Just started playing the market.

[DR_Mechano]

So I'm probably doing it in a way that isn't as efficient (buying up cheap uncommon level 35 recipes and making them which cost me roughly 80k per IO and then converting them into other things, the standard way people make money) but even a beginner like me has already seen several trends in the market.

 

Namely that bar the usual stable big earners (LotG etc.) that big earners don't stay big earners for long. For example Unbreakable guard was in very limited supply on the AH and each went for a pretty decent chunk of change so made my money converting into that (if I didn't hit one of the stable money makers) with fast pace on sales. I log in the next day, check the price and all of a sudden there's 200+ of each in the market, obviously people cottoned on quickly and dumped into the market and thus my niche disappeared over night.

 

I've also learned, much to my cost, that super packs are not worth the squeeze. While I was usually getting 2 ATOs per pack, ATOs apart from Brute and Tanker sell VERY slowly and because I bought the packs if I sell them for any less than the going rate it eats into my margins since I'd lose out on the listing fee. The only upside is that if I find a character needs an ATO set I can pull them from the market and convert but that's a 2.5 million inf loss on just buying them straight.

 

Still it only took me 2 days to go from 0 inf back up to 110 million inf for about 10 minutes work, which isn't too bad.

Edited September 15, 2019 by DR_Mechano

[Yomo Kimyata]

Welcome!  I think you'll find that inf is easy to come by and it's kind of fun to make interesting experiments. 

[Mr. Vee]

1 hour ago, DR_Mechano said:

Namely that bar the usual stable big earners (LotG etc.) that big earners don't stay big earners for long.

But they often come back soon after. Unbreakable Guard is a good example - when the price goes down you can just convert them to the more stable aegis. When it's up they're worth good money on their own. Sometimes it's just a piece or two that gets too much or too little supply. People jump on and off these niches quickly so it pays to check things you know earned well in the past now and again.

[DSorrow]

I think there's quite a bit of daily volatility when it comes to the stable earners. Some days Unbreakable Guard goes for ~3+ mil a piece, other times it's barely breaking 2mil. Currently I'm operating on a weekly sales cycle where I dump ~150 items into the AH every weekend and collect the next week, so I'm rarely affected by it. 

[DR_Mechano]

I tend to check it daily, I'll log on before work, do my crafting, check the prices when I put an IO up on the auction house in storage, if it's poor for that day, I'll take it back and keep converting it. I am slowly weening myself off of the habit of chasing the 'best' money makers, especially now I'm buying the convertors most of the time with inf rather than having someone funnel merits (turn into hero merits) into the character. I mean that does cut into my margins since I'm now shelling out about 18 million inf per 200 compared to nothing but hey, that's the way it goes.

[cyvert]

reactive defenses or red fortune into lotg is usually a solid earner, probably one of the best margins available aside from catalyzing to superior brute ATOs

[DR_Mechano]

Question for you guys is it better to buy 35s which are cheaper to craft but the pool for converting has a lot more crap in it or buying 41s which strip out some the chaffe but cost more to craft?

[Mr. Vee]

41s aren't that much more expensive and when you get into these in bulk any saved clicks are gold.

[Ukase]

While you're just beginning - here's some things I've done that have panned out well. 

Over the weekend, it would seem there are players who simply haven't the patience, or the time to wait. So they pay more for various IOs. 

Sudden Acceleration KB to KD for example. Over the weekend, they sell for over 3m, during the week, a little closer to 2m. 

This is the same with Numina and Preventive Medicine "procs" as well. (I call all the chance for this, that and the other procs, because it's just easy for me) 

The LotG is simply a stable IO...almost anyone will get 5 of these, if they have the powers to slot them in. They are in such demand that people will select powers they won't even use much, if at all, just to slot them. 

So, all of that to say this: try stashing a couple of each 10 or so IOs in your base. List them on Friday. Check your sales either later Friday Pm or Sat. AM. I suspect your prices will have been met. Don't get greedy, but aim for just 10% above what they sold for on, say Tuesday. 

Some players will be wise and creep their bids up in small increments of 100-10k inf if they want it "now", but some just place bids in increments of millions. 

I stash about 10 out of every 100 drops after I've crafted. This didn't start out to be a strategy, but a way for my main badge toon to make more sales for badge purposes. Turns out if made me a bit more inf by waiting on the weekends. 

Oh, and I don't think I've ever bought low demand IOs for the purpose of converting, unless you count PvP IOs. And that's just because I can't bring myself to pay 10 million for any IO.  (somehow I can bring myself to pay 25 million for a winterpack...but the merits in those generally put me ahead.) 

I'd sooner pay 4-5 million for something less popular like a glad strike recipe, and burn 10-30 converters to make the glad armor 3% def IO and the other 2 popular ones, than fork over 9-11 million.  And the crazy thing is I can afford to pay a lot more, I'm just cheap! 

I find it best to just convert the drops I get. The converters from reward merits are what I use, or from Winter packs, so I don't really spend money, other than on crafting and AH list fees. 

Last count I've got 15 billion or so. 

[MunkiLord]

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

Over the weekend, it would seem there are players who simply haven't the patience, or the time to wait. So they pay more for various IOs.

This is me. I do a majority of my converting for selling during the week, and when I have more time on the weekends is when I'll generally build my own characters. And when I'm building a character, I don't like waiting for bids to fill. A few weeks ago I paid 30 million for some purple because I wanted it nao.

[Yomo Kimyata]

I'm not as involved as I once was, but demand has really dropped off a lot across the board.  Weekends may be when people have more free time to build out their characters, but people also have more free time to create supply.  I definitely would sell ATOs Wed/Thurs/Fri, since the Hero Packers seem to come out on the weekends and dump supply.

[VV]

I'm a lazy arbitrager. When I do it, I just buy low, sell high. No converting or building or nonsense like that. There are plenty of things that have millions in variation that it is plenty profitable. Not as good in terms of Inf/minute, but much better in terms of Inf/brain cell.

[DR_Mechano]

On 9/17/2019 at 7:56 PM, Yomo Kimyata said:

I'm not as involved as I once was, but demand has really dropped off a lot across the board.  Weekends may be when people have more free time to build out their characters, but people also have more free time to create supply.  I definitely would sell ATOs Wed/Thurs/Fri, since the Hero Packers seem to come out on the weekends and dump supply.

Yeah noticed this as soon as the summer holidays ended that demand has really dropped off quite a bit.

[Troyusrex]

On 9/17/2019 at 1:57 PM, MunkiLord said:

This is me. I do a majority of my converting for selling during the week, and when I have more time on the weekends is when I'll generally build my own characters. And when I'm building a character, I don't like waiting for bids to fill. A few weeks ago I paid 30 million for some purple because I wanted it nao.

Me too. I have billions of inf floating around from crafting and selling (not to mention playing!). My time is valuable and it just isn't worth my time to save a few hundred thousand on an enhancement by waiting awhile (and, often I'm building out an entire toon and remembering what goes where isn't a trivial exercise).

 

I say bravo to those who have the time and patience to profit from my impatience! I'm profiting from other players and I see no reason they should not profit from mine.