Looking for trading tips/advice?

[Paul]

Really enjoying the game so far but I'm struggling to wrap my head around the trading aspect - I've managed to get a few skills and items by gathering random loot around the place and trading directly in value for the item I want, like a walking stick and some tea recipes.

However, this is for things I want to use (skill card) or otherwise keep permanently; what I'm finding difficult is trading items in such a way that I "trade up" in value to gather a body of more convenient items for using as currency to regularly buy supplies I need (such as food, for example).

I find that a lot of merchants who will take my items at higher-than-base-price value will also only sell me their other items at similarly inflated values, meaning I'm reluctant to take said items as I'm not sure if other merchants will just give me the base value (or lower) resulting in a loss.

I'm trying to play the game without spoilers or cheesing in any way, so I don't want a recipe for infinite wealth or easy money or anything, just looking to better understand how to trade in such a way that I'm not regularly screwing myself over, if that makes sense.

[Deadmeat]

Origineel geplaatst door Paul:

However, this is for things I want to use (skill card) or otherwise keep permanently; what I'm finding difficult is trading items in such a way that I "trade up" in value to gather a body of more convenient items for using as currency to regularly buy supplies I need (such as food, for example).

Try to trade all to cider. Everyone likes cider except ppl who sell cider. A few traders love cider and will pay almost x2 for it.

[Paul]

Origineel geplaatst door jorgehorticultor:

Origineel geplaatst door Paul:

However, this is for things I want to use (skill card) or otherwise keep permanently; what I'm finding difficult is trading items in such a way that I "trade up" in value to gather a body of more convenient items for using as currency to regularly buy supplies I need (such as food, for example).

Try to trade all to cider. Everyone likes cider except ppl who sell cider. A few traders love cider and will pay almost x2 for it.

Thank you! This is useful info to know...although don't most food and drink vendors sell cider? I'm just thinking it would mean cider would be good for trading with specialist merchants for clothes, weapons etc. but not so good for buying food supplies, tea recipes and similar? Might need something else for that?

[halfmanhalfape]

Hi and welcome to the game! Just to note, even if you don't make the best trades, its not too difficult to pick up loot in this game. More loot = more riches, even if you don't make good trades.

But to answer your question, there are a few merchants who sell loot at lower than base price, and buy your loot for higher than base price. You meet them occasionally and when you do you can make some good trades with them without breaking the game or anything. Additionally as the above comment says, trading for food from tea vendors as ways of storing "currency" is pretty good since they usually stack and therefore do not take a lot of space in your inventory, and the tea vendors sell them for base price always.

While there are other ways of making "money" in this game, they can be quite cheesy if not exploitative and I feel spoil the fun of the game. I've found that there is enough loot in the game to get make plenty even without any exploits. And its more beneficial to take your time and have fun rather than rushing to get the best gear or whatnot. Nothing much in the game is really crucial that you need to have and you can have plenty of fun without the best gear. I find myself wondering if I should just put on gear that I think my character would wear and carry less than optimised items around because its better role play rather than min-maxing everything.

So just my 2 cents and hope you have fun traveller!

[Felixx Hawk]

Get fishing skill and start fishing once you have the skill to lvl 7 ish you don't have to worry about much, Fish because they are food have some good trade value except in the town of Myr.

Speaking of Myr. Get 4000 in value and get the (foreign fur roll) from the bag lady in the town of Myr this will help in the long run so you can store more stuff and loot more before you have to go trade. it will also allow you to store some bags with slots in it so you can trade all the smaller stuff you loot into a few larger value items or better yet glass from the glass venders that are random sellers in the towns.

Spoilers>
a search on Forum for (trade rings) and (NightFeather quest)

[thelonewolfling]

Trading 101:

(I debated making this its own thread.)

First off, be aware that much of this is trivialised by fishing. Fish, then trade for something more compact, then repeat. It's the fastest 'sustainable' method of getting money in the game without serverhopping currently, that I know of at least. (>200g worth on average per cast.) So I'm going to assume that you're trying to find a different approach.

1. What matters in this game isn't value, per se. It's _differences_ in value. Understand that, and you're halfway to making money.
2. Be well aware that many vendors have very different buy and sell prices.
3. There are ways to increase sell price. They are _absolutely_ worth it; far more than it would first appear. Why? Mainly because of the difference in gross versus net. If I trade item A to vendor X for item B worth A*1.1, I've made 0.1A worth of 'profit'. If I have a 10% bonus in sell price, then instead I can trade for item C worth A*1.21, and I've made 0.21A worth of 'profit'. 10% sell price translated to over 2x the effective profit.
4. "Always" max out trades. Carrying 'change' helps (I tend to carry a stack of jade dust for this purpose.) Again, see 3. Small differences in the gross magnify to large changes in the net.
5. Social ability helps. Especially with larger trades you can get away with (slightly) shortchanging vendors - and yet again see 3.
6. Fewer larger trades is generally better than many smaller ones, partly due to 4 (easier to make 'change') and partly due to 5.
7. Pockets. Pockets! You can increase your inventory by ~6x using items with 6 pockets each, although be aware this can be a main to manage. Be aware that you have to take quest items out of your pockets to trigger quests.
8. Get the foreign fur roll asap. A fair bit of space with no burden. Expensive, but worth it.
9. It is well worth it to wander around with an inventory of miscellania and makes notes on who buys what for how much. There are a surprising number of items that some vendor or another highly values. (There's a few fairly common trends, such as most vendors undervaluing most items they sell - but even so there are exceptions.)
10. (Weakly) prefer buying/selling a stack of an item over buying/selling a bunch of different items, generally speaking. It keeps inventory clutter down.
11. Speaking of which, if you're nearly out of inventory space prefer to sell things that are a low total _for the entire stack_. If you have a stack of 10 jade dust (9g each) and one thing worth 20g, prefer to sell the thing worth 20g, as 20g < 90g.

The simplest trading approach is just wander and 'buy everything you can that you can buy for a lower % of nominal price than the stuff you're trading to the vendor'. This isn't optimal, but is fairly simple and works reasonably well. (So, for instance: should I trade a widget (nominal 90g, trader worth 100g) to a trader for a doohickey (nominal 95g, trader worth 100g)? I'm selling for 110% of nominal price and buying at 105%, and 105% < 110%, so yes.)

Then you can start looking at cases where you should break the above heuristic. (Three notable cases: cider, glass, and honeycomb.) Mainly: things that are sold 'high' (or at least not sold 'low)', but can often be resold even higher. (There are a few common trends here: many shops highly value the 'inputs' of the shop. For instance forges generally highly value metals.)

(I also keep a list of quest/'special' items that I try to buy or keep on me whenever possible. For instance, I try to always have a few fish in inventory when near Char Cape Passage.)

[Vinz Clortho]

Another way of making money I found is to buy the jade blocks which cost about 70 and the cheapest walking sticks which are about 45, then keep those in storage until I find vendors with the sturdy hemp rope. (Seems to be random which ones have it apart from the travelling rope maker who always does, but it's quite common). You can then take the jade, stick & rope to the cane maker in Crossroads and he will make you the Jade cane worth ~800. Rinse and repeat.
It's too long winded to be a main source of income but a nice little supplement when you get 800 every other time you come back to town.

[Sarnian]

I seldom "trade" by buying direct from one merchant to sell to another. Most of the items I sell are those I've found, received from "skill challenges" such as tangled plants (physicality) or interlocking machine parts (mechanics) or fished for.

I do keep trying to consolidate my items by trading low-value items for higher-value goods (especially when I can carry a stack of up to ten items in a single inventory slot) and I'm looking forward to trying some of the above advice.

The crafters at Crossings who'll enchant canes, swords and robes sound interesting, but I'm struggling to get the right ingredients (sturdy hemp, for instance). I met a rope vendor once in Siram Fields, but I don't know if he's a regular there, or was passing through, like me.

This is a fantastic game and it's incredible that even without a "plot" or quests, there's so much to do and think about.