How to be an Exchanger

[Dr. Unoriginal]

Alright, I have made over 29,500 post in the exchange on 5 accounts over the course of 2 years. The exchange is an awesome place and an easy way to make a lot of gold if you know what you're doing. Before we begin, why should you be an exchanger? Well think about it like this, you post your a** off, poll like all hell and what do you get 1K a day at most? Well, I limit myself to about 20 post per day to preserve my outside-life yet I can make up and over 12K a day with a budget under 50K.So if you're interested, here we go:
(Feel free to PM me on any question related to Gaia's economy or items)


Section one: Beginner


How to start:
First and MOST IMPORTANTLY save up 1K and buy a vending pass. Also a trading pass if you do not have one.

You want at least 10K to begin, the more pure gold you have, the better. People generally like all pure offers because they do not want to value items. And if you offer all in gold, they can not value your items at less then their value. To earn gold for starting money, I suggest selling commons you do not wear on the vend and lower end donation items like pandy packs, ice tiaras, ect...

Quick tip: Use good spelling and grammar. Be friendly and accept friend invites from possible sellers. You can remove them from your friend list if you have no want or need to talk to them after the sale.

Good, now you have atleast 10K and are ready to become a beginner exchanger.

Commons

If you have 10-49K your mission is to buy commons, uncommons and lower end donation items!
Commons are items bought in the stores of gaia. These do NOT include casino, fishing or house items which are bad investments. Try to avoid buying any commons under 1K but if you can get a good deal, might as well take it.
Here's the breakdown of how much to offer, but remember ALWAYS CHECK THE VEND FIRST! Do not buy items that are selling for less then 90-95% of their value.
-Offer 50% of the store value on items worth under 1K

-Offer 60-79% of the store price on items worth 1-5K depending on popularity

- Offer 75-80% of the store price on items worth 5-10K depending on popularity go up to 85% on very popular items like Yukatas and Kimonos

Quick tip: Use your calculator from your accessories menu if you have Windows or pick one up from the dollar store.

Quick Tip:
To find a percent, multiply by a decimal.
75% of 100
=
.75 x 100

Uncomons and Rares
Most if not all uncommons are fair game. Try to offer 80% of the MARKET value on all uncommons accept the ones worth under 500g, avoid those. Keep in mind, do NOT buy any uncommon that SEEMS overpriced, if you think it is valued in the vend for more then you have seen it sell for, then do not buy it. Play the exchange conservatively, risk and reward is a factor but save that for when you can afford to lose gold.

Try to avoid upper-value rares unless they are popular. And give pretty low offers when yyou buy any rare over 10K. Just offer like 2-5K under their vend value. Try to avoid rares only buy them if you know te item will sell and that you are getting a good deal.

Lower-end Donation items
These are TRICKY! Do not think any item after 2004 is a good investment unless you have 50 of them and want to cash in when they go up 1K in value. Try to offer about 85% of the vend value on donation items from 2005-2006. Also when checking values, check the item you're buying AND the letter it comes from. If you do not know what item comes from what letter, use the Lucky Devil provided in my link section. The reason you do this is because if the letter is worth less then the item that means the items is overpriced and the vend is inaccurate. Also if you see large gaps in values of the items in the vend, do not try buying the items in the exchange. It means that the item's value is inaccurate or unstable and too risky.

That's about all you need to know for being a beginner.Once you have done this and made about 50K, you can move on and become a novice exchanger.

Selling Method
The vend, sell for 50-100g under the lowest vend price.

[Dr. Unoriginal]

Section Two: Novice

2004 items and Artificial inflation
Once you have earned around 100K you are ready to plunge into the world of 2004 items. These are very tricky too. Before buying an item know how much they are worth. Always offer atlest 1-2K under the vend price. Less popular items or more expensive items you can offer up to 5-10K under the vend, for example, Angelic pendants, chain wallets, Emobags, ect. Artificial inflation is VERY likely to occur here. Signs of artificial inflation are:

-The Letter is worth less then the items inside it.
-There are large gaps in the prices
-You see people sell them way lower in the exchange
- They suddenly jump over 3K in one night

If artificial inflation occurs, do not invest in the item but try to sell them if you have one at that value.

Sealed letters
These are big money makers, trust me. Never pay over the vend price. Currently a good offer is 5.4K-5.6K but that is subject to change. Never pay over 6K and always pay atleast 200g below the vend. When the item opens SELL ALL YOUR SEALEDS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! You can make up and over 2K profit on each sealed even if the items sucks! For example, the pandy pack sold for 7.8K when it came out and it is worthless now. If there is one intensly popular item, for example the sword from jan 2006, open the letter and sell the item in the vend.

Selling Method
Vend and exchange. Keep the items in the vend while having a thread selling them in the Exchange. You can say, "Autobuy in my vend!" but if you say, "They're in my vend, buy it" you get moved to the market place disscussion. Try getting only pure and donation items in your offers on these. And ALWAYS get within 1K of the vend unless they are hardcore inflated.

[Dr. Unoriginal]

Section Three: Exchange Whore/ Rich Mofos

Here is where you make the big bucks.

2003 items
First off, avoid buying Event items from 2003 unless you get a great deal and are patient. However 2003 event items you can make a lot of gold on. If you have items try offering items that are over-inflated or that the owner of the thread wants. Even if yu do not have the items they want you can subtract the cost of the items on the vend from the amount of pure in your offer so they are more likely to trade since you offered all they wanted.

Example:

Item X is worth 100K in the vend
Your offer is 600K pure
You say BEFORE you buy item x in the vend that you have multiple offers
Your offers are: 600K pure or 500K+Item X If they want to trade for the offer with the item in it, buy it in the vend and send the trade.


Try offering 10-20K under the vend price on the lower end 2003 items like the Scarfs and OMG/AFK hats. After the OMG the rest of the 2003 items values CAN NOT BE FOUND ACCURATELY IN THE VEND! Look around in the exchange first for a few weeks and see how much the item sells for before offering.

Selling Method
The vend for scarfs and OMG/AFK hats and the exchange for everything else. Try getting offers with a good amount of donation items (referably under 12 items though) Be flexible, let them add commons and such to get more gold from them. Always put your item in the last trade if more then one trade is done.

[Dr. Unoriginal]

Links

Here are some helpful links:

Exchange FAQ
This is a sticky, it has the basics and which donation items come from what letter
http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10266201

Wanteds Forum
This is a good way to sell hard-to-sell items. Make sure you don't get ripped off and haggle alot. Be willing to walk away from a deal.

http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=63

Vend/ Marketplace
http://www.gaiaonline.com/gaia/vend.php?

My personal exchange journal with current events regaurding to the exchange:
http://www.gaiaonline.com/journal/index.php?mode=view&p=3246019

[Dr. Unoriginal]

Previously asked questions/ statements

eruma-chan

Dr. Unoriginal

I have 22k, If I do all this stuff, do you think I'll end up with more gold then I started? or just lose it all and be farther away from penguin slippers?

The exchange is like a crane game, with skill and luck you can win big, or lose money over and over until you give up.

Dr. Unoriginal

lil_yan

OK, I read your fist few posts (being an exchanger myself for sometime now) and I missed one essential point to being a real REAL moneymaker: you have to feel what donation items are going to be hot, now AND in the course of time.

An example: as soon as the KiKi's came out, I thought: $$$. And I was right, within a couple of weeks, they went from 10k to 50k. Yeah I know they went down again after that, but my profit was made by then biggrin

All I'm saying is: there's more to profitable exchanging than just numbers wink

That's one of those things that can not be tought in a guide and must be learned first hand. There are many things I know that are not in the guide. The exchange is largely based on instinct.

Dr. Unoriginal

Anoni

Quote:

If artificial inflation occurs, do not invest in the item but try to sell them if you have one at that value.

Quote:

If you have items try offering items that are over-inflated.

Are you kidding me? neutral

Are you trying to teach people to be shitty exchangers with no morals or what?

The exchange is not about honor, it is about profit. I am not above a dirty trick, a bullshit line or an alterior motive to making "friends" in the exchange. However, their is a limit, I think the key to being a "moral exchangers" is knowing all the unwritten rules, which you will learn as you exchange more. That's what makes the exchange so exciting, back-stab then be back-stabbed. It's fun, and since they are just pixles, no one gets hurt unless they CHOOSE to let it hurt them.

2 0 1 2

No offense, but I don't like your exchange guide thread. Not because it sucks, but because we don't need anymore freakin' exchangers on Gaia! Artificial inflation is bad enough already, it doesn't need to be worsened. I'll never get my seal slippers if this keeps up gonk

You're uninformed, allow me to fix that:
Exchangers do NOT cause inflation, inflationist and market manipulators do. Exchangers simply buy low and sell for UNDER the lowest market value. So we actually help fight inflation.

And yes, the release of my guide has spawned lots of new exchangers which creates competition. What does that mean to you? It means people will pay more for your items then before to outbid the other guy. New exchangers is only bad news to exchangers, not you.

These people are your enimies and mine:
http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/index.php?guild_id=5991

Oh, and if you don't want to believe that. Hear this, sellers do not cause inflation, buyers do.

[muley.five]

*writes them all down* Then I guess Im ready for the competition biggrin If you wanna see examples you can check my journal, and yep.. you will be missed when you move to politics and chatterbox </3

EDIT: PWN !! First post cool

[QueenMaeve]

Doctor! surprised

[Innocentblackshadow]

is this the correct place to have this neutral also i beat you on posts in one account on exchange cool

[Shaolina]

Love the topic!

[SeductiveCyrus]

Great topic, but you should have realized.. wrong thread!!

[ymmij]

Hmmmm, dont you think there's already enough exchangers and such....with all the crazy inflation and stuff? Whatever....

Ill talk to a mod about if this belongs here.

[muley.five]

If price guides and contests are alowed this should be alowed too. If he needs to sell something to keep it then he can sell my ...erm ... socks?

[ymmij]

muley.five

If price guides and contests are alowed this should be alowed too. If he needs to sell something to keep it then he can sell my ...erm ... socks?

I dont think the contests and price guides(the mods said if price guides become a problem, they'll be moved) should be allowed here....

but anyways....just doing that doesnt make a thread legitimate:

Quote:

The main GAIA Exchange is for the sale of items ONLY. Selling + buying is fine, but the main focus of your thread MUST be for selling purposes. Buying multiple items, holding lotteries, hosting contests, or managing charities yet selling a Dried Grass Skirt in a post to keep it "legal" will not work. The focus of your thread is not on the sale of items; it's on something else. Threads will be moved to the proper forums on a case-by-case basis.

and that's also why i dont think contests should be allowed here. They should be in the lotto/money games in my opinion.

But this thread could be considered exchange related enough to be here still. Its up to the mods.

Ok, im not gonna post here anymore until the mods make a decision. goodbye.

[A I t e r]

I'm seriously diggin' this thread. ^^;

[ShamrockMuffin]

Very Nice Thread Indeed.
I'm Already Informed On How To Do It But It Helps Other. 3nodding