WildStar Commodities Exchange Guide

WildStar Commodities Exchange Guide by Lucosis

I’ve been seeing a lot of confusion and misplaced anger surrounding the Commodities Exchange. While some of it is warranted, most of it is just due to a lack of familiarity with the system. Since there is no tutorial for the CX, I thought it’d be in everyone’s best interest to try and answer everyone’s questions here and on the forums. I’m going to elaborate on the buying side of the market, because this is what most people are going to use it for, and an understanding of the demand side will make the supply side more transparent.

In the first few days of early access I was able to earn ~5 platinum at level 20 by simply buying materials from the CX and selling crafted items. There are plenty of ways to make money using the CX, so I want to just get that myth out of the way early.

Buyers

You benefit the most from the convenience that the CX brings, but you also currently face some hefty fees if you use it wrong. Currently there isn’t much transparency on the fee structure the CX uses. Everyone keeps saying it is a 2% and 5s fee, but it isn’t that simple. Either way, the heaviest of these fees are only present when you use the CX in a very narrow way. Lets work around that.

Buy Now

This should be your least used function of the CX. The only situation that Buy Now is useful is searching for Amps or Dyes. If you’re looking for crafting materials, it is very rare that you will be searching for only 1.

If you just don’t want to create a Buy Order, then using Buy Now to purchase a bulk of crafting materials is easy. The CX shows the current lowest price for an item, but that doesn’t mean an entire stack of it is available at that price. Instead, you can change the quantity to 50 (or whatever you need) and put a price higher than the lowest price, and you will only be charged the cost of purchase, not your entire quoted price.

• Example: I need 50 Iron Chunk and I need it now so I don’t want to make a Buy Order. Iron Chunk’s current price is listed at 2s50c. If I want to buy 50, then I change my Buy Now price to 3s50c. This will make the CX sell me 50 Iron Chunk at whatever the listing price is, but never over 3s50c each.

The benefit for this is that you’re not fighting with the market trying to sort through stacks and find the best price per item against 6 different increments of stacks. You get exactly how many of an item you want, for the price you want or less.

Create Buy Order

This is the bread and butter of the CX, and will be used regularly by any crafter purchasing in bulk from the CX. This is what will also heavily influence the market because it displays a both sides of supply and demand.

The Buy Order shows you two prices: Competition and Buy Now.

• Competition is the highest listed Buy Order currently outstanding.
• Buy Now shows the current lowest priced item of that type available.

As a buyer you have two options depending on your motivation. If you need a steady influx of crafting materials, you can set an order above the competition. This will get you a steady amount of materials mailed right to your box, and they will always be at the cost you listed. Option two is setting a price below the competition and waiting for the market to lower. As more people post more goods, the price will eventually come down, or as more buy orders are fulfilled demand will come down and more sellers will sell lower.

• Example 1: I am crafting masses of food for my hardcore raid tonight. I need 200 Heartichokes for a lot of Chua Cheesecakes. The competition is currently 35s, and the buy now is 50s. Since my raid is in 4 hours, I post a 200x buy order for 45s. This gets close enough to the supply side price that it will be filled rapidly, but not instantly. I’ll still save a few gold by doing this, but I’ll get all the materials I need over the next couple of hours (depending on supply). I can start crafting with what I have, and check the mailbox every 20 or 30 minutes to get my stock.
• Example 2: My guild is getting to 50, and we’re going to need a lot of armor crafted. I decide to start buying the Galactium chunk now so I’ll have it ready for when the time comes. The current competition is 35s and the buy now is 37s. Since someone is inflating the demand and I don’t need my Galactium today, I set my 200x buy order at 30s. Over the next couple days as the market fluctuates the price will dip down and start filling my buy order. I won’t get it all now, but I’ll get it at a lower than market price that makes the wait worth it.

As you can see, the CX has SO much flexibility for buyers. You can buy however many of an item you want, and the exact price you want, over any period of time. This gives demand a much stronger presence than previous MMOs of this type. It is also currently causing the market to appear lower than it would in another MMO. That’s fine, it means that the market isn’t inflating or being gamed nearly as rapidly as it did in other MMO launches.

Sellers

The CX gives you a lot of tools to see the demand side of the market, and you can use this to either get money fast or invest in the long haul.

Sell Now

This is your get money fast option, and again one that likely won’t be used often. This option is matching your sell price to the highest listed Buy Order for that good. This means your good will sell instantly as long as the Buy Order is outstanding. This is how you’ll generate that rapid income you need to pay someone for that weapon they just crafted you. It isn’t the most efficient uses of your goods, but it is the fastest.

Create Sell Order

This is where Supply gets to set their side of the market. This is what a buyer will see as the “Buy Now” price, and dictates the top end of the scale. Create Sell Order gives you two bits of info just like Buy Orders; Competition and Sell Now.

• Sell Now is the current highest outstanding Buy Order for that good
• Competition is the lowest priced Sell Order outstanding

If you know that a good typically sells for more than the current competition or sell now, then set a Sell Order for that price. The market is always going to Fluctuate both ways, and as long as it is a reasonable price you will eventually sell your order.

What Needs Fixed

• Transparency: Right now fees aren’t clear, and people using buy now could be charged triple the cost of an item depending on the price. The transparency will be fixed when the hover confirmation tooltip is fixed. This needs to be a priority fix, and likely is.
• Fee structure: A flat fee is a bit much, and really punishes the low end of the market. This might have been meant to keep quick flip traders out of the market, but it is much more punishing to the normal user than anyone trying to flip a good. As it is now, sellers can’t sell low level commodities for the prices they deserve because the fees on the buyers end keep it from being worthwhile.
• UI improvements: For the most part once you’ve learned how things work the CX its fine. There are a couple things that need to change though. A lack of search options on the Seller side makes scrolling through an entire list of your bags frustrating. The confirmation hover over bug scares a lot of users away. The folder tree for Buying needs to be consolidated so that it is more user friendly. Consolidate all runes into one folder, with subfolders for each rune type etc.
• Stack Selling inconsistency: When selling non-commodity items in a stack, the price you set is for the entire stack and NOT per unit. This problem is prevalent with Housing Decor, but exists with many others.