About a month ago, I decided to do an experiment. I rolled up a brand new stalker, and laid out some simple rules for him to see how much money I could make as I leveled up.
The rules:
1- All drops must be used, given away for free, or vendored.
2- Anything can be purchased off the market, for personal use only. No arbitrage.
3- Anything with "Gold" in its name may be freely bought and sold on the market.
And thus, The Gold Seller was born.
In the low levels, I made a few hundred thousand fairly quickly by flipping [Gold], but the price was so low that I really wasn't making enough to spend my time there. With the money I had built up, I began flipping [Alchemical Gold].
When I started, I was buying at 16,000 and selling for 256,000. The bids were filling within a few hours, and the sales were made overnight, often for 300-500,000 each.
There was someone else working on the [Alchemical Gold]. We had bidding wars several times, and very quickly, the minimum price was 30-40,000, but sales were still made in the 250-350,000 range, though half million sales were becoming far rarer. Within about 2 weeks, I had made just under 100 million.
At about that time, the "patient bidder" price had worked its way up to 55,000, and the "buy now" was under 200,000. I had over 100 pieces of salvage listed that weren't moving. At all.
In a move of desperation, I started buying everything below my price point, forcing people who wanted it nao! to buy mine. This lasted a few hours each time, usually ending in a break-even. The "buy now" price continued to drop, while the "patient bidder" price remained constant. I pulled a significant portion of my stock and relisted at lower prices, basically break-even once all the market fees were accounted for. Still, no sales for me in the last two days.
Right now, I have about 150 [Alchemical Gold] listed on the market for 150-230,000 Inf each. When I started, you had to pay at least 250,000 Inf to get one nao! Once, out of curiosity, I bid crept until I purchased someone else's. I got to 2,000,000 before I stopped, and still hadn't gotten a bite. Now, the price ranges between 50,000 and 100,000. It's easy to bid 70,000 and get one now. I've lost 20 million in the last week, trying to get something back for all this stock I have.
In conclusion: Yay! I made some money by flipping. I got enough to keep the character enhanced for his entire lifetime, but not enough for a serious build. In under a month, I destroyed the source of my income, to the point where I lose money if I try to make any off it. And everyone else wins, because I've collapsed the price from a 10,000-2,000,000 range to a 50,000-80,000 range.
Perhaps by constantly switching from one item to another, I could continue to make money. But each item I targeted would similarly collapse, destroying any potential earning ability I had. I imagine that, now that I'm leaving that niche, it will expand again, until it again reaches the point it was at when I entered the market. But until then, enjoy your reduced price [Alchemical Gold].
About a month ago, I decided to do an experiment. I rolled up a brand new stalker, and laid out some simple rules for him to see how much money I could make as I leveled up.
The rules:
1- All drops must be used, given away for free, or vendored.
2- Anything can be purchased off the market, for personal use only. No arbitrage.
3- Anything with "Gold" in its name may be freely bought and sold on the market.
And thus, The Gold Seller was born.
In the low levels, I made a few hundred thousand fairly quickly by flipping [Gold], but the price was so low that I really wasn't making enough to spend my time there. With the money I had built up, I began flipping [Alchemical Gold].
When I started, I was buying at 16,000 and selling for 256,000. The bids were filling within a few hours, and the sales were made overnight, often for 300-500,000 each.
There was someone else working on the [Alchemical Gold]. We had bidding wars several times, and very quickly, the minimum price was 30-40,000, but sales were still made in the 250-350,000 range, though half million sales were becoming far rarer. Within about 2 weeks, I had made just under 100 million.
At about that time, the "patient bidder" price had worked its way up to 55,000, and the "buy now" was under 200,000. I had over 100 pieces of salvage listed that weren't moving. At all.
In a move of desperation, I started buying everything below my price point, forcing people who wanted it nao! to buy mine. This lasted a few hours each time, usually ending in a break-even. The "buy now" price continued to drop, while the "patient bidder" price remained constant. I pulled a significant portion of my stock and relisted at lower prices, basically break-even once all the market fees were accounted for. Still, no sales for me in the last two days.
Right now, I have about 150 [Alchemical Gold] listed on the market for 150-230,000 Inf each. When I started, you had to pay at least 250,000 Inf to get one nao! Once, out of curiosity, I bid crept until I purchased someone else's. I got to 2,000,000 before I stopped, and still hadn't gotten a bite. Now, the price ranges between 50,000 and 100,000. It's easy to bid 70,000 and get one now. I've lost 20 million in the last week, trying to get something back for all this stock I have.
In conclusion: Yay! I made some money by flipping. I got enough to keep the character enhanced for his entire lifetime, but not enough for a serious build. In under a month, I destroyed the source of my income, to the point where I lose money if I try to make any off it. And everyone else wins, because I've collapsed the price from a 10,000-2,000,000 range to a 50,000-80,000 range.
Perhaps by constantly switching from one item to another, I could continue to make money. But each item I targeted would similarly collapse, destroying any potential earning ability I had. I imagine that, now that I'm leaving that niche, it will expand again, until it again reaches the point it was at when I entered the market. But until then, enjoy your reduced price [Alchemical Gold].
@Roderick