item? Shouldn't they offer 24m instead according to the percentage ratio? NO

some items like artifacts, speed sets, gl items, luck items, PVP items are VERY UNPREDICTABLE. Meaning the merchant either will not be able to sell them SOON or it will take a very LONG TIME. So ... when Merchant offers a very low price under the 50% value of the item. it means there is no demand on that item OR it is hard to sell.



CONCLUSION

Everything I said only applies for authentic merchants. If you know for a fact that your item is high in demand the merchant is in fact low balling you to make a fat profit, ignore them (not with buttons, with your mind)

I still don't suggest ignoring low balling merchants because they might sell an item that YOU are looking for less than the auction price. The 5-10% price competition/auction fee that they will decrease to sell in town YOU can take advantage of that.

I hope this helps clarify what authentic merchants do and what to do with real fake low ball merchants (just wait for them to look to sell items and take advantage by offering 5-10% less)


Last words I want to say. Most people say they get their wealth from merching and they have 1-3 B worth of items ARE 99% fake. They're usually scammers, wearing their friends gear/vanity, they're plat users, hoarders/investors. As a merchant running a merching guild & friends with many authentic merchant I can ASSURE YOU we don't make that much. AT MOST a merchant makes 10-20m per week. Which is nowhere near as much needed to buy 1-3b worth items.

I hope you all have a good day!