playing the market ?

I have heard that the fastest way to make money is to "play the market ".Im not all too sure how it works and i know of bid creeping and buying recpies/enhancements a few lvls under to save some money and crafting recipes to sell them more as enhancements but thats all i realy know and is there some big part im missing lol ? i srsly feel dumb asking tho

Very simple answers:

Pay attention to how much recipes and salvage go for. Sometimes the sale price is high, sometimes the sale price is low. Buy low, sell high.

If there's lots for sale and few bidding, prices should be low. If there's few for sale and lots bidding, prices will be high. If there are none for sale, and you have one to sell, you can probably sell it for a lot.

Put in a lowball bid and leave it overnight. See if it fills. Relist it for higher. This is called flipping.

Now look at a recipe versus the crafted version of the same recipe. In many cases the difference is in the millions. Calculate your crafting costs -- in many cases you can make a lot of money by crafting the recipe and then listing it for sale.

Sell your drops. Run AE missions and buy stuff to sell with tickets. Use merits/a-merits to buy things to sell.

The big tricks are learning the specifics: what sells well, how much you should list so that your stuff sells fast but for a good profit, etc. And, of course, BE PATIENT. List stuff, put in your bids, come back and check on it tomorrow or the next day.

I'll get a little more specific: Mako's Bite, Scirocco's Dervish, many of the recipes are dirt cheap (can be had for a few thousand each) but the crafted versions still sell for 5-10 million depending on the recipe. That's just two examples, mind you, but you can put in a bid for a stack of 10, put in bids for the salvage, and craft a day or two later and list them. If the going price is about 8 million, try listing for, say, slightly over 6 million. There are usually tons of them for sale so you can't list too high, but there's definitely some money to be made. But these are more "small time" or "low level" craft and sell opportunities, but it's the sort of thing that can help you learn without risking too much money.

No need to feel dumb. The market can be pretty overwhelming at first.

As far as riches, there is no doubt that marketeering is indeed the quickest
way to consistent riches... Of course, you can also combine that with other
things, like farming, tf's etc, but if you use only one approach, the market is
the hands-down winner.

In terms of getting involved with the Market you've already taken a good
first step by posting your question here.

I'd recommend you read some of the marketing guides, and then give it a whirl.

Start small, and slow, and ramp up more as you learn more...


Regards & GL,
4


PS> If you want a very simple and safe way to start, I'd
recommend the guide I wrote (in my signature) as a
good, early approach (but read the others too - they're
all helpful)

Have you started using IOs yet for your characters? Either Commons/Generics or named Sets IOs. If not, you should at least look into them. Once you get an idea of which IOs you, personally, would like to have and use, then you will have a good idea of what is probably in demand.

Simple examples:

Common/Generic IOs - look at your current build. You will notice that you use a load of Accuracies, Damages, Recharges, and Endurance Reduction. Along with a few Endurance Modifications and Heals. And for the archetypes with armors, Defense and Damage Resistances. Level 30+ IOs are better than SOs. If you craft-to-sell these, there will always be buyers. Even though there are already a lot of players working these, you can be confident that you can always sell the ones you put up if you price your's accordingly. Once you memorize the recipes, you can craft very cheaply (without needing to have a recipe on hand ) for a direct increase in profits.

Named Set IOs - the same idea as Common IOs. Anything that includes Accuracy, Damage, Recharge and Endurance Reduction in it will sell. What makes one piece more popular than the next is the Set Bonus that comes with that Set. Again, what makes a desirable Set Bonus? Answer: if it includes +acc, +rech, +def, and to a slightly lesser extent, +recov, +dam. You can be confident that any pieces of a Set with those Set Bonuses will move. For Set IOs, the extremely popular pieces (that sell for 7 digits or more ) will sell at pretty much any level. However, for the more mundane ones (that only sell for 6 digits ), level 50 seems to be where it's at. I personally don't slot level 50s, but everyone else seems to, so that's where I go to get their Inf.

Level 50 IOs are for sellin'!

That's all. ^_^

A couple of nice low-risk, cheap sources of inf:

1) Craft and sell popular uncommon (yellow) set IOs like Thunderstrike. They're usually quite cheap to buy and don't need any rare salvage, and you can make a decent profit on them. Sure you may only make two or three million inf per sale, but if it only took 100k to buy the recipe and salvage and craft it and you can sell several of them a day that adds up.

2) For a very easy and steady income, memorize one or more high demand generic IO recipes. I'd suggest Accuracy, Damage, Recharge, or Endurance Reduction anywhere in the 25-40 range... personally I have the best luck with level 35 Damage IOs for some reason. Once you memorize the recipe (requires making enough of them at two levels, as seen here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Memorization_Badges). Then just place lowball overnight bids on the needed salvage and craft 10 or 15 at a time and sell them. It's not big money, but you can make a million or two a day for a few minutes' work without needing to track prices or comb through the market looking for niches. It won't make you rich, but it's a good way to build up a nest egg for more serious marteteering or make a few million to email to alts. And as a bonus, you can make cheap IOs for your own alts since memorized recipes cost less to craft... memorizing the level 25-30 Damage, Accuracy, Recharge, and Endurance IOs means you basically never have to buy an SO again.