Help: How do you sell loot?

When I was first learning to play and reading all the guides, I read something once that said "never TT anything"; and I initially approached the game this way. It didn't take me long to realize how unrealistic that was.

There are some items which are not used in crafting or anything else, and are impossible to sell. On the flip side, there's some items that are so common and oversupplied, that they have no viable markup. Even some stacks or item drops with 105-110% MU I would try to sell would just sit in AH until expiry and I'd have to take my auction fee loss and just TT them anyway (and yes, I always sell at or under monthly).

Fast forward 9 months, I find now I'm in the habit of just cherry picking the couple of items out of my loot that have really good MU that I know I can sell, and tossing everything else. However, it still nags at me that this is not a very smart way to play, and that I could be stretching my PED further.

So my purpose in starting this thread is that the sparse information I can find on this topic is typically very vague or very old. I would like to solicit anyone who can contribute to the discussion for some solid tips on how to sell your loot effectively, to help myself and other noobs reclaim some lost MU.

Please consider that this thread would be to help those of us who don't have the bankroll to build up huge stacks to make the margin worthwhile or to hold on to items until the timing is right. Any tips on how to help maximize your return at the lower or mid levels will be the most appreciated.

Detritus said:

(and yes, I always sell at or under monthly)

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daily, weekly, monthly, fortnightly and all other averages are meaningless for most stackables.

Most markets are made up of multiple tiers - e.g. there are 100 PED stacks of melchi crystal selling at 102%, 10 PED stacks of melchi crystal selling at 110%, the average is 104% or something like that, but nothing actually sells at 104%.

It takes some research and excel-fu to find out which tier yields better net price and better suits your turnover and available slots.

If you just have a stack and don't want to spend time on research... the number to undercut is the lowest BO for a stack of similar size that has been on the market for longer than 24 hours.

tl;dr: stack size matters more than most people think.

Another observation on stack sizes:

Selling a round amount isn't necessary. 3142 units sell about as well as 3000. (This makes sense. Most consumers have leftovers in their storages anyway.)

Somewhat surprisingly, round buyouts seem to work better - 150 PED BO will usually be taken sooner than 148 PED BO at a similar MU. *I don't know what psychological phenomenon is behind this but am thinking of a more robust test for this.)

Great tips, thanks for sharing! I never really noticed the "tiers", I always just looked at monthly no matter what sized stack I was selling. This is a big help.

A lot has to do with tier up and crafting ingredient lists and how many clicks each stack can give the end user...

Study Bob the builder and entropedia.

One thing recent is lockboxes. Deposit that way and get u.a. so u don't feel so bad selling to t.t. for junk below 110%... since its only way to free up peds for repairs. Might break even on unlimited ring in box?

Detritus said:

When I was first learning to play and reading all the guides, I read something once that said "never TT anything"; and I initially approached the game this way. It didn't take me long to realize how unrealistic that was.

Fast forward 9 months, I find now I'm in the habit of just cherry picking the couple of items out of my loot that have really good MU that I know I can sell, and tossing everything else. However, it still nags at me that this is not a very smart way to play, and that I could be stretching my PED further.

Please consider that this thread would be to help those of us who don't have the bankroll to build up huge stacks to make the margin worthwhile or to hold on to items until the timing is right.

Click to expand...

Detritus, I would not let those lost peds get you down, even I have to TT a lot of loot that I don't want too, but because I know I have to try sell it out of auction or I lose out on the fees if unsold.

The problem for me is that even for 7 dps I build up stacks of worthless loot, that I have to waste time advertising, when I could be focusing on hunting more efficiently (making less mistakes that cost ped), i.e. overkill, over healing, additional aggro etc. All this can be avoided if I'm focused, instead of advertising in trade channels.

There are definitely tier levels where a certain amount always sell, you have to keep an eye out but again even at 7 dps selling several small stacks could run the risk of some listings not selling? Plus it then begins limiting your auction listings as you are only allowed 30 slots at any one time, imagine nothing sells for a week and you have already used up 30 slots due to selling lower tier stacks?

I have been tempted to sell through small stacks but I just can't justify it at any cycle speed, unless you are a very casual player, but I am nowhere near casual and grind a lot...

So I would not stress about TTing loot where u are losing potential markup/ped, just work on maximising your hunting efficiency and squeeze out the markup that is viable.

If you do this and continue with hunting and grinding, it is possible for you to loot something that does have markup, like TP II Chip from Berycled Youngs, those saved me a few times.

There are items I loot, I just look at the TT value, market value and know its TT garbage straight away, I may check listings just to be sure before selling to TT.

Just so you gain some comfort from this, on my H2S Entropia Log, even after selling loot to TT and only selling what is viable, I am still able to generate 106.41% avg markup and after fees this is drops to 104.14%.

But 104% over TT while still at 100% TT is awesome for me

Give up.

The market has bellied up from explosive particles.
And unless you have 1000s of dollars to throw around, you might as well head to your local Indian casino.

I've just taken to TT'ing everything unless its an item with some MU or something that I want for crafting. That's allowed me to cycle peds and keep hunting even with a small bankroll. I have to admit though, I've only adopted this due to not being able to afford to make big deposits at present.

TT is fast trading, and this i like much. But it is always a pain, to tt stuff's, where had a high MU in the past.

Detritus said:

When I was first learning to play and reading all the guides, I read something once that said "never TT anything";...

.

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Dont believe everything you read

It should have written, "dont TT everything" instead of anything.
Some stackables still have some value and will sell on auction, but most has become TT fodder.

I personally also gave up on MU. The TT became my biggest friend!

selling is for people who don't have a job. been playing 2 years now and I haven't sold 3 things in the auction. that is also because of the fucktarded auction entry fee which needs to GO. until that is removed entirely the market is non-existent compared to games where such a fee doesn't exist. I'm not willing to lose ped if things that are reasonably priced STILL don't get sold (which is what happened every time)

Haruto Rat said:

daily, weekly, monthly, fortnightly and all other averages are meaningless for most stackables.

Most markets are made up of multiple tiers - e.g. there are 100 PED stacks of melchi crystal selling at 102%, 10 PED stacks of melchi crystal selling at 110%, the average is 104% or something like that, but nothing actually sells at 104%.

It takes some research and excel-fu to find out which tier yields better net price and better suits your turnover and available slots.

If you just have a stack and don't want to spend time on research... the number to undercut is the lowest BO for a stack of similar size that has been on the market for longer than 24 hours.

tl;dr: stack size matters more than most people think.

Click to expand...

I've never really bothered to test stack sizes below 30-40 PED. I'm guessing it's possible with enough trial and error to achieve consistently higher profit with micro-stacks. But I've always figured that the players who buy these are few and far between and in the long run, that baseline auction fee can potentially screw you if your dozens upon dozens of mini-stacks aren't always selling.

But maybe this is all just an excuse for my own laziness. Since I play on a limited bankroll, I'd rather dump everything quickly so I can get back to cycling again.

I sometimes use under tt value trick. You automatically get a bid if you sell something at 95%. It's also psychological that items with bids get more attention.. and thus you get the 1 ped extra second bid.. and there you go.. profit.

A shop comes in handy too. Simply keep stacking items like paints and extractors in your shop, until you have a decent stack. Make sure you are cheaper than the auction house and then send a pm to someone who normally buys paints and extractors. It's easier with a shop because from tt+1 you can also go tt +1,01 or tt+1,12. If the stack is big enough to go above tt+1 then you can always compete with the auction house. Ofcourse stuff may not sell for weeks or months.. and then you get a buyer who buys up all your stacks..

All very good tips, thanks guys.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who has made pals with Mr. TT.

Haruto Rat said:

...
tl;dr: stack size matters more than most people think.

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I certainly didn't pay enough attention to this. Thank you. (Must spread some rep around before...)

Another thing to watch out for is the item's or resource's sale volume. If the sale volume is low, you might be better off trying to sell in chat or simply TTing it.

Here's another thing to ponder.

If you're a miner or a hunter, it sort of seems natural to list your stuff on auction before logging off, when you've rounded up your activity and know you won't be getting any more of resource X that day.

Crafters, on the other hand, are less keen to buy stuff before bed. They may take a look at the markets, snap up a good offer, look for something rare or hard to get, or place an order or two, but for common stuff tomorrow is another day.

As a result, during times of decreasing activity, when more people log off than log in, more resources will enter the market than leave it, likely leading to intraday fluctuations in the market price on many of them.

This can hurt if you live on an eastern edge of a major population center (e.g. U.S. East Coast or Eastern Europe). You list your stuff and horizontalize yourself, hoping goods will sell overnight, only to find on the next day that nothing has sold because people who go to bed an hour or two later have been busy undercutting you.

This does not mean you're doomed to get worse value for your stuff because of your location; rather that, if you look at the market after a buying surge but before a selling surge, you can get an inflated perception of what the market clearing price is.

There's no silver bullet. You can not 'preundercut' unless you sell to orders; and changing your routine to sell at a different time will likely increase your bankroll requirement. Still, this is something to think about.

tl;dr: Listing stuff before bed may not work as well as expected, especially if you live in Eastern Somewhere.