Flyff the MoTo method to Wealth
Fly for Fun the MoTo method to Wealth by _razied
Ok 3 guys just had a heart attack lol. don’t worry i am not posting the entire method, just the parts that can help everyone without causing harm to the server. for those who aren’t one of four that know the method, It was created by a few MoTos to guide us on our way to personal weath. Some parts are just to dangerous ( if not bannable) to devulge to the general public. But most of it is a very good guide on how to increase your wealth and cultivate a healthy market. Its a very long post to say the least and i will have to post in segements.
Urban myths, where i try to explain how some common truths are so wrong.
Price:
It’s the intersection of supply and demand. thats all. no one can ever control prices, you can influnce supply and demand ( more on that later) but prices are controlled by the consumer and what he/she will pay for something. Prices should always be moving up and down as this is a good sign that the markets healthy. When prices are stagnate the over all market will suffer. Something is worth no more and no less than what someone will pay for it.
Inflation/Inflators:
Inflation is the build up of penya on the open market. The more of something there is the less its worth, same is true of penya. All of the penya on the server is equal to all the items on the server. Unless someone dumps billions on the market there is no such beast as an inflator. But so and so marks his prices way up! Really, wow , then don’t buy his stuff. Simple enough.
Either he has misjudged the market or he believes that current prices are way too low, doesn’t matter the higher he sets his prices the less action (sales ) he will recieve and the more supply he will pull into the market. If he were to say sale suns at 4m each then before long he would probaly have a shop beside him selling suns cheaper. If he has the only supply of something and has priced it very high, then others will be tempted to secure that item and get it to the market,thus increasing supply.
The market will correct its self, no one can keep it up or down for long. And if you say “but i had to buy from him” then my friend it was worth it to you wasn’t it? Other wise why did you buy it? Those who you would call inflators insure a constant supply of goods on the market. But they do not and never have affect the overall price of something, that my friend is the consumer. If you aren’t buying the price will drop, and if you are buying the price will climb.
Gala doesn’t care about the economy!
WRONG oh so wrong. Gala takes an active role in the economy and an active instrest in those who do alot of trading. Once you start to gain influnce over the market they will be watching you closely! Expect it, keep your nose clean, and avoid any and all rule breaking!!
They will not tolerate anyone ruining the overall gaming experence of everyone just because you got greedy. On the same note avoid any and all dealings with penya spammers don’t buy or sell to them ever! if your account become assocatied with the penya spammers your finished! Gala will show no mercy and they don’t care who you are, it is simply not tolerated.
*Note*I have more for this section but i will add it later lets get into the hows and whys.*Note*
Getting started:
Your going to want to set up alt accounts to handle your trading Its a huge help in keeping money seperate and gives you the ability to trade anonymously and later on you may want to set up accounts to make it easier to locate items that are ware housed. I have an account named something like weapons70( not a real account ) and i would ware house weapons 70+ in this account so i can find them easier.remember to keep a written record of your accounts or you may forget them. Also if you keep the bulk of your wealth on an unknown account it will save your butt should you get hacked.
Next start a daily ritual of keeping track of the market. you do this by visiting all the shops and recording prices and availability. Its hard work so most will give up here and go back to enjoying other parts of the game lol. But this is where you earn your money.
Example:
Suns:
99@1.2m
34@1.6m
99@1.1m
And so on
Suns 7/09: avg high low
1.3 1.6 1.1
The first line is what i recorded as i went shop to shop the second line is the over all results for that day. I tend to disreguard the highest price and lowest ( if not buy them up^^) but in time you will get a feel for what might taint your research. Its not easy to track the market and your findings are only good for a day or two but you must stay on top of the price trends. It is much easier to find a nitch that you want to trade in and follow those prices daily while tracking other items weekly.
All ways follow the more commonly traded goods ( sun,moons a/g/s/ pros ect) as these will show market trends quickly and could be a good indicator of a major swing. Now your journal will also provide a means to go back and notice trends that may otherwise go unnoticed. also keep your journal handy while grinding so you can watch the shouts and make notes. your daily market research will also tip you off to what may be going up/down in price. if prices are low and you notice supply is also low, odds are prices are going to climb soon.
By the same measure if prices are high and supply is high look for the bottom to drop out soon. This is your key to staying ahead of the curb. Once you have done this for a time you,like me, will be unwilling to give your hard earned work away for free. Let those who are too lazy to research pay thru the nose for items, why should you do their work for them?
Ok you’ve done your homework and now its time to buy?
NO!
Now its time to get your penya right.
As in your Money VS your Bankroll:
Set aside the money you intend to use for trading and never touch it! What i do is to keep it on another account. This is not for buying things you want its for making you penya thats it. If you simply must have something consider loaning yourself the money from your bank and paying it back with instrest. But all in all its best to be hands off with this penya. Now as you make profits from your trading pay yourself a % of the profits like half for me and half for my bankroll. This will grow your bankroll and gives you greater flexabilty in what you can and can’t do market wise.
OK my research is done and my money is right, can i buy now?
Sure and heres how you do it.
Starting out you will primarly sell drops from grinding and put that penya in your bankroll. When you feel you have enough penya to buy up stock then by all means go shopping. Different players look for different deals some buy low and sell high while others may buy high and sell even higher. Your best profits are in the margin, and to know the margin you have to consult your journal. If you can buy suns for say 1.1m and sale for 1.4 your well within the current margin so your goods should move pretty fast.
If you buy at 1.1m and sell at 2m it could take a while to sell your suns. Never worry about losing penya because you didn’t charge enough if you made a profit then you did well and remember to track your purchases and sales so you know how much you have tied up in any one item. Now it will happen that you paid too much for something or the market took a hard swing and you are now stuck holding stock you can’t sell for a profit.
What now? Pretty simple if you have a healthy bankroll and believe prices will rebound then warehouse your goods, If you have alot (most) of your bankroll invested well your going to have to eat the loss. Be a man about it, don’t come crying to me saying i lost penya, it happens to all of us. It is by far better to take a loss and keep trucking than to sit on your now overpriced stock and wait for the market to catch up.
Now your going to ofc check the shops for deals but there are other ways to find stock, such as shouting. I don’t recommend this method as i feel its kinda lazy but it does work. One of my personal favorites is to get a good full int rm and goes in the field. Remember people are grinding so try not to get in the way. Fly in and strike up a conversation.If they don’t reply then move on as you must be bothering them or they don’t care to talk. But if they do have time to chat offer to buff them while your chatting (ask what buffs they want some will get upset if you buff them wrong) and find out how there doing drop wise.
If they have something you might want make an offer, sometimes they take it sometimes they pass, but its all good. Once they get to know you they may offer their goods to you first especialy if you offer a fair price. Also carry posters (rm and bp) arrows and refreshers just in case someone needs them and doesn’t want to stop and go back to town. Now i know your thinking i could mark them up, but no your going to want to sell them at cost. This will make your presence acceptable and earn you a good rep with the grinders. Also while your out there take note of who is leveling and where, this is a good reference for later on.
Someone say wants a jessis set, you know what grinders to pm and let know that your buying jessis pieces. While this little trick works good on higher level players to low level payers your a god send. most are solo and a good buffing does wonders for them. Plus these are the up and coming players, thus as they level because of your good relationship, they will tend to come to you first and even pay a little more as they remember that you took time to help them out. I can not stress enough the value of having a good rep with the newbies. I have on occasion even went as far as to tank for these guys and come scare away the pkers.
Yeah it takes time away from other stuff but the rewards are huge. We will cover how to gaurd your rep later but your relationships among lower level players is worth more than a stack of red scrolls. TIP aoers tend to get more drops but for some reason 1v1ers tend to get better drops make sure you cover all the bases. After your better known in the field some players will flag you down to sell their drops or pm you to come get stuff. Its not at all uncommon for grinders to want you to take all their drops as some don’t care to open a shop at all.
But you got to get out there and meet the guys, shake a few hands, buff a few newbs, run a few errands, in short be a friend. Do not ever take advantage of the new guys i promise you they will remember. instead treat them fairly and with respect and they will do the same with you. All in all be creative in your buying look for deals in places other may not think too.
Setting up shop:
First and foremost is location! You need to be where people are looking to buy and easy to find. In darkon there is a gaggle of shops all squeezed together it makes it tough to go thru and not miss a shop or two. Instaed of gettting in the mix look towards the fringe. Your still near the action but not as crowded. Blink point and arena entrance are always good spots as the bank is just way to crowded. After you find “your spot” you are going to want to stay there so your soon to be regulars can find you.
Keep your chat window open so you can take orders and always try to respond to “are you there” comments even if it means after you come back from being afk. Most of these will be guys wanting discounts and such but some will be request and orders for stuff they couldn’t find on the floor.Always be polite and respectful as you are a buisness person, a professional, a merchant. people will say some very rude things and you must rise above it.
When you stock your store always try to include the commonly traded goods suns ,moons, ect.. Even if you have to resale for the same price you paid. This will keep people checking your shop daily. You might not turn a profit from resaling suns for what you paid for them but the foot traffic will lead to other sales. Also a trick i like to use is putting eyecandy in your shop. This will be something not often seen on the trading floor and generaly your going to over price this item to discourage people from buying it.
Now be careful or your eyecandy will get bought up as what happend to my G bow +10. i put it in shop to attract customers priced it at 750m(almost twice what i thought it worth) and guess what. yep someone bought it. Nothing sadder than a BJ without a bow lol. See i made the mistake of putting something in my shop that i did not research first. So when i went shopping for a replacement i found 2 bows (+8 and +7) for 500m and 650m. And thought dang it mine looked like a bargin. Lesson learned! So when your considering putting eyecandy in your shop be sure you know the current trading vaule of said item and be willing to sale it for what you priced it at.
The rest of your stock should be priced within the margins (consult your journal) Smaller profits mean faster sales larger profits mean fewer sales. Getting the goods people want to them at a fair price is every merchants goal. people will debate what is a “fair” price till the end of time, you my friend have research to back you up, use it! if you can try to rotate your stock several times a day taking stuff out of the shop to put other stuff in, or at least move stuff around.
This keeps the shop fresh and when people return to check your shop they will stop and look rather than just closing it out thinking i’ve already been here. Change your sign too advertise different items instead of the same ole same ole. another little trick i used back in the day was to take something that had went stale ( wasn’t moving) and put it on my sign as being auctioned. Throw in a few shouts saying leave your bid at the shop and instant foot traffic. I always honered the highest bid and while i may have took a loss on that one item i at least got people coming to my shop and looking. Be creative, people like it when your a little different than everyone else.
Exies Shop Guide
This is the first post in a series about perfecting the methods of reselling, acquiring penya and top-notch items, and always getting what you need and when you need it. The series is humbly named, “Exie’s Ultimate Guide”.
Familiarity
One component of a profitable store is to allow your customers to become familiar with you. You should always have the same character, wearing the same outfit, in the same location. This way, once your customers become used to your store, and your good deals, they will always know where to look. This is a good way to keep customers coming back time and time again.
Uniqueness
One issue with being ‘familiar’ is that you may become background – a shop who always has the same boring items, the same boring shop title, and etc. You eventually just fade into the constant flow of shops and become ignored. This should be combated with uniqueness. For instance, ask a simple question as your shop title. Put up a witty quote. Make a comment about your strange CS outfit. Anything along those lines can keep people interested, and may even attract people to your shop just because they want to leave a comment.
Loyalty
Eventually, your customers will become loyal to you. Even if every shop in Darkon has the same items, and every shop has them for the same price, customers will buy from you out of habit, a sense of friendship, and general loyalty. On the reverse, you must be loyal to your customers and have fair prices, always have the items they expect you to have, and never attempt to “pull a fast one” or scam someone.
Anonymity
It is very important to keep a shop character that is different from all of your other characters. Make sure none of your friends know who this character is, and better yet: no one. To do this, don’t talk about items you’re selling, don’t have your shop character in a guild associated with you or your other mules, and don’t mention any characters when talking to customers. If players know who you are, they may not buy from you due to pvp/arena drama, loyalty to a guild that you have a rivalry with, or any number of things. Or, if they’re on your good side, they may hold off from buying things until they can beg you for a “friend’s discount”.
Approachability
Your shop title should never be negative, or use mean or angry faces as ascii art. You should never have a depressing or desperate title either. An example of a bad shop name would be, “I’m poor” “You suck” or “Please buy”. Players tend to get angry when someone seeks pity, and also tend to be high strung and may feel resentful towards your shop if they’re already in a bad mood. I know, it seems like a small and insignificant point, but trust me that it does make a difference.
Perpetual Inventory
Perpetual inventory is one of the major factors that needs to be understood for having a successful shop. Perpetual inventory means that you always have select items in stock. A good selection of perpetual inventory may include: sunstones, moonstones, protect scrolls, clockworks jewelry, and 4% lightning cards. Of course you can mix up and choose your own perpetual inventory, but it is very important to have the items in your shop at all times and at market value.
If for some reason, you can’t get one of your perpetual items (for instance, you forgot to leave your guild, and can’t farm a clockworks today), you still need them in your shop. The solution here is simply to go around town, find someone selling the items you need at or below the prices you normally set, and buy them. Even if you do not make profit off of the item itself, you will make profit by the customers you attract with that item. This is a very important part of your shop, and normally half of your shop should be perpetual inventory.
Modularity
On the reverse side of perpetual inventory, you have modularity. These would be “seasonal” or “one time only” items that you have in your shop, and change around daily. Modular items would be something such as an LG weapon, interestingly awakened shield, armor set, or even a CS pet. Any item that you do not normally carry is modular.
There are rules for modular items. First and foremost, you must cycle through them. Never have a single modular item in your shop for more than a single day. If an item is in your shop for a long period of time, it will look stale, may arouse suspicion about its price, and generally give your repeat shoppers a negative or questioning feeling about your shop – this is bad. If the item does not sell, put it back into your inventory and wait a while before attempting to sell it again.
The second rule for modular items is, do not sell suckish thing. If you have some Cotton Boots awakened for 400 MP, get real with yourself – no one wants that. Maybe if it was Billst or Wedge, but not cotton. If you really need to place an extra item in your shop, and that’s all you have, price it exceedingly cheap. This will accomplish a few things; either a reseller will snatch it up and thus become a repeat customer (because they think they can ‘prey’ on you), or customers will come back to you (because they know you have good deals on basically everything).
And the final rule for modular items is, be consistent. If you have a weapon in your shop for sale at 35mil and it doesn’t sell, and you put it back in your shop for 50 mil next week, you may have a problem. If a repeat customers recognizes it and remembers the price, they may feel that you’re trying to cheat them. Make sure to keep an item’s price within ~5mil of its previous price.
Customer Service
Finally, make the people love you even more, by using customer service. If someone leaves a comment about an item in your shop, you should try to start a conversation with them as soon as possible, or mail them all the details they could possibly want about that item. This will make them know that you respect them, and are interested in selling the item to them.
Similarly, pay attention to when items sell. If you are watching your screen and, for example, see a Red Scroll sell, you should click over to the Information tab and find out who bought it. Send them a PM saying something like, “Have fun grinding!”. Or if they buy an upgrading item, say, “Good luck!” or any other positive message. If you’re not paying attention or are afk, make a list of names, and mail them similar comments (such as “Hope the scroll helped you level” or “I hope you got those upgrades you needed!”
Closing
With these great tips, you can finally perfect the final part of reselling: the sales floor. Make sure you maintain your inventory, customers, and reputation to ensure that you’re always in business!
Tricks scams and other assorted lies:
Things you need to watch out for.
The buy mine at a high price and i’ll buy it back for even more;)
While researching i saw a billst set that was priced on the higher side and as i moved to the other end of the floor i saw a sign offering to pay almost twice the going rate for the same set i had just seen. So i pmed them and said i have a set for you. the reply was give me just a few minutes and i’ll be right there. So i waited and waited, then i pmed them again and no reply.
Hmm thought maybe he had saw the other set so i returned to see if it was still there. It was and as soon as i entered the other shop i got pmed back saying he was ready to buy. So i said great be at your shop in a minute and went back ( i didn’t buy the set) when i get there no answer again to my pms. whats going on? simple he owned both shops and wanted me to buy his set to try to resale it back to him. LOL old trick.
People also do this with full shouts so be wary of the so called quick buck. Stay true to your research if its not an item you would buy at that price then pass. Never try to dupe someone into buying your stock, the repurcussion are dire.
My inventory is full srry give me a min:
A common “BR” trick. it goes like this. Someone offers you something at a great price like a demol 15 for 200m when you meet to trade you check the trade window and sure enough its a demol 15 you click ok so does he then final confirmation you click it and then it looks like he did too but it says trade canceled?
He says i have to make room in my inventory. then offers to trade again you put your money in and this time it goes thru. yeah you have just paid 200m for a reg demol my friend. the old bait and switch. you didn’t check it the second time if you had you would have noticed the switch and you never stopped to think penya doesn’t take up inventory space. Lesson learned always check the details every time and click finale last. Also if you feel things might be a little shady screen shot it including the conversation. And never have dealings with people you know to be shady.
The your so cheap i’m buying you out:
Goes like this you set up a shop and soon there after someone buys all your suns. You did your research and the price was fair, so you restock. Bam same guy hits you again, takes your entire stock, your like what the heck. grab your journal and check you numbers. it looks right so you restock again this time you raise prices thinking a demand spike is coming and this guy has some inside 411. The rest of the day you sale no suns at all and when you research the market you find that your over priced.
What happend? simple the guy that was wiping you out wanted to sale suns higher than you had them priced so he hit your shop till you raised prices and then set up a shop nearby offering your suns for less then you are now saleing them. another old trick he is now pushing the price of suns up while making it look like your the one pushing the market. where you went astray was you were getting your marginal mark up but he made you think you were missing the boat. (i.e. you got greedy just like he wanted you too)
NEVER worry about penya lost if your making your profits. you could of let him buy all your suns at the price you wanted and preserved your rep at the same time. But no greed stepped in and now people aren’t going to trust your prices meaning that if you have suns at 1.5m before they buy they will check the other shops first and unless your rock bottom price wise then they will end up buying elsewhere instead of going all the way back to you.
YOUR BEST PROFITS ARE ALWAYS WITHIN THE MARGINS!!!! learn it and live it. And should you happen to be the cheapest in town thats great! as long as your profits are there your making money. Never be the most expensive (unless its something you don’t want to sale)
*Note*More tricks later*Note*
Running with the big dogs or staying on the porch:
Warning: gala is watching and abuse of the next section could have dire repurcussions!
Ok you’ve got the basics down and you got some penya to work with now its time to understand how to influnce the overall market. The two basic methods are pushing and pulling. its pretty simple and should used with an understanding of the market.
PUSHING:
This method is used to move prices upward. It’s is risky and shouldn’t be done by the novice.
Its pretty simple you have to dump lots of penya on the market, thus devaluing penya and causing prices to climb. Mostly this will be done with just a small segament of the market, such as suns and moons. You would want to buy up all you can reguardless of price, in effect creating a suppy shortage and causing demand to rise. Remember the market will correct itself so your push time is limited by your penya supply.
Also at some point if you continue to push a market GMs may suddenly appear selling tons of what ever your pushing causing you to have to buy up even more. This method (when abused )is the quickest way to attract GM attention. In its extreme form it hurts the overall market by causing distress among the players and making it harder to get the materials they need. In its helpful from its a good tool to encourage more people to grind and increase overall supply. Lets say that the supply of suns is limited and the price is low.
This does not follow the supply and demand rules and prices should climb but for some reason they aren’t. You would want to buy up suns and wait for prices to climb thus encouraging grinders to bring their suns to market and merchants to break open their ware houses and get the goods moving again. Beware as your buying them up people may dump alot of suns on the market and make your task much harder. This is by far the best way to lose alot of penya quickly. Kinda like anything else a little is good and alot is bad so use it only when you feel the market has gone stagnant and needs a little push^^.
PULLING:
This method is used to pull prices down, and yeah its risky.
Now if you think pushing is bad pulling is pure evil. Works like this you extract all the penya you can from the market causing the prices to plumment. To do this you must first have warehouses full and be willing to sale them for a loss. you start by selling your stock at normal prices but you cease all buying. At first it has little effect but as you continue to to “pull” penya the available amount starts to get smaller and smaller and prices fall as the vaule of penya increases. now like pushing, pulling must be used responsibly.
If you pull too much then the market will collapse as no one will have enough penya to conduct transactions and no one will want to sale their goods because prices are just way too low. Its almost imposible to pull the market alone as those who do have large penya reserves will surly start buying stock as the prices start to fall. But from time to time these “big dogs” will pull penya from the market to help keep inflation in check and increase their overall wealth. But just like pushing, pulling will attract GM attention, just not as fast.
The attention however will be intense (hi nero1).
Now as a savy trader you need to know how these methods work and stay ahead of the curb. If someone wants to push the market you need to get your goods out there and take advanage of the price increase, if they want to pull then stock up as the prices drop.
Also get to know the big dogs, they may clue you in to a push or pull thats forth comming. NOTE: The “big dogs” of demain are commited to a healty market and will be inclined to stop anyone from taking it too far. See they know that a healty market will earn you more money over time than even the best push or pull. and they have all the penya they could ever spend and feel its their duty to protect the market.
Now thats the basics. This should help everyone understand and profit from the market.
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