PART ONE: ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD. SOMETIMES.:
An explanation behind in-game items/values/ideas that count as currency or salable items, that in turn, directly enhance/affect/change/create our marketplace(s), or "h0w k@n i maek $$$$?"
1.) Time is money. I mean Infamy/Influence. Wait no, money.
Let's say playing this game was my 'job'. The more time, and effort during that time, I put into the game, the higher turnout I'm nearly guaranteed to get. In the real world, playing this game could be likened to a 'per-piece' job. The more items you finish (time you spend doing things that put infamy/influence in your characters pocket), the higher your payment (the actual amount that ends up in your characters pocket) at the end of the work day/week/month/whatever. With me so far? Good. So to illustrate (and use some imaginary samples/numbers) let's look at a single hour of playtime for our four friendly helpers:
Hardcore Harry, a person doing their best to get tons of inf (infamy/influence), is running around the <insert easy outdoor map> spawned for 8 while running it solo. Hes averaging 1mil inf gain an hour.
Teaming Terri, a person just hanging out with their SG, does a few story arcs, maybe some street-sweeping, maybe even a quick TF. Although her team is technically tearing through mobs as quick as Harry is, she's on an 8-person team. So even though her team is killing 1mil inf/hour worth of bad guys, her share of it is only 150k an hour.
Chatty Chuck, a person who is just waiting for i12, is spending their time gabbing on their favorite few global channels, and while super-speeding to Atlas to hold a killer costume contest, accidentally kills a few Malta in PI with a nuke by hitting the wrong button while typing during auto-run. His average comes out to 10k an hour.
Prestige Pamela, a player trying to win the 'top spot' in her SG's prestige list, is playing Hardcore Harrys same setup, but purely in SG mode as a lvl 50. Average inf earned? 0 an hour.
Sam Solo is trying to round up some funds for some purple IOs. While not on a crazy farming mission, Sam is able to complete quite a few missions and defeat a ton of enemies along the way. Average inf earned is 500k an hour.
Summary: Everyone does different stuff while playing, whether hardcore farming or PVPing or socializing or teaming or whatever. Our first viable way of gaining inf is directly related to how many bad guys we have a part in offing. Even with the market, inf gained through mob defeats is probably the easiest and most consistent way to gain cash without relying on luck. While outside of SG mode, Mob Defeats per hour, divided by team size equals your net inf gain. The best ways to increase this number is to defeat more badguys , spend more time at it, do it with smaller teams, or any combination (or increase) of the above. I'll say it again, in this game,[u] Time is Money.[u]
2.) Drops: The sure way of getting nothing from something
As part of 'offing bad guys', we each have the opportunity to get what many of us call 'drops'. This includes everything from inspirations, to enhancements, to base salvage, to invention salvage, to recipes. However, this is all entirely randomly generated. Killing mobs of any type guarantees nothing, outside of the salvage drop table mentioned for the mob, and a few rules for both higher-level and higher-class mobs (AVs/Heros drop SOs, f'r instance. Many 'pets' give no reward, etc). So for each reward-giving mob you are part of defeating, you have 6 Random Number Generators (RNGs). The first RNG 'rolls' to determine who on the team is getting the drops. Then there are 5 separate 'rolls' for each of the rewards (insps, base salvage, invention salvage, enhancement, recipe). So, the more bad guys you kill with fewer members on your team, the greater your chances of getting a drop of any sort. If it helps you understand it better, visualize the idea that every time you have a chance at a drop, the game is really giving you a secret spin on an invisible slot machine. Sometimes youll get lucky and get 3 cherries, sometimes youll be unlucky and get nothing, while your teammate gets 3 triple bars. Its all based on luck, and your only chance at guaranteeing something coming your way is to continually try for more chances at the invisible slot machine. So, lets see how our helpers fare:
Hardcore Harry, soloing a map for 8, with a character 'designed' for such an occasion, gets an attempt at the invisible slot machine for each bad guy he defeats, since he's the only one on the team. Solo x Lots of Kills= much higher chances for all enemy-defeat drops.
Casual Kim, doing her thing on a team of 8, has a smaller chance of getting mob-defeat drops, due to her teaming nature. Lots of Kills divided by team size=lower chances of getting drops.
Chatty Chuck, other than the accidental spawn nuke in PI, had tiny chance of getting drops. Solo x low amount of mob defeats= Lower chance of getting drops.
Prestige Pamela, doing the same as Harry, but while in SG mode, has a theoretical 'same chance' as him to get mob-defeat drops. Solo x High amount of mob-defeats= high chance of getting drops.
Sam Solo, as the name implies, is running solo, although not on a farming map cheesing easy minions repeatedly. Solo x Medium amount of mob-defeats= high chance of getting drops (though not as numerous as a hardcore farmer)
Summary: For many of the drops available in the game, the fastest way to gain them is to beat up more baddies on smaller teams, if not solo entirely. Although you can skew your salvage drops by fighting the correct enemies (Circle of Thorns for magical salvage drops, for instance), or other similar dev-instituted rules, you cannot guarantee any specific drop for any specific mob. So, the more times you can make the random number generator (RNG) look up a drop table with your character as the receiver, the better your chances are at getting mob-defeat drops.
Edited due to info from Fulmens, who thankfully pointed out that there are 5 separate rolls, not one single roll, for the rewards from each enemy defeat
3.) There's no such thing as a free lunch (recipe)!
Some drops don't specifically involve regular mob defeats. This includes Mission Complete recipe drops, SF/TF/Trial rewards, Hami/SHO rewards, and a few others. In fact, recipes themselves come in 5 different pools to reflect this.
Pool A is purely through mob defeats.
Pool B is from mission completes
Pool C is from TF/SF completion
Pool D is from Trial completion (including Hami raids)
Pool E is purely from minions (and mainly comprises costumes)
Pool 'Z' is an imaginary pool I made up that comprises the 'ultra rare Purple recipes' that only drop from enemies that can drop lvl 50 recipes.
3A.) Pool A recipes (also, Pool E and Pool Z)
These go almost hand in hand with the above examples. They are explicity given out for 'mob defeats'. The numbers for drop rates are roughly 2.6%/5.3%/7.9% for minions/LTs/Bosses, with a final* rarity ratio of 32:8:1 of common:uncommon:rare. So, all pool A recipe chances are exactly the same (the drop rates for each enemy type), but the actual recipes themselves are spread out. Simply put, out of every 100, about 78 will be common, 20 will be uncommon (yellow), and 2 will be rare (orange). And, to get those rhetorical 100 recipes, you'd have to kill practically thousands of baddies. Supposedly. 
Again, along with the above examples, the more mobs you defeat, the more recipes you have a chance at picking up. We're also going to roll Pool E into this, for simplicity's sake. (Well leave Pool Z for later)
Harry and Pamela, as above with the inf gain, are pretty well much rolling in recipes.
Terri, depending on her luck (and whether or not the numbers given by the devs are correct), can expect somewhere around 1 recipe per 40-50 mobs her team defeats. If she's lucky.
Chatty Chuck? He's joking about something OOC, so I'm not going to even bother asking him. No mob defeats past that small mob he accidentally nuked means that he has a slim-to-none chance of getting any recipes (past the normal drop rates mentioned above)
Sam is able to sweep up enemy spawns with ease, hardly needing to stop except for the occasional sneaky 'too many enemies too close together' problems. However, Sam is still solo, and therefore gets each chance at a recipe, resulting in many more than what Terri would get, but not nearly as many as Pamela or Harry.
Pool A Summary: Much like inf rates, the more baddies you defeat with less help, the more you can potentially get.
3B.) Pool B Recipes
At last check, each team member has a 10% of a recipe reward upon completing a mission, whether they helped defeat everything on the map, or they sat by the entrance while the scrapper/tanker/brute/dom/troller cleared it for them. As long as they were on the mission long enough to get the reward, they get a 10% chance of getting a 'bonus' recipe as well. Let's see how our 4 helpers fare at getting mission complete (pool B) rewards!
Hardcore Harry refuses to complete his mission, as that would destroy the 'farm' he's created. Pool B per hour? ZERO
Prestige Pamela is in the same boat. Completing the mission would 'break' their farm. ZERO pool B per hour.
Chatty Chuck isn't even doing missions, as he and his friends are waiting to do 'all that noob level stuff' again with their 'new' characters when i12 comes out. ZERO pool B per hour.
Teaming Terri, therefore, is our first helper that has a chance of getting Pool B recipes. However many missions her team is able to complete an hour she, and everyone in her team, has a chance at the invisible roulette wheel that is the RNG for Pool B drops. Her team clears 10 missions, and Terri, being extremely average in luck, manages to snag one Pool B reward. The rate here is (roughly) Mission Completes divided by ten equals Pool B reward. Keep in mind that each teammate gets their own chance at the mish-complete reward, so even though she didn't get 9 out of the 10 rewards, her other teammates did, which increases the total amount of mission-complete recipes available for player use, even if Terri sees only one
Sam Solo is also clearing missions, trying to finish up arcs and get badges and souvenirs at the same time. Sam's able to clear up quite a few missions an hour, due to the smaller amounts of enemies, and the ease of going at one's own pace (even if that means Sam ghosts a few). Sam clears 15 missions an hour, and has some nice luck, resulting in an average of 2 mish-complete recipes an hour.
Pool B Summary: Despite the static 10% chance for pool B rewards, one can only complete one mission at a time, while one can (technically) defeat many mobs at the same time. One can feasibly even get plenty of Pool A rewards while trying to get even one pool b reward! So, by their very nature, Pool B rewards can be considered much harder to get over time than it is to gain Pool A rewards. So, despite a flat 10% chance upon each completion for each team member for a 'spin', the time spent to reward ratio is considered 'bad' compared to a crazy farmer and their pool A drops. However, the easiest way to get more Pool B recipes available to the playerbase is to include more members on your team when completing missions. Food for thought...
3C.) Pool C Recipes
Pool C rewards are gained by completing TFs and SFs. There's technically a 100% chance for reward, if you (and your team) are able to complete the TF/SF, AND you choose the recipe reward option AND you have room in your inventory for the recipe. There are some barriers involved in getting to this point, as many of the TFs and SFs can be viewed as 'entirely too long' or involve malefactoring/exemplaring to a 'sub-optimal level', or against 'crappy enemies' or similar complaints/excuses. Plus, they can be pretty difficult, especially if you are unfamiliar with the SF/TF. Nevertheless, there's at least two out there that I know of that, for a while, could be reliably completed under an hour. However, for this example, well say that each TF can be completed in exactly 3 hours. See, in addition to the length and difficulty of a TF/SF, the devs have instituted a rule where you can only get one rare recipe reward from any TF/SF to just once every 3 hours. Our 4 helpers fare somewhat similarly to the Pool B example.
Hardcore Harry is still hanging out on his map. Exemplaring/Malefactoring would be too much of a deterrent to his setup. Zero Pool C an hour.
Prestige Pamela, just like Harry, has 'better things to do'. Zero Pool C an hour.
Chatting Chuck has his costume contest underway and needs to judge before he can even think about doing a TF. Zero Pool C an hour.
So, it falls next onto our poor Teaming Terri, who decided to do a TF/SF with her SG, and clocked out with a Pool C recipe exactly 3 hours later. 0.3333, repeating of course, Pool C recipes an hour.
Finally, Sam gets a crazy idea. After running to Warburg and getting a few nukes, and then running to Bloody Bay for some Shivans, and after getting the last few badges needed for a bunch of different accolades PLUS a few useful temp powers... Sam decides to be really hardcore, and to try and solo a TF/SF alone. Sam invites 3 random people to 'pad', and has them quit out, and then Sam goes in alone. After burning up a gazillion inspirations, dying entirely too many times, and using up every single temp power in their inventory, Sam miraculously completes the TF/SF in the blindingly quick solo speed of 3 hours. Net result: 0.3333 (repeating, of course) Pool C recipes an hour.
Pool C Summary: Here we begin to see the exaggerated effects of 'Only upon completion' that we saw earlier with Pool B recipes. Even though the reward is 100% if your team is able to complete the entire arc, the time involved, and even the difficulty, can be enough of a deterrent to keep many from trying to get one through the normal means. Also, if we're generous, and say that each TF/SF can always be completed in 15 minutes, even doing a marathon session of 24 hours of non-stop TF/SFs only gets you 8 recipes on the same character due to the ruling! Keep in mind that while doing a TF/SF, one can still get chances for many pool A rewards, and even a few pool B. The amount of effort required to get a Pool C recipe, along with the time involved, increases the scarcity of it on the marketplace, even though the rarity never truly changes (you always have a 100% chance to get a recipe, even if it takes you and your team 4 weeks to complete the SF/TF). More food for thought: The more people on the team that complete the SF/TF, the more Pool C recipes that become available to the playerbase.
3D.) Pool D recipes
Ah, the joy of some and the bane of others, it's the pool of recipes available as rewards to those doing Trials and supposedly, the Hami raid! Keep in mind that I say 'Supposedly', as I am entirely too afraid of getting a yucky recipe to pick anything but the Hami, so I'm afraid to even find out. In the beginning, I believe the devs planned to have 'Trials' be some sort of uber-TF/SF. In other words, for an extra amount of risk/time expenditure, they wanted to give a special reward. Some trials give you the chance at weird new enhancements, some give you access to a respec for your character, and so on. However, these rewards fall under a rule of 'once every 24 hours' per character.
As we know, 3 of our helpers can't do anything. One is socializing, the other two are 'farming'. Sam, after the trauma of trying to solo a TF/SF, decides they'd be better off clearing out a few more Oro missions.
So, it takes our hapless Teaming Terri and her team 24 hours to do a Trial. End result? 1 Pool D recipes per day. And yes, if doing a trial that involves other missions/baddies, you can have chances at the pool A and pool B recipes again.
Pool D Summary: Again, given the time, effort and 24-hour timer involved in obtaining a Pool D recipe, these also tend to be in short supply. However, due to the relative small size in said pool, along with what is assumed to be a lack of 'important' recipes (such as many high-demand Procs), they don't always seem to command as high of a price as many other recipes in other pools.
Edited thanks to info from rmskull, who pointed out my error with the timing. My bad!
3Z.) Pool 'Z' Recipes
Pool 'Z' is an [u]imaginary pool[u] I made up to cover the existence of the relatively-new 'Ultra-rare Purple Invention Recipes'. These are special in that they are unique, extremely difficult to get, and can only be gotten as drops from enemies that are already dropping lvl 50+ items. These Ultra-rare drops are still part of Pool A, shifting the ratio from 32:8:1 (common/uncommon/rare) to something like 64:16:2:1 (com/Unc/Rare/U.rare), or even as tiny as 256:64:8:1. As far as I can tell, none of the devs even want to mention how 'small' the drop rate is. Either way, this is only a pool you can get things from if you're fighting things that are (usually) lvl 50 or higher, so it counts as the 'Pool A' set, with just a simple rule check for enemy level. Let's see how our helpers fare:
Harry, if he's fighting lvl 50s (which he seems to be), scores pretty highly on this list, just like he would on regular Pool A drops. We'll say that he's able to score a minimum of 1 an hour.
Pamela, like harry, is pulling off the same thing, sans inf gain. 1 an hour.
Chuck, being sociable, is actually *awarding* a purple IO donated by one of his SG members to the winner of the costume contest. No recipes an hour, but he still knows they exist.
Terri was unlucky, and during her hour of play, didn't get any purples. She did, however, curse under her breath when the lvl 48 character that seemed to be along for the ride and wasn't even assisting with the battles, mentioned that they got an Armageddon off that last Bane Spider. No recipes an hour, but the team did receive one.
Sam Solo, however, is laughing all the way to bank, as Fate smiled broadly and granted a total of 2 different purple IO drops on a relatively easy Freakshow mission during their hour of play.
Pool Z Summary: Granted, I made up Pool Z, but I feel it is tiny enough to practically warrant its own just-as-tiny pool and just-as-tiny drop rate, especially due to player demand of these ultra-rares. These do exist, with some players having all the luck and seeing multiples in a play session, and other players only seeing them up for sale in the market and never in their rewards window. Again, like the pool A recipes, and since the drop rate is (technically) so low, the best way to increase your chances of hitting the "Beat-A-Mob Multi-Million-Jackpot" is to smash more baddies faster with less people on your team.
All Pools Summary: Hammering away at minions is generally the easiest and fastest way to get recipes, but it can be noted that some recipes can take much longer to get just by the way they are rewarded. It is also helpful to note that if your character isn't all that great at soloing/farming (or you detest it as a player) there are at least 3 other recipe pools you can try to get picks from by doing things other than 'farming the same dumb mission repeatedly'.
4.) The ancient bone's connected to the... bleeding stone?
In addition to the other stuff enemies like to drop upon defeat, we have two fun bits of... stuff. Firstly, we have 'base salvage'. Base salvage is used to help create items within bases, whether it'd be a zone teleporter or a nifty scrying object or giant supercomputers or what-have-you. Unfortunately, with the current lack of SG's razing each others bases to the ground over Items of Power, we tend to have a glut of these. They're useful for gaining some badges, but other than that, these hold more worth within the SG than they do on the open market.
Secondly, we have the 'important' salvage, namely, Invention salvage. This is the salvage that is required to create actual enhancements out of those recipes you've been getting from the various pools. Each recipe needs anywhere from 2 or 4 or more salvage pieces, usually of different type-trees or rarities, to be created. There's also a drop rate for salvage, which is a bit more generous than Pool A recipes ( 8%/10%/25% for minion/LT/Boss, with a rarity ratio of 22:5:1 for com/unc/rare)
Third, your invention salvage has the lucky ability to be placed in a per-character storage vault, either accessible in a 'Vault Reserve' location, or if your SG has one, a salvage vault. So, if you are carrying items that you wish to hang on to for later, you can do so. Finally, and most importantly, the invention salvage is divided up into 'levels'. Even if you get a recipe during a mission (especially if you are mal'ed/exemp'ed, or LK/SK'd), you can't be guaranteed that you'll be getting the correct salvage from those enemies to create the item.
[u]Helpful hint:[u] By bringing up the info window on an enemy, you should see a tab that will tell you what salvage that particular enemy has the chance to drop, including if any of those items it drops will work in any of your currently carried recipes.
As per Pool A recipes, salvage drops are directly affected by your enemy mobs defeated per hour skill, divided by the number of people in the group.
Pamela and Harry, like usual, rake in these drops like nobody's business.
Chuck, having chosen the winners of the costume contest, is now inviting some of the better named/costumed/background-ed characters with no SG to join his own SG. No drops.
Terri, having the same defeat/hour ratio as Pam and Harry, gets a few drops, even though her items are split between herself and 7 other teammates.
Sam, feeling feisty, streetsweeps for a bit, focusing purely on CoT bosses. While not getting the same defeat/hour ratio as the others, Sam is getting a higher chance at a drop due to the boss drop rates. End result? Almost nearly as many salvage drops as Pamela and Harry, with very little effort.
Summary: Even though it's much easier to get salvage than recipes, you can easily get more recipes than salvage to create them, or at least not have the right salvage needed to finish the item. So, you'll need to hit up the marketplace to cover your missing items, or concentrate on fighting enemies that drop what you need, or trade directly with other players.
PART TWO: STATING THE OBVIOUS IN TERMS OF THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE
Explaining some economic things like rarity, scarcity, usefulness, hoarding, surpluses, shortages, spoilages, and other economy/business terms nobody really cares about, but still directly enhance/affect/change/create our marketplace(s), or "hw0 k0m3 dis kRaP c0s+ s0 mUcH????/// <expletive> !!!!1111oneone"
1.) Water, water, everywhere, and nary a drop worth slotting.
A quick skimming of the starting powers/powersets throughout the various ATs on your side should point you easily in the direction of which recipes are going to be inherently worth more than others. However, some particular enhancement types (PBAoE, Healing, etc) may have multiple sets available (Regenerative Tissue, Miracle, etc) within their type. Then there are other enhancement types that only have a few sets available. So, even though you may have just gotten an 'orange recipe' drop, if it's for something that is little used (say, comparing an orange sleep to an orange melee), you may not get what you see other similarly rare items going for. The amount of sets for a given enhancement type, the levels within those sets, the set bonuses, the enhancement bonuses/levels of the actual item itself, and the amount of powers that can take that kind of set all combine into a perceived value for that particular recipe. This is why you might work your tail off during a trial or task force to gain an orange snipe recipe that sells on the market for 5-10k, and find out that a yellow melee recipe you got from an unrelated mission the other day goes for 500k.
This is where the idea of 'scarcity' comes into play. It's quite easy to play this game, and 'produce' a drop. However, due to the RNG, maybe you got an inspiration instead of a recipe or invention salvage. And even if you do get a recipe or invention salvage, there's also another spin on the RNG to determine what rarity/kind it is. And, of course, if youre on a team, you automatically share each chance at a drop, which will make your chances of getting something even slimmer. So, although you can concentrate on getting drops, and even get more drops that others in the same amount of time, even solo, you can't guarantee which exact drop you'll get next. Conversely, many players know what they want, and use the markets to get what they want, even if it's extremely difficult or time consuming to get what they want. This introduces scarcity to our marketplace because the more some item becomes in demand, the more obvious the difficulty to 'produce' specific items with accuracy. We can guarantee producing a pool C drop by fully completing a TF/SF, but we can't guarantee it will be a specific recipe within that pool.
SUMMARY: Due to scarcity (not rarity!), just because it's orange doesn't mean anything. Just because it's a pool B/C/D drop doesn't mean too much at times either. The usability and utility of an item, especially recipes/enh that can be used by the largest part of the population, will usually increase the price of said item way beyond what people normally expect to see. Scarcity runs our market, and the more we feel we *need* X salvage or Y recipe and need it *now*, the higher the prices will get due to our demand, even if that item can be gained simply by playing a bit more, or leaving a bid open for longer than thirty seconds.
2.) I'm ok, you're ok, but that guy is a [u]<expletive>[u].
Some baddies can be a pain to fight, and for various reasons, enemies that drop magic salvage tend to use attacks and abilities that can be quite detrimental to your average soloing character. Why spend 5 minutes on a spawn because you have to deal with massive debuffs and end drain, when you can fight a like-leveled spawn that has none of those abilities and knock them all out in 10 seconds? Or worse, why spend an extra 20 minutes in a confusing layer-cake cave map, hunting down that danged last CoT or Carnie minion that somehow got almost-not-quite stuck in the level geometry, when you can blow through a warehouse map full of Freakshow all out in the open?
Many of the 'best' farming maps tend to have enemies that are tech-based in drops, which means that the market suffers from a large surplus of these items. Conversely, since many people dislike carnies and cave maps, magic-based salvage drops are in short supply. To compound this problem, there are roughly 20 enemy types that drop ONLY magic-based items, 33 that drop tech-only, and 5 that drop both. Finally, some enemy types are sometimes felt as more trouble than they are worth, and are avoided at nearly any level, which complicate the availability of even common salvage items in certain level ranges.
Summary: Due to enemy ability, map annoyance, farming difficulty, enemy availability and other ergonomic/Quality-of-Life factors, magic drops are in shorter supply than tech drops throughout the various salvage 'levels'.
3.) Brick-and-Mortars are locked by borders...and transaction 'slots'.
Much like an actual, physical store, our buying and selling is limited by our transaction space. A store, especially a 'nifty chain store' can even employ dozens of people to make sure they maximize the amount of product they expose their customers to, in order to guarantee an extra sale, and therefore, profit.
We don't really have those kind of sales/marketing techniques available to us.
We can't color an available sale 'green' because a group of scientists tells us it's more soothing to a potential customer's impulse buying response. Nor can we have a blue-light special on luck charms, and expect to upsell the customers on boresights at the checkout counter. We both, however, need to maximize our selling space to the best of our abilities, and therefore, tend to avoid low-volume, low-profit sales in favor of high-volume, high-profit items.
So that means that our nifty heal sets probably will get posted instead of our immobilize sets, or similar, just like a chain store for clothing probably won't carry dog food, even if someone eventually would buy that dogfood. Because we have limited space to sell items, we will inherently gravitate towards items that look like they're actually selling. Sure, someone out there might be willing to pay 128 million for a rare sleep recipe between lvls 38-40, but if we see no sales transactions in the marketplace for our lvl 39 rare sleep recipe, we'll probably just sell it direct to a quartermaster and put up a Crushing Impact instead. The lack of sales space forces us to focus on what's actually moving, otherwise we get stuck with a bunch of items that arent' getting sold, and we had to pay a 5% posting fee for.
Summary: Because we have limited space to sell things, we will sometimes market items at a loss (or not at all) to avoid keeping our slots filled and to keep inf rolling in/out. This directly results in some items/salvage/recipes that never get traded on the market, decreasing their availability while focusing the market on more salable items.
4.) The Right Tool for the Right Job at the Right Level
There is currently a tightly held belief by many that malefactor/exemplar often, that it's best to situate their enhancements to do the most good at those levels. The current standing is when dealing with Invention sets and their Set bonuses, once you are more than 3 levels below the invention, it ceases to count towards your 'amount of set slotted'. To better illustrate, imagine you had two 'Blue Steel's Billy Club Beatdown' enhancements in a power, both at level 50, and a further 4 'Blue Steel's Billy Club Beatdown' enhancements in the same power, all at lvl 25. If you malefactor to 45 (outside the 3 level range of the 50s), your set bonus will count as if you only have FOUR of the enhancements, not 6. You'll still get whatever stat bonus the enhancement itself gives (such as accuracy, dmg, etc), but it won't count towards the set bonus.
So, for the dedicated min-maxer that likes to be at their best with the most set bonuses, even when dropped down in level for TF/SF fun, or even PvP, it's best to have enhancements that are as close to the 'cap' for those particular levels, even if it means a reduced strength enhancement. So, you'll tend to see many recipes that are in that particular range (such as 30-33 for Siren's call), sometimes go for double the price of the same recipe that's only one or two levels higher/lower.
You'll also find that some recipes have an extremely high demand due to their secondary effects/set bonuses, and will be useful to lower level characters, further increasing the price.
Finally, some recipes can only be gotten by lower-level characters running TF/SF/Trials for their level range. Because the TF/SF/Trial reward is directly based off the characters actual level, youll tend to see more high level Pool C/Ds than low-level ones.
SUMMARY: Some recipes are 'worth' more than others of the same exact type strictly because of their level. For Pool C and D recipes, this can mean doubling of the price or more, since it requires a lower level character to get a lower level reward.
5.) I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, And I want it [u]now[u]. *guitar riff*
Face it. Many of us would rather have it now, than have it later, even if it would cost us double. I know of a few people that would gladly pay anywhere from 5x to 100x the normal 'going rate' for an item just to make sure they got it at the time they wanted it. An enh selling for an opening bid of 100 mil will only get sold if someone decides they actually WANT it enough to justify spending the 100 mil. When dealing with high-demand items, or low-supply items, the very fact that an item is up for bidding can send the price skyrocketing past the normal 'equilibrium price'. Sure, if you wished, you could place a bid for what you would honestly think it is worth to you, but if someone else wants it more than you, and bids much higher than you, it could be a long time, if ever, that you get to actually win your much lower bid.
Conversely, some sellers are so anxious to clear their inventory, theyll sell their loot for tiny amounts, even as low as a single inf. So, instead of leaving a bid for say, 10k on a rare item, and waiting a day, theyll post it for 1inf, and get it snatched up immediately by a low-ball bid of 1k, and be totally happy with it because it frees up that transaction slot for another sale.
SUMMARY: Some recipes are in such high demand and low supply, that money (inf) ceases to be an object. Such recipes, whether due to their usability, or being a key component in a specialized build, or similar, will generally skyrocket their prices into the stratosphere, costing tens, and even hundreds, of millions of inf. Alternately, some items, whether by seller anxious to complete a sale, seller ignorance, or similar, can go for extremely small amounts, allowing low-ball bidders to get deals of a lifetime.
The baseline rule is An item is worth exactly how much someone is willing to pay for it, no matter how much the previous person paid for it. Due to the way the market works, a buyers or sellers lack of patience will have [u]extremely[u] expensive results.
PART 3:
AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT.
Explaining how to use the ideas and information above to better prepare yourself for entering the marketplace and getting the items you want (or selling what you have) without losing your shirt in the process, or "h0ly cRuD, I @M R1CH!!!!oneoneeleven"
1.) Knowledge is Power.
Dont just jump into the market buying and selling willy-nilly and expect to end up a multi-billionaire or only spending pocket change. Research the prices, consider what or how youre going to approach, and alternate avenues for your intended goal.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO A BUYER: Check the market for previous listings. See if theres a similar recipe a few levels higher or lower that you could still use, that might be going even cheaper. If going for enhancements, check both the recipe prices (including salvage!) against the completed enhancement. If you see a lot of transactions often for an item, consider sneaking in a low-ball bid to see if you can score a deal. If you go entirely broke impatiently spending 20 million on a lvl 40 recipe when theres an available 39,41,25,50,etc. enhancement of the same type, just as sufficient for your particular needs and selling for much less, its YOUR fault.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO A SELLER: Check the market for previous listings. If theres no previous bids, check similar recipes a few levels higher/lower to determine your starting bid. Keep in mind that some recipes generally sell for more and faster than others. Determine what you would feel is a fair price, and post it as that. Sometimes you have to be patient (extremely patient redside!). If you want quick turnover, post it really low, even for 1 inf! If you post something so high it never gets sold like the others on the market, or so low that you feel like you got taken on the deal, its YOUR fault.
2.) Its only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
Say what you want about fair/correct pricing, or deviation between redside and blueside supply pools, or complaints about availability of various options, or angry flippers, or the world being against you, but the only reason someone will pay 100 million for an item in the market is because someone out there wants it enough to value it at 100 million (or even more).
WHAT THIS MEANS TO A BUYER: If you want an item, you can either bid low, and hope that eventually, through attrition or luck, you will eventually get your item. It might take hours or days or months, but you MIGHT (some will say should) actually get it. Or, you can see what theyre currently going for, and bid in that range and wait patiently. Youll have a chance of getting it, as long as the supply/demand moves in your favor. Or, if you desperately cannot live without it and must have it yesterday, bid as much as you possibly can. The faster you want something, the more you should expect to bid for it in order to get it. If you want an item, but you cant handle waiting for someone to fill your bid (or if youre just bidding too low according to the demand for it) its YOUR fault.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO A SELLER: If its taking up your transaction spaces, re-post it as lower. If nobody seems to be buying the item (no open bids, no recent transactions), you might even want to toss it to a quartermaster. However, if you see from the postings that there ARE transactions being posted and completed, you might simply need to wait. You can even go for quick sales by bidding as low as possible with open standing bids available to make sure you sell. If there are open standing bids, and your item is not selling, be patient and see if it still gets sold. On the other hand, sometimes if you post something with a high bid, you *can* find buyers, even if it takes longer than youre willing to wait. If you post an item for a price that others arent willing to meet within your timeframe, either repost it lower to get it sold, or its YOUR fault.
3.) People can be lazy, which is why convenience costs.
Much like convenience stores that charge extra premiums on staples such as bread and milk, you can find users that are willing to pay more for a completed enhancement than have to spend the time and effort for creating the same one for themselves, for cheaper. Why? Its convenient! With one transaction, they can have the item they want, instead of having to search for, bid upon, and finally buy the recipe, then buy the salvage (which may include MORE market work), then run to the worktable and make sure they have enough inf left over to cover the crafting cost. In addition, if a recipe requires a piece of rare salvage, you can usually expect to see that cost transfer over to the finished enhancement, either dropping the recipe price, increasing the finished enh price, or both.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO A BUYER: If youre looking for bargains, you can check the price between both the recipe itself and the created enhancement, including the prices of the salvage involved. Sometimes prices are high due to the salvage, sometimes high because people just dont even bother to check! If you dont mind the extra few moments of buying, selling, and other work, you can shave off sometimes millions off the cost of a pre-crafted enhancement, and rake in the savings by crafting it yourself. Keep in mind that any salvage you gather during your beat the heck out of enemies sessions can be saved and used for these times, so you can further drop the total cost to a mere shadow of the completed enhancement. If youre going broke impatiently buying crafted enhancements for a premium over what the cost of a recipe+salvage+craftcost would be, and theyre all available cheap, its YOUR fault.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO A SELLER: You have a choice between selling the recipe, or selling the created enhancement. Depending on the swing of the market, and if you have the salvage already, it can be extremely profitable to craft it yourself and sell it. Some recipes, although in high demand, use very cheap salvage, and you can turn a tidy profit by creating these for consumption by the lazy masses, just by buying up the recipes and selling the created item. If you are going broke selling recipes for 5k, when you have the salvage to craft them, and the crafted enhancement is going for ten or even a thousand times your expense of salvage+recipe+craftcost, its YOUR fault.
4.) If they demand a supply, supply the demand.
Chances are that the devs wont ever stop drops and rewards. Those TFs will probably always be there, just like those mobs probably always will be (barring the game closing!). However, people DO get tired of beating up those same mobs, or running those same TFs, or similar. This means that eventually, the supply of some of the more difficult to get items will dwindle to low levels, while the demand will increase the price to match. Conversely, when a new TF is created, the market fills with extra supply, driving the prices back down. Youll also see this when new ATs/powersets are added, as players go through the beginning content again, flushing the low-level item market with new supply.
However, if nobody is doing anything to create supply (running TFs, defeating mobs, etc) the market prices go way way up. If nobody is doing anything to create demand (simply giving up entirely on IOs, finishing up each and every character on an account, quitting, etc), market prices will go way down. The laws of supply and demand count especially true for Pool B/C/D recipes, as they are awarded with a level equal to the receiver. A lvl 20 character will get a lvl 20 recipe. A lvl 50 character will get a lvl 50 recipe, even if they are exemplared/malefactored for the SF/TF/Trial, so lower level recipes will sometimes be a lot more scarce than lvl 50s, because players are more likely to use their highbies to re-run all those TF/SF/Trials
WHAT THIS MEANS TO A BUYER: The reason why you see that lvl 30 Numina Proc going for millions upon millions is because a.) any player can slot it, b.) it gives a healthy, useful bonus, c.) it can only be obtained from TFs/SFs, and, most importantly, d.) it can only be gotten by a lvl 30 character. So, for all the reasons you want it, theres a bunch of other people that want it for both similar and different reasons. If a lvl 50 recipe goes for much, much less than a lower-level recipe, it is in your best interests to purchase the one most worth your time. If you are bidding lower prices for items that are obviously much harder to obtain and never getting any buys, or paying exorbitant amounts for those same items and leaving yourself penniless even if other-level items would serve you just as well, its YOUR fault.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO THE SELLER: Research the drops, see what goes for big amounts on the market, and capitalize on the issue. If you see certain level items go for more than others, focus on getting them, and raking in a huge profit in return. By exemplaring/malefactoring down to the correct level (either through a TF/SF/Trial, a flashback mission, or just for some fun with a lower-level friend), and focusing on those particular drops, you can meet the demand and make tons of inf. Concentrate on bringing the correct level characters to TFs/SFs/Trials to capitalize on the chance of getting a low level Pool C. Finally, for those particular enemies that drop salvage that you know goes for relatively high amounts, you might want to try creating a build specifically to combat their strengths and weaknesses, and concentrate on missions/street-sweeping/TF/SF/flashbacks that incorporate those enemies. You can even start up an All Market Consortium SG that specifically focuses on those things and helps each other get those TFs/Trials/Flashbacks/Street-sweeps done. It has been said that the risk of a faceplant or teamwipe can pale in comparison to the right reward. If youre dealing in items nobody wants to buy, and refuse to obtain those items people want, its YOUR fault.
5.) Slow and steady catches the worm.
Sorry to mix clichés, but both of these go hand in hand, at least as far as the market is concerned. Patience and planning early are huge factors in using the market. In fact, this was mentioned in some of our previous rules, but it deserves special attention here. For every eagle-eyed computer-chair commodities maven in the game, theres at least one person that could care less about the intricacies of our marketplaces. For every impatient trader selling juicy morsels for a single inf a piece to quickly free up transaction slots, theres a flipper capitalizing on the opportunity and relisting it for half a million and making an easy buck.
What does this boil down to?
Keeping your bids and posts open longer mean that (within reason) you have a much better chance of getting items or sales. Generally speaking, youll see more market activity during weekends than weekdays. Youll also see more activity according to both in-game and out-of-game events, such as holidays and special events. Its up to you to take these into account when buying and selling items on the market.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO A BUYER: Every time we get an influx of inf to the markets (whether from more people playing during a holiday event, or a new issue is released, or its a double XP weekend), prices will spike sharply due to the demand from players returning, more inf entering the marketplace, and so on. The market might be dead Wednesday morning at 4AM, but be rocking Friday at 8pm. If a new low-level area (or new AT or Powerset) is released, expect low-level recipes and salvage supplies to increase. Looking at the big picture, and planning ahead, you can save yourself time, hassle, and inf. If you know you want X recipe that starts being available at lvl 30, you might want to start putting in bids as early as lvl 25. If you see a particular recipe going for an amount of inf you dont think youll ever get, see if theres a similar recipe from a different set going for cheaper. If you know a new powerset is coming out, wait for that issue to hit before buying pricey low-level salvage/items. If you pay an extra ton of inf for an item because you want it now instead of planning ahead and buying it slower but cheaper, its YOUR fault.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO A SELLER: You dont have to sell an item for less than the going rate if you dont want to. If you see an item going for around 50k, sometimes higher and lower, you can post your item for 50k, and can usually expect to see it sold. Even for items that hardly ever sell, youd be surprised what eventually gets bought just by putting it up long enough for the right price. Pay attention to whats going on in and out of the game, along with things coming up (new issues, etc) and make sure you dont get stuck with a bunch of items that are suddenly worthless. Alternatively, if you know that something is going to happen in your favor (such as doubleXP), you can plan on selling your items faster, and for more. If you go broke or continually take losses on your sales because youre not paying attention, you dont care, or youre impatient, its YOUR fault
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[u]SECTION SUMMARY:[u] The market can be a scary place for the uninitiated, but with a little foresight, planning, patience, and knowledge, you can do your part to make the economy grow, while increasing your bankroll, your characters strength, or both.
PART FOUR: THE SQUEAKY WHEEL NEEDS TO LRN2MRKT.
Answers to commonly asked questions, gripes, and complaints about the marketplaces.
Q: 100 Million? Seriously? Ill NEVER get that much to get that recipe, and I really really REALLY need it!
A: Effort is key in this game. Whether youre a crazy person simultaneously running 8 different TV farms by octo-boxing, or a casual player that gets to spend maybe 30 minutes a week actually fighting badguys, the end result is essentially the same. The more effort you put into gaining inf/recipes/etc, the greater your returns will be. The reward system is a hybrid of a grindstone and a slot machine. The faster you grind with the less people, the greater the rewards, and the more chances you have at pulling that imaginary slot handle for a chance at the jackpot.
Q: But thats not fair! I wanted to play my nice teaming defender, not be forced into playing some Fire/Kin or Fire/Psy!
A: Thats the point, you dont have to. You can work the market in other ways to gain the inf you need sometimes even quicker. Magic salvage can sometimes go for quite a bit, why not focus on those badguys? If you like to team, why not try to join (or start your own) TFs, SFs and Trials? Sure, you wont see the direct influx of rewards that a solo farmer would, but that same solo farmer wont see the pool B, C, and D drops you will. In fact, one of the easiest ways to get inf on your way to 50 is to run those TF/SFs and Trials nobody else wants to run. Many of the multi-million-inf recipes are available as drops from Pool C!
Q: But thats not fair! I dont have the time to spend doing TFs/SFs/Trials, and I cant exemplar down to run lowbie missions because Im trying to hit 50! I need that danged recipe!!!
A: No, you dont *need* anything. Sure, many recipes, especially when slotted as sets, give great bonuses to your player. However, you dont NEED those recipes. For every 50mil enhancement, theres a much cheaper generic IO that can go in that slot. Or you can try a different IO set with different bonuses. You dont NEED IO sets, you WANT them. Just like you WANT them, other people WANT them. So, to be truly fair, the game is set up to allow the person with the most effort (and yes, sometimes luck) to have the best chance of getting those items available on the market.
Q: You dont get it! ITS NOT FAIR! We wouldnt even be having this problem if they just merged Wentworths and the Black Market!
A: No, wed still have this problem. If people dont want to supply, and just want to demand, and nobody wants to be patient and everyone is afraid that nobody is never going to do anything but farm missions, those prices will go higher and higher. Eventually, someone will get smart, and focus on fulfilling those demands, and rake in oodles of inf because other people are lazy/dont have time/greedy/etc. If you would rather complain about the price, than paying the price, or trying to get one yourself, its YOUR fault.
Q: WHATEVER! Youre trying to tell me its ok for Luck Charms to go for 100k? Youre insane!
A: I personally dont care what is going for what. Luck charms are in high demand for both set recipes AND generic IOs for people doing their crafting badges. Luck Charms also happen to be a relatively easy-to-get magic salvage from lower-level baddies. So, Id probably get in on that action, and take a lowbie (or even exemp/malefactor down) and go hunt some low level CoT. Id end up helping to supply that demand, and would be getting almost 100k a pop for each time I did. If I was lucky enough to get just 11, I would have earned more than 1million on that character just using the market and selling stuff I really dont want. What youre failing to see is that this isnt a PROBLEM for everyone. For many, its an OPPORTUNITY.
Q. Oh, opportunity? Like those opportunistic flippers that continually buy stuff off the market, and relist it at a higher price, creating their own monopoly?
A: Again, you can either fight this by undercutting their prices (bid for 1 over their pre-flip, or 1 under their post-flip) or flooding their inventory by concentrating on selling that exact same product, whether to other bidders, or them directly. Granted, it might be outside the abilities of a single person (especially if dealing with a collusion formed from a few different players), but its still possible. Or, you can wait for it to collapse upon itself and fall back to the equilibrium price (the normal price where supply directly meets demand). Or, just avoid it altogether and create your own personal supply or find a different thing you want. You dont NEED anything off the market, you only WANT it. Once you are able to differentiate between a NEED and a WANT, youll be better off, trust me.
Q: Wants? Needs? How does my own personal feelings have any effect on the marketplace when I dont have enough time to make money, and when I do, Ive got all these monopolies fighting against me? Forget this! Im just gonna hoard all I get and not sell nothing! I dont need your market!!!
A: Youre correct, and this is again, part of the stylings of a free market system like what we have here. If consumers continually find prices for things outside of their reach, theyll find alternate stuff to fill it. That means theyll buy alternate goods (if they exist), do without, or in some cases, make their own. If the prices stay stuck up high, with no buyers, eventually SOMEONE is going to break, and relist as lower. Then the market will start functioning again on that new lower price. Or, nobody will buy them, and the monopolizing sellers will lose out big.
Q: This whole thing is stupid. If they just sold the recipes and salvage from vendors, we wouldnt even be having this problem.
A: Youre correct, and thered be little reason to have a market. Youd be able to buy whatever you wanted, when you wanted, for the price you wanted, and so would everyone else, and then the devs would be annoyed that all their work and effort would be for nothing, and everyone would complain that inventions are terrible and much doom would be called. Then the devs would probably secretly revamp everything and stealth-nerf half the items, or worse, re-balance the enemies and powers to take in the effect of each person having as many LotG+rech, and +regen/recov procs that they can hold. Then your average newbie would be wondering why every single power in their tray takes a minute to recharge, because the devs expect everyone to have 5 LotG recharges slotted. Not exactly the best case scenario.
Q: Why do you keep badgering me about this? This whole market is stupid anyway! All it is is fake monopoly money that doesnt have any real value! Why, all were doing is creating it out of thin air whenever we defeat a bad guy!
A: As mentioned before, an item is only worth what someone will pay for it. We use money in the real world as an easy go-between for what we are, in effect, trading things for. Instead of a straight barter economy, where we would trade a good for a good, or a service for a service, or various combos of each, we use currency as a placeholder of sorts. My skill at making 10 widgets an hour is equal to 10 square coins. Janes ability of creating 12 pairs of socks an hour is equal to 10 square coins. In a barter system, unless Jane wanted widgets, I couldnt get any socks off of her, even if I offered dozens and dozens. She doesnt want or need any widgets. She DOES need apples. I dont have any. So we gotta find our own people to trade with, such as a sockmaker that needs widgets. However, in a monetary system, our currency acts as a media of exchange, so we dont need to translate widgets to socks. I can just give her square coins according to her pricing to buy some socks off her, and she can take those coins and use them to go buy some apples off someone else. In short, currency gives us a baseline of sorts to measure values and worth of goods/services against. I can say Ill buy these socks for 2 coins and if we come to an agreement, a purchase is made. Hooray for money!
Now, the way this translates to CoX is simple. Our inf is effectively our currency, and it acts as a medium of exchange for us. We can argue about the semantics of how much a Catch a Breath is worth in measures of Sturdy, or or we can say the blues are worth X inf, the oranges are worth Y inf. Everyone understands inf, not everyone understands 3/4s of a sturdy is equal to 2.8416 catch a breaths). Inf is our money in CoX, and it keeps everyone a bit more sane as a result.
All that being said, dear questioner, we are not creating our inf out of thin air. That implies it has no worth or value to anyone due to it being so easy to create more of. We treat inf as an immaterial 'good', but that doesn't mean it's easy for everyone to create in the same amount of _time_. Yes, we could feasibly all go out right now with our favorite character and beat up a single badguy and get 'something out of thin air', but we spent our TIME doing so. How many attacks did it take you to defeat that mob? Could you have defeated other mobs at the same time? Were you fighting greens, whites, reds, or purples? Could you do it faster, against more enemies of higher level, for longer amounts of time? How long? How fast? How many? That's the discrepancy we have. Some people are able to make inf as long as they are able to stay awake (unless they're part of an evil RMT scheme 
), some people choose to socialize, some people would rather build prestige, and so on. As said earlier, in this game, time is inf.
Q: Thats a bunch of crap! Im a casual player, and I dont have time to be wasting all day every day with market crap when Im playing this game to PLAY. This kind of crap is exactly why Ill never have any fun at the game, because people like you keep screwing with the prices keeping us casual players out of the market. <long string of expletives>
A: Using tips outlined here, and tips explained in-depth in the market forum, you can easily turn 10-15 minutes a week into free inf income from the drop results of your other playsessions. However, keep in mind that if you dont even have 10-15 minutes a week for market usage, your playstyle might be too casual, preventing you from even seeing/enjoying the bonuses from sets, let alone getting the inf/recipes needed to create sets. I highly recommend sticking with low-level (but still useful) generic IOs in the 25-30 range. At 25, they almost have enough zing of a white SO, but have the added benefit of *never* needing to be replaced like SOs do, plus they can run pretty cheap when crafters trying for badges need to dump their inventory. That right there will save you gobs and gobs and gobs of inf over the lifetime of your character. If you dont have the time for even that, again, your casual play might just be too casual for the market period.
Q: Youre not even listening! Its YOUR fault that this market is all screwed up! I used to be able to get anything I wanted super cheap! Now you and all your dang friends are screwing up the prices on everything now! Youre ruining the market because I cant get what I want cheap! Ill show you! Ill go ahead and farm my own stuff and force you guys to pay high prices for it because youre too lazy to get it, then Ill turn around and use all that inf to buy that stupid dumb 100 mil enh I want! [u]Then well see who knows what about the market![u]
A: And *that*, ladies and gentlemen, is how this market is supposed to work. Good luck!
FINAL SUMMARY:
The market is there. The market is yours. As long as you use it wisely, it ca benefit you greatly at nearly any level, on either side. Use it foolishly, and expect to be broke.
Please read up on the various market-related guides and the postings in the Market forum for more on using the market to make yourself rich, and hear these same ideas from other people who are much better at explaining it (and demonstrating it, and finding out better ways to do it) than I can. Forum-goer peterpeter has collected links to many useful market guides, available here .
Thanks for reading!
Edited to include:
- 'Sam Solo', as per WoefulKnight's helpful suggestion
- Reference to 'Rodney the Red', the character with full salvage/recipe inventories, as per Space_Goat's helpful suggestion
TL;DR version:
Learn to market. Either you can use the market to keep yourself rolling in inf (or special IOs), or you can use the market to waste all your inf foolishly. If you don't learn, you won't get anywhere.
Hi! I've seen some players have difficulty understanding how our Market works and why, so I thought I'd write this up I'll try to be as simple as possible without leaving out important bits. I apologize ahead of time if I tell you things you already know, or come across as a jerk, as I truly am writing this to help the playerbase out.
INTRODUCTION:
First, well need some example characters for some of the explanations below. Imagine we have 5 separate lvl 50 characters:
Hardcore Harry, your basic ubermensch character (fire/psy dom, fire/kin/fire, or whatever), is specifically geared to smite the heck out of as many enemies as possible in the shortest amount of time possible.
Prestige Pamela is a clone of Harry, except she plays purely in SG mode.
Teaming Terri is your basic teaming character, playing out of SG mode.
Chatting Chuck, a clone of Terri, is here for socializing and personal enjoyment of the game.
Sam Solo, on a self-sufficient build, is here to solo. And no, it doesn't matter if Sam's not teaming by choice or by lack of teammembers.
Got all those? Good. They'll be important in a short while. Now, Ill describe some of the major forces behind the market, and the disparity (real or imagined) as to why they could be why they are. Hopefully you'll take something from this and learn from it. Or you'll just get angry and flame me. Whichever.
Also, it would be beneficial if you are familiar with your salvage and recipe inventories and their size limits, along with having completed the 'Invention Tutorial', available from Admissions Officer Lenk in Steel Canyon for Heroes, and Dean John Yu in Cap Au Diable for Villains. It's extremely difficult to get the most benefit from the market if you're still running around with full salvage and recipe inventories (Hint: They'll show up on your tray as Recipes and Salvage )