Wentworth's 101: Introduction to the Markets
By
Amy_Amp,
Posted on: 2008-03-15 14:48 in Player Guides
Wentworth's 102: Selling
Although the market system has been in place since May of 2007, there are quite a few people who still don't use it. Even if you don't want to use the Invention system, it is still worthwhile to sell some of your drops at a consignment house. Thar's gold in them thar bids! The best way to start using the market is by selling.
Everyone has their own method for appraising and selling items. Over time, you will evolve your own style, based on your own interest level and free time and greed. There are no ultimate answers to pricing in the market. Things change too much. I just want to get you off on the right foot.
Open up your inventory windows and look at your recipes, and your invention salvage. The devs keep adding new items, like the Candy Canes from the 2007 winter event, but for this guide I'm only going to worry about recipes and invention salvage. The first thing you'll need to decide is which items you will sell on the market and which ones you will sell to an NPC (like a contact, or an enhancement store).
Let's look at recipes first. There are two types: common and set. Common recipes always start with the word "Invention" and have names like "Invention: Accuracy". These should always be sold to an NPC. Set recipes, with names like "Tempered Readiness: Accuracy/Recharge", might be worth a fortune or they might be worth diddly. The only way to find out is to look them up. Find your exact recipe, of the same level, and look at the last five sales. It's also a good idea to look up and down by a couple of levels. Here is what to look for:
<ul type="square">[*] Are the last five sales spread out over days or weeks, or even months? Then expect it to take a long time to sell yours. If you want a quick sale, go with the NPC.[*] Are there 0 bids, or far more items for sale than bids? Then the demand is weak, and you shouldn't bother selling it on the market. [*] Does anything strike you as weird, like a huge variety in the last five prices, or a big price difference between your recipe and the same recipe one level higher? Then maybe someone is trying to manipulate the market. Maybe. Since you're just getting started, you might want to sell to an NPC for now. [*] Is the price low? An NPC will pay 100 x the level of the recipe for an uncommon (yellow) set recipe, or 200 x the level of the recipe for a rare (orange) set recipe. If the last five sale prices aren't at least that high, then don't bother selling it at the market. For common recipes, the NPC price is more confusing. Take the crafting cost (which is on the recipe) and divide it by X. The value of X depends on the level of the recipe:[/list][ QUOTE ]
LEVEL: X
10-25: 8
30-40: 5.3
45-50: 4
[/ QUOTE ]
How about salvage? Since you are just getting started with selling on the market, I'll give you a few simples rules of thumb. They will serve you well, until you figure out something better.
<ul type="square">[*] ALL tech salvage: sell it to the NPC[*] ALL uncommon salvage: sell it to the NPC[*] common and rare arcane salvage: consider selling it on the market.[/list]Evaluate salvage using the same guidelines as you did for recipes. Here are the NPC prices for invention salvage:
[ QUOTE ]
Common: 250
Uncommon 1000
Rare: 5000
[/ QUOTE ]
Once you have decided which items you are going to sell, how much should you charge for them? There are two important points to remember. First, the listing fee is only refunded if the item sells. If you ask for too much and you don't sell the item, then you will lose your listing fee when you remove the item and try again at a lower price. Second, the highest offer is always matched to the lowest ask price. Conclusion: list low. I recommend listing items for 50% more than the vendor price. If you don't think it will sell at that price in a reasonable amount of time, then don't bother selling it on the market. Often times you will find that your items sell instantly and for far more than you were asking. Yay!
After you are done selling things on the market, head to an NPC to unload the rest of your loot. It doesn't matter which NPC you use when selling recipes and salvage. They're not like SO's. The magic store and the science store will pay you the same 250 inf for common arcane and tech salvage.
Whenever I come across someone who never uses the market, I always try to ask them why. One reason I often hear is that they are afraid of being ripped off. They are afraid that some other player will take advantage of them and laugh at them. Since a big part of my motivation in writing this guide is to encourage people to use the markets, let's talk about that issue. Suppose you sell something for 100,000 influence that was really worth 1,000,000 influence. You're not going to be very happy about that, but there are three things I'd like you to keep in mind. First, if someone buys an item from you for 100,000 inf, then you just got 100,000 influence! That's ten times more than a vendor would pay for a rare level 50 set recipe! That's twenty times more than a vendor would pay for rare salvage! For anything expensive enough to bother worrying about, you are much better off selling to other players than you would be selling to the vendor.
Second, the person who bought from you and resold for a higher price has worked hard to learn the proper values of items. They've put a lot of time into learning the system, and it's only fair that they are rewarded for their time and knowledge. Also, they are taking a bigger risk than you are. If they list an item for 1,000,000 inf and it doesn't sell, they may have to eat that 50,000 inf listing fee. People who take higher risks deserve to get higher rewards sometimes, because they'll surely get nailed other times. That's fair.
Third, the market is anonymous. You will never know who bought your item. Maybe the person who bought your item is laughing at you for being such a sucker. On the other hand, maybe the person who bought your item was a poor, starving orphan who had saved up her pennies for months and still could only afford to bid 100k for that item, and she is now dancing for joy in her tattered gray dress while the other children in the orphanage stare at her in jealous wonder with their big round eyes. Tonight she and all of her little orphan friends will offer up a prayer of thanks that someone was selfless enough to put an item on the market for less than the going rate. Ask yourself this: how does it make your life any better to assume that the person who bought your item is a jerk? You'll never know who bought it or what they did with it. Just be glad that you made someone happy, or at least gave them a good laugh, and move on.
Now if you want to know the joy that poor little orphan girl felt, then you're going to have to go shopping. Sounds like you're ready for Wentworth's 103: Buying!
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
Wentworth's 103: Buying
Here are the steps to follow for a safe and successful shopping expedition.
1. Figure out what you're going to buy.
2. Get an idea of what it will cost.
3. Decide how much you are willing to pay.
4. Decide how long you can wait to get it.
5. Bid low.
6. Creep up.
Figuring out what you are going to buy may seem confusing at first, even overwhelming. I think of it as window shopping. Look through the various guides to IO's, and recent guides to your powersets. Read about the various IO's on ParagonWiki and poke around in the market looking for fun things to own. This is a guide to the market, not to inventions, so I'll leave it up to you to figure out what you want to buy. I'll just try to help you get a good price on it. Once you have more experience, you will undoubtedly find your own ways to get even better prices sometimes, but this guide should give you a good start and help you avoid most of the pitfalls that people often complain about after their first trip to the market.
To get an idea of what something will cost, look at the price history, how long it took for all five of those last sales to go through, how many bids and offers are out there right now, and how much similar items cost. For a recipe, be sure to check the prices for a couple of levels in both directions, and compare the prices of the recipe and the enhancement (adding in the crafting cost and salvage costs). You should also consider the amount of money the seller could get from an NPC. Once you get a sense for how much other people are willing to pay for that item, think about how much you are willing to pay for it. If other people are willing and able to pay more than you are, then you might not be able to get the item at all. That can be frustrating, but it's how the game works.
If you are buying a common IO, then I strongly suggest you buy one that is already crafted, rather than buying the recipe and crafting it yourself. People can get badges for doing lots of crafting, so unless you want the badge, let them do the hard work. In fact, if they do enough crafting, then they can eventually get a discount on the crafting of common IO's (never set IO's). As a result, you can usually buy a crafted IO for less than what it would cost you to craft it yourself. Check the crafting cost on the recipe, and then place a bid for 75% of that amount. You will usually get the item in a day or two, often less.
The most important rule of shopping is patience. The longer you can stand to wait, the better a price you are likely to get. Prices go up and down all the time. If you want to get something right now, you will have to pay whatever it takes to get the cheapest item currently listed. If you put in a bid and let it sit, then you will buy the item whenever the going rate dips low enough to match your bid. You don't even have to be online to make the purchase! The more patient you are, the lower a price you can expect to get, within reason. The really desirable items never drop very far in price. Also, don't forget the 60 day rule! If you ignore a character for 60 days, all of their bids and items in the market will vanish into thin air.
The key term here is "bid-creeping". Bid-creeping means putting in a low bid, waiting to see if it worked and, if not, canceling that bid and putting in a new, higher bid. Repeat as necessary. You can start as low as you want, wait as long as you want before going up, and increase your bid by whatever amount makes you happy. Remember: it doesn't cost you anything to put in a bid and then cancel it. If you want to start your bidding at 1 influence and go up by 1 influence each week until you get what you want, that's fine. Slow, but fine. You could start at 1 million and go up by 1 million every second until you get what you want. It's up to you.
Personally, I think in terms of cycles. Prices are constantly shifting up and down, but they also move in cycles: daily, weekly, and yearly. The number of people playing changes during the course of the day, and players are more likely to sell or more likely to buy during certain hours. As a result, prices rise and fall over the course of a day. Playing patterns also change during the week, especially around the weekend. This leads to a weekly cycle. I'm not aware of any monthly cycle. Errr, in the market, I mean. There is probably an annual cycle, with more people playing during the summer and the winter holiday than the rest of the year. There are also special occasions, like the double XP weekend and holiday events, which can make prices go nuts.
My general strategy is to start with a lowball offer, to see if I get lucky, and then bid creep up quickly until I get near my target price, and then slow down. Here's an example. Suppose I want to buy a level 25 Miracle Heal/Recharge recipe. The last five sales are spread out over about a week, and range from 250k-600k. There are only 2 bids and 1 item for sale. Maybe I decide that I can't afford to pay more than 350k, and I don't need it for about two weeks. I'll start by bidding 15k, but I'll only wait a few seconds before upping my bid to 50k, then 100k, then 150k. No luck. At 150k, I'll stop and let the bid sit for a day or two. Maybe someone will decide to sell one while I'm offline. If they list it low, and the other couple of bids turn out to be even lower than mine, then I might get a great deal. Probably not, though. A couple of days later, I'll up my bid by 50k, and then wait again. If I'm up to 200k by the time the weekend rolls around, I'll let that bid sit and see what happens. Prices can move a lot on a weekend. On Monday, I'll creep up again to 250k. By Friday, I'll be up to 350k. If I haven't won an item yet, then I'll hope for a good weekend.
That usually works, but there are no guarantees. After a couple of weeks have gone by, maybe I'll have more money and I'll be willing to move my bid up even higher. Maybe I'll just let the bid sit for weeks and see if I ever get what I want. Maybe I'll give up and learn to live without it. There are other recipes that give the exact same enhancement bonus, after all. The only advantage of the Miracle is the set bonus, and I can live without that.
We have talked about selling, and we have talked about buying. Hopefully you feel ready to go to that CH and start participating in the market. Once you do, though, I'm sure you will come up with a lot of questions. Everyone does. That's why the next section of this guide is called Wentworth's 104: Frequently Asked Questions.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
Wentworth's 104: Frequently Asked Questions
Now that you have learned the basics of the market, you have no doubt discovered the truth of the old saying, "the more you know, the more you realize how little you know." This section of the guide includes a list of the most Frequently Asked Questions in and around the marketplace. Oh, and the answers are here too!
Why is everything so darned expensive?
It's a question of supply and demand. Let's look at supply first. Any items which drop in the lowest levels are in low supply because players don't spend much time in those levels, and while they are in the low levels they don't always bother selling things on the market. Recipes which only drop at the end of task forces are in low supply because it takes special effort to get them. Salvage which drops from arcane foes is in low supply because so many players really hate going up against arcane foes like the Circle of Thorns and Carnies. Some things just don't drop very often (rare recipes and salvage). High level items are also in somewhat low supply, because the total number of characters who make it into the higher levels is smaller than the number of characters who make it into the mid-levels.
What about demand? Players are willing to pay a lot to get the very best. Within each category, one set stands out as being the best, usually because of the set bonuses. Anything that boosts recharge speed will be in high demand. The health uniques are in high demand. Keep in mind that, in economics, the word "demand" does not refer to how badly people want something, or how emotionally attached they are to something. The word "demand" is measured purely in terms of how much people are willing to pay for something. The more money someone has, the more they will be willing to pay. Some people have lots and lots of money, so they are willing to pay very high prices to get what they want. Anyone who has made it to level 50 is capable of earning much more money than anyone from the lower levels. People often blame sellers for setting high prices, but most of the time it is wealthy buyers who push prices up in an effort to outbid one another for hard-to-find items. They are willing and able to pay a lot to get what they want. If you can't pay as much as they can, then you may not be able to buy some of the most desirable items because they will simply outbid you every time.
Of course, sometimes people play games with the market, either filling the last 5 prices with fake numbers or buying items up to create an artificial shortage. It does happen, but most high prices can be explained by simple supply and demand.
How does the system determine who wins an item?
There is no better answer to this question than that found in Protea's guide. In brief, the highest bid gets the lowest priced item. As a seller, when you post your item, the system checks to see if there are any bids already in the system for at least as much as you are asking. If there are, then you immediately sell the item for an amount equal to the highest bid in the system at that moment. If no existing bid is as high as you are asking for, then your item will sit there until a large enough bid comes in, but even then your item may not sell. When a higher bid comes along, it will be matched to the item with the lowest list price, which may not be your item.
From the buyer's point of view, as soon as you enter a bid, the system checks to see if any item is already listed with a price at or below your bid amount. If there is, then you immediately buy the item with the lowest price, but you pay whatever amount you bid. If there is no item currently listed at or below your price, then your bid will sit in the market until you cancel it or until a new item is listed at or below your bid amount, but even then you may not buy the item. When a low priced item comes along, it will be matched to the highest bid, which may not be your bid.
Ties appear to be resolved randomly.
Incidentally, some people have reported that things don't really work this way at all. Maybe there are some bugs floating around, or someone got confused by a lag spike. The way I described it is the way it is supposed to work according to the official documentation and dev comments, and it matches all of my own observations.
What are the fees and how do they work?
People get confused by this one all the time. The idea is pretty simple, but it gets more confusing if you pay more attention to the numbers. They're misleading. Here's how it works: when you post an item, you pay a listing fee of 5% of the price you list it for. If the item never sells, then you never get that back. If it does sell, then your 5% is refunded, but then you pay a new fee, a sales fee, equal to 10% of the actual sale price. Let's take a concrete example. I have a Chronal Skip, a rare tech salvage. The last five prices are around 12,500. I list mine for 1,000 inf. The moment I list it, I pay a 5% listing fee of 50 influence. That 50 influence is deducted from my total influence the moment I list it. If I didn't have 50 inf, then I would not be able to list the item for that price. I post my item, and it sells immediately for 11,200 influence. Now I have to pay the 10% sales fee, which comes to 1,120 inf. The 50 influence listing fee is refunded at the same time. So I get 11,200 influence, plus the refunded listing fee of 50 influence, minus the sales fee of 1,120 influence. The confusing part is the way this all displays on the market, like this:
[ QUOTE ]
Sold 1 for 10,130 (11,200 - 1,070)
[/ QUOTE ]
Where did 1,070 come from? That's the 1,120 sales fee minus the 50 inf listing fee. You never see the 50 inf being refunded. All you see is the sales fee, but the sales fee has already been reduced by an amount equal to the listing fee. It's almost like they are trying to hide the fact that the listing fee is refunded, but of course it's not a secret. They just don't make it obvious for some reason.
Is there one market on each server or are they all combined?
There are two markets: one for all heroes, and one for all villains. Even the players in Europe are included in those two servers. Well, technically there are two more servers, for the hero and villain populations on the test server(s). They don't interact with the live servers. There has been some discussion of merging the hero and villain markets. Currently that topic is considered a dead horse on the forums, although it is still beaten fairly often.
Can I get salvage and recipe drops from foes that con gray?
No. You can sometimes get xp from a gray, if they aren't very gray, but you will never get invention salvage or recipes. Enhancements, inspirations, even base salvage, yes, but not invention salvage. Early testing suggests that you cannot get any invention drops from any foe which cons gray to anyone on your team, even if it is not gray to you.
If I still don't want to use the market, how else can I sell these invention thingies?
NPC stores will buy most things, but they only pay really well for high level common recipes. You can also try to sell things in person by spamming the /request channel or some other broadcast channel, but don't hold your breath. By selling locally, you are limiting yourself to customers who are on your server, in the same zone, logged in at the same time, who are paying attention to zone broadcast. By selling in the market, you could get a buyer from any server, even if they aren't logged in at the time you place your item for sale. If you do want to sell the item directly to another player, then you can also advertise on the forums, either in the Market section or in the section for your server. You will probably get some flack from people who don't like advertising, or who don't like whatever price you ask for, but it's an option.
Is there any way to increase the number of transaction slots I get at the CH?
Yes there is. First, by going up in level. You get extra transaction slots with every level up to level 8, and then every other level until level 20, and then you get 1 more slot at level 40, for a total of 16. You also earn sales badges when you sell a lot of items on the market, and some of those badges give you an extra transaction slot. You earn slots at 250, 1k, 3k, 5k, and 7k sales.
I just memorized a recipe. Why does it still require the recipe and cost the same amount to craft?
Memorized recipes are listed separately from regular recipes on the crafting table. In order to receive your discount, you must be crafting from the list under the "Memorized" tab, not the regular tab that you used a million times when you were trying to memorize the darn thing.
I put in my bid, when do I get my item? How long does it take?
Bids are checked instantly, and resolved instantly if the prices match (give or take a few seconds of lag, sometimes more). If anyone has listed an item for less than what you offered, you will buy it immediately. If no one ever lists an item for less than you bid, then your bid will never be filled. It's the same when you are selling. If anyone has an outstanding bid when you list your item, then your item will sell immediately if you listed it for less than they offered. If you list your item for more than anyone is currently willing to pay, then your item will just sit there. If no one is ever willing to pay your price, then it might never sell. Even if someone does offer more than you listed your item for, you still might not get the sale. The sale will go to the lowest priced item.
What if I move my character to a new server? What happens to my items in the market?
Since the market is cross-server, nothing in the market should be disturbed if you switch to a new server. I've never personally tested that, though.
I'm looking for something in the market and I can't find it. Why not?
The most likely answer is because you accidentally set a filter which eliminated the item you are trying to find. Did you specify a level range? Not all recipes exist in all level ranges. There is a box near the top which says by default "All buying and selling." If no one is buying or selling the item you are looking for, then it won't appear unless you change that box to say "All." There is also a text box near the top where you can type whatever you want to narrow down the list of items in the window. You may have accidentally left some text in there from the last time you were searching for an item. The market window does not reset itself just because you closed it. Even logging out doesn't reset the window.
I bought a costume recipe. How do I put it on?
First you need to buy any required salvage, and then craft the recipe. After it's crafted, you must go to a tailor and alter your costume. Yes, it will cost you something to alter your costume, unless you already had a free costume token sitting on your character. By the way, some of the salvage pieces have misleading names. If you buy a witch hat, for example, you don't actually get a witch hat. That's salvage, not a costume recipe.
I bought some salvage. Where is it? I want to hang it on the wall in my base as a decoration.
Sorry. When you buy salvage, you never get to see it or do anything with it. You can't put it in your base, or throw it at someone, or show it to your friends. Salvage never appears in game. It only appears in your inventory. There is no 3D model associated with salvage items.
I just bought some stuff. How do I make enhancements out of it?
I strongly suggest you go to Steel Canyon, find the University on the map (the symbol looks like a mortarboard hat thingy) and do the invention tutorial. Or just run up to the crafting table inside the door of the university and click the "Create" button. I still think the tutorial is worth doing, though, if you've never done it before.
I can't afford to buy this thing I want. How else can I get it?
First, you should seriously question how badly you want it. The loot system in CoH is random. The odds of getting exactly what you need from a random drop are terrible. If you want to try, then you need to figure out who or what drops the item you want. It's a bit complicated. For salvage, take a look at this ParagonWiki page. You can also click on the info for an enemy you have targeted and see the salvage items that enemy could drop. Recipes are even more complicated, but this ParagonWiki page should help. It might be easier to save up your money and buy it. It might be even easier to just learn to live without it.
Why can I only buy one at a time? I thought I could buy up to ten?
You can buy up to ten recipes or salvage items. For enhancements and inspirations, you can only buy one a time. They don't stack. If you are trying to buy a stack of recipes and it won't let you, then you are probably buying crafted enhancements by accident instead.
It's showing zero or one bid, or zero or one item for sale. I know that's wrong. What gives?
Lag. The correct number will probably show up soon. If it doesn't, hit the "more" button, which will almost always force that information to be downloaded to your client. There may be a bug with some items, like Hamidon enhancements, although I haven't run into it myself.
Why do I sometimes see a floating crafting table in Wentworths? Can I use this? How can I get one of my own? Yes, you can use it. It's a special power that you can get if you craft a bajillion things. It lasts for a few minutes and it's kind of handy. Anyone can use it while it lasts. After a few minutes, it goes BOOM, which might answer another question you had (Why do things sometimes go BOOM in the market?). If you really want your own portable crafting table, then look up the Field Crafter badge on ParagonWiki.
Why do some people sell for less than the vendor price? Are these people stupid?
The answer to almost any "why is that person doing that crazy thing?" question in this game is going to be the same: badges. The more you sell, the more badges you get. Some of the badges give you extra transaction slots. People also list for below vendor price because they want to unload their items quickly and can't be bothered checking prices or running to the NPC vendor. A level 50 character can easily earn 250 influence per second. How many seconds should they spend trying to maximize the value of their common salvage drops?
Can I buy and sell other kinds of salvage besides just invention salvage? And other stuff too?
You can trade almost anything on the market. It can be a good way to transform some useless junk into useful influence or infamy. The market can also be a good way to get your hands on whatever little doodad the random number generator is refusing to dump in your lap. Candy Cane salvage from the Winter event, mask salvage from the Halloween event, base salvage, base components, inspirations, regular enhancements, and probably other things I can't think of are all traded every day on the market.
Why do some people buy things for many millions of inf? That seems overpriced. Are these people stupid? Also, how can I compete with that?
They pay those prices because they have the money and they want the stuff. It's only pretend money anyhow, and it's not like they need to spend it on food or rent, or save up for retirement. Why not spend it? If the item you want is in limited supply, then you have to bid high or someone else might get it and you won't. It might help if you don't think of it as money. Think of it as time. For a level 50 character, 1 million influence might represent 1 hour of time. If you fought only arcane dropping foes for three hours, would you be guaranteed to get a rare salvage drop? Nope. But if you bid 3 million influence on a Hamidon Goo, then you might well get it, depending on prices that day.
Can you compete with that? Maybe. Everyone earns money at a certain rate in this game. If you farm with your level 50 fire/kin, then you might make 5-10 million inf per hour. If you solo level 10 missions against the Council with your force field defender, then you'll be earning a lot less. Most of you will never earn as much per hour as a hardcore farmer. Do not despair! Remember, you don't have to pay for rent or food. Your money will pile up, eventually. Not as quickly for you as for that other guy, but it will pile up. Eventually, you can buy anything. It's just that some things will take muuuuuuch longer than others. If you really want to speed that up, then maybe you can increase your average hourly income with some of the ideas in the next section of this guide: Wentworth's 105: Tip and Tricks.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
Wentworth's 105: General Tips and Tricks
Selling
Never list an item for less influence than you can stand to get. There is always a risk that someone will buy the item for exactly the amount you posted it for.
The minimum fee is 5 inf. If you list an item for 1 inf and it sells for 1 inf, you actually lose money.
List things for a little less than a round number, as long as it is still an amount you can live with. If there are two items for sale, one listed at 50,000 and the other at 49,999, then the one listed for 49,999 will sell first.
Watch the blue chat messages to ward against lag. If you drop an item into the market but you don't get a blue chat message saying that you dropped an item into the market, then it didn't really happen yet, and anything you do with the item, like selling it or retrieving it, will cause you to sell or retrieve the wrong item.
Make sure that the item you want to sell is the one that you currently have selected. Just looking at it or thinking about it won't make it the selected item. (I know it sounds dumb, and I only mention it because I do that all the time.)
Make sure you enter the price you want to sell at in the correct box near the bottom, not the buying box in the upper right hand side. (Again, I do that all the time.)
Make absolutely sure you have the right price entered into the box before you hit the post button. The fee will be instantly deducted, and there are no take-backsies.
If you are selling a recipe, check the price of the crafted enhancement. Sometimes the enhancement will sell for so much more than the recipe, that it makes sense to craft it before selling it. Not always, no matter what anyone says, but sometimes.
A lot of shopping happens on the weekends. If something you listed hasn't sold for a few days, try to wait until Monday before giving up on it.
Profit = [sale price] * 0.9 - [whatever it cost you]
For example, if your total cost to create an enhancement is 75,000, and you sell it for 100,000, then you earn 15,000 profit.
15,000 = 100,000 * 0.9 - 75,000
Another way to look at the same equation: if you want to wind up with x, then list an item for (cost + x)/.9 to cover the fees.
For example, if you want to make a profit of 25,000 on an enhancement that it cost you 75,000 to create, then list it for 111,111
(75,000 + 25,000) / 0.9 = 111,111
If you are at the CH and you click on an enhancement in your enhancement tray, it will automatically jump up into a transaction slot in the CH.
Buying
For some recipes, level is meaningless. Any of those "chance to cause special damage" procs, for example, will do the exact same thing no matter whether the enhancement is level 25 or level 50. Some people buy the lower level ones so they can use them when exemped. Some people like to buy the higher level ones because they think, incorrectly, that they are better. Poke around and look for the best value.
People like to have the absolute best. A level 50 recipe is often much more expensive than a level 49 recipe, even though the difference in effectiveness is tiny.
People like round numbers and multiples of five. A level 35 recipe is often much more expensive than a level 34 or 36 recipe, even though the difference in effectiveness is tiny.
Many people shop to maximize their effectiveness in PvP, which pushes up the price of recipes at the level cap for the PvP zones. Level 28, 33, and 41 enhancements are more expensive as a result. If you don't care about PvP, you might want to avoid buying at those levels.
Check both the recipe price and the crafted enhancement price. Sometimes you can buy a crafted enhancement for less than the cost of the recipe + salvage + crafting.
You can almost always buy crafted common IO's for the cost of crafting or less. People with crafting badges can make them for half the normal crafting cost, and they don't need to buy the recipe. Unless you are going for badges, it's mutually beneficial to buy your common IO's from crafters.
Watch those zeros! Watch those commas! The market forum is full of stories from people who bought things for ten times more than they intended, or who bought 10 when they only wanted 1.
Be sure you can use what you buy. Just because you have a power which can take damage enhancements does not mean you can use any set IO which enhances damage. IO sets are divided into categories, like melee or ranged. You can see what enhancement sets each power takes by checking your enhancement screen. Each recipe says which category it is in. See ParagonWiki for more information, as usual.
Buy things for a little more than a round number. If you put in a bid for 50,001 and someone else puts in a bid for 50,000 inf, and an item comes on the market for 50,000 or less, then you will be the one who gets it.
Don't pay more than you want to pay. Put in a bid you can live with and then wait. Maybe it will fill in a few days, and maybe it will never fill. Some things you just can't buy for a price you are happy with. That's the way the game is designed.
There are always alternatives. Can't afford to buy a Luck Charm to craft a level 25 accuracy IO? Buy the crafted enhancement. Can't afford that? Buy an acc/dam set IO. Can't afford that? Get an SO. They are just as good as they have always been, and they are downright cheap compared to how much influence you can get nowadays.
Speaking of SO's, you can buy them, and DO's, on the market. There isn't much availability, but they tend to be cheap. Put in a bid and wait. You never know.
General
All three pieces of market information (bids, items for sale, last five prices) can be manipulated by other players. It's pretty easy to fake that information for a little while. It's much harder to keep manipulating it for a long time. If you are nervous about spending a lot of money, be patient. Watch the market for several days to see how much the numbers move, so you aren't tricked by a short term manipulation, or caught up in a temporary (but natural) hiccup in prices caused by a sudden, random excess or shortage of some item.
The salvage listed in the left hand side is ordered by type (tech vs arcane) and then scarcity (common, uncommon, rare) and then tier (low level, mid, high). That's why Lament Boxes are listed before Deific Weapons: because Lament Boxes drop from lower level enemies than Deific Weapons do.
Turn off powers while you're in the market. Nobody needs steamy mist while they're shopping, and all the extra particle effects make life tough for people with sluggish computers.
Because the market is cross server, it is possible to transfer influence between characters, even across servers. It is not an intended purpose of the market, and is not officially supported. If things go badly, don't expect help from the GM's.
For more information
Join the global channel TheMarket in game.
Check out the Market section of the forums.
There is a lot of useful information on ParagonWiki.
The always splendid City of Data includes salvage and recipe information.
If you go to the player guide section of the official forums (oh, wait, you're already here!) then you can find lots of guides to the invention system in general and for various powersets in particular. There are also a few guides to the markets. Here are a few of my favorites:
My old No Numbers Guide to I9 may still be of some help.
Fulmen's Intermediate Guide to IO's is an excellent second course.
Capn_Canadian's IO's for Newbs, Casual Playas, & Cheapskates is also very good, and very detailed.
Zombie_Man's guide to the market goes into excruciating detail on the user interface itself, and has some other good stuff in there.
Protea's guide is simply outstanding, especially the way he visualizes the bid and sell pools and the gap in between.
The slightly dated classic, Frozen Horizons' Guide to getting rich quick!
If getting rich is on your to-do list, then you might also want to move along to...
Wentworth's 106: Bringing Home the Bacon
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
Wentworth's 106: Bringing Home the Bacon
If you have made it this far through the guide, then you are probably well on your way to making enough moolah to pay for every SO you could ever dream of. That's not good enough, though, is it? You're dreaming about IO's now, and some of those are pretty pricey. You want more money. How are you going to get it?
There are three jobs available to you in CoX land. In some games, your choice of class or skill would determine which job you can do. That's not the case here. You can participate in all three jobs to whatever extent you desire. All three jobs can pay quite well, so pick your favorite, or switch around whenever you feel like it. This guide should help you to increase your earnings in whichever career you pursue.
Job 1: Hitting people in the face
The first job of every hero in Paragon City is to arrest bad guys, also known as "playing the game". If you are street sweeping or doing one mission over and over, it's usually called farming. Some people prefer to think of it as hunting, since plants don't hit back. Well, unless they're Devouring Earth. At any rate, every time you defeat an enemy, the game world creates new influence and loot out of thin air. It's like having a job printing money, except you have to punch the printing press every time you want it to spit out another dollar. Pretty sweet! I don't know of any data on the subject at all, but my gut and my experience say that most of the richest players in the game got their fortunes from defeating enemies.
So how do you maximize your income in this job? First, choose your enemies wisely. Go. Hunt. Kill Hellions. Not Skulls: they drop tech salvage. If you want big bank, go after the arcane salvage dropping foes. That's mostly Hellions at the lowest levels. Perez Park is full of 'em. You can also find Circle of Thorns in Perez Park, and Kings Row, and the Hollows. The Hollows also has Minions of Igneous, who drop arcane salvage, but they have a nasty habit of dropping heroes, too. You can choose to fight Hellions and CoT in your police band missions. If none of the missions are for arcane foes, you can leave the zone and come back. That will reset your mission choices. The first Safeguard mission has Hellions in it. Steel Canyon has a park full of CoT near the Perez Park gate, and a fair number of Tsoo near the tailor. Once you hit level 15, you can fight CoT and Banished Pantheon in Bloody Bay, if you can stomach the risk of PvP. Talos Island is full of Warriors and Tsoo. Dark Astoria is a gold mine full of Banished Pantheon. Striga has a fair number of BP and an entire island covered with Warriors. Founders Falls has lots of CoT. There are Tsoo in IP, Carnies and CoT in PI. Once you hit the Shadow Shard, everything drops arcane salvage.
(Sorry I can't help villainside. Snakes? Wailers? Good luck.)
The next important consideration is the level of enemy you are fighting. Higher level foes will drop more inf when they are defeated, but they have exactly the same chance of dropping salvage and recipes as a lower level foe. If you want to maximize your income, and you are fighting arcane dropping foes, then your best bet is to fight enemies who are two levels below you. Anything that cons green or higher will have an equal chance of dropping precious shinies. Why spend the time taking down a +2 minion when a -2 minion will fall with a single blow and they both have the same chance of dropping a deific weapon? Remember: bosses are more likely to drop things than minions are, and Lts are in between, but is that bonus worth the extra time necessary to defeat them? Hard to say.
When you are on a team, every enemy gives more xp than they would if you were solo. That's one reason why teaming is such a great way to get good xp. The same is not true of loot. The odds of an enemy dropping a recipe or a piece of salvage do not change when you have more teammates. The only thing that changes is that everyone on the team has to share the drops. If four people can defeat a spawn five times faster than one person, then you are better off with a team. That is usually not the case. More likely, four people can defeat a spawn in half the time that one person could, which means your rate of getting loot is actually cut in half by being on a team. If the teammates are different levels, than what cons green to one person may be gray to another. That affects recipe and salvage drops. Obviously there are a lot of variables and YMMV, but conventional wisdom says team for xp, solo for drops.
Looking over the prices in the market, you may have noticed that low tier rare arcane salvage, like Lament Boxes, aren't worth much. The mid tier and high tier stuff is worth a lot more. One of the best ways to get more influence is to be higher level. During the low levels, the best you can hope for is a Luck Charm, worth maybe 75,000 inf at the time I write this. In the mid levels, you could easily get a piece of Enchanted Impervium worth a couple of million inf. At the highest levels, not only can you get Hamidon Goo and Pangean Soil and other expensive salvage, but you also, as you near 50, get a shot at purple recipes, which can go for over 30 million. When you are level 50, your enemies will also drop a lot more influence when they are defeated. Interestingly, that holds true even if you exemp down to a lower level. High level common IO recipes are also worth quite a lot. Almost any level 50 character can make 1,000,000 inf/hour even without arcane salvage. With a bit of luck, a good build, arcane enemies, and some practice, most people can probably average several million per hour. With a few lucky drops, the sky is the limit.
When you are trying to maximize your earnings, another important consideration is spawn sizes. You want to spend your time arresting bad guys, not traveling from group to group. Hazard zones, like Dark Astoria and Perez Park, have larger spawns than normal city zones. Hard core farmers will pad and paint. First, they "pad" the mission by getting a lot of extra people to join the team. Then they "paint" the map, running all over the place so that all of the groups which are going to spawn will actually spawn. The number of enemies in each group is determined at the time the group spawns. Once all of the groups have been spawned for a full sized team, everyone quits except the farmer. He gets a map jam packed with enemies, and all that influence and all that loot. Of course, you have to be able to survive such large groups, and defeat them at a good rate, for this to make any sense.
An AoE oriented build, like a spines/DA scrapper or a fire/kin controller, is going to be able to defeat large groups faster than a single target oriented build, like a DM scrapper. An offensive character is going to be able to defeat more enemies more quickly than a support character, like a force field defender. I strongly believe that you should play a character that you enjoy playing, but if you are wondering how some people get such staggering amounts of money, part of the answer may be their AoE damage orientation. That's just how the game works.
Powerlevelers have their own tricks of the trade, but I'm afraid I don't know all of their secrets. I'm also ignorant of the exploits which pop up from time to time. Even without those tricks, putting in long hours defeating huge numbers of enemies is a surefire path to gradually accumulating vast wealth.
Job 2: Crafting
When you take a bunch of raw ingredients and spend your time and influence to gather them up and craft them into an enhancement, you are creating value, and people will pay you for that value. Sometimes. Most people don't know and don't care what it cost you to create an enhancement. They will pay the smallest amount they can get away with, and no more than they feel it is worth. Sometimes that will be less than what it cost you to create the thing in the first place. Always check prices before crafting something to sell, and be wary of crafting many items at once, especially at first. You never know when prices will dip.
When you get a set recipe as a drop, you can look it up at the market and get a sense of what it will sell for. You can also get an estimate of the salvage cost. Once you know what it will cost you to make it, figure out how much you can make by selling it. If the profit looks big enough to be worth the effort, go for it! Just don't forget to factor in the 10% sales fee when you figure out your prices. On a 10,000,000 inf enhancement, that 10% fee is a million influence!
You can do the same thing when you get an expensive piece of salvage. Look it up on Red Tomax's excellent site and see what recipes use that salvage. Sometimes you can buy the recipe cheap, because the ingredients are so expensive, and then craft it for a profit. When you are looking at the profit margin, don't forget that you could make good money just from selling the salvage.
Once you get used to crafting, you can ignore your own drops and just buy whatever you need to make whatever you want. As long as you are dealing with enhancements that people want, you can generally make some influence. A lot of people would like set enhancements, but don't want to take the time to gather up all the ingredients, lug them over to a crafting table, and get them made. Also, if you are being patient with your shopping, you might be able to get all of the components at lower than average prices. If you sell carefully, you might be able to sell for a higher than average price.
You will really come out ahead in crafting when you spot some enhancement which is selling for far more than the cost. You can often scoop up the components, craft them, and sell the enhancement for a large profit. Be warned, though: anyone can do what you are doing. Large gaps between crafting costs and enhancement prices usually don't last long, because other people like you are going to jump in and undersell each other. As with any sale, make a note of the time span covered by the last five sales. If that spread is very large, then expect your items to move very slowly.
If you like crafting, then you might want to get into common IO crafting. You will definitely need to familiarize yourself with this list of badges. If you craft enough enhancements of a certain type, then you "memorize" the recipe. This only works with common IO's, not set IO's. Once you have memorized a recipe, you don't need to buy the recipe when you want to craft the enhancement again. You do need to acquire all the salvage. The actual cost of crafting is halved. People who are pursuing badges tend to produce lots of enhancements and then dump them for low prices. This is great when you are buying enhancements, but it makes it difficult sometimes to sell enhancements for a profit. As long as you are dealing in enhancements people really want, and in a level range where people will shop for common IO's, you will be able to produce enhancements for less inf than someone without the badge. If you price your product midway between what it cost you to make and what it would cost them to make, then you can make a fairly steady profit.
I should also mention that it is possible to refine base salvage components into something or other which can sometimes sell for a profit. Frankly I've never understood base salvage stuff well enough to work this one out, but I've heard that people who understand it can make a profit at it.
Job 3: PvM (Player vs Market)
This is a superhero game, not a stockbroker game. A lot of people don't like to stand around in Wentworth's all day, buying and selling. You certainly shouldn't do anything you don't enjoy. Personally, I love it! One thing I appreciate is that I only need a few minutes to put in bids or list items to sell. All of the trades can happen while I'm logged off. This is great for someone like me, who often has just a few minutes to spare. That's not enough time to run a mission, but it's plenty of time to set up a market position. Another nice thing about the market is that it rewards patience, and it's easy to be patient when you are a casual player. Set things up on Monday, and by the time you get around to logging in again a few days later, lots of your transaction will have been settled. All that's left is to pocket the money!
A lot of people have irrational hopes and fears regarding the market games you can play. Both are overstated. You can certainly make a lot of money without ever leaving the market, but it's probably easier, more enjoyable, less risky, and often more profitable to just play the game, especially if you follow some of the advice about farming from section 1. It is also true that there are people manipulating the market, but it isn't as easy as some people think, and many attempts to manipulate the market lose money rather than make it. Here are some of the basic strategies for making money on the market:
a. Vendoring. This is the one activity I would call arbitrage, but there is so much confusion and anger around that word that I usually just call it vendoring. It's very simple. First, learn how much the vendors will pay for everything. Salvage is easy: 100, 250, 1000, 5000 for base salvage, common, uncommon, and rare invention salvage, respectively. For set recipes, vendors pay 100 inf per level of the recipe if it is uncommon (yellow) and 200 if it's rare (orange). Common IO recipes are a bit trickier. Take the crafting cost, which is printed on the recipe, and divide by x. The value for x depends on the level of the recipe:
Level x
10-25 8
30-40 5.3
45-50 4
Crafted IO's can't be sold at the vendor. You can sell regular enhancements (TO's, DO's, SO's) at a vendor, of course, but you're not likely to memorize the prices. ParagonWiki can help.
Once you know what vendors will pay for an item, try to buy it for less. Check out the prices of circuit boards, for example: a common tech salvage. Those usually go for less than 250 inf. Buy a stack of 10 for 150 inf, sell them to a vendor, and pocket the 1,000 inf profit. Repeat.
Some people may complain that vendoring reduces the supply available for other players. That's absolutely true. On the other hand, if other players wanted the stuff so badly, why didn't they buy it? When there are 1,500 circuit boards for sale and not a single bid, it's hard to take any complaint about supply shortages seriously. You can only make a profit vendoring salvage if nobody is willing to buy it for vendor price or above. When you vendor salvage, the person who sold the salvage to you is happy: they sold their item for at least as much as they listed it for. You're happy: you made a profit. Don't worry about anyone else's opinion. People who are neither buying nor selling the item in question have no grounds to complain.
b. Flipping. Buy low and sell high. It's almost as easy as it sounds. The only risk is that you might try to sell too high and nobody buys. You either give up on that transaction slot while waiting for a miracle, or pull the item off the market and kiss your listing fee good bye. You can certainly make a steady profit with this method, though. How much profit depends on how big a spread there is between your buy and sell prices, how quickly transactions take place, and how often you check in on the market. What's really nice about this method is that it works best when you're not paying attention. Put in a low bid, wait a few days. Collect your items, relist them for a high price, and wait a few days. It's tailor made for casual players. The more patient you are, the bigger a margin you can aim for. Just remember that it's never risk free. If you list too high, you might have to wait for the next double xp event before your items finally sell, and maybe not even then.
Some people will say that you are driving up the price of items, but that isn't exactly true. Aggressive flipping certainly drives up the lowest price, but it pulls down the highest price. What flipping really does is to stabilize prices: instead of prices jumping up and down during the day, a bunch of competing flippers will push all prices to be within 10% of the "normal" market price. It makes it harder for poor people to snag low priced items, but it ensures that items are available when wealthier players want to buy them. That may not sound pretty, but, frankly, it's how markets are supposed to work.
c. Speculation. Every time the devs change the game, they change the market. If you can guess what impact a new change will have, then you can find a way to profit. For example, when the devs introduced the new Rikti War Zone, prices on arcane salvage went up. Anyone who saw it coming could buy salvage low before the issue was released and sell high afterwards. Of course, you might guess wrong, and even if you guess right in general, you still might guess the exact amounts wrong. There are lots of ways to mess up. I usually refer to this method as "gambling" and I rather enjoy it.
d. Market Games: The Holy (or unholy) Grail of PvM. Here's how it works:
Step 1: Place hundreds or thousands of bids for 1 inf, to make it look like there is a huge demand for something, and/or buy up 99% of the existing supply, and/or sell five items to yourself so the sales history looks however you want it to look.
Step 2: ?
Step 3: Profit!
It's step 2 that trips people up. If you get that wrong, then you'll never make it to step 3. Most people don't. If they do get to step 3, then it was often just luck, although they'll never realize it. Sometimes it's just poor math skills that make them think they got to step 3, or maybe they convince themselves that they could have gotten to step 3 if only they had had more time, or a bigger starting stake, or less bad luck. A lot of people just assume that everything they don't like on the market is caused by other people working on step 1, since natural market forces couldn't possible explain why things cost more than they feel like paying.
There isn't much I can tell you about the mythical step 2, but I will tell you this: First, you don't need to play market games to get rich in CoH. Second, the tiny handful of cases I know of personally in which someone made it to step 3 all started with a secret step #0: research. Study the market, study the players, watch how prices change, what the volume is like and how it changes at different price points, get a PhD in economics if you have some spare time. Research, calculate, plan... then move. You can make a profit at it, but you can also lose your shirt.
Good luck!
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
Wentworth's 107: Feeling Rich
There is an old Rikti proverb I'd like to share with you.
Income: $100. Expenses: $99. Result: Happiness.
Income $100. Expenses: $101. Result: Misery.
Or, as the Buddha would say, "The source of suffering is desire. To cease suffering, you must cease desiring."
The Eightfold Path of Enlightenment might be a little much for the average computer game enthusiast, but you will be much happier if you can accept one basic truth: you can't have all the shinies. I know you want all the shinies. They're all so shiny! You can't have all the shinies. You can have some of the shinies, but nobody can have all of the shinies. If anyone ever got all of the shinies, the devs would make more shinies.
You grind and grind until you get all of your enhancements up to level 50++ and what happens? The devs get Hamidon working. So you raid and raid and raid until you get a full set of HO's into every power and what happens? Inventions are introduced. So you farm and shop and invent until you get a fully IO'd character and what happens? Purple recipes. Go ahead, start farming again, but you know what? The devs will add something new, eventually. You'll never be done; you'll never have it all; you'll never win. You are chasing the rainbow and you will never ever catch it.
Relax. Slow down. Enjoy the scenery.
What do you love about this game? The huge variety of characters which can form a successful team? The bright, sparkly super powers? Smashing Skulls in Perez Park when you're level 30? Knockback, and lots of it? Playing a defender in a grossly incompetent team of noobs? Getting together with a bunch of friends and waging an epic battle against overwhelming odds and winning by the skin of your teeth? You don't need purple recipes, or HO's, or IO's for any of those things!
With a fully IO'd character, you can take on challenges which a character with SO's couldn't handle, but there are still lots of things that both characters can do just fine, and lots of things that neither character can handle. I don't care how many purple IO's you have, you aren't going to solo a Rikti Drop Ship! No matter how strong or how weak your character, something out there is going to be a perfect challenge! Other things will be too weak or too hard.
You want to be the best hero you can be, of course, but you are always going to be limited by the circumstances. Enhancement Diversification is a limit. The basic design of the game is a limit. The number of hours/week you can play is a limit. The amount of influence you have is another limit. What can you accomplish within those constraints? That's the game.
Here are some concrete suggestions to feeling rich:
When other people talk about how much money they have or earn, take it with a grain of salt. People tend to exaggerate, or to brag about the best they have ever done rather than talk about their average.
Better yet, when other people start bragging about their riches, just ignore them. It doesn't do you any good to listen to that stuff. Most folks talk a lot more about what they've got than about how you can get it, so you aren't going to learn much.
Have fun! This is a game. Don't let yourself get so caught up in the treadmill that you forget to enjoy yourself. Whatever it is that you most enjoy about this game, make time to do it. Team with a new player and see the game through their eyes and remember why you started playing in the first place.
Do some green-con hazard zone sweeping. Mowing down a sea of Hellions in Perez Park, or zombies in Dark Astoria, not only makes you feel powerful, but it makes a nice pool of money. If you find farming dull, then don't do it a lot, but give it a try at least once. It may be fun in small doses.
Share. It seems counterintuitive, but sometimes the best way to feel rich is to give things away. Find someone who is even poorer than you and help them out.
Set realistic targets and achieve them. Don't go window shopping in Mid's and work out a billion influence build. Just pick one thing you want, like a knockback protection IO. Set a budget, save up your money, and buy it. Victory! Now, pick a new goal.
Escape from SO's. Once you are fully slotted with IO's, you'll never need to make "maintenance payments" again. All of your influence can go towards filling new slots and upgrading to more exciting IO's.
Find alternatives. There are a lot of different ways to achieve similar results. If you can't afford a Luck Charm to craft an accuracy IO, then buy one precrafted. Or use an SO, or a DO, temporarily. Use set IO's instead of common IO's, or vice versa. If you can't afford the salvage for a level 30 recipe, look at the level 25 version. Sometimes the salvage for a higher level IO will be cheaper than the salvage for a lower level IO. Look around.
Focus on your enhancement amounts, not your set bonuses. Sure, set bonuses are nice, but how many times will a 0.7% ranged defense save your life? With smart slotting of IO's, you can build a stronger character than anybody could have had back in I8, no matter how rich they were. That's awesome!
Be a people person. You may not have the influence, or the enhancements, or the stable of level 50's that some folks do, but remember: "no man is a failure who has friends." Everything in this game is nothing but numbers in a database. Those numbers go up and down every day. Some people get bigger numbers than other people. So what? Anybody with a calculator can put big numbers in a computer. The only things that are real in Paragon City are the people who play here. Connect with people, and you may find rewards far greater than virtual currency.
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
Table of Contents
Wentworth's 101: Introduction to the Markets
Wentworth's 102: Selling
Wentworth's 103: Buying
Wentworth's 104: Frequently Asked Questions
Wentworth's 105: General Tips and Tricks
Wentworth's 106: Bringing Home the Bacon
Wentworth's 107: Feeling Rich
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
Nice work peter. Thanks
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a *real* useful invention. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...t-sarcasm.html
*thumbs up* Great guide, nice job.
Petey Quick, SL50 Ene/Ene Blapper - Cynapse, SL50 Inv/Ene Tanker
Witchblaze, Fire/Fire Blaster - Lo Ping, MA/Regen Scrapper
Astre, Fire/Kin Controller - Terri Volta, Rad/Rad Defender - Solarkinetic, Peacebringer
Yusaku's Guide to the Energy/Energy BLAPPER
Bravo!
Edit - I discovered a tip today I hadn't previously known. Probably common knowledge, but possibly not.
If you want to transfer an enhancement from your tray to Wentworth's, you don't have to drag it to the WW window. You only have to click it once. Wish I had known that a long time ago.
[ QUOTE ]
If you want to transfer an enhancement from your tray to Wentworth's, you don't have to drag it to the WW window. You only have to click it once. Wish I had known that a long time ago.
[/ QUOTE ]
Wow, I never knew that. If the edit window isn't closed yet, I'm going to stick that into the tips and tricks section. Thanks!
Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie
GJ peter, learned a couple things in all that and confirmed some things I experienced!!
I don't understand the people that DO NOT take part in the market. Even if they want to stick to the conventional system of enhancements you still need influence. What a better way to earn influence then sell all that stuff you collect but wont use anyway?!
Warlord: You are looking at a man that can run you through with this sword without batting an eye.
Monk: You are looking at a man who can be run through with that sword without batting an eye.
--old Korean folk tale
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you want to transfer an enhancement from your tray to Wentworth's, you don't have to drag it to the WW window. You only have to click it once. Wish I had known that a long time ago.
[/ QUOTE ]
Wow, I never knew that. If the edit window isn't closed yet, I'm going to stick that into the tips and tricks section. Thanks!
[/ QUOTE ]
/happy dance 
Fantastic work, PeterPeter.
The time, energy, and initiative to put this together is commendable. I suspect it's going to be a link in several signatures from now on.
Comprehensive yet approachable for the new user, you hit precisely the right tone and delivery. Bravo.
Excellent guide, very impressive and very helpful.
[ QUOTE ]
Make sure you enter the price you want to sell at in the correct box near the bottom, not the buying box in the upper right hand side. (Again, I do that all the time.)
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh man, this is so me. What's really bad is if there is a quantity slider. 
"Wait, did I just..."
Great Job.
Peterpeter, I was expecting something really good...but not this. Wow. 
There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.
Very nice guide Peter.
/em thumbsup
Tech Support Rule #1 - They will lie to you. Usually intentionally.
Excellent Write up. And how in the heck did it escape me that Red tomax has that handy little salvage tracker?
Ya learn something new everyday around here i suppose. 
Loved it!
I enjoyed reading it even though I'm not new to the market. And I would definately reccomend it to those who are.
Great set of guides peter. and I laughed a number of times. that makes these golden
High Beam - 50 Blaster Energy/Ice - 1228 Badges
Munitions Mistress - 50 Mercs/Traps
Many Other 50's, Too Many Alts, All On Freedom
Just Because You Can, Doesn't Mean You Should!
I enjoyed your guide a lot Peter, thanks. It really does highlight the fact that you can only do so much. Like I'm not really particularly fond of zipping through radio missions beating everything up by myself just in the hope of getting something good to drop.
Just gotta find that balance between enjoying yourself and at least making enough inf for some decent sets now and then. And at the end of the day, really, it's hard to NOT make some reasonable cash just by playing how you want to. I think that escapes a lot of people...
Wentworth's 101: Introduction to the Markets
In May of 2007, with the release of Issue 9, Wentworth's Fine Consignments arrived in Paragon City, along with the new Black Market in the Rogue Isles. The Invention system was introduced at the same time. As part of the Invention system, players now receive two new types of drops from defeated enemies: recipes and Invention salvage. Because the drops are random, you are unlikely to receive exactly what you need or want. At the same time, the items you receive may be exactly what someone else wants. Wentworth's exists in order to facilitate trades between players. You could always trade items face to face instead, but using the Consignment House (CH) has advantages. For example, it is not necessary for both people to be online, in the same place, at the same time before a trade can happen. This convenience does come with a price, as the CH charges a fee on all transactions.
There are four Wentworth's locations in Paragon City: Atlas Park, Kings Row, Steel Canyon, and Talos Island. They are marked with a gold 'W' on the map. The Black Market has four locations in the Rogue Isles: Cap au Diable, Mercy Isle, Sharkhead Isle, and St. Martial. They are also marked on the map. When you first approach the market, you will see several NPC's. One will give you basic information about how the CH works. Look for either "Wentworth Information Representative" or "Looks Like He Knows Something". Read this before starting. Read the part about fees twice. People always get confused about the fees.
One thing the NPC's will not make clear is that there are really only two markets: one for heroes and one for villains. The separate servers (Freedom, Virtue, Champion, Liberty, etc) do not have their own independent markets. Even the EU servers are merged in with the US servers. The only distinction is hero vs villain. The test server also has its own pair of hero and villain markets, and those never interact with the live versions.
The NPC's also don't make it as clear as they could that anything you put into the market will vanish after 60 days if you don't log in that particular character. The exact details have never been disclosed by the devs, but it is definitely not an idle threat. A lot of people have lost influence and items by neglecting an alt for a couple of months. The wipe happens during the first routine maintenance after the 60 day mark. Logging a character in will probably protect that character's stuff. Opening the market window definitely will, even if you don't buy or sell anything. When the 60 day rule does kick in, everything you had at the market vanishes: stored items, unfilled bids, bought items, items listed for sale, everything. You don't get any of the money back at all. Logging in one character will not protect items owned by any other characters of yours.
Clicking on one of the other NPC's will open the market interface. A lot of information and a lot of controls are packed into a small space here. Use the left side to find an item, with the results displayed on the right. The empty squares on the bottom are your slots, which you use to buy and sell. You really need to see the screen for yourself. Take some time to look around and get a feel for the interface. When you can tell me the last 5 sale prices for Spiritual Essence, you're ready for Wentworth's 102: Selling.
If you run into trouble, check out Zombie_Man's Guide to the Consignment Markets. The section on "Using the Interface" is very detailed.
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