Tips for Sellers and Buyers
There are certain tricks to selling things and buying things on Wentworth's--the following article has advice for both situations, gleaned from my experiences (and failures) at buying and selling. Read on!
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Tips for Sellers
Tip #1: Don't choose a listing price that is the same value as the last price the item sold for.
Say you've got an item that sold for 1 million influence the last time somebody bought it. The worst thing to do (especially for your own money) is to list your item for 1 million influence.
The problem is twofold: firstly, the higher your listing price, the higher the fees Wentworth's extracts from you. If you list something for 10 influence, you only pay 5 influence in fees; if you list it for 100 influence, you pay 50 influence in fees, and so on up and up the scale. To escape higher fees, don't list your item for a very high amount at first.
Secondly, if you list your item at too high a price, it might not sell as well, because no one will bid that high. Remember that you are competing against other human players to sell this item to another human player who wants it; what price would you be willing to pay for it if you were trying to buy it?
I have found that if you list the item for 10-20% of the last sold price, you'll generally get more takers. You might not make as much money as the last sold price, but then again, you'll be saving some money in listing fees, and you'll have the item off your hands as well.
Tip #2: Don't list Single- and Dual-Origin Enhancements with a high price.
Since most Single- and Dual-Origin Enhancements (hereafter SOs and DOs) can be bought at Origin Stores, most people don't want to pay tons of influence for them if they're trying to find them on Wentworth's. Sometimes it's best not to sell SOs and DOs at Wentworth's at all, because you won't get as much for them as you would if you sold them back to a vendor.
However, I have found that if you list your unwanted SOs and DOs for 10 inf each, it seems to work a lot better for selling them in the long run. Often, I will list all the unwanted Enhancements right before I log the character off, and the next time I log the toon in, I am greeted with a few thousand influence awaiting me at Wentworth's. You might not make quite as much money as you would selling it back to a vendor, but I like to think I'm helping another player get the Enhancements they need, rather than me just selling it back into cyber-oblivion. And you'd be surprised how much people will actually bid on such Enhancements!
Tip #3: Give difficult items the overnight treatment.
Sometimes items just won't sell very well, or people don't seem to be bidding on the item you're trying to sell. Instead of de-listing it and going off in a huff to a vendor, leave the item sitting in Wentworth's for the night, or even a few days. It can take that long for someone to need the item, or for the other sellers' items to sell off so that the next sold one will be yours. Be patient!
Tip #4: Remember salvage vendor prices when you list.
This doesn't matter for Common salvage quite so much, because the prices for Common salvage varies greatly depending on the item. But for Uncommon (yellow) and Rare (orange) salvage, vendors often pay a set price for these types. Uncommon salvage fetches you 1,000 influence, while Rare nets you 5,000. Listing these types of salvage for their vendor prices ensures that you will get proper market value, and often, people will bid a little more for these types of salvage anyway because they are needed for special Enhancement Set pieces as well as Costume pieces.
Tip #5: Don't be afraid to be the "bargain basement."
Listing something for very low influence sounds like a terrible thing to do if you want to make money, right? But actually, listing your item for a low price will ensure that it sells fast--so fast, in fact, that you may get many times the amount you listed it for.
Say that an item has been selling for 40,000 influence. If you list it for 1,000, anybody who bids with a price of 1,000 or over will get your item--and buyers can't see each individual seller's prices, so they have to guess the seller's prices with each bid. If a buyer comes in and sees that the last price for that item was 40,000, he or she is likely to bid 40,000 or a little higher. Your item will likely be the next one bought, because you listed it at a low price, and the buyer will have no idea that you actually listed it for much lower.
This approach can help you get rid of tons of items quite fast, and can also keep your listing fees low--both conditions are great for making money a little faster.
Tip #1: Bid like you're playing The Price Is Right.
On The Price is Right and other game shows of its ilk, the bidders must match, but not go above, the displayed item's listed price if they want to get the item. Thus, you'll see people bidding "1,001" or "609" or other odd numbers, trying not to go too high.
At Wentworth's, the same idea works, but for a very different reason. If you're bargain-hunting, you don't necessarily want to pay 1,000 or 10,000 influence more than the last guy did for that item you want. So, bidding just 1 or 10 influence higher than the last item might get you the item for a lot cheaper than trying to seriously top the last bid.
Example: An item sold last for 1,000 influence, but you tried bidding 1,000 and nothing happened. Instead of bidding 1,500 or 2,000, try 1,001. If that doesn't work, try 1,010, then 1,100, then 1,200, and so on until you get the item. It doesn't hurt to do a bit of lowballing first so you can gauge where the sellers' prices are, and you don't lose any money by bidding several times in a row. Just remember to cancel out your previous bid before bidding again, so you don't accidentally get multiples of the item!
Tip #2: Before you bid, look at the numbers of sellers and bidders.
No matter how bad you want an item, you may be forced to sit and wait a while if there are many more bidders than sellers. When an item is in high demand (more bidders than sellers), prices will skyrocket, and you'll be forced to pay many times what the item is worth, because you're in hot, fierce competition with the other bidders. The best thing to do in this circumstance is to not cast a bid at all--you'll just be one in a huge crowd. Wait for the furor to die down before you bid again.
If there are just as many bidders as there are sellers, the same rule applies--wait, watch the prices fluctuate, and bid only when there are more sellers than bidders.
If there are more sellers than bidders, you're in a good spot for catching the item while it's potentially a lower price. Bid right on the last sold price, and wait a little while. Inch up the bid, as described in the last tip, if you haven't gotten a purchase within 30 seconds to a minute, and continue until you get the item.
Tip #3: If prices are ridiculous, walk away for a while.
100,000 inf for a Computer Virus?! Yes, it could happen, and sometimes it's as simple as too many people trying to bid on the same thing. When ridiculous prices appear, sometimes it's best to just leave that item for later, or try to find it somewhere else (like the AE Building's Ticket Counter). Often, prices on items fluctuate wildly for no apparent reason; stay cool, and if you need to, leave the bidding to other players and wait.
Tip #4: If you're the only bidder and there's only one seller, beware of paying too much.
Before you bid on that last Enhancement or last piece of salvage, study how the last five sold prices fluctuated. If they are all the same price, you can safely place a bet close to that price and likely get the item. However, if the last five prices vary quite a bit between each other, you'll need to be a little more creative.
Bid first at the middle price--this might get you the item a little more quickly than bidding at the lowest price. Inch up the bid carefully by 100 influence at a time if you don't get a response, until you get closer to the highest price that was paid. If you still don't get a purchase and you've bid the same amount as the high price, STOP. Leave the bid up there overnight, and check it again the next time you log the character back in. Sometimes, if a seller realizes a bidder is waiting, they might change their selling price to match.