Trader VS Reseller

[Lenz Zennor]

Hi everyone

Could someone explain to me the difference between resellers and traders?
From what i've read on the forums "trading" seems to be an respected proffesion whilst "reselling" appears to be much hated....

While trading has a broader definition in the end both mean practicaly the same to me.
Could someone enlighten me please?

TIA

Lenz Zennor

 

[illusor]

IMO they are one in the same...its just taht ppl get pissed at the constantly rising prices and feel that traders or "resellers' are partly to blame. but really there is nothing wrong with ppl reselling shit...its called "retail" and someone who got the product at a mcuh lower price could be said to have got a 'wholesale" price. isnt that what most bussiness's do anyway is resale or retail crap to ppl. anyways if the price is too high no one will pay it anyways so i dont see the problem and think they should all be called traders.

 

[nutter]

IMHO...

Trader = A person who purchases items at below market price (wholesale) from people who do not want to stand about trading, then sell the items at market price.

Reseller = A person who buys from anyone (other traders, auction etc) with the sole aim of selling the items at a much higher price, often higher than market price in order to make as much as possible as quick as possible.

Resellers also often will sell higher than market price in order to manipulate the market. Traders buy low and sell high and go with the market, not manipulate it, like in RL.

 

[sob]

IMHO...

Trader = A person who purchases items at below market price (wholesale) from people who do not want to stand about trading, then sell the items at market price.

Reseller = A person who buys from anyone (other traders, auction etc) with the sole aim of selling the items at a much higher price, often higher than market price in order to make as much as possible as quick as possible.

Resellers also often will sell higher than market price in order to manipulate the market. Traders buy low and sell high and go with the market, not manipulate it, like in RL.

exactly

 

[StrongMinded]

Trader IMO is a person that trade goods for other goods....

Reseller is someone buying up small amounts of anything below marketprice and then sells it for F****D up prices and keep raising the prices higher and higher

 

[Lenz Zennor]

So resellers are hated because they sell at high prices and thus driving the price up.

Shouldn't you be pissed at ppl buying at those prices instead of the people selling it then?

Just trying to make sense of it all....

 

[StrongMinded]

So resellers are hated because they sell at high prices and thus driving the price up.

Shouldn't you be pissed at ppl buying at those prices instead of the people selling it then?

Just trying to make sense of it all....

I would be ok with it if they, let´s say bought small amounts and sold it in bulk for a small markup.

Example: People buying generic hide for 110% in PA then put it in auction for 200 - 300% is bs IMO.

 

[toad]

Im right now selling out all my skills and too do that i need a shitload of gsi, the problem is that there is some gsi RESELLERS buying gsi at the same price as i do FROM auction and put them back in for a lot higher price, what service do they offer?

 

[Squiglet]

To my mind a trader is someone who provides a service to the community, they make a profit by adding real value to the items they trade.

A couple of examples; someone who buys small quantities of material like animal hide from hunters then sells the large quatities they gather together to the taylors at a slight markup. This is a service because the hunters often want or need to sell what they loot as soon as they loot it, and taylors want to be able to buy large quantities straight away so that they can start crafting and are often willing to pay a little more for those large quantities just for the added conveniance, thus having a middleman who spends their time standing in PA or wherever buying from the hunters is providing a service.

Another example would be someone who buys individual armour parts either from crafters or hunters then sells full sets of armour for a small profit. Having a full set is more valuble to people then having to try and find each part (and perhaps having to make do with a partial set because they can't find one part) so the trader has added real value to the goods through their activities.

A reseller on the other hand is someone who makes a profit without actually adding any value to their goods, for example they might buy sweat at PA for 1.0 pec/bottle then TP to Twin and immediatly try to sell the same quantity at 1.2 pec/bottle. Alternatively they could buy a weapon from a shop then immediately try and sell it for more then they paid in the shop.

This is just where I personally draw the distinction.

 

[nutter]

To my mind a trader is someone who provides a service to the community, they make a profit by adding real value to the items they trade.

A couple of examples; someone who buys small quantities of material like animal hide from hunters then sells the large quatities they gather together to the taylors at a slight markup. This is a service because the hunters often want or need to sell what they loot as soon as they loot it, and taylors want to be able to buy large quantities straight away so that they can start crafting and are often willing to pay a little more for those large quantities just for the added conveniance, thus having a middleman who spends their time standing in PA or wherever buying from the hunters is providing a service.

Another example would be someone who buys individual armour parts either from crafters or hunters then sells full sets of armour for a small profit. Having a full set is more valuble to people then having to try and find each part (and perhaps having to make do with a partial set because they can't find one part) so the trader has added real value to the goods through their activities.

A reseller on the other hand is someone who makes a profit without actually adding any value to their goods, for example they might buy sweat at PA for 1.0 pec/bottle then TP to Twin and immediatly try to sell the same quantity at 1.2 pec/bottle. Alternatively they could buy a weapon from a shop then immediately try and sell it for more then they paid in the shop.

This is just where I personally draw the distinction.

As an armour and weapons trader myself, I totally agree with your description of an armour trader.


As we all seem to have roughly the same definition of the differences between traders and resellers, can we please stop using the terms interchangeably? Traders are good things. Resellers are bad mmmk?

Oh, and as for traders being people who trade one thing for another, unfortunately not enough of this occurs in this game. Everyone wants peds, not items :/

 

[Fin]

A trader takes as much as he has earned, a reseller takes as much as he can get.

 

[jonboy]

If people didn't buy the items from the resellers they wouldn't be able to trade. So instead of whining about resellers why not try educate people?

Resellers exist because there is a market for them. Its basic economics of supply and demand. If the supply price is to high demand falls and vice versa. There are obviously people who think that these goods are worth buyiing at the higher prices so maybe that is the real market value!?!

I am not a reseller btw

 

[Wally]

IMHO

People here are confusing market busters with traders.
Of course that if we want to give new definitions to the "trader" and reseller" words we can think of anything (after all, word meanings are a matter of social compromise) but...

As long as anyone is not producing what he sells is a "reseller" (correct meaning of word - buying something for a low price and selling it for a higher price = reselling).
So, every trader is a reseller in the commonly dictionary way of the word.

What all the people from PE are calling a "reseller" (with an angry look upon him ) is in fact a "market buster".

The "retailer" is a particular type of trader who buys big quantities and resells them in "en-detail" mode (smaller quantities).

Lets try to put the words in their normal use and not blame innocent.

PS. I am in the trading bussines in PE for almost 3 years and yes... I buy low and sell a little higher . Thats what traders do...

PS2. In every open and free market, prices are established buy the request vs offer balance. If someone offers higher for an item... I wonder who is the seller who will try to convince him to buy for a lower price.

 

[Marty Richards]

qouted for truth.

As we all seem to have roughly the same definition of the differences between traders and resellers, can we please stop using the terms interchangeably? Traders are good things. Resellers are bad mmmk?

Quoted for truth.


I dont generally trade in armors and weapons, since consumable items are always in more demand, Although i'm working a full armor set order atm. The distinction between a trader and reseller in my eyes has already been covered. I buy whatever my clients need for slightly below the agreed price (usually 2-3%) Most of my buyers pay my2pecs since they dont care to stand in PA all day hunting for bargains. My buyers are happy, and the miners/hunters i buy from are happy, since i can usually offer a fair % for items.

I do have a comment about the sweat thing mentioned earlier, because I also buy sweat for a few people from time to time. I agree partially with the comment about a reseller being someone who buys at 1.0 and sells at 1.2 or whatnot. In order to get my start, I had to advertise myself to make contacts, but there is definately a limit. I've seen spam along the lines of "buying sweat 1.0, selling sweat 1.15 @ boxes" all in the same ad or within seconds of eachother, and that is really just dumb. Sweat buying is a service too, however. If you've ever tried to buy 2,3,400 ped sweat in a day you know what i'm talking about, and frankly most of the folks I deal with dont want to invest that kind of time over a couple weeks worth of sweat. Granted some days sweat moves fast, but i've seen days that i'd swear not a single bottle of sweat moved. On a day like that, would you really want to log in and bounce from tp to tp for 4,5, even 8 hours only to scrounge up 1 or 2 k sweats?

The point is that trading really is a service, but it takes time, finesse and a firm grasp of the market to make sure that you're fair to all parties involved. And those of us that trade with the market, and dont try to manipulate it dont appreciate being labelled as resellers. Reseller is a dirty word.


Edit: In agreeance with prior post by Wally. Yes you're absolutely correct, but I fear nobody will ever bother to make the distinction between a market buster and a reseller, therefore causing the term 'reseller' to generally be frowned upon.

 

[Jimmy B]

Im right now selling out all my skills and too do that i need a shitload of gsi, the problem is that there is some gsi RESELLERS buying gsi at the same price as i do FROM auction and put them back in for a lot higher price, what service do they offer?

The service they do is make it easy to sell stuff. If I'm short of ped and I loot a GSI I can sell it for pretty much market value because I know some reseller will snap it up. If the only people buying GSI were people who needed GSI then I may have to wait quite a while to get market price.

So its quite good when you're selling stuff.

Yes, its not so good when you're buying stuff. But:

(i) if you have the ped to buy at their prices and you can afford it, it does mean that the item is likely to be available, albeit at an inflated price
(ii) if the resellers are buying, you can buy too! You just have to beat them to it. imo resellers mainly profit because of people's impatience.
(iii) try to go to the source. e.g. if you want to buy a crafted item, find a crafter and pay them in the ores/enmatter they need to buy the item. Mine the ores yourself if you have too!

 

[Morg]

So resellers are hated because they sell at high prices and thus driving the price up.

Shouldn't you be pissed at ppl buying at those prices instead of the people selling it then?

Just trying to make sense of it all....

reseller is also a broad term...what is hated is the type preson who sees an item/s in low quantity, buy all up all they possibly can to monopolize the market then set way over inflated prices... if would like to see a prime example, can check "skill implant" section of the auction...look for most anyone trying to rip people off trying to sell Alertness Skill Implants for ~400peds. Anyone who would actually buy at that price is obviously very very new to the game and doesnt know any better....they are barely worth half that amount.

the examples can be found elsewhere, but this is currently the most shameful example.

edit: btw...the lame excuse of "offering a service" in this case is exactly that, a lame excuse.

then there are what I consider scammers...a couple can be found on this forum...people who buy Genetic Skill Implants, and hope to trick people into buying them as Generic Skill Implants. I wont name any names, but I will be very quick to post screenshots of them (doing so) if they so much as post a "hello" on this thread.

other examples of scum can be found in the Blueprint sections, hoping to exploit players by selling TT blueprints ( the ones you can buy from the Technician for .01ped) and reselling them to new players for 1000%+ markups.

 

[Ibuyandsell]

I Buy And Sell

I, by the definitions posted here, am a trader. I just need to say this, PE is a capitalist world. Capitalism is BUILT upon people, or companies that spend time making contacts to buy large quantities of a product for direct marketing to the general public at a markup. In Rl stores, car dealerships, restraunts ANY place you purchase any item (other than from the manufacturer) you are paying an outrageous mark up, usually 200-400 % over the cost of manufacturing the item, and are totally ignorant to it as an average consumer. Now that being said, the economy in PE is a very small one on a global scale, no furtune 500 companies, no huge overhead expenses, no 1000s of people on one payroll causing prices to go up. Prices in a capitalist society are set by supply and demand, i.e. Diamonds are a very rare find while mining in RL, yet ALL women want them (lol), therefore a piece of a diamond is thousands of dollars. While a Mcdonalds fake meat burger is $.99, lots of people eat them, but theres plenty of fake meat floating around for cheap. Now, as a trader, it upsets me greatly to have someone, dressed nicely, who obviously knows the game and the markets, walk up to me, put a Marber Bravo-Type Plasma Annihilator in the trade window and say "only TT+120 great price" that, or something similar to that happen to me 15-20 times this WEEK! Of course I laugh at them and offer an outragously low price for their trouble. People who do that, give honest business men like myself and my Society mates a bad name, and imo are no better than the " I can upgrade your armor free " scammers. They feed off the ignorance of the public, and obviously there is alot of it in PE, or they're would be no one selling at outrageous prices, same reason we've all been told to give our weapon to a stranger for an upgrade. Someone is buying these items! Someone is giving their armor to people! The way to deal with these "resellers" (scammers) is to put them in their place as politly as possible. Most don't walk away from a scammer without a screenie, and/or words exchanged
in main chat, and/or a post about the encounter on the forum, spread the word about said scammer. Anyone who cares at all about their rep will straighten up quickly! O.K. Im sorry for the lecture but had to have my2pecs!!


Always at the top of the stairs in PA, Come see me!

 

[Svetlana]

If people didn't buy the items from the resellers they wouldn't be able to trade. So instead of whining about resellers why not try educate people?

Resellers exist because there is a market for them. Its basic economics of supply and demand. If the supply price is to high demand falls and vice versa. There are obviously people who think that these goods are worth buyiing at the higher prices so maybe that is the real market value!?!

I am not a reseller btw

I completely empathize with this sentiment, however... I would argue that while we can accuse ppl of buying from resellers, the main thing we should concern ourselves with is the auction system itself.

Ya, that's right. Prior to the auction system in game, it used to be that we all knew one another- we had those deep-forged relationships with traders. We knew who we liked and who we did not. We knew who to trust for giving us the best deals and who to be more weary of. With the advent of auction, we lost that ability. Now, I can put on auction a particular natural material that literally sells within 30 seconds, regardless of the ridiculously high buy-out I put on them... simply b/c there are no others out there. Then, that leaves the poor chap who genuinely needs that material for crafting out of the loop.

In any event... ya, I have a 'beef' with the current auction system as do many of us For now, I use it sparingly.

Don't be fooled into thinking that traders equate to resellers. As has been said succinctly in this thread already, traders are honest ppl that go to extreme lengths to make a relatively small profit. Resellers are those that horde up small stores of things at auction and otherwise and sell it ridiculously high... only out for themselves. Btw, resellers are common in many mmorpg's... that equates to things such as farming, etc, in the long run.

 

[mrproper]

Ok, lets see....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retail
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wholesale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_trader
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reseller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_maker

that should give some reading time to you...

Cases of trading in PE:
- buying small amounts of items from individual players or shops,
- selling small amounts of items to individuals or shops,
- buying cheap bulk merchandise (auction, other means)
- selling cheap bulk merchandise (auction, other means)
- using a combination of the above.

So as long as the above are a normal market behaviour, what is a trader and what is a reseller? Is a trader someone that sells and buys stuff all day to/from whoever needs it. Is a reseller someone that buys and sells only some stuff to/from whoever needs it?

You could reffer to market manipulators, market makers, speculators...

Trading provides a service. It can be reselling, as in buying stuff with the ONLY purpose of selling it back at better prices. This means that the merchandise is just a profit means. Or supplying in wich case you buy merchandise for yourself or a client that needs it for a purpose. In case of a supply trade, you agree on prices with the seller and buyer. You are just a means for the two to save time and not be forced to meet and trade small amounts of merchandise.

The PE Auction system is designed so that you cannot inflate goods too much. And you cannot make large proffits by selling and buying only in there, as you have to pay the 1 ped fee. You will NEVER pay too much for items/supplies, because there are alternatives. You will not buy a too expensive weapon or armor if another alternative is present at a cheaper price per value. It is up to everyone to understand the macroeconomy and act correctly, even if trade history or resource volumes are not really publicly available from the game.

 

[PECalc]

The original purpose of retail was to facilitate shipping. The manufacturing was located in one city, while the customers were in every city. Retails would purchase the goods from the manufacturer, then transport and market the goods to the people all over the world. Shipping in PE is unncessary due to the teleporters, however retailers are still common for a few reasons. Most of the training modern humans have is in retail and/or paperwork, and so they do that here. It can be tricky to find a buyer or seller for a specific item in a timely way, and so resellers can offer the buyer/seller-finding service for a fee. People can only do what they know how to do, and after asking around for a "job", most of you can handle purchasing, and then learn selling, bartering, and trading. And the words are the same thing, "buying and selling" is "trading", regardless of the currency used. The currency can be peds, d-1s, wool, or dollars, and you could easily sell a ferrari f360 for 3.6 million jester d-1s.

 

[mrproper]

How about we make this simple:

TIME = MONEY

Now if I have the time and not the money and I want the money, I have to give my time shares to other players for small/large profits on diverse trading activities.

If I am rich and I just want to jump around with an Ax.... imk.... Shad..... errr.. uber gear.. I will use that time and have some money pouring to the ones that do not use it like me.

Trading on the market: more time spent, larger profit.
Trading at the auction house: less time spent, lesser profit.

One of the best ways to maximize profit and use less time as possible is the so called "reselling" wich involves retail purchases of cheap underpriced small amounts of merchandise (say Animal Hide at 160%) and then selling a bulk quantity at a good price on the auction (with a buyout of 220%). Obviously the "reseller" has made 220%/160%=137.5% return. Or simply 37.5% profit over whatever quantity he used in there. If we take 1000 items stacks, we get 3.75 PED profit over 10 PED TT value.

Are these the ppl you hate? Are these the ppl you sell cheap loot junk? Are they the ones that supply you, the buyout sharp-shooting bidders?