[GW2] Weekend Money

I’ve been following The Guild Wars 2 Trading Post fan-blog, written by Markco, for awhile. The posts are not rocket science, but they are great ideas for entering the world of trade in Guild Wars 2. Anybody interested in toeing the markets, or those already swimming in the deep end, should take a look at this blog for some great thoughts and suggestions. While not all of his ideas “work” all the time (e.g., up-forging materials only works for gossamer, which costs more than 15 times the cost of the previous cloth tier, silk), he does try and emphasize using his ideas only as training wheels. Here’s some of the things I did over the weekend regarding the Trading Post.

Flipping Velocity

The easiest thing to do is find a market discrepancy and flip. I did this all weekend instead of letting gold sit in my pocket. I did this with dye, although sigils, rares, and exotics are all good markets. I watched for a comfortable buy at price, and made a dozen or so buy orders. Then when I would receive the items, I’d turn them around at the sell price I knew would sell in a reasonable amount of time. 85% of the sell price had to be above the buy price. I would say roughly keeping 10-15 buy/sell orders going at a time I made about a gold.

This is relatively small potatoes, but there are two important things to note. First, this was an inactive activity. I would do chores, make dinner, run errands, play with the kids, and leave my character idling at the Trading Post NPC. Every half hour or so I would quickly check my listings, adjust as necessary, and create new buy/sell orders. I was not as efficient as I could have been; I am very sure of this. That’s okay because… Second, and more importantly, this kept my money in momentum. It had some velocity, as opposed to none in the bank. There is that old phrase, make money work for you. That’s all I was doing. Better experts, like Markco, will make it work harder, better, faster, more, but I was quite pleased with my noobish attempt.

Monthly Salvage Krewe

I am not the best salvager, especially when it comes to middle tier materials. I understand that if I am exploring early zones, salvaging to get copper ore or jute scraps is a good thing. Salvaging to get some mid-level leather on the other hand doesn’t seem as worth it. So, I still needed a little over 250 salvages to complete my monthly achievement.

Here’s how I did it. (1) Buy basic salvage kit from the weaponsmith NPC for karma. As I had just completed my WvW run for monthly achievements, I had a nice extra pillow of karma. (2) Buy salvageable materials at the Trading Post to salvage. Base the buying on supplying a hot market. Salvaging for copper ore and jute scraps, is again, very lucrative. I found that I would indeed make a profit from buying sell orders of a salvageable material, salvaging it, and then re-selling the base material. I was turning karma in to gold, but also getting a decent return. I did this with salvage items, greatswords, hammers, etc. below level 10 range. Every 25 salvages was netting me 1-3 silver, which would have definitely offset the price of the salvage kit had I bought it from a merchant.

I don’t think this is a safe way to make money, and if I did do it, I would rather have a spreadsheet out to calculate true costs and a copper per karma formulation. Still, I would guess I did better-than-even for completing my monthly salvage.

Poor Man’s Ecto

Mystic Coins are undervalued. They have to be. At just around 1.5 silver for something that can only be received once per day, I just don’t feel their market price reflects their real value. So, I’ve been buying them up when I can. Another thing I’ve been buying are Giant Eyes and Large Skulls because who knows what they could be used for later on. They might remain a rare practically worthless crafting item like Guild Wars Monstrous Eyes, or they could find more worth. It’s a fun gamble.

Back to Mystic Coins. They are used in the Mystic Forge to create things, and I think there are plenty of hidden recipes still in the Mystic Forge. Mystic Coins are necessary for legendary weapons, and they can also be used to make some other exotic weapons. I think there is a lot of room for using Mystic Coins as a poor man’s ectoplasm, but it is still unclear how much we know (or don’t) about the mystic forge. My bet is that ArenaNet either has unfound recipes using Mystic Coins, or will make sure that the time-limited, account-limited material will grow in value.

On the Up and Up

The gem market is rising. In about a month since launch the cost to convert gold in to gems has nearly doubled. The 800 gem mark ($10) is safely past 2 gold, and I think it will go upwards of 3 gold. I expect a huge spike if any Halloween town clothes are offered next month.

Going back to the velocity of money though, I think that gems are safe, stupid, and low. Right now if gold is bought for 100 gems, the player loses 10 silver through the exchange immediately with a nearly 30% bite from the middle-man. That means that to make money the gem rate has to go a good amount more than 10 silver. Players that buy gems now might have to sit on it for a good month or more to even see a return. A lot could happen giving ArenaNet’s propensity for holiday costumes, but I think that playing the trading post will result in much better investments.

Be sure to check out the blog I mentioned, and also check out Guild Wars 2 Spidy for out-of-game market scanning. Finally, want a crackpot market prophecy, cinnamon is a worthless item drop, and with Halloween coming, it would be a great, immersive time to boost that item a little bit. Got any good money making tips for Guild Wars 2?

–Ravious