Current Value of 100 Merits

[Lockpick]

I just bought 4 Blistering Cold enhancements for 400 merits and I bought the 5th one for $20M.  I only had about $25M inf total, so bought the cheapest one I could get.  The other Blistering Cold enhancements looked like they would average ~$22M.

 

I haven't used merits to buy enhancements before because I usually play converter roulette, make inf, and buy what I need.  I consider myself an average market player.  I put in bids on recipes, play the game, when the bids fill, I craft/convert, and put on the market.  I usually do market stuff while waiting for a TF to start or right before I logoff.

 

However, since the nerf the prices seem lower and it seems to take longer for me to make inf.  I like that prices are lower, but don't like the time it takes to make inf, but trade offs are part of the game and all in all it seems like the nerf was good.

 

For me though I am starting to get to the point of is it just easier to use merits to buy the top end enhancements (purples and winter).  I'm not sure if we are there yet, but we are close enough that I made the decision to just buy the enhancements with merits.  I am now basically thinking I can get 100 merits per hour and an hour of time for a high end enhancement seems reasonable to me.

 

Anyway, all of this marketing made me think to ask what do the key market players think is the value of 100 merits since the nerf.  Any thoughts?

[Yomo Kimyata]

I don't ever spend my merits except if it's on a new character to get converters to bootstrap my marketing efforts, but, if I were looking to liquidate 100 merits:

 

1.  Convert to 300 converters, sell for 77,777 inf each, netting 70k each after taxes.  21mm inf net.

2.  Convert to 200 unslotters, sell for 150,000 inf each, netting 135k each after taxes.  27mm inf net.

3.  Convert to Winter-O, sell for 20mm, netting 18mm each after taxes.  18mm inf net.

 

I think these are pretty realistic for a sale within 24 hours or less -- you may be able to get more out of them (although I doubt unslotters can go higher than that.  That may be a pretty full level but I've been selling them there.)  If I had 1,000 merits to liquidate, I'd probably go for unslotters.  If I had 5,000 merits, I'd go with converters since that's a much deeper and more liquid market.

 

I haven't looked into catalysts or boosters.  Purple recipes are a lot cheaper than they used to be, so I'd guess that they'd net a little more than half winter-o's and even more when you craft them to IOs (but still netting well under 18mm).  There are a few other sweet spots but I'd rather not talk about them at this point in time.

 

 

[Bionic_Flea]

And thus, this is why the merit price of purples and WinterOs is a cap on the price in the market.  Why spend more than 25 million influence if you could buy it for 100 merits or use those merits to make about 25 million?

[Lockpick]

24 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

I don't ever spend my merits except if it's on a new character to get converters to bootstrap my marketing efforts

 

 

So, what do you do with your merits?  You can't take 'em with you...

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

9 minutes ago, Lockpick said:

So, what do you do with your merits?  You can't take 'em with you...

 

I’m building a fort out of them.  
 

I have no idea how many I have.  More than 20k; less than 200k?

[Ukase]

What Yomo is experiencing is likely similar to what many folks who've been successful with the market are experiencing. When you bought zillions of Winter packs when they were on sale, and realized how tedious they were to open (when you literally have 1000 or more, it gets quite dull...) you find your character email filled with Winter-Os, Reward Merits, unslotters, catalysts, boosters, respecs, tailor tokens, team inspirations, and a lot of other nifty (and not so nifty things). 

I was on a level 35 blaster yesterday and was looking for one of the Overwhelming Force IOs in my base. Somehow, I didn't have one of them stashed. I have 1000's merits in character email, hundreds of hero merits (on other alts) and I thought...do I want to blow 10-12M on the one I want, or just chunk down some merits which by now are not that meaningful to me...a good problem to have, for sure. 

I almost used merits, then quickly did the math in my head and figured I could make more by using the merits to get converters, actually use the converters on the drops I had on that character. A no-brainer, really. Just a question of whether I wanted to actually take the time to craft and convert. Having well over 100 billion, even though I've stopped afk-farming, (and every other type of farming), I'm still comfortable for the next 100 or so alts before I'll even think about needing inf. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

@Ukase is dead on.  I found that liquidating thousands of hero or winter packs exhausting and got to the point where I only onsell IOs and inspirations and everything else accumulates.  Even when I find I need converters or boosters or catalysts or unslotters, I can buy them on the AH from some other yahoo a lot cheaper than I’m able to sell them for.

 

And then there’s the altitis.  I like doing story arc content so have somewhere between a few hundred to a few thousand merits per alt, I’d guess.

[Lockpick]

Great points, I did check my email to see if I had and Winter IOs still there, but I didn't.  I didn't think to use the merits I have in email.

[nihilii]

2 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

 I found that liquidating thousands of hero or winter packs exhausting and got to the point where I only onsell IOs and inspirations and everything else accumulates.

It's amazing to think we've collectively bought about 1 million packs, judging by the number left for sale from the initial seed. Imagine the hours spent opening all these packs. The amount of clicks. That's also what, 10 trillion influence? Probably more than that with Winter Packs bought at full price. A number I find sobering, whenever I start getting too giddy with my middle-class low billions.

[FrauleinMental]

7 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

I don't ever spend my merits except if it's on a new character to get converters to bootstrap my marketing efforts, but, if I were looking to liquidate 100 merits:

 

1.  Convert to 300 converters, sell for 77,777 inf each, netting 70k each after taxes.  21mm inf net.

2.  Convert to 200 unslotters, sell for 150,000 inf each, netting 135k each after taxes.  27mm inf net.

3.  Convert to Winter-O, sell for 20mm, netting 18mm each after taxes.  18mm inf net.

 

I think these are pretty realistic for a sale within 24 hours or less -- you may be able to get more out of them (although I doubt unslotters can go higher than that.  That may be a pretty full level but I've been selling them there.)  If I had 1,000 merits to liquidate, I'd probably go for unslotters.  If I had 5,000 merits, I'd go with converters since that's a much deeper and more liquid market.

 

I haven't looked into catalysts or boosters.  Purple recipes are a lot cheaper than they used to be, so I'd guess that they'd net a little more than half winter-o's and even more when you craft them to IOs (but still netting well under 18mm).  There are a few other sweet spots but I'd rather not talk about them at this point in time.

Boosters:  Convert 100 merits to 20 boosters, sell for 1,200,000 each, netting 1,080,000 each after AH fees.  21.6M net.  I did that when they were going for 1,500,000 each, but that's more rare now than it was a few months ago.

 

Catalysts:  Convert 100 merits to 5 catalysts, sell for 2,400,000 each, netting 2,160,000 each after AH fees.  10.8M net.  Sometimes they'll sell at 3,000,000 each, but also more rare now and even at the higher price they're not worth buying with merits.  The only time I'll generally sell catalysts is when a bunch drop from pack openings.

 

I've seen recent discussions about using those 300 converters to play roulette with uncommon IOs you buy off the AH and resell as higher-priced rares.  I haven't tried it myself, but proponents claim to turn 100 merits into 100M inf profit.

[ScrewlooseCohh]

54 minutes ago, FrauleinMental said:

I've seen recent discussions about using those 300 converters to play roulette with uncommon IOs you buy off the AH and resell as higher-priced rares.  I haven't tried it myself, but proponents claim to turn 100 merits into 100M inf profit.

When I started the uncommon to rare IO flip process I kept fairly good track of return per Reward Merit and because the process is random it does go up and down, but a baseline of 1 Mil Inf per Reward Merit is what I would expect.

Now that I am more comfortable with the process I don't really keep track.  Even buying all the materials, recipes and converters off the AH I am still making worthwhile profit, and it is inf for a little bit of time invested in a mildly distracting mini-game.

 

regards, Screwloose.

"I am not young enough to know everything."

[Ukase]

9 hours ago, FrauleinMental said:

Boosters:  Convert 100 merits to 20 boosters, sell for 1,200,000 each, netting 1,080,000 each after AH fees.  21.6M net.  I did that when they were going for 1,500,000 each, but that's more rare now than it was a few months ago.

 

Catalysts:  Convert 100 merits to 5 catalysts, sell for 2,400,000 each, netting 2,160,000 each after AH fees.  10.8M net.  Sometimes they'll sell at 3,000,000 each, but also more rare now and even at the higher price they're not worth buying with merits.  The only time I'll generally sell catalysts is when a bunch drop from pack openings.

 

I've seen recent discussions about using those 300 converters to play roulette with uncommon IOs you buy off the AH and resell as higher-priced rares.  I haven't tried it myself, but proponents claim to turn 100 merits into 100M inf profit.

Must have been back last August or so...I was selling catalysts for 5M each. Good times. It didn't last long, but long enough for me to make a billion or so. 

[dopeninja]

I have macros set up on my market toon to open packs. I'd rather just press 1 on my keyboard.

[Troyusrex]

21 minutes ago, dopeninja said:

I have macros set up on my market toon to open packs. I'd rather just press 1 on my keyboard.

@Snowdazegave me this macro: /macro opacks "salvage_open S_HVSuperPackSalvage$$salvage_open S_RVSuperPackSalvage$$salvage_open S_WinterPackSalvage"

 

You just click it as fast as you'd like and it opens your superpacks. I opened 570 the other day in under 5 minutes. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

17 hours ago, FrauleinMental said:

I've seen recent discussions about using those 300 converters to play roulette with uncommon IOs you buy off the AH and resell as higher-priced rares.  I haven't tried it myself, but proponents claim to turn 100 merits into 100M inf profit.

I'm one of those proponents, and I'm being extremely conservative when I value 300 converters at 100mm profit.

[FrauleinMental]

To be fair, my trial is a small sample size, but this morning I spent 75k inf for 5 yellow recipes, spent salvage I already had (about another 25k inf) and about another 2.5M inf in crafting fees (for level 50s, which I recall is the wrong level, since you want something that has a 50 equivalent but has a low enough level to be cheaply crafted) and 38 converters I already had (13 merits) to make 7M (6.3M after AH fees; about 3.7M profit).  I didn't even try for the big sellers; I sold as soon as I got something that would go above 1.25M each.  I could do that almost 8 times on 100 merits (8 would be 104), and I could see that spending more time (and being more practiced) would probably get me there.

[Yomo Kimyata]

22 minutes ago, FrauleinMental said:

To be fair, my trial is a small sample size, but this morning I spent 75k inf for 5 yellow recipes, spent salvage I already had (about another 25k inf) and about another 2.5M inf in crafting fees (for level 50s, which I recall is the wrong level, since you want something that has a 50 equivalent but has a low enough level to be cheaply crafted) and 38 converters I already had (13 merits) to make 7M (6.3M after AH fees; about 3.7M profit).  I didn't even try for the big sellers; I sold as soon as I got something that would go above 1.25M each.  I could do that almost 8 times on 100 merits (8 would be 104), and I could see that spending more time (and being more practiced) would probably get me there.

In this case, the crafting fee is onerous.  A level 50 has a 490,400 inf crafting fee.  A level 49 has a 233,580 crafting fee.  And for the sake of completion, a level 10 has a 3,600 crafting fee.

[ScrewlooseCohh]

On 7/7/2020 at 5:19 AM, FrauleinMental said:

To be fair, my trial is a small sample size, but this morning I spent 75k inf for 5 yellow recipes, spent salvage I already had (about another 25k inf) and about another 2.5M inf in crafting fees (for level 50s, which I recall is the wrong level, since you want something that has a 50 equivalent but has a low enough level to be cheaply crafted) and 38 converters I already had (13 merits) to make 7M (6.3M after AH fees; about 3.7M profit).  I didn't even try for the big sellers; I sold as soon as I got something that would go above 1.25M each.  I could do that almost 8 times on 100 merits (8 would be 104), and I could see that spending more time (and being more practiced) would probably get me there.

 

Spending more time is definitely always helpful in selling high and buying low.

I tend to target level 31 Set IOs as they are cheap to craft and convert to a decent range of high value outcomes.

If I put bids in for Yellow recipes at about 10k each then i generally can get 20 to 40 overnight.  And that's the key.  Put your bids in and go away and come back the next night.

Once I have some recipes I put bids in for all the Yellow salvage I need, again at a medium level and wait to the next day.

Then I pay whatever for the white salvage, cause whether I get it cheap for 11 or expensive for 555 it isn't impacting my profit margin.

Then when I am in a craft flip and sell roll each evening i put bids in for whatever i need for the next evening.  That might be more recipes, or more converters or more Yellow salvage.  And I craft up and flip whatever I can and then put up bids to restock whatever i need.

I generally flip until I get something that looks like it will sell for 2 mil, and setting a sale price just a scratch under the last 5 sales generally works for me without too much thought.  Once I have enough Inf that I am not going to run out I set higher prices for some Enh if my experience tells me that will sell in a longer time frame for a higher price.  Something that will sell in a day for 2.5 mil might sell sometime in the next week for 6.5 mil.

Generally after 7 to 10 days I am at 400 to 500 mil and then I stop and use the rest of my converters to  flip recipes I get as drops and sometimes buy some more converters if I need to.

 

regards Screwloose.

"I am not young enough to know everything."

 

[Troyusrex]

9 hours ago, ScrewlooseCohh said:

Once I have enough Inf that I am not going to run out I set higher prices for some Enh if my experience tells me that will sell in a longer time frame for a higher price.  Something that will sell in a day for 2.5 mil might sell sometime in the next week for 6.5 mil.

Velocity of money matters too. If I know I'm likely to be able to log on several times a day (such as when working from home) I will go for the quicker sale. If I can sell something that cost 1.5M to craft for 2.5M reliably once a day or 6.5M a week (for 1MM and 5MM profit, respectively) I can turn the 2.5MM over 7 times and net 7MM in that same week. If I doubt I'll be able to log in much, then the higher priced option makes a lot more sense. I also find that the longer wait times make for less reliable sales prices. 

 

 

[Chance Jackson]

On 7/5/2020 at 1:45 PM, Ukase said:

What Yomo is experiencing is likely similar to what many folks who've been successful with the market are experiencing. When you bought zillions of Winter packs when they were on sale, and realized how tedious they were to open (when you literally have 1000 or more, it gets quite dull...) you find your character email filled with Winter-Os, Reward Merits, unslotters, catalysts, boosters, respecs, tailor tokens, team inspirations, and a lot of other nifty (and not so nifty things). 

I was on a level 35 blaster yesterday and was looking for one of the Overwhelming Force IOs in my base. Somehow, I didn't have one of them stashed. I have 1000's merits in character email, hundreds of hero merits (on other alts) and I thought...do I want to blow 10-12M on the one I want, or just chunk down some merits which by now are not that meaningful to me...a good problem to have, for sure. 

I almost used merits, then quickly did the math in my head and figured I could make more by using the merits to get converters, actually use the converters on the drops I had on that character. A no-brainer, really. Just a question of whether I wanted to actually take the time to craft and convert. Having well over 100 billion, even though I've stopped afk-farming, (and every other type of farming), I'm still comfortable for the next 100 or so alts before I'll even think about needing inf. 

shiiiiiiiiiiiit when were winter packs on sale?

[Troyusrex]

1 hour ago, Chance Jackson said:

shiiiiiiiiiiiit when were winter packs on sale?

During the winter event. Basically December through February. They cost 10 million instead of 25. 

 

Boy, did I make a LOT of cash off of that... 

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by Troyusrex
Additional info

[Yomo Kimyata]

1 hour ago, Chance Jackson said:

shiiiiiiiiiiiit when were winter packs on sale?

Winter.  It was definitely winter.

[Chance Jackson]

Can we get a summer pack of IO sets

[nihilii]

3 hours ago, Chance Jackson said:

Can we get a summer pack of IO sets

All Fire IOs, with delicious damage procs? Yes please!

 

I'd kill for a purple super pack, too...

[Bionic_Flea]

What would a Summer Pack have?

 

Sunburn

Heatstroke

BBQ

???