Avoiding Poverty - 10 Million at Level 6

(Oct. 2008)

BACKGROUND
-------------

Outside of the marketing community, there is an apparent perception that making influence/infamy
is both difficult and very time consuming. In actual gameplay, this is completely false.

To prove it, I decided to undertake a little side project where I created a brand new character whose
goals were to reach Level 6, and earn a minimum of 10 Million influence, while tracking the time
needed to get there.

No teaming, No sewer runs, No taskforces, No sugardaddy funding. Just normal solo play and a very
simple, but highly effective, marketing strategy.

It took 6 hours and 14 minutes to achieve that goal (See Chart 1).

This guide details the marketing strategy I used, and more importantly, provides you the information
to use this same approach for your own characters.

The only reasons players are poor in this game are due to lack of knowledge and/or lack of effort.
Hopefully, this guide will help remove the first of those reasons as an excuse.


THE PLAN
---------

While there are many excellent marketing guides out there covering dozens of strategies for
making influence/infamy (which I highly encourage you to read), I'm going to focus on just
one simple approach in this guide.

That's not a knock on any of those other techniques. It simply lets us discuss this particular
strategy in much more detail (some may say "excessive" detail).

The strategy is "Recipe Vendoring" and simply stated, it is this: "Buy underpriced IO recipes from the
Market and sell them to a normal zone store for a profit".

That sounds easy enough, right? It is.




So, why Recipe Vendoring? That's an excellent question, I'm glad you asked.

• It is amazingly simple and easy to learn.
• It is totally risk-free when done properly.
• It minimizes time spent at the market.
• It is very effective and works well for both Heroes and Villains of all levels.
• It's quick - 10M in 6 Hours is more than 1.6 Million per game hour ...
  On a lowbie Level 6 character...
  
• The technique is even more effective for higher level characters
• It's a fire and forget approach - you can profit even when your character is logged out.
• It's flexible and compatible with any other marketing strategies you like to use.

I know, I know. After reading that list you're thinking this is sounding more like an infomercial, and
I don't blame you a bit for thinking "This is too good to be true".

I assure you it *is* true, but don't believe me till you try it - I'm ok with that...


GETTING STARTED
------------------

It's easy. You simply need to be in a zone where there is a Market.

Low level characters can use Atlas Park, Kings Row or Mercy Island, and higher levels can also
do well in Steel Canyon, Talos Island or Sharkhead Isle. The important thing is picking a market
with a zone store nearby (trainers/quartermasters also work). You will be shuttling recipes you
buy to the store, so the closer it is, the quicker it goes.

You also need some minimal amount of starting influence/infamy.

If you have a new character in the tutorial, save the inspirations you get and sell them at the
market (post them for 10, and don't worry what they sell for - it'll likely be 20K-50K each, and that's
easily enough). If it's too late to sell those, don't worry. You can actually start this process with
just a few hundred influence/infamy. Just run a mission or two, and you'll still be set to go.

Now that you're in a market zone with an initial bankroll, (however much or little it is) let's talk about
the process a little bit. The first thing to understand is that you're only interested in common IO
recipes (Market Section: -> Recipes -> Other). It doesn't matter what the actual recipe is, or
whether it's popular or not. The important thing to care about is the price it is currently selling
for on the market. Ignoring the temp powers and costume pieces (which aren't part of this strategy),
there are 9 level ranges (L10-L50) for each type of IO recipe, and that provides a lot of buying potential.
Another nice thing about recipes is that you can buy them in stacks of 10, which really boosts the
profit value of your limited market transaction slots.

The idea is to look through those recipes and find several types/levels that will be profitable. For
each of the types you find, place a buy bid for a stack of 10 recipes.

Once those bids fill, take the recipes you bought over to the zone store and sell them.

That's it... Simple, isn't it?

Now you may have noticed that this strategy is cyclic and it splits nicely into two distinct pieces:

Cycle Step #1 > Identify profitable recipes, and place buy bids for 10-stacks until you're out of
influence (early on) or you used all of your transaction slots.

Cycle Step #2 > Take all of your purchased recipes and sell them to the zone store. Cancel any
bids that didn't fill (you'll get your influence back for those). Then, repeat Cycle Step #1.

In between steps 1 and 2, you can do whatever you like.

Understand that it will take some time (wall-clock time) to fill your buy bids, so it's actually best if
you simply forget about them for a few hours and go do something else (like levelling your current
character, playing a different character, or just log-out if you have to go to school or work). Every
time you purchase a recipe, you're making more influence whether you're actually there to see it
happen or not.

I said earlier that this strategy is risk-free when done properly. To do that, you need one vital piece
of information. If you get this right, you will *never* lose influence using this strategy - ever. You need
a sure-fire method to tell if the price a recipe is selling for at the market is less than the price a vendor
will pay you for it.

Fortunately, that is easy to determine once you know the recipe's Level, and Crafting Cost (you can see
the crafting cost in the bid window by mousing over the recipe icon).

Once you know the recipe level and crafting cost, the amount a vendor will pay you for it is
calculated as follows:

If the recipe level is less than L30 ................. divide the crafting cost by 8
If the recipe level is L30, L35 or L40 .............. divide the crafting cost by 5.333
If the recipe level is more than L40 ............... divide the crafting cost by 4

For Set recipes, the store price is 100 * Level for Yellow (uncommon) and 200 * Level for Orange (rare)
ones, but you're not looking at those for this strategy, right??? Right!

So, here are 3 examples.

An L50 Recharge Reduction recipe has a Crafting Cost of 431,900. Level is more than L40, so, divide the
crafting cost by 4 and get 107,975. That is what the store will pay for each of those recipes you sell there.

An L25 Accuracy recipe has a Crafting Cost of 34,800. Its level is less than L30, so, divide by 8, and
discover that the store will pay 4,350 for it.

Finally, we have an L40 Fly with Crafting Cost of 62,600. Level is between L30 and L40, (inclusive), so we
divide by 5.333 and we find that a vendor will pay 11,738 for it.

Now, to guarantee profits, all you have to do is choose recipes where your buy bid is lower than the amount
the store will pay you when you sell the recipe.

That's it. It really is that simple.

You now have everything you need to implement this strategy effectively.

The remaining sections are optional reference topics covering some tips, case study buys, and actual
time/profit charts using this strategy. They aren't necessary for using this approach, but I hope you
find them (and this guide) helpful for funding your characters.


Now, Go. Vendor Recipes. Avoid Poverty!


TIPS / ADVICE
--------------

The following list covers things I've learned while using the strategy for my characters.

• Be sure of your pricing - Getting this wrong (ie. bidding more for a recipe than
  a vendor will pay) is the only way to lose influence with this strategy -
  Get it Right!
  
• Having a travel power (temporary or permanent), and picking an optimal market
  zone, really helps reduce selling time. For instance, Kings Row has a store (trainer)
  within 100 yards of WW. Steel Canyon and Sharkhead Isle have a store/quartermaster
  within a single superjump leap. It's not required, but these really speed the
  process up.
  
• Spread your buys around. There are a LOT of profitable recipes out there. Fill
  your slots with bids, but limit yourself to just one 10-stack of any particular
  recipe per market cycle. You'll give yourself the best odds to fill the buy and
  you'll reduce the chances of depleting the supply (and raising the price needlessly).
  
• Give your buys time to fill - use that cycle time to level, play other characters,
  read a book (or guide), etc.
  
• Don't worry (too much) if a biddable recipe only has 2 or 3 for sale. Only the price
  matters. Often, the bids will still fill if the cycle gap is decent (say, overnight, for
  instance).
  
• When you do check your buys, don't worry if some didn't fill - either your bid was
  too low, someone "Market PvP'd" by outbidding you, or maybe there just weren't
  any more recipes left. No Problem. Every recipe you did buy is making you a profit.
  
• As part of Cycle Step #2, I said "Cancel any bids that didn't fill". Based on the
  prior point, there are reasons why they didn't fill. Any influence you have tied up
  in those bids is idling instead of making you profits. Cancelling those bids gives you
  that influence back (there are no fees for cancelling a buy bid) so you can put it
  to work in another (hopefully more lucrative) 10-stack bid.
  
• Use the last 5 history. Most guides tell you not to trust it (for good reasons), but
  in this case it helps. You *want* to buy, so don't shy away from overbidding the
  the last 5 (slightly) as long as your bid is still below vendor price. Doing
  that gives your bids the best chance of filling first.
  
• If your bankroll is limited, it is better to bid on a few higher level recipes over
  full 10-stacks of lower level recipes. Your profits will usually be better in the
  first case. Here's an example to illustrate the point. Say I only have 1200 influence.
  I could bid 1,010 on a 10-stack of L10 Accuracy recipes (at 101 each) and get
  4,120 back when they fill. However, I could also bid 1,001 on a L35 Endurance Reduction.
  When I fill that single buy, I would sell it for 10,938 - a better deal. The good news
  is that this is rarely a concern except for brand new lowbie characters.
  
• A helpful concept to think about is Stack Value. Basically it is the Vendor Price
  minus your Bid Price, times 10 (since you're buying 10 recipes). Once your bankroll
  stops being a limit, focus on recipes where the SV is within the 150K-300K range
  (usually L40+ recipes). Those buys raise influence quickly over time. It's also handy
  to think of your purchases in SV terms ... ie. that 20 Million Respec Recipe is really
  only 100 or so recipe stacks. If you have 10 to 15 transaction slots, it's less than a
  dozen market buy cycles to get it, even if you pay full market price...
  Just a thought...
  
• This strategy is quick and effective, but it probably won't make you a billionaire
  (although it scales quite nicely up to the 100-200M range or so). If you want to
  fund and equip your character, this is a great way to do it. If you want to be
  a billionaire marketeering mogul, you should expand your knowledge and add more
  marketing strategies to your repertoire.
  
• Earlier I excluded "Set" recipes. In fact, you can profit from them too, but more
  factors (like popularity) apply. Also, pricing usually isn't favourable for vendoring
  since an L50 Orange (rare) recipe only sells for 10,000 (200 * Level) while a normal
  L50 Recharge Reduction sells for more than 100,000. If you come across set
  recipes, *do* check what they're selling for at the market - some are extremely
  valuable, but don't bother looking for underpriced Set recipes to vendor.

CASE STUDIES
--------------

These are actual in-game transactions made by one of my characters (specifically for this guide)
so you can see some real game example conditions across a range of recipes. The bids were made
just before logging off for the night, and I checked them after getting home from work the next
day, so the cycle gap was roughly 17 hours or so...

I've included a recipe I didn't bid on and a couple where I overbid the last 5 history. I want to emphasize
the ideas of only bidding when it's profitable and not sweating the last 5 history too much if your
pricing is good.


L10 Accuracy: Crafting Cost = 3300, Vendor Pays: 412
The last 5 bids: 1200, 100, 1000, 1000, 1000. For Sale: 66 with 0 bidding.
My bid: 101 Bought: 8 Cost: 808 Sold: 3296 Profit: 2488

L15 Confuse: Crafting Cost = 4000, Vendor Pays: 500
The last 5 bids: 10, 1001, 510, 510, 10. For Sale: 4 with 0 bidding.
My bid: 25 Bought: 4 Cost: 100 Sold: 2000 Profit: 1900

L25 Fly: Crafting Cost = 22400, Vendor Pays: 2800
The last 5 bids: 6000, 5000, 5000, 6000, 5000. For Sale: 3 with 2 bidding.
My bid: SKIP! (This is an example of an overpriced recipe)

L25 Hold: Crafting Cost = 23400, Vendor Pays: 2925
The last 5 bids: 8888, 8888, 5001, 1505, 5555. For Sale: 9 with 1 bidding.
My bid: 1515 Bought: 10 Cost: 15150 Sold: 29250 Profit: 14100

L35 Damage: Crafting Cost = 62700, Vendor Pays: 11756
The last 5 bids: 25000, 25000, 10000, 2500, 2500. For Sale: 134 with 53 bidding.
My bid: 3001 Bought: 0 Cost: 0 Sold: 0 Profit: 0
My bids for this one ended up being too low <shrug>. It happens sometimes...

L35 End Red: Crafting Cost = 58300, Vendor Pays: 10931
The last 5 bids: 100, 10000, 5000, 1750, 1750. For Sale: 24 with 8 bidding.
My bid: 2101 Bought: 10 Cost: 21010 Sold: 109310 Profit: 88300

L45 Fly: Crafting Cost = 111700, Vendor Pays: 27925
The last 5 bids: 10100, 100000, 10100, 10100, 10100. For Sale: 1 with 81 bidding.
My bid: 10501 Bought: 10 Cost: 105010 Sold: 279250 Profit: 174240

L50 Range: Crafting Cost = 371500, Vendor Pays: 92875
The last 5 bids: 75000, 75000, 74200, 74200, 74200. For Sale: 158 with 368 bidding.
My bid: 75101 Bought: 10 Cost: 751010 Sold: 928750 Profit: 177740

L50 ToHit Buff: Crafting Cost = 339000, Vendor Pays: 84750
The last 5 bids: 59501, 60000, 59501, 59325, 59325. For Sale: with bidding.
My bid: 59751 Bought: 10 Cost: 597510 Sold: 847500 Profit: 249990


CHART 1
---------

This chart documents every play session for "MCF", a brand new hero who was the basis for this guide.
While I have used this funding strategy frequently, this character was the first one where I fully
tracked the time and wealth from the very beginning.


"MCF" - Level 6 Hero

........................ PLAY .. TOTAL ........ MAX
ZONE ..... DATE .. TIME .. HOURS ... INFLUENCE
---------------------------------------------------
Tutorial .... 10/13 .. 0:19 ... 0:19 .................. 0
Atas Park . 10/13 .. 2:09 ... 2:28 ......... 181,564
................ 10/13 .. 0:10 ... 2:38 .......... 62,772 *
................ 10/13 .. 0:16 ... 2:54 ........ 758,333
................ 10/13 .. 0:24 ... 3:18 ...... 1,423,571 *1
................ 10/15 .. 0:33 ... 3:51 ...... 2,483,144
................ 10/16 .. 0:23 ... 4:14 ...... 3,827,197
................ 10/17 .. 0:30 ... 4:44 ...... 5,499,511
................ 10/18 .. 0:31 ... 5:15 ...... 7,154,429
................ 10/19 .. 0:31 ... 5:46 ...... 8,784,859
................ 10/19 .. 0:28 ... 6:14 ..... 10,413,797 *2

Notes: 7 transaction slots, 4 recipes/trip, 1-way trip time - 32 seconds

* This number dropped because I had just placed all of my market buys prior to seeing what it
was. All other amounts were listed before placing the end-of-session (Cycle Step #2) buys.

*1 It took about 3 hours to become a millionaire from scratch!

*2 Roughly 3 hours after that, he reached the 10M goal.


CHART 2
---------

On the Villain side, I took my currently active character. This fellow is well funded already (having 75M),
but I wanted to show two things using him. The first is that the strategy works just as well for villains, and
the other is that the technique is much more effective for higher level characters. Since he already
has infamy, I just documented a 10 Million net increase in his current wealth.


"FJI" - L25 Villain

........................ PLAY .. TOTAL ........ NET
ZONE ..... DATE .. TIME .. HOURS ... INFAMY
---------------------------------------------------
Sharkhead 10/22 .. 0:04 .. 0:04 .............. 0
............... 10/23 .. 0:16 .. 0:20 .... 3,673,387
............... 10/23 .. 0:21 .. 0:41 .... 6,762,571
............... 10/23 .. 0:13 .. 0:54 ... 10,484,751 *3

Notes: 15 transaction slots, 12 recipes/trip, 1-way trip time - 11 seconds

*3 Slightly less than 1 game hour to earn 10M infamy!

---

I've been rich, and I've been poor. Rich is definitely better.
Light is faster than sound - that's why some people look smart until they speak.
For every seller who leaves the market dirty stinkin' rich,
there's a buyer who leaves the market dirty stinkin' IOed. - Obitus.

i understand your way of making influence and way to go and gratz on the fast money making. but the drawback to this is that by doing it..1 will take all recipies out of the market for those who need/want them , and 2 drive the prices up further with supply and demand in an unbalanced market that we already have with greedy sellers there. we know if everyone started doing this after reading that there will be nothing left. i know of some other ways of tricking the maket into making yourself rich and have done it to the sum of over 300 million and did it so much that it can't be done anymore

---

@Canadian Canuck @Canadian Canuck2

Wow...I never thought of this... AWESOME STRATEGY!!!

---

[ QUOTE ]
i understand your way of making influence and way to go and gratz on the fast money making. but the drawback to this is that by doing it..1 will take all recipies out of the market for those who need/want them , and 2 drive the prices up further with supply and demand in an unbalanced market that we already have with greedy sellers there. we know if everyone started doing this after reading that there will be nothing left. i know of some other ways of tricking the maket into making yourself rich and have done it to the sum of over 300 million and did it so much that it can't be done anymore

[/ QUOTE ]

Since we're talking about IO recipes rather than set recipes, people who want to actually use them can still buy them from the Invention tables at Universities.

This system works by exploiting laziness (and I dont mean for that to sound as negative as it does) - somewhere, people are dumping their recipe drops at Wentworths for less than the vendor price and anyoen can cream off thius money thats effectively sitting there in the market.

However, ANYONE can but not EVERYONE can, and thats a big distinction. The more people know about this trick, the less effective it becomes, so this guide is in many ways out of date the moment its written in terms of the numbers presented.
If 100 people read this and decide to try it out, then the prices for these "abandoned" recipes will go up, and the profits whilst still there will be thinner.

So, say a recipe can be sold to the vendor for 10,000, sells at crafting tables for 25,000 and is currently buyable in bulk for 5,000.
At worse we can expect it to become buyable in bulk for 9,500 maybe? (still 500 inf per recipe for doing this instead of 5,000) but it wont push prices above the 10,000 ceiling.
And no actual crimefighter is ever unable to buy the recipe from the crafting table, so this wont lead to rampant inflation or lack of availablity anywhere.

---

[ QUOTE ]

i understand your way of making influence and way to go and gratz on the fast money making. but the
drawback to this is that by doing it..1 will take all recipies out of the market for those who need/want
them , and 2 drive the prices up further with supply and demand in an unbalanced market that we
already have with greedy sellers there. we know if everyone started doing this after reading that
there will be nothing left. i know of some other ways of tricking the maket into making yourself rich and
have done it to the sum of over 300 million and did it so much that it can't be done anymore

[/ QUOTE ]

You raise an excellent and valid concern.

The guide was getting a little lengthy so I only addressed that superficially. Let me expand upon
it in more detail here.

First, with any finite quantity of items, if demand spikes, supplies will diminish and prices will rise.

That's not unusual in the least. I agree that it could occur here too (to some degree).

However, unlike say, Celeritys where there might be a handful across all levels (if you can buy
any at all), the situation with recipes is much better. We have 9 level ranges, but there are also
26 different types of common IO enhancement to bid on. (Wiki)

That's 234 distinct recipe niches to draw from, so even speaking conservatively, the volume of
individual recipes would likely be measured in thousands.

Secondly, the drop rates for common IO recipes is significantly higher than, say Hamidon Goo
or other rare salvage, and I'd also speculate that players are likelier to dump them on the market
rather than keep them (assuming they don't just vendor themselves).
Once again, that is a better situation than other items as supplies are being replenished (not
at the rate of common salvage perhaps, but definitely faster than rares).

Third, there are two points I specifically raise in the guide that are related to this issue. The first
one concerns spreading out buy bids. Your concern (and mine to a degree) is the very reason
for raising that point. By bidding on just one 10-stack of any particular recipe in a cycle, a single
player is only buying *ten* specific recipes of any type over a period of hours (ie. the cycle gap).

The other point is in the Tips section where I state that this approach is great for funding characters
but isn't a "Make Me a Billionaire" strategy. Personally, I use this technique on my currently active
Hero or Villain, or in a case where I have a specific purchase planned or need a quick influence
infusion. My other characters use other strategies like crafting, dabbling in rares etc. and I'd imagine
that others will do so too once they've got a decent bankroll.

Fourth, the maximum jump that could occur due to recipe shortages is already limited for all but the
seriously impatient, or the exceedingly idiotic players. If prices go astronomic on a particular recipe,
any players that require one will do one of two things. They'll either bid on a crafted IO, or they'll go
to the university and buy the recipe they want - effectively capping the price rise.
Sure, in that scenario, prices for that recipe are up, but it isn't prohibitively so, or game-breaking.

Lastly, while I'm flattered that you think this strategy would become so pervasive as to drain the
market of recipes, I'm highly doubtful about that outcome. Forum readers in general are a minority
of the playerbase, serious marketeers have no need of this strategy, and the market averse players
who struggle to make ends meet will most likely make enough to equip their characters with
the shinys they want and call it a day...

As I said at the outset, you raise an excellent concern and I assure you that I gave the matter some
thought before posting the guide. When all is said and done, I simply disagree that the risk is
as severe as you believe. To be sure, some categories could suffer some effects, but I believe it
will be minimal and short-term for the most part.


Regards,
4

---

I've been rich, and I've been poor. Rich is definitely better.
Light is faster than sound - that's why some people look smart until they speak.
For every seller who leaves the market dirty stinkin' rich,
there's a buyer who leaves the market dirty stinkin' IOed. - Obitus.

Someone had blabbed a strategy somewhat like this on Freedumb a few nights ago. I had been buying recipes that were going for a pittance and selling them for quite a while. But only a few here and there. Buy a lvl 30 for 500 or so, turn around and resell to the shop for 3k-8k.

After that night however, well let's just say that isn't going to work anymore.

This strategy will only work with the fewest amount of people knowing how it works. When everyone is buying recipes at the cheapest price so they can turn around and resell them, people are just going to start raising the prices of those recipes when they put them on WW/BM until they level out and there is no profit to be made. And no, it wont' be forgotten in a few weeks either.

So at the end of the day, you shot yourself in your own foot.

I do however consider this as something that needs to be addressed by the devs to some extent.

---

Maybe the devs will have to step in and save the market...dump a few billion worth of recipes into the system to keep it from crashing...

---

[ QUOTE ]
So at the end of the day, you shot yourself in your own foot.

[/ QUOTE ]

Due to all the reasons previously mentioned, I'll bet not... But we'll see...

It's not like this strategy hasn't been mentioned in nearly every other marketing guide out there
(along with many other techniques, of course), so the only difference is that I delve into much more
step by step detail for this one.


Regards,
4

---

I've been rich, and I've been poor. Rich is definitely better.
Light is faster than sound - that's why some people look smart until they speak.
For every seller who leaves the market dirty stinkin' rich,
there's a buyer who leaves the market dirty stinkin' IOed. - Obitus.

[ QUOTE ]
I do however consider this as something that needs to be addressed by the devs to some extent.

[/ QUOTE ]

I try to stop this type of activity from being possible as well. I donate to the education system. Sadly, people are still stupid.

What would the devs do to stop this? More importantly why bother?

---

In fact they already dumped an infinite supply of recipes on the market. You can buy them from any crafting table. You might pay a bit more then on the market, and you'll make a big loss at a vendor, but the devs made sure common IOs had a price control built in. So no worries.

---

[ QUOTE ]
Someone had blabbed a strategy somewhat like this on Freedumb a few nights ago. I had been buying recipes that were going for a pittance and selling them for quite a while. But only a few here and there. Buy a lvl 30 for 500 or so, turn around and resell to the shop for 3k-8k.

After that night however, well let's just say that isn't going to work anymore.

This strategy will only work with the fewest amount of people knowing how it works. When everyone is buying recipes at the cheapest price so they can turn around and resell them, people are just going to start raising the prices of those recipes when they put them on WW/BM until they level out and there is no profit to be made. And no, it wont' be forgotten in a few weeks either.

So at the end of the day, you shot yourself in your own foot.

I do however consider this as something that needs to be addressed by the devs to some extent.

[/ QUOTE ]

The markets are cross-server, so whatever happened on Freedom affected the market for the entire game. It is true that this method would not work if everyone did it, but it is also true that not everyone does do it, and not everyone will do it. There will be short periods of time where it is more or less successful, but it's not going to go away entirely unless the devs make a dramatic change to the market.

As evidence, I submit the guide in my sig. This guide has been in my sig every day for many months now. The techniques described in this thread also appear in my guide (though in less detail. Well done, Four!) The same techniques have been published in the column I write for the City Scoop. They also appear frequently in many posts on the Market section of the forum. Other than shoving it into a Global Message of the Day, I don't know how these techniques could be better publicized. And yet... it still works.

---

Avatar: "Cheeky Jack O Lantern" by dimarie

---

I've been rich, and I've been poor. Rich is definitely better.
Light is faster than sound - that's why some people look smart until they speak.
For every seller who leaves the market dirty stinkin' rich,
there's a buyer who leaves the market dirty stinkin' IOed. - Obitus.

Whatever folks, it's been 6 days since someone blabbed a "strategy" for making money at WW and as of 4pm this afternoon you still can't find a recipe that isn't sold out, or already out of profit range.

The more you promote and blab, the harder and longer it will take the market to recover.

What would the devs do? Easy, make a minimum price for items placed in the WW/BM. Example, lvl 30 recipe sells for 3k at shop, make minimum price to place it on the market 3k as well. That pretty much fixes everything.

---

[ QUOTE ]
Whatever folks, it's been 6 days since someone blabbed a "strategy" for making money at WW
and as of 4pm this afternoon you still can't find a recipe that isn't sold out, or already out of profit range.

[/ QUOTE ]

Did you actually *look* at the dates in my charts???

I've pulled 20 MILLION+ on just those 2 characters in the past 12 days...
and those are not the only ones... they're just the ones I documented...

Your comment is pure BS - plain and simple.

---

I've been rich, and I've been poor. Rich is definitely better.
Light is faster than sound - that's why some people look smart until they speak.
For every seller who leaves the market dirty stinkin' rich,
there's a buyer who leaves the market dirty stinkin' IOed. - Obitus.

I don't think you can represent this as such a clear-cut "everyone wins!" strategy. If you're successfully using this to earn Influence, then you're essentially exploiting some other player who is more lazy or less informed about relative IO recipe prices.

Whenever I work on crafting badges, I always put in bids that are lower than the price of the recipe at crafting tables, but higher than the price merchants pay for it. That way, I don't have to pay quite as much for my crafting badges, but the player selling the recipe is also better-off than they would be otherwise. *That's* a true win-win strategy.

I'm not too bothered, though. I'll always outbid anyone who uses the method outlined in this guide.

---

Character index

Excellent guide, I've done it on a few of my villains and heros.

And don't listen to the negative feedback... Most of these arguments are false, if people want a recipe they'll always have one to buy, even in the depressing vill market.

---

[ QUOTE ]
What would the devs do? Easy, make a minimum price for items placed in the WW/BM. Example, lvl 30 recipe sells for 3k at shop, make minimum price to place it on the market 3k as well. That pretty much fixes everything.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why? Why bother do that? By following this guide all prices on WW/BM tends to have a minimum price that is vendor price * .9. What do you think is going to be "fixed" by having the devs create such a minimum price?

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heh I read it in a guide amost a year ago and started useign it then has the marked colapsed yet .... nope i still do it today after beign away for 9 ish months, (and loseing about 16 mil each on 4 dif chars that were doing it due to my auction inventory beign wiped account was never inactive either i just didnt log on

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Whatever folks, it's been 6 days since someone blabbed a "strategy" for making money at WW and as of 4pm this afternoon you still can't find a recipe that isn't sold out, or already out of profit range.

The more you promote and blab, the harder and longer it will take the market to recover.

What would the devs do? Easy, make a minimum price for items placed in the WW/BM. Example, lvl 30 recipe sells for 3k at shop, make minimum price to place it on the market 3k as well. That pretty much fixes everything.

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Over the last few days I've made OVER 30 mill with this 'stradigy' so i dont understand what your sayign HECK during prime time on friday and saturday I litterly was biddign on recipies at 20k under vendor price and runign back and forth with 25 recipies as fast as i could take then of fthe AH restock the bids and run to the vendor in KR to sell them!!!!!!!

soo i dotn see this DOOM your preching...

maby you play only at a REALLY ODD time of day when there are less peopel playing and less recipies comign avalible and a bunch of people farming the AH, (say maby asian prime time.....), I know during/toward the end of EST/PST prime times the prices are WAY DOWN, if you put bids in durign the off times they WILL haev bene filled durign this time when you log back on the next day.

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I don't think you can represent this as such a clear-cut "everyone wins!" strategy. If you're successfully using this to earn Influence, then you're essentially exploiting some other player who is more lazy or less informed about relative IO recipe prices.

Whenever I work on crafting badges, I always put in bids that are lower than the price of the recipe at crafting tables, but higher than the price merchants pay for it. That way, I don't have to pay quite as much for my crafting badges, but the player selling the recipe is also better-off than they would be otherwise. *That's* a true win-win strategy.

I'm not too bothered, though. I'll always outbid anyone who uses the method outlined in this guide.

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I did the same thing when i was workgin on my badges as well i did that because i wanted to make them quickly so wanted to wait onyl a few misn fro teh recipies to come in but still same my self some inf at the same time

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j00 r genious.
j00 make I smarterer!
tyvm!
10/10

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Whining about everything since 2006.

Ammo switching for Dual Pistols was my idea:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=135484

Heck, I don't even ebil marketeer and I'm thinking of giving this a whirl...

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I'm Tealeaf, and I approve of this message.


See [URL="http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?p=2134817#post2134817"]Useful Tagging for the good of the Forum[/URL], my guide to tags.

Have you tested this redside? I'd expect that results would noticeably differ.

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It works red-side. I've been pulling in a million or so daily without actually going out and committing any crimes.

Maybe its all a plot by a billionaire philanthropist to keep the streets safe on the Rogue Isles...

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Have you tested this redside?

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Yes.
See the charts... (specifically Chart #2)


Regards,
4

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I've been rich, and I've been poor. Rich is definitely better.
Light is faster than sound - that's why some people look smart until they speak.
For every seller who leaves the market dirty stinkin' rich,
there's a buyer who leaves the market dirty stinkin' IOed. - Obitus.