How to Exchange, Vend, and Hoard. THE Guide to making gold.

[Pheregames]

{Version 3.0 is done; it's in beta state and being touched up. You can find the thread [HERE] }
Question? Comments? Post them in the thread! The more you ask, the more I answer and update. Help the guide grow!

If you gave it a read though, suggestions and complaints really do help. Drop off a tip or demand more help!

If anybody is willing to help with layout or design at later point, contact me via PM. May be able to pay or give private lessons as payment.
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Please tell me if it was helpful, or confusing. Item names may be dated, but the concept is not.

There will always be items to vend with, and if you need additional help, just send me a PM and I’ll do my best.

If you gave it a read-though, please post a comment so I can improve upon it.

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Vending, to put it simply is to be the middle man of selling and buying items. If you have ever used the marketplace [The Vend.] you know that you can buy and sell items almost instantly without the use of the trade. As an exchanger, you will almost Always use the Vend to SELL your items, because its fast, and people are willing to pay more.



Here's how to Vend, quickly.


You need a small start up capital, you need At least 15k to vend, which will cover most Recent Letters and Donation items, Think the Dark Star and those items, and the letter that contains them. But you can have as little as 8k and Exchange purely on old MCs [the unpopular ones D:] , because they are cheap, easy to sell, and have a steady demand.

Lets go over an example.

Example One: Start up capital needed~12-13k.


An Angelic Mic is a great item to buy and sell, because people either want it a lot, or not at all.
Go to the Exchange, its a Forum. The Exchange is the place to BUY, NOT sell [Unless you have Very Rare 03' items( OMG, AFK, Rose Corsage)]

Try to find a thread that is reasonably new. You should be looking for a thread with Less then non-Bump 5 Posts, or a recently made one.



An easy way to determine a good starting bid, especially with items below 25k, is to take the Vend Price [Or the Lowest Market Price] and Multiply it by .90 [POINT 90. NOT TIMES 90] This will give you 90% of its value. Try to Bid that, and hopefully you'll get accepted.




Lets say that the Mic is 13k, Round UP always to the nearest workable number. Don't use those 12,996;12,998; 12,974; or other weird numbers. Try to make sure its divisible with 25.


All Computers come with a Calculator Application.

Use it.

If not, I'm sure you have one in your house... or paper and a pen... sweatdrop

So... 12k Times Point 90.

12 X .90= 10.8. Or 10.8k.

People Will Sell it to you for that price. Trust me, I've gotten it for less then that.

[Pheregames]

Bidding. This is something you should learn to do need to know.

Bidding, and knowing how to correctly is about as important as breathing.

First off, Three things about biding.

• Be friendly and nice. If you and somebody else bids the same amount, but you said "10.8k for that item please, I appreciate it!" and somebody else bids "10.8k for that crap, and make it quick, I need to go!" who would you sell to?
  
  
  
• Be prepared to honor your bid. Its very rude to retract your bid, and always bid with what you have, not with what you are "going" to have.
  
  
  
• Bid strategically. A lot of people bid in 100g intervals. So if you bid 10.8k, and you are only prepared to give 11.1k for an item, beat them to the price. Remember playing Wind Waker and Link would "stun" everyone else when bidding more then 10% of the last bid? Same concept. Corner people by forcing them either to bid into a price they don't want to or walk away, very few people are willing to get that item for like 3% off the vend price, having to pay a 2% tax on it; 1% net profit is not fun.
  
  
  The earlier you can make somebody else stop biding, the less you have to pay, and the faster you can earn money.
  

Well, Congrats! You bought the item for 10.8k, now to sell it.

[Pheregames]

Go to the Vend [Marketplace] and put your item for a few gold below the lowest vend price. If 12k is the lowest, put your for 11,999, or 11,900. A few gold make the difference from page 1, top, and page 2, middle.


Check yourself. Always double check your comma. You might have wanted to sell that item for 12,900, but you put it for 1,209.... A happy buyer...


Human physiology will see a lower number as the first digit and go "That's a steal". Ever wonder why Mc. Donald’s sells all these items for 99 cents, because they can say its less then a dollar.



In the vend, people won't even look at an item a few gold above somebody else.


So the 11,999 trick works well. But to take it a step further, use weird numbers, you might lose out on 12 gold but its nice to sell an item in the same min you put it up for.

So 11,972 will ALWAYS be higher on the page then 11,999, and people WILL buy your item before others.

Over time, these numbers Will increase, but the process stays the same.
You may be working with these numbers, but it doesn't matter, its the same formula.



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Things to consider
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• Buy in Bulk. You can get lower prices for doing this. You might get all of them for 100g off if you buy 8 of them, or you might even get one half off, or Free!
  
  
• Don't get trapped! The exchange is dog-eat-dog, know when to quit.
  
  
• Don't put yourself in a spot you don't want to be. If your bids are getting too close to the Vend, stop.
  
  
• Try to use pure unless specified. People will value your items at their lowest cost, or below, but you can't make pure less then what it is.
  
  
• Stop. If there's nothing good in the Vend, or in the Exchange, Stop.
  
  
• Donate. Share the wealth, somehow, if you start becoming a miser, and become addicted to numbers, you're forgetting what Gaia was made for. I doubt you started it to make your pixel gold count increase. If possible, Multi-task, vend only where there's a lull in the conversation.
  
  
• And lastly, have fun. Because if your not, stop, this may not be for you.
  
  
  
  
  One more thing, if you make a lot of gold from this, do a few things…
  
  Donate part of it, to whoever you want, me, your best friend, the first person to bump your quest thread, or a charity. Yeah, it’s here twice, but do it. Kay?
  
  If you make millions from this guide, tell them who sent the guide to you and always be willing to share the knowledge.
  
  This isn’t some sort of extra-exclusive club.
  
  Don’t get greedy. Even if it takes a bit more time, try to stop AI. Natural inflation for items and buying out items to force inflation are different.
  
  If I want an item and AI put it up 600k from when I started, I’ll be pissed. So don’t do it. Simple as that.
  
  And above all, be nice. There’s no point in cursing that person who beat your bid, and if you come into a thread, give them a bump and wish them good luck. It’s those small things that help.
  

[Pheregames]

Other helpful things and styles.

Wanted Fourm

An even easier way to do this is to make a thread in the WANTED Forum. That’s what I’m doing now. You can demand a bit more, and the people come to you, usually for quick responses, but you won’t find any ½ off items, but you can still make a good sale, and people will tend to accept lower bids. [Like… 75% of Vend Value, a 24-25% gain]


Hoarding:

This is the “Mother of all Vending” here.

I would suggest that you keep AT LEAST 25k to vend with, as hoarding is a long-term gain. Basically, you want to go for an item that is going to do well, or is LIMITED.

For example, when writing this, the cash shop had just put out their first full set of evolving items, and they have all evolved except one. This will be the case study for the next version of guide. Each EI so far has gone up in price, besides the Drome Egg.

The object of hoarding is to do three things:


A) Find an hoard-able item. That means it is going to do well long-term. Typically, plushies and limited items do well, as well as select event items. Halloween and Christmas sets double within a years time. I forgot that I had an Spirited 2k6 hat, and sold it for 8k around 11 months later, when I bought it originally for something like 25gold. If you collect maybe 10 sets [its really easy after the event has finished and people don’t really want them anymore] you’ll be set.


B) Buy strategically. But I thought that buying from the vend’s lowest price was good? NO! This helps AI and will make it harder to get a good price on the item. Try to buy from the exchange, you’ll save gold and fight AI. Don’t go and buy every item from the vend until all that’s left is some outrageous prices.



C) Wait and then Sell. Well you’ve done it, you decide to drop your items off! Now how do you do that? First off, let’s cover a few things on what NOT to do. DON’T put 3 of the same item on the vend, let alone 10! DON’T be willing to wait. Now if you have 200 Sep. Letters I understand you wanting to get rid of them, but it might be a good idea to put a few in the vend, and sell a few in the exchange as well. You spent however long getting these items, what is the rational to dump them all off in one hour? Give it a day, or a week and you’ll be happier about it in general.



SEALED LETTERS:
This is the safest bet. Buy low, sell high. Try to get them early in the month, but not on the first day or so. Sell them on the 14th or chance it and sell RIGHT when they open. I would say sell 75% of them on the 14th, and chance a bit of it if you want, but no more then that. I play it safe, but you can get HUGE payoffs if the item is awesome. A better idea? Sell the items on the 14th, and re-buy them 10 days later with the gold you gained!

With Cash shop however, you may not get a HUGE payoff like before, but it IS still one of the safest ways to make gold.



CASH SHOP//EIs [Evolving Items]

The best help I can give you with EIs is this:

SELL WHEN YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH THE PROFIT YOU HAVE MADE.

SELL THE ITEM FOR THE FOR-SURE PROFIT YOU MADE. DON'T ALWAYS WAIT OUT FOR THE MAYBE-I-HOPE-SO-MAYBE-THIS-WILL-DO-WELL PROFIT. IT MAY NEVER COME.



Evolving Items

Gaia came out with a genious idea for them to make money [hey, they’re a company. And it helps them out, and you get new items!]: The CASH SHOP.

From this they have ultra-exclusive items that will be either hit or miss, the best thing from it are Evolving items, or E.I.s

All E I s are different, however they all follow the same trends.

Good poses means the item goes up in value. Bad poses mean they go down.

The final pose is like double or nothing. A Great last pose means the price rockets up 20-200k, while a bad pose could potentially cut the price in half.

Sell these items when you want, but typically wait for the 4th + evolution.

DO NOT WAIT FOR AN BETTER PRICE.

IT MAY NOT COME AROUND.



"Active" Items

So far there's only been one Active item... and it nets an infinite amount of the same items. Not a good long term item at all... pick it up when the price drops and then use it to make some small amount of gold by equipping it on your mule. Besides that don't expect miracles.

-Pheregames

[Pheregames]

<<TL;DR>>



The exchange is where you buy.

The Vend [the Marketplace] is where you sell. [mostly]

Buy a "Sell-able" item. Most commons are not. Casino items rarely are.

Typically, the more of the items other people are selling that you're bidding on, the safer it is. Buy an item with 95 other people selling, rather then that Jack's Joy with a 300k Price Gap and 2 sellers. [[Game items is the exception]]

Know the "Cost" of the item.
[Warning Econ lesson] The VALUE of an item is not hard to find. Check the vend and use some common judgment. However the cost of the item is a little harder to find out. As we don't need to look at the factors of production this time, the only real thing you're "losing" is Time and the opportunity cost. The opportunity cost is the value of the trade off you're doing. The trade-off is giving one thing up for another because you're willingly trading. This may be a service [such as bumping] or a good [like that new MC]. You value the item more then your gold. However, is the effort you're willing to put in to re-sell that item worth the ticket price? Take for instance Jack's Joy; a rather high end item that will occasionally bump itself up to a high price but will have little demand [the desire or want for the item AND the present ability to buy it; one without the other is useless. Just beacuse to want the shiny thing doesn't mean the demand for it goes up].[/learning]

Knowing how to bid is important, MMkay?

Try to bid a fair amount first. If they accept your bid quickly, it stops from having a bidding war, and time.

Try to bid 90% [or less maybe? I wouldn't recommend 85% or less. Go for 93% for expensive stuff ] of the LOWEST Vend Price. [[Use your calculator, take the vend price, and multiply by POINT 90 to do that; Lazybones]]

DON'T TRUST TEK-TEK. USE THE VEND.

Sell the item for slightly less then what the lowest one is.

Think about long term investments.

If you're loaded, donate to some nice people.


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Words to Know

AB~ Auto-Buy, the vend's quick-buy option.

HB~ Highest-Bid, the current highest bid. Typically people will have both and AB and HB posted.

AI- Artificial inflation. This is widely debated to exist or not. The thought behind it is to buy a large quantity of one item [IE buy ALL of the sealed letters] and then sell them back at a significantly higher price. This is opposed to inflation by basic supply/demand and seasonal items [Like all the Halloween related items go up in price near October...].

Exchange~ The subfourm area where you can buy and sell items.

Vend~ The Marketplace, where you can buy and sell items using a listed system; comes with a 2% tax.

Bid~ The act of offering gold on an item, in hopes that you will "win" and get the item for that amount.

Exchanging/Vending~ A quick-flip. One buys an item from the exchange or vend and then sells it for a higher price; often associated with "Day-Trading".

Peak-Hours~ The time in which the majority of people are on Gaia, therefore easier to buy and sell items. However, often you can go on off of peak hours to buy items left in the vend overnight.

Hoarding~ The idea of holding onto an specific item for a longer period of time, waiting for the value to naturally rise due to popular demand. The idea is to buy and store in BULK.

Harvesting~ The "Fool's Gold" style of hoarding. Buy buying everything in sight, or one of each new item and then holding onto it. Not recommended, there are much better ways. However this is the safest, beacuse you can never "miss" an item.

Miss-price~ These happen when people don't check the prices before they put the item in the vend. An item that is WAY lower then normal ((Ninja Headband for 1 Mill off, beacuse of missing digit)). 99% or better will not "refund" you for the item. Always check your price.

[Pheregames]

Need more help hoarding?

[Pheregames]

{{♥ ♠ ♦ ♣}}

And a little more updated. There we go. 3nodding

Feel free to post comments or suggestions.

[iRection]

This is a nice simple guide and it goes straight to-the-point other than ones which go too in-depth that it makes your brain tired or confused.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. razz

[Kihaku Shinyuu]

Pheregames

• Be friendly and nice. If you and somebody else bids the same amount, but you said "10.8k for that item please, I appreciate it!" and somebody else bids "10.8k for that crap, and make it quick, I need to go!" who would you sell to?
  

I would go so far as to congratulate someone if they beat you in a bid, gives you a good reputation for being nice with people. And who knows how that can affect your relations and transactions in the future. Karma you know. 3nodding

[Trite Username]

1.) Your font color is a bit light. It was hard to read at times.

2.) Your guide is a bit cramped. Try to split up long paragraphs (just press enter). I know, I know, it seems pointless, but people will be intimidated by the wall of text.

2.) The guide is pretty good. I really like your "multiply by .90" suggestion.
;o

[Pheregames]

{{♥ ♠ ♦ ♣}}

Thanks for the help... I changed the font color, and broke some of the larger things up. It's still a little sketchy, and I'm still writing my newer guide, or at least tack on some more case studies.

But I think you were suppose to go, 1, 2,3... wink

[Pheregames]

{{♥ ♠ ♦ ♣}}

And a little more added.

As well as a TL;DR, with some useful quick info.

[ghost050]

sweetness

[Pheregames]

{{♥ ♠ ♦ ♣}}

Thanks. 3nodding

[Pheregames]

{{♥ ♠ ♦ ♣}}

Added a small "Need to know" words. I'll try and generate a larger list later.