Jack zigzagged through the squeaky wooden wagon wheels and the clapping horses’ hooves escaping the hustle and bustle of the dusty coach station. There was a lot to do and little time, so Jack felt compelled to do something he wasn’t used to: planning.
On the one hand, he was now level 10 on both pottery and bushcraft. These professions were as profitable as they would ever be. He could just go into the Pottery Association and start making ceramics or go out into the woods and set up a campsite to sell food to adventurers.
He still had to experiment with the new synergistic recipes unlocked by his hidden class. He had no idea of their market value and needed to know how much a clay bomb or a mudhouse sold for. He still had yet to see any cash in the real world for his efforts, and the pressure was mounting. Finding out how marketable his hidden class was was probably the most responsible decision.
Furthermore, he also had to become a beekeeper and explore the potential of the bard profession. Becoming a beekeeper required him to stare at a glass case for 10 hours, so he wasn’t looking forward to it. Perhaps he could kill two birds with one stone and make an ocarina first. Then, he could practice playing it while he watched the bees. This way, he wouldn’t die of boredom and could make his time count. Once he became a beekeeper, he could immediately check what new synergies it unlocked.
The question was: which one should he do next? As he scratched his head, looking left and right, he caught sight of a marketplace. Didn’t he have several pieces of equipment he couldn’t wear anymore? Perhaps he should start by dumping all these in the market and figure things out from there.
Due to its proximity to the coach station, this marketplace was packed. Several players from beginner villages or other gate towns dumped their loot on the market before setting out on new adventures or exploring different cities. Jack found an empty spot close to the wall and called up the marketplace window.
He dragged the [Pinewood Buckler], [Pigskin Swimming Cap], [Rusty Pitchfork], [Worn Sandals], [Worn Gloves] and [Simple Shirt] into the market window. The price pre-determined by the system was only four silver and 57 coppers. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. Just as Jack was about to seal the deal, he remembered the flying boots, the poisonous walls, and the underwater maze, and his hand froze. It was hard to part with these trash items. He’d been through many challenges to get these. He’d earned them.
Come on, Jack. It’s just trash. Just click sell. And he did. He only held on to two pieces of equipment: the [Junior Bugkeeper Gloves] and the boots.
Amari told him that the complete set sold for 3k gold. Since the boots and gloves made up one-third of the set, he should be able to get at least 1k gold for these! He shouldn’t just dump them into the marketplace willy-nilly. He had to figure out how to sell them for maximum value. He walked out of the market, sat on a nearby bench, and activated the web browser.
He typed, “How to auction items in New Earth?” Several posts appeared. He knew the gist of it, but he had been burned for not double-checking things before, and these two items were potentially worth the money he needed to pay his father’s rent. He selected one post from a website he’d been consulting often.
An Introduction to Auctions in New Earth
As we’ve seen in previous posts, marketplaces in New Earth function a little like a scrapyard or a pawn shop. You dump your items, the system offers you a pre-determined value, and you get your money immediately. It’s simple, quick, and reliable. However, it’s not always the best way to get top value for your items, especially rarer ones.
Let’s discuss three ways to get more money for your items. I know I’m leaving out direct trading, but I’ve written a whole post about this, which you can check in this link. So, without any further adieu, let’s see the three best ways to get top credit for your loot!
* Fleamarket
Every gate town has a fleamarket in the slums. You can set up a stall and sell your items there. In return, you must pay a fee for a 24-hour vendor’s license to the city. It’s one gold, so make sure you have enough to sell and make a profit!
Pros:
* There are flea markets in every town;
* Great way to sell items that are rare but not too rare;
* One of the best ways to level the [Merchant] profession.
Cons:
* It may require a little bit of haggling;
* You’re limited to whoever is visiting the market that day. You can have bad days and good days;
* The fee may be too steep for beginners and is only valid for 24 hours.
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* Auction House in Eternia
Every week, on Sundays, an auction is held in the capital. The entry fee is 100 gold per item, so only the best and rarest items are sold there. Top guilds visit the auction like clockwork and come with full pockets. The bidding war can help you sell prices for incredible value.
Pros:
* The auctioneer will handle everything for you;
* You can keep your privacy and avoid trouble;
* Best way to get your items in front of a large, wealthy audience.
Cons:
* The entry fee is very costly;
* Requires you to travel to the capital;
* You have to wait till Sunday to sell an item.
* IRL Cash Websites
IRL cash-in websites are among the best resources for professional gamers or people short on cash. There are several platforms out there offering this service, but I recommend using only these two. (Click here for option one and here for option 2)
This method of trading offers many advantages but also significant setbacks. One of the biggest perks is that you can sell it in any marketplace. Additionally, if you still don’t have a streaming audience or sponsors, this can be a good way for you to pay your bills.
However, whenever you sell an in-game item for IRL cash, you essentially sell the goose instead of keeping it for yourself. In-game currency can continually be reinvested to generate even more wealth. Only do this if you need cash.
Pros:
* It's easy to do. It doesn’t require traveling;
* No fees;
* You get real, actual money!
Cons:
* You sacrifice character development for financial gain.
Jack reviewed each option, considering which would be best for selling these two pieces of equipment. The auction house in Eternia was out of the question. He didn’t have 100 gold and wasn’t about to travel all the way to the capital just to sell these two beginner items.
The fleamarket seemed interesting, but he didn’t have much stuff to sell there. Perhaps if he crafted several pots and other items and then went to the fleamarket, that would make more sense, but for now, he would check the final option. He would find out how many credits these items were worth.
He opened one of the suggested IRL cash-in websites and checked the prices for the two pieces of equipment. Some pairs of gloves sold for 20 to 180 credits, and the pairs of boots sold for 30 to 250 credits. There was something off here.
What explained this price discrepancy? Jack checked the description of each listing and found that it was partly due to the items’ durability. “OK. Players buy these, hunt with them, and before they break, they sell them here for cheap. Makes sense.”
However, there were listings with the same durability and different prices. One pair of boots with 23 durability was on sale for 250 credits and another for 180. Why such a massive difference? Also, wasn’t the whole set supposed to sell for 3k gold? The last time he checked the conversion rate, 3k gold was worth roughly 2000 credits.
He had expected each piece of equipment to sell 500 gold each, that is, 330 credits. The prices didn’t add up! What was he missing? He kept looking through the listing and found a complete set on sale for 1900 credits. Finally, a light bulb lit in his mind. “Ah! The whole set sells for 3k, but mismatched pieces aren’t worth that much.”
Satisfied with having solved part of the mystery, Jack dug deeper to discover why items with the same durability were on sale for different prices. He pulled up the price history for boots and found a graph showing how much they had sold for throughout the month. The prices spiked here and plummeted there. He compared it with the price history of the gloves. There was a similar-looking chart, but the spikes and plummets occurred on different days.
“OK. I get it now. If everyone has jackets on sale but no boots, then the cost of boots skyrockets.” Time equaled money. If he was willing to wait and surf these waves, he might make more money than if he was in a hurry.
He checked if he could get a better price for selling the shoes and the gloves together. He couldn’t. People sold individual pieces, bundles of three pieces, which granted the first set’s buff, and complete six-piece sets, which granted the set’s full buffs.
He would list them individually then. It probably wasn’t enough to pay rent yet, but if he sold both items for maximum value, he could pay off the VR helmet rental for the whole month and have some money left over. Besides, Jack had already received the payment for his last job and had paid Rob back his 50 credits. He could sit tight for a few days, waiting for these spikes.
He marched back into the marketplace, found the option to list the items at the relevant cash-in website, and put the gloves for sale for 180 credits and the boots for sale for 250. If he managed to sell these for their top price, he would make over 400 credits! He doubted getting the maximum price for the items was easy, though. Spikes that high were rare. The last one happened more than three weeks ago.
If a customer were patient enough, they would just wait out the spikes, waiting for the prices to come back down before purchasing. He tried to imagine a rich, spoiled brat in an ivory tower somewhere, checking the cash-in website and feeling too impatient to wait, thus buying the item at the maximum price. But just how many spoiled rich kids would be shopping for this set in the near future? For now, he would just wait and see.
Having listed the items, Jack left the marketplace. The sky seemed bluer than before. His step was lighter, and his neck and shoulders felt loose. He hadn’t yet received money for those items, but they were on sale. It would sell eventually! He was about to get his first ‘paycheck’ in the game.
“This gaming thing may work out,” he told himself. True, he wouldn’t get his hands on this kind of item every day. He had been lucky enough to be invited into this quest by veterans who had carried him. He’d also been working around the clock like never before, playing for no less than 20 hours every day. If he had worked this much anywhere else, he would have had enough to pay the rent by now.
However, seeing some light at the end of the tunnel still felt good. He was just level 10! He was just getting started. If he kept progressing like this, all he needed was a couple of weeks, and he would have more than enough to pay his dad and make a living. Maybe even buying a house and winning Lydia back.
Even though he wanted to stare at the listing on the auction website like a hawk, waiting for the money to pour into his account, he decided to use his time more wisely. He headed toward the Pottery Association. It was time to make an ocarina.