Marketing by Dummies (A 30 Day Marketing Challenge)
By
Adeon Hawkwood,
Posted on: 2012-08-03 24:13 in The Market and Inventions
Quote:
It gets better. |
Originally Posted by mauk2
LOL, how quickly your perception of inf changes.
 You have over a billion on that toon in less than three weeks. Pat yourself on the back, sir! Well played.  |
And yes, how you look at the prices of things and the rate you can acquire stuff can change so quickly. I'm actually planning my next project now, just to keep myself "on goal" if you will, otherwise I tend to wander between characters a lot. It will be mostly a marketing thing, since the character in question is already level 47.
Day 20: Tuesday August 7, 2012
Gah, nothing sold by my morning check, which I never like, hopefully something goes today while Im at work.
Not much time to play, may just get Tips and Hero Merit stuff done.
Sold one Corruptor ATO today, things are probably tightening up for the Double XP weekend, which I dont need at all for this character, so what am I to do!
Ran Tips, converted a Hero Merit and bought another Lotg 7.5 for my build. What an exciting day! :P
Day 21: Wednesday August 8, 2012
Nothing moving still, the Corruptor ATOs have dropped to about ½ of what I bought them for, which is bad. It means something had pushed up prices to when I got in on the market, and now the market is crashing, hard. Gonna leave them up for a little bit longer, just to see if 2XP Weekend spikes demand again.
None of my Purple bids have filled at 150 million, nor has my Ragnarok Dam/Rech/Acc sold. Im going to try to grab some recipes for a little more and lower my selling price to get some more turnover. Purples are the obvious thing for me to stay in right now, even with a lesser margine.
Bought 2 instantly for the price I was going for, one of them being a damage... It never pays to skip things because you know it wont work, try it, and see, make sure that someone isnt giving you money for free and you just leave it there.
One converter changes the Fortunata Hypnosis: Chance for Placate to another Ragnarok: Dam/Rech/Acc... Heres hoping my greedy listing is whats keeping the last one from selling. I place both of them up for 275 million (about 100 million in profit) and move along.
Got on a Tip team that before we even got to the mission door had my PuG senses tingling... Badly...
Lots of stupid comments in chat, and turnover of people before we even got in the door... Which isnt a super sign that things are going to go wrong, people could just be bailing from having had a dozen successful missions with this group, but something just isnt right.
First mission was ok, once we got started, but boy did it take longer than it should have... I politely excuse myself and finish my Tips solo.
Ended up on a Keyes Trial rather than doing my Tips anyways, but Anti Matter is the only one left for my Dimensional Warder badge! Finished that up smooth and go back to Tips.
Found my first purple on this character just doing Tips! Weee!
Dont have enough time to build up my Merit supply again, so I cant convert any more Merits to Hero Merits, so only those from Tips until I can get some more.
Did weekly, Admiral Sutter, smooth TF. Then piggy-backed into a TNP as they broadcast the Q, and I jumped on one of the few slots.
Crafted the Purple drop I had, then converted:
Absolute Amazement Stun/End to Coercive Persuasion: Contagious Confusion
Then to Absolute Amazement: Stun
Then to Hecatomb: Chance for Neg Eng
Hopefully one of the 4 Purples I have listed will go sometime 
Today I happened to have enough Merits to convert, so the not converting will have to start tomorrow.
Didnt have time to get the rest of Portal Jockey, didnt have time to craft a T3 Alpha, didnt have time to do much hard marketing for my stuff, had too much playing to do!
Day 22: Thursday August 9, 2012
Check this morning to find that Ive only sold a LotG Def/End/Rech, something is definitely up on the market.
I currently have 4 Purples up on the Market, and 320 Mill influence, which is a little less than halfway to what I need to finish my build on the really expensive IO front, so I really need sales to start happening again.
Yes! Hecatomb Rech/Acc sold!
Not what Im going to concentrate on tonight, want to get my Alpha in order, and generally try to sort things out since Im not sure how much Ill be able to play this weekend.
So I cant stop trying to get money from purples, Ive got a problem... And it makes me Influence.
Bought a Fortunata Hypnosis: Sleep Duration, crafted and converts to:
Gah! Wasted 3 converters on an in set conversion... Wish that wasnt the default. 
Of course if Id lost a good set on an out of set conversion Id wish that was the default.
So my second conversion is from Fortunata Hypnosis: Sleep/Rech to Hecatomb: Dam/End, not bad for 4 converters, would have been nicer with just one though! Their last 5 are going for 300+, but I still list for 275 mill, for a hopeful faster turn around.
Started the DA Incarnate Arcs
The Hecatomb Dam/End sold half-way through my Tips for 350 mill.
This is crazy, I upped my difficulty to 2 for my starting of the DA arcs, then 3 for Tips, and Ive been doing 2-3 GROUPS of Knives at the same time without blinking... I know theyre -1 to me, but Im DANCING on seas of Caltrops without issue, taking 12 plus enemies alone out of hide.
Overall having a single level shift is crazy effective!
Sold the Ragnarok Dam/Rech/Acc for 275 (the lesser listed one), which puts me over 1 billion liquid! /em ThrowsAHalf-CapParty
Picked up another Fortunata Hypnosis: Chance to Placate for 170 mill, that set is probably where I pick up at least half of the purples I buy. Craft it as well as the two LotG 7.5s I have, slot the LotGs and convert the Fortunata.
I should put in bids for the rest of the lesser IOs I need for my build, any of the lower than 100 million things should be easy to gather up right now.
Fortunata Hypnosis: Chance for Placate becomes Gravitational Anchor: Immob/Rech
Which becomes Soulbound Allegiance: Dam/Rech/Acc
Which becomes Fortunata Hypnosis: Sleep/End
Which becomes Absolute Amazement: Stun
Which becomes Armageddon: Damage
Wow, longest chain Ive had converting yet. O_o
Post it for 276 million, so I dont get hit by the 25 millioners.
And Ive got exactly 1 converter left, which is pretty good considering I havent bought any yet.
The Corruptor sets are still going for ½ what I picked them up for.
Did a Keys, still pretty harsh even with +1
Placed some Purple bids and logged
Day 23: Friday August 10, 2012
Double XP Weekend! Weeeee!
Except I dont need any XP anymore on my target character.
I did sell the Armageddon: Damage, but none of my bids filled.
Dont have much time to play, and what time I have will be spent on alts getting xp! But one of my Corruptor ATOs sold, which Im hoping will happen for the rest this weekend, and probably some purple stuff.
Ran a Manticore on my Fire/Kin Corruptor, and got from just 40 to about 41.5
Day 24: Saturday August 11, 2012
Nothing else has moved yet, not concerned.
Got a few more badges for Portal Jockey, only one left to get now.
Ran a Positron 1 that was supposed to lead to a Positron 2, then Yin, but there was no agro control, and no one was supporting my poor Kin (who was supporting everyone else), so I excused myself from the rest and joined an Admiral Sutter instead. At least then Ill have the powers to support myself in an Admiral Sutter.
On Ver I spend some bank on some Purples, get 3 for 175 million each (what? I have over 1.1 billion in liquid right now! ), what Im lacking though is Converters, I have 2, and 3 enhancements to convert. I spend one Hero Merit for 10 Converters. And use 9 converters to get my 3 Purples to Damage sets, an Apocalypse Dam/Rech/Acc, a Hecatomb Dam/Rech, and a Hecatomb Dam/Rech/Acc. I know I should start getting the Purples together for my build, but I want more influence. Starting tomorrow, any Purple I convert to that I need I wont sell, but slot, ya, Ill start that tomorrow...
I list them all for 276 million, and move on to other things.
Did my Tips, and already the Apocalypse Dam/Rech/Acc sold for 325 million.
And the Corruptor ATO bids are reaching up to where mine are listed.
I did an ITF on my Corruptor, and call it a night.
If nothing else, Im enjoying watching your perception of the market, and inf in general change. This is one of those things that the more you experience it the less onerous it seems. I fully accept the argument, "I dont play City of Stock Brokers" but its not my experience.....
For me I went through several defining steps with my market experience, and this is mostly in order....
1. Prices are too high, Im going to have to farm forever to buy wings....
2. I can outfit a toon with IOs for pennies if I avoid optimum sets....stupid people, why am I the only one thats thought of this?
3. Frankenslotting! My genius knows no bounds
4. There is a really large gap between the price of this recipe drop and the price of this crafted IO, I shall craft
5. Why is salvage so expensive?....flippers are stupid and keep me down.
6. Hah, I made so much moola off selling this crafted IO, I dont care that flippers are charging 200k for an uncommon. Stupid flippers.
7. Wait, prices fluctuate. I can just leave my bid up overnight. Flippers are still stupid.
8. See the large difference in the upper and lower prices for this IO? I should flip it and lower the top end price...thatll show that flipper.
9. Duh, for every buyer there is a seller. I dont care how high prices are.
10. Profit
Quote:
epic.
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Originally Posted by frogfather
1. Prices are too high, im going to have to farm forever to buy wings....
2. I can outfit a toon with ios for pennies if i avoid optimum sets....stupid people, why am i the only one thats thought of this? 3. Frankenslotting! My genius knows no bounds 4. There is a really large gap between the price of this recipe drop and the price of this crafted io, i shall craft 5. Why is salvage so expensive?....flippers are stupid and keep me down. 6. Hah, i made so much moola off selling this crafted io, i dont care that flippers are charging 200k for an uncommon. Stupid flippers. 7. Wait, prices fluctuate. I can just leave my bid up overnight. Flippers are still stupid. 8. See the large difference in the upper and lower prices for this io? I should flip it and lower the top end price...thatll show that flipper. 9. Duh, for every buyer there is a seller. I dont care how high prices are. 10. Profit |
Quote:
I've always known the Market wasn't a "scary" place, just never really took the time to get into it. I've done mass-market type stuff on other games, it's just that CoH isn't balanced around having the best, so you can have fun playing with SOs, and not burn any time on marketing. And our little Market is sufficiently different of a system, and quite vast, that the work of "breaking in" always seemed so much less fun than just hitting that baddie over there. |
Originally Posted by Frogfather
If nothing else, Im enjoying watching your perception of the market, and inf in general change. This is one of those things that the more you experience it the less onerous it seems. I fully accept the argument, "I dont play City of Stock Brokers" but its not my experience.....
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Day 25: Sunday August 12, 2012
Crafted a bunch of level 50 IOs, not to sell, just to get rid of the salvage. Ive got common salvage coming out my ears... Its not uncommon for me to cull stacks of it down to 3 a piece in the middle of a TF or mission rather than not have the chance at uncommon/rare stuff.
Tracked down how to get the last badge needed for Portal Jockey, apparently I should have done it sooner, because it was really easy.
Sold a Hecatomb while doing DA arcs for 289 million.
Realized my day number has been off since Day 10 (the day Im posting today), I have an extra day now! Now I shouldn't squander it, though I probably will.
Did a TPN, didnt work out well, not enough people paying attention, not a big deal, I wasnt paying attention either... Sad for the people that were really trying though.
Still got my Destiny slot, and had enough stuff to craft a T3 version, so that +2 now.
Played the converter game and used 12 converters to get a Blessing of the Zephyr: Knockback Reduction (4 Points), guess that wasnt worth it... Probably should have just payed the 35 million to get the recipe. Oh well.
Although I did get a Gladiators Armor: Teleportation Protection, +Def(All) in only 5 converters.
Blast these gambling mechanics, they make me want to test my luck!
Also spent some Astrals on the Steadfast Protection: Resistance/+Def 3% I need. Craft it all up and slot them and Ive got 6% more defense for the fun of it!
Ive got bids in for all the other defensive IOs I need, mostly just LotGs, which leaves a set of Obliteration for Burst, Doctored Wounds for Kuji-In Sha, the two sets of Purples for Concentrated Strike and Blinding Powder, and some odds-and-ends Endurance stuff. Pretty close!
Ran another failed TPN, got a lot farther this time, we just didnt have enough DPS to take down Maelstrom after the Public Opinion Victory. Wasnt a total loss on my front though, since a Doctored Wounds: End/Rech dropped, which I need for my build!
Also it really felt like my T3 Barrier was helping, especially when those that had them staggered our use to get high res/def for a long time. Was nice to feel like it was helping.
My liquid is down to 650 million, gotta get more to sell! Which means waiting! Weeee!!!!!
Day 26: Monday August 13, 2012
Nothing moved since last night, not surprised considering it hasnt been that long and it was a double xp weekend, bought some more purples at 175 million each
Four Converters later: (Purchased with an Empyrean Merit)
Coercive Persuasion: Confuse Duration/Recharge successfully converted to Ragnarok: Damage/Endurance Reduction.
Fortunata Hypnosis: Sleep Duration successfully converted to Absolute Amazement: Recharge/Accuracy.
Absolute Amazement: Recharge/Accuracy successfully converted to Coercive Persuasion: Recharge/Accuracy.
Coercive Persuasion: Recharge/Accuracy successfully converted to Apocalypse: Damage/Endurance Reduction.
Nothing has sold today, so I start poking things for Tips, and end up on an Underground. which made it until the Avatar, but then fell apart...
At least we got the 60 thread bonus.
Did Sister Solaris DA arc, and chose to go it alone at the end, for some crazy reason, worked out though, only one death. Which speaks to how powerful this character is at this point.
Ran my Tips.
Quote:
I said onerous, not scary or intimidating. I think the vast majority of players dont build wealth through the market because they just dont care to. They would rather play and spend time boppin bad guys than staring at the market interface. However the time Ive spent with the market goes down with the experience I get. Your perception of inf has definitely changed though...for the better.....pretty soon youll be burning a billion for lulz.
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Originally Posted by Skifer Tomme
I've always known the Market wasn't a "scary" place, just never really took the time to get into it.
|
Quote:
True, you didn't say scary or intimidating, but that's what I first think of with these kind of things. My first market experience was probably along the lines of "I need HOW MUCH for one Numina unique!?!?!?!?", which would just lead me to not want to try to sell things on the market either since I may not get the best price for it (because I desire to do everything the "best way"). And I would think that a decent cross-section of the player base might feel the same way, I know that some that I played with when the market first came out thought that way anyway.|
Originally Posted by Frogfather
I said onerous, not scary or intimidating. I think the vast majority of players dont build wealth through the market because they just dont care to. They would rather play and spend time boppin bad guys than staring at the market interface. However the time Ive spent with the market goes down with the experience I get. Your perception of inf has definitely changed though...for the better.....pretty soon youll be burning a billion for lulz.
|
I don't think I'll ever burning a billion for lulz though...
Day 27: Tuesday August 14, 2012
Ran SSA1.1, a day late.
Rolled 3 sets of 1500 Tickets hoping to get one of the 12 LotG recipes I need. No luck though. Not a whole lot of supply of those guys around...
Did my Tips
Bought another Purple, 1 converter got me an Armageddon Dam/Rech/Acc which sold as I was typing this in my doc.
Couldnt grab any others, but I did grab 2 Performance Shifter: +End procs, also some other odds and ends my build needs. Only things left are the two sets of Purples, a bunch of LotGs, and a set of Oblit (Got the Quad from Hero Merits)
Speaking of Hero Merits, I can grab a bunch, but dont have enough days left to spend them all. Should have thought that one through eh?
Day 28: Wednesday August 15, 2012
Sold 2 Purples this morning, not for as much as Id like, but for more than they were making me sitting in my Market spots. Got one instant buy, took 4 converters to get a damage set though, so Im out of converters again. Got a Ragnarok: Dam/End though, which seem to be going better than the Hecatombs.
I have four Purples currently, and about the cash to get three more, so I need to make enough to buy three more Purples, then Ill have enough for the ten my build calls for, then I just drain a ton of converters to get the ones I need, or at least thats my theory right now.
By evening Id sold a Hecatomb Dam/Rech (251 million) and a Ragnarok Dam/End (300 million). Could only snag one Purple, crafted and converted to a Ragnarok Dam in 4 converters. Posted for 261 million.
Ugh, spent a good deal of time blowing up AE stuff to roll Silvers, since theres 9 recipes I need from that pool, but with the cost its pretty much pointless, as everyones said. Lesson here, listen to people who try things before you, and if it sounds like theyre right, they might just be right.
The real thing I take away from this though is that I can run a "farm" AE map on Ver at 1x8 easy-peasy. Which is something even my old Fire Farmer had issues with, always had to combine to Purples on her where on Ver I'm combining to mostly reds. Power Overwhelming indeed!
Was doing some build stuff, got the LotG Defs that I needed, as well as the set of Obliterations.
Got two more instant Purples, crafted, then went to Ouro to grab some more converters, and 5 Converters later I have a Hecatomb Dam/Rech/Acc and a Ragnarok Dam/Rech/Acc. Its like printing money!
Post them, and start the waiting!
Day 29: Thursday August 16, 2012
Bought a Purple, converted to Armageddon Rech/Acc
Sold the Armageddon Rech/Acc for 270 million
Sold a Ragnarok Dam/Rech/Acc for 270 million
Doing my Tips at 0x8 to try to get a purple drop, I know, far fetched, but what else am I to do?
Blew up Eochai and on my 5th Tip what should appear buy a wild Purple! Gravitational Anchor: Immo/End! Wewt! Also picked up a Fortunata Hypnosis: Sleep/Rech while going about stuffs.
Four converters gets me an Apocalypse: Chance For Neg and a Hecatomb Dam/End
Pick up another instant Purple, this time I blow about 10 Converters getting it to be a Hecatomb I dont have yet, but this gives me four of the set, which I slot.
I have 3 Purples up for sale, and enough Influence to bid on 3 more, so just a couple sales and I should be set. Though Ill need some conversion money.
And theres the small point of those LotGs Def/Ends which just dont exists on the market.
Anyways, Im going to let that percolate for a bit, and hopefully things will fill!
Day 30: Friday August 17, 2012
Sold the Apocalypse: Chance for Neg for 275 million
Got 2 instant purples, one a recipe, one an enhancement, crafted, converted, listed.
My buying price is at 175 million now (often, still try lower sometimes), and the typical sale is between 260 and 275, so its about 60-80 million profit, including salvage/listing fees, which is still good, or I think so anyways, since I move 1-2 a day (or so it seems).
9 converters for the first, 1 for the second. Yar that was hard... >_<
Well, Im pretty much done on time, I may end up running another anything after Im finished typing this up, so as a summary recap in the last 30 days:
Ive spend 125 hours on patrol
Hit level 50.
Got 2 Incarnate Level Shifts
Have most of my build in place, baring 6 purples and 5 Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Endurance (which do not exist, Im sure of it!)
And have near enough influence to cover what remains to be gotten
Not bad if I do say so myself!
But all thats just the hard data. What was done if you will. It doesnt speak to how my little Stalker plays, which is like a buzzsaw.
I can run Tip Missions at 0x8 without thinking, and though you may think that only 3 AoEs would make it slow (Burst, Energy Torrent, Ion Total Core Judgement) it doesnt. Powers recharge so quickly that I can chain Burst->Assassin's Strike->Energy Torrent->Assassins Strike without waiting. If I throw in some lower attacks as well the *** have a decent chance to crit so I blow through bosses as I blow up minions/lieutenants.
This character is beyond powerful compared to any other character Ive run before (havent gotten any to this level, and only a few into Incarnate powers at all), and having spent only one month to do it is quite the feat for me. Im more than able to face anything I come across, and the only thing that gives me pause is defense debuffers.
All and all Im quite happy with the results and play on doing it again sometime, though without the time delay in posting, because that didnt work out well...
Tuesday August 28, 2012 : Addendum
I've gotten the LotGs for the build, but haven't slotted the purples, I have 7 sitting on the market right now, but as the "Great Purple Crash of 2012" has happened, they aren't moving, and I'm not concerned. This character runs great without the second set of Purples, and adding them in will just be extra icing on this already tasty cake.
Also, all my Corruptor ATOs sold for exactly what I had them listed as, eventually.
Congratulations!
Kinetic Melee is one of those sets I haven't played to 50. I have a toon named "Shinobu Thirty" who is a Kinetic Melee/WP brute, level locked at 30 forever in order to random roll recipes at that level. That doesn't really tell me how good a level 50 KM stalker can be, and I've heard that they're very, very good. My only 50 stalker is Street Justice/Ninjitsu, but that too is an awesome combo, and I have a lot of fun when I play that character (Shinobi Shinobu).
But the fun part is setting a goal like this to build from scratch to level 50 with a nice build, all in 30 days, and then doing it! And you pretty much prove the one thing I wasn't really able to prove -- that even starting without my considerable advantage of knowing the ins and outs of the market, you can still manage it. Anyone should be able to!
Congrats again, and thanks for documenting it!
my lil RWZ Challenge vid
Well played, sir, well played.
We should try to get this one and Organica's latest stickied: New FTP folks who decide to sub in would be a ready market for this information, and as the OP found out, the game play simply gets more and more fun as you get more and more powerful.
It's not difficult to reach the high end game.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by mauk2
Well played, sir, well played.
We should try to get this one and Organica's latest stickied: New FTP folks who decide to sub in would be a ready market for this information, and as the OP found out, the game play simply gets more and more fun as you get more and more powerful. It's not difficult to reach the high end game. |
Yes.....cant tell you how many times I see people complain about the price of things....and then I try to help only to find out theyre talking about Paragon Points and buying IOs on that market. Are they trying to give me a seizure?
--Frog
Thank you all, it's been a fun experience for me, and I can't help wanting to start up something like this again right away, since it really kept me focused on a goal. I might switch the time limit on it's side though, and rather than going at it like "you only have x number of days to complete your task", I'm thinking something more like "you only have x number of hours in a week to play this character."
I kinda expect this would actually result in higher profits vs hours invested since it would be spread out over a longer period of time. Also, it would let me indulge my altaholism lots, which always makes me happy.
I'm not really sure of a good time limit though, any thoughts?
LOL, how quickly your perception of inf changes.
You have over a billion on that toon in less than three weeks. Pat yourself on the back, sir!
Well played.