Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well I figured I might contribute to the guild in some fashion, so here goes. Nothing fancy, just some helpful tips in becoming the best vendor you can be. It is after all, the most lucrative thing you can do on Gaia.

1. Your connection speed and you.

I can't stress this enough. If you truly want to be fast at making gold, you need a fast connection. If you want to be the one to grab those cheap sealed letters or underpriced donation items, you need to have a FAST connection speed. If yout don't have it at home, consider libraries, school comp rooms, or other means. You can be successful at vending on a slow speed, but it's alot more difficult. Oh, and copy paste your password. Everyone else does, so you need to in order to have any shot.

2. Know your commons/rares sellbacks.
You'd be amazed at how many people sell trunk/giftbox items on the vend for less than sellback. This is one of the quick ways to make a buck. Consult a priceguide and try to remember as many as you can. I've bought more than my fair share of android prostetics and fresh grass skirts for less than sellback. Keeping a running memory of these is helpful, because if you try to look up the price the item will be gone before you get the chance.

3. Something's fishy
Know your math. People seem to love selling large amounts of fish on the vend for less that what they could get from Logan. Seedkins and Biters seem to be particularly confusing to a large portion of the gaia populace. If you can do the math in you head, you'll come out on top every time.

EX: 75 seedkin - sold on vend for 350 gold. Sellback = 525. Profit of 175.

It might seem small, but every little bit does help. Oh, and watch for people selling cans for 2 gold. You can usually get 15 for them.

4. Buy the cheapies
Know what you are buying and know the profit margin. Don't buy a kiki for 12,999 when there are 5 more going for 13,500. The best you could make is 250 gold, and that's way to much to spend both money and time wise. Look for a decent margin. Here's a good example

Bani clips - lowest of vend - 18k. Someone places them up for 14. Buy!

5. Lowest price = fast profit.
Trying to always be the lowest on the vend isn't easy, but it's the way to make the fastest buck. Let's use the bani clips for an example.

bought for 14k. You could try selling them for 18k like the others, but then it's a waiting game. try 17.5. If that doesn't work after a few minutes, try 17 and stick with it. After all, you are ending up with more money than you had, right? Someone will buy the lowest item, rest assured.

6. Those lovely PMs
9 times out of ten, someone will either PM you with a stupid/begging offer, or offer you a decent amount but a few k less than you are asking. Do not be takin in. More than likely this person will go and sell your item up on the vend, so make your own rules. It you are uneasy about selling, don't do it. Someone else will come along to buy your item.

7. Those "worthless" items.

I love how people sell olympic shirts and spirited items for 50 - 100 gold. Funny thing is, alot of vendors just let these items sit. Buy them, and buy them constantly. You can sell most spirited items for 400+, as well as the shirts. That's a 400% + profit! So what if it's only a few hundred gold? If you buy enough of them, you'll be making more than you would with a great deal of other items. Which brings me to my next point.

8. Store items - Boo, hiss.

I know some people make a decent amount off of them, but I find store items to be time consuming and weak in profit. Aside from a small list of items, most of your commons will sit and rot in your store for a while before someone buys them. Again, if you see an item for less than sellback, buy it, but be wary of items that are within 75% of store price. This excludes duckys and fairy wings though, as they are decent enough moneymakers.

9- Cut your losses.

So you speant 50k on a letter thinking you would make some cash, and honoez! A whole bunch just came up for the same price. Sell the letter off and take a little loss. You need to have a steady gold supply, and getting bogged down trying to make a tiny profit or even breaking even can harm you greatly. If you get truly good at vending, a small loss will becoe miniscule.

Well, that's it for now. I'll post more when I can think of some things.

Thanks Joe

Good job on the guide!

It's basically what I've doing -- emphasis on the cutting your losses part. razz j/k

You might want to also mention that another tactic is to search for item value gradients such as Letters being worth less than the item. Buying the letter, opening the item then reselling the item for more is something that venders often do.

Another aspect could be in regard to if you have a large supply of a certain item. You can buy up other items up to the point that you want to sell at, usually 2-3 itemsm then you can sell at the lowest on the vend price. If you see anyone selling lower, just buy em up and put it up at your price.

For a vender, pure is your life-blood.

Thanks for the kind words all.

And Tam, yeah, I'll add those to my list when I am not busy. ^^

LoL! Not bad. I scored 25k for about 45 minutes work. These sealed openings are the best part of the month.

And in a few days, we'll begin the gruelling Sealed Letter hoarding for the next opening. wink

LoL! That was a short lived moment but I agree, evil guy with a cute cat is a nice juxtaposition. smile

Don't listen to him, he seems to have lost his mind. After all, he IS wearing flames...

Flamer. mrgreen