A Message to the Miners of Entropia Universe

 I've been here in Entropia for just shy of 15 years now. I've seen a lot of the good and the bad that has happened inside of the game. A lot of what goes on, if its out of sight its out of mind. Some things you just maybe don't notice anymore because everyone you associated with has either passed on or quit the game... So you keep your nose to the grindstone and keep grinding.

In a strange twist of luck, I ran into an old school trader. From way back. He got me thinking in the few minutes we chatted. I thought I'd make a little bit of an address here to the miners of the game. Why the miners? Well I will tell you. You have the power. The power to do what? I will tell you.

The vast share of markup has always been involved with ores and enmatters. Not counting the oddball high markup item that only a select few seem to loot while hunting. Even the greediest trader can only steal so much on an animal oil trade where its just a couple percent over TT value. But when you are talking ores and enmatters, its a whole nother ballpark.

There are some not so scrupulous traders taking advantage of the sheer need for selling ores and enmatters. It doesn't matter who, it doesn't matter why, where or how. What matters is this.

It is the miners who control enough of the good markup materials, to make an honest trader, or break a dishonest one. It is up to you to keep the traders you deal with in check. If you don't like the deal they offer, press them for a better one or find someone who can do better. This will cause them to tighten up their ship, or else see it sink into the abyss. Trading only works if you have the volume, and can move it. It is you, miners, who control who gets your supply.

The harder something is to sell, then yes, by all means its ok to allow for enough of a difference that the trader isn't sitting on that stuff for months only to make nothing. And you will probably get a better deal from traders who already know a customer who is waiting for what you are selling. But not checking the numbers, and not understanding what an acceptable offer for what you are selling is, allows for traders to be sloppy and loose on the numbers they give.

How many trades have you done in a year? Have they been reasonable? Or have you been forced to take a bit too heavy of discounts in order to close the deal? If you do 500 trades in a year, and if only you get one more ped per trade, thats $50. Thats $50 more that you won't have to deposit, or sweat for, that contributes to everything you have to do to try to survive.

Everyone complains about markups. Well, we can start doing something about that by keeping the traders honest. It doesn't mean cutting them out of their profit margin, but you don't have to let them destroy yours either. And always double check the pile of peds dropped in the window against what you are selling. Does it look right? If something seems wrong, it very well could be. I know of a couple massive trades that went horribly wrong for one particular person. But once you push the button twice, it's done. MA doesn't fix that for you if you didn't notice something and approved the trade anyways. And the more a trader gets away with this sort of thing, the more they will continue to do it. 

I am primarily a miner, and I used to do quite a bit of trading. I don't anymore, because, well, real life trading opportunities far exceed what I am able to make in Entropia by trading. I much rather enjoy the game mining. But if, as a miner, you are taking abuse from the people you rely on for your returns when selling loot, you can either do something about it, or not. If you do nothing, things could worsen overall. A lot more rides on keeping traders honest than we even can think about. We all know MindArk is against us, and the only chance we have against them is to strike the best possible deal for both sides of a transaction. And not all trades have a 1 to 1 ratio, either.

Sure. I sold a Mayhem harness for less than I would like to have got. But I needed the peds. And I didn't have to wait. The loss of some fairly substantial markup on the deal, is the price I paid for the convenience of having the peds sooner than later. BUT. This worked to my advantage. Something I've been waiting for to hit the market for a long time, at a bargain price too, finally went on the AH. I was able to buy it and had some peds left over. In all honesty, in a face to face trade, I'd probably have traded straight across for the item. So, you see, taking a loss is advantageous if the timing is right. It is all about leverage, and timing, and I think I just got lucky on that working out the way it did. 

I think this is probably all I have to say. Just, the traders will be as honest as we can keep them. If something is wrong and they can't explain why the discrepancy, that would be a problem maybe.

So good luck, happy mining, and I hope theres something in all of this for you all to think about. 

Crystal Palace shares, New Mission System, and more...

I should be bringing you updates more regularly here... I very much am grateful for all of you who take the time to visit my blog. Much of what has long since been posted is now obsolete just due to the fact there were so many massive overhauls to so much of the game; but I leave it all posted in the hopes that it will bear witness to what was a glorious golden age of Entropia years gone by.

That said, we seen a lot of BAD changes the last several years. I am pleased to report I am now seeing POSITIVE changes. What am I talking about? Well ok, then... I know you are thinking "positive changes? in Entropia??! What's this guy on!?" But seriously, yes there are some positive changes.

NEW MISSION SYSTEM: From what I see, EVERY mob now offers missions and rewards; you will have to likely track down the button from the action library and add it to your keyboard or GUI yourself. A lot of good mobs suffered from lack of hunting missions. Now, even the miner bots have missions! I just wish they had some loot again like the old days. You can let the rewards pile up, just have to hit claim as many times as your rank increased for that mob, and pick from a wide variety of rewards. Might be a good opportunity to push for that new level that you always wanted, or fill up your lower skills so you can catch up on what you are lacking in.

What is so good about this system? For those of you who were around a while before the new system came online; you probably have a ton of unfinished iron and bronze challenges. Well, this is one thing they did right: while you are trying to climb the ranks of the new mission system, your progress still counts for the old missions too. But I am told once you complete the old mission and finish it, that's it, its done. But you effectively will end up with double the rewards for the same amount of grinding. I know, some people don't like change, but, I am sure you were complaining about something before it got changed, so, at least now you will either be happy or more upset! But at least it isn't the same old thing.

CRYSTAL PALACE SHARES: I absolutely do NOT like Mindark deciding to roll out the new shares system to sell the shares in Crystal Palace, which I am told all 500K shares sold out within days of the update; when the old system still had tens of thousands of Ark Moon Deeds going unsold. I did send suggestions to MA, and I don't know if they helped, but I see that the robot pets are awarded for buying deed packs. I don't know how many AMD's we have left to sell before we can trade, and I wouldn't put it past MA to hold just ONE deed out just to keep us from being able to trade them on the AH... Well after having so many for so long now, you kind of worry about that kind of thing happening. Waiting, and waiting, and waiting. The moon has a lot of potential; but I think loot needs better balancing, no ones going to bother making the trip if they already know its going to be a money sink. There needs to be better rewards for risk. Low or no multipliers doesn't cut it.

We can now buy and sell these shares in Crystal Palace by right clicking on the PED card and clicking on the shares system, and then highlight the necessary tab and the entry for Crystal Palace and click buy, and you are free to buy however many you can afford of what is available. Last time I looked, they were purchasable for around 19.7 peds each. For those who like a little trivia, with 500K shares, valued at almost $2 each, that makes the fair market value of Crystal Palace around $1 million dollars. As long as something doesn't go wrong at CERN and wipe Sweden off the planet, we are ok, right?

I do not know what they pay out but they gotta be better than AMD's... Not that I want to knock the AMD's... Please folks, hurry up and buy them so we can trade them already. You can dollar-cost-average them after the prices crash on the free market. Seriously though... I think the Moon will have a bright future, just, that's the problem. We need it to happen sooner than later.

MARKUPS AND TRADING: There are some interesting things going on with the markups on certain items. I won't specifically mention anything, but there is indeed hope that things are improving based on what I am seeing.

SURVIVABILITY: My biggest problem the last couple years has been no matter what I looted or how much markup I got out of it, it was impossible to survive no matter what I did or didn't do. I have this week, survived hunting and amped mining on 500 peds. Yes, for almost a whole week I've played on 500 peds. Before, I'd be lucky if that lasted a couple hours. So I get the feeling some rebalancing is being done, and I feel like things are going back to being a little more equitable. Afterall, if we can't survive to enjoy playing, why bother even to deposit? Just maybe they have figured this out. But, yes, Crafting does seem rather busted still.

MISCELLANEOUS: There may be a lot of things I am not aware of that I should be aware of, but I do not frequent the forums. The forums are full of smug elitists who think the world revolves around them and I just don't have time for that. At least here I am reporting what I directly observe and experience.

Good luck, and I will probably have more to post soon!

A New Perspective on Markup

It used to be acceptable to TT anything markup below 110%. or 105%.

With Explosive Projectiles turning out more residue than anyone can ever use, which I think is wrong... EP's take TT materials and if anything, residue for EP's should be nanocubes that way the economy wouldn't crash like it has. I mean, just look, residue trading below 101% on orders!!! If that isn't crazy I don't know what is.

Well, again, this did bring something into perspective.

I found I was saving my residue up so I could make a few peds of markup on the residue. I put the markup aside into a ped pile in storage to see how it built up every time I sold some off. In a few hours of doing simple crafts, I had built that little ped pile into about 50 peds. That is 50 peds of markup I wouldn't have gotten if I would have simply stopped saving residue and TT'ed it. Yes, it hurts selling it for TT food basically on auction, but right now EVERY ped counts. I am used to residue being 107% on a bad day. Think of how much ped we are all being screwed out of because of the EP's churning out so much residue?

I don't think it's worth listing things for less than 105% that have a huge supply. I really don't. You take on the role of a hardware store. A hardware store has to have a variety of everything regardless of what is actually selling. It can take very long times to get a sale on certain merchandise, which basically makes the ROI not worth tying up the capital that is required to be tied up.

If not TTing something that is 103% causes you to deposit more peds, guess what? You are losing a percent or two because of the auction fees and the deposit fees. It is cheaper in this light, to TT it.

IF on the other hand, there are orders for what you have that would otherwise be TT food, then yes, it is worth saving up and filling the orders as long as you are able to keep acquiring more of it.

All of a sudden, 104% on ganganite seems like a fortune. This has caused me to look at all resources in a new light, and I've noticed an impact on my bottom line. Fill orders with all your TT food that you can, and TT the rest if you have to, but don't TT anything that routinely has orders or it will be taking peds out of your avatar.

The Auction Trap: How not to screw yourself and the economy over!

It has come to my attention, that there are those of you who are unfamiliar with how an economy functions. Prices are collapsing on things that should not become TT food and I am going to do my best to help you prevent that from happening.

It wouldn't be so bad if supply and demand were strictly what was governing the auctions on Entropia... Well... So some degree, I guess it is. But there is something you need to know and realize:

It isn't just Entropia that is having a sluggish auction. eBay is functioning just as badly as Entropia right now. You can list hundreds of items and if one or two sell you are lucky... And it isn't just at market prices, it's even if you slash your prices.

You see... If no one is buying what you are selling, you won't sell it for any price. There is a grave mistake being made in thinking if you price something low enough it will sell quickly. That is clearly not happening. Molisk teeth and buttons have suffered a full 100% slide in the last week or two since Halloween Mayhem started. Why? There just aren't many people using them right now, but all of you molisk grinders are desperate to sell your teeth because loot is so bad. So, what do you do? You post yours for 20 points under the going rate, or even 50 points. The next guy desperate to sell his does the same, pricing below yours which is already ridiculously low. Now, we have the reverse of a bidding war. At some point, yes, people who normally use a bunch of them will start buying them up for peanuts maybe.. But that is a big maybe.

It is ok to undercut the competition by a ped or two or a few percent. But it is reckless to undercut it by a ridiculous margin trying to force a sale. Just accept the fact that if no one needs what you are selling, it isn't going to sell. There are more people after a quick ped, than there are people willing to speculate or gamble on buying cheap stuff to resell later. Why do you think traders like giving 150% for molisk teeth? Because they know even at 200% they will make something on them.

It will take just as long to sell your goods at the lowest price on AH as it will to sell at a ridiculously lowest price on AH. Markup is THE ONLY way you are going to come out ahead in EU. Well... There's a bit more to it than that, but I can't tell you much. Just know that if you can do everything in EU at TT costs, you are probably going to do great in the long run. And yes, after 8 years in the game you learn a few things. And if I were going to share the details it would be in a guide and it would cost you a few bucks, afterall, it takes money to make money.

Just understand that the auction isn't what it used to be. Just like eBay isn't what it used to be. Those people who paid 100's of thousands of dollars for a grilled cheese sandwhich with the virgin mary on it aren't around any more. Those ridiculous things that used to sell all the time don't sell any more. Entropia, is having much the same problem. Ubers are getting pinched by loot, and when the hofs are only about as big as the cost to kill a mob it comes from, you know it's only a matter of time until everyone is in the same boat.

If you are going to sell cheap and quick, filling orders will do more for you than wholesaling what you have to sell on the open auction, and it won't destroy the markup so badly.

Real Life Trading Opportunities!

Many of you are excellent at trading in Entropia. I have joked in the past that some of you must be selling on eBay because there are actually coins and currency that once in a while sell BELOW face value! Crazy ain't it... This brings me to another point, if you are going to auction anything off for less than TT, just TT it :)

But ok... If you are making hundreds of dollars a month trading (I know it is doable to reach this level of trading profit, and in a few cases some of you may be making thousands, but that is a LOT of work), what do you do when all your peds are tied up in stuff and waiting to be sold at auction? Are you playing other MMO's? Potentially ones without a real cash economy?

Can you think of anything that you could buy very cheaply and sell at a high markup above what you paid? That is legal? :P

I try my best not to promote anything in my blog unless it works and directly helps my readers if you give it a try. This is not a system, this is not a get rich quick scheme. This is not multilevel marketing. This is honest old fashioned trading. Buying low selling high. It does not involve foreign currency, commodities, or stocks.

I tell all about this opportunity in "Philatelic Philosophy: Stamp Collecting Wisdom & Opportunity". I priced the book low, and it gives you the reasons why Stamps are a huge opportunity right now, and how it works.

I've learned to buy them for a mere couple percent of book value, and turn around and sell them almost instantly for 10% to 20% of book value, meaning 500% to 1000% gains! Depending on how lucky you are, you can even do better than that.

You don't have to focus on just US stamps... You can do this in any country in the world. Every country has stamps. Stamp collectors are a dying breed. Old collections go up for sale every day in all manners of ways, and there aren't enough buyers to drive the prices up on all the stamps that get sold every day. You can get in on the ground floor, with prices lower than they ever will be. It just takes time to find the bargains. I spend a couple hours a day searching the internet, and I generally find a few listings that are nothing but pure profit. I use the profits from stamps I sell to buy more stamps, and it literally grows on it's own.

Yes... I am wanting to sell copies of my book. That's the whole reason for promoting anything. But, there genuinely is a great opportunity and it is up to you if you want to look into it or miss out on it. I will not give away valuable information, I perhaps have already given away too much information for free in this post. But the how's the why's, and the what for's are all laid out in my book.

Anyone who buys my book is free to contact me in game and I will do my best to answer any questions and fill any gaps in what you need to know. And yes, I am pretty much able to know who has bought my book. I don't mind teaching others about this opportunity because it will only be here for so long, who knows how long prices will stay low and the market remain flooded. There are more stamps in the world than I can possibly buy, there are more bargains than I can possibly corner the market on. And each of you being in the part of your world you are in have unique opportunities to find offerings that I could never have a chance at finding. Estate sales, yardsales, craigslist, you name it.

Philatelic Philosophy is only $3.95 on Kindle. It is available on many other platforms as well, but I favor the kindle because it is easier to maintain a high quality when published. The paperback is available for $7.95 I think, from amazon.

It is a small investment to make so that you can learn what you need to know to be successful in a real life trading world.

ROCKTROPIA: Things You Should Never TT

It is a challenge to be a crafter on Rocktropia. There is inadequate supply of materials unless at great expense because few people are using the auction house, and shopkeepers are not keeping enough supply of common necessities or their prices are so ridiculous you cannot do business with them. Further, a lot of you are TTing high markup loot because you can't find buyers...

Here's a list of things that you SHOULD NOT TT but rather list on AH or fill orders with because no only do you need the peds, but crafters need the items!

Silver Party Flasks - Average MU around 150 to 250%.
Silver Shakers - Average Orders 150 to 200%
Vixen Android Gears - Very low supply very high demand, Average MU 6K% on orders.
ROCKtropia Gold Coins - Valued at 10 pecs for 100, MU is around 5K to 10K% (10 peds per K)
Rocktropia Records - 10 pecs per hundred as well, MU has been 500%, and is needed for Creative Juice.
ORES... You should never TT any ores in high demand, such as Gazzurdite and Alternative. Traders are somewhat common and anywhere there is a large group of people at least ask if they need any of your ores, someone I am sure will buy. I know it is going to take time to develop the economy on Rocktropia, but it will thrive soon enough.

IF YOU HAVE TRANSPORTATION TO CALY THAT IS SAFE:

You should stockpile Basic Target Assessment Units, they drop by the bushel on Rocktropia, and command a great markup on Calypso, usually a lot of orders for them on AH too.

Mindforce chips are also perhaps something worth taking back to caly. I never get them to drop for me on Caly, but here on RT, I get several a day without fail no matter how small a hunting run I do.

Regardless of what you have, you should always check orders on auction house especially if it something you are wanting to TT. The only way things will boom is if people can get the materials they need and put few extra peds into your pocket as well.

ADVICE: One Opportunity You Should Never Pass Up

Every once in a while, you will see someone about to TT their ores and enmatters, and offer to let people buy it for TT. I've seen it more often than you would think possible. Usually oil, lyst, force nexus, etc. Sometime melchi and iron.  Basically anything they dont feel like messing with selling on AH.

NEVER pass up an opportunity to buy anything for TT value whether you need it or not. It is just as good as having peds, and it might be you can resell or fill orders for a little more than you paid.

And something a lot of you might not realize is the harsh reality of trading. If a trader does not feel he can profit off of what you are selling, such as perhaps lyst or oil, then it is most likely he will pay you TT if you have other ores and matters in the trade. If it is just lyst or oil, you can expect they will offer a few pecs extra, because then it's obvious and you just as well could have TTed the lot.

A very patient person, can easily sell Lyst on AH for 115% and up. The most I could reliably sell for was 133%. Sure, it took a day or two to move a few K ingots, but when you get markup on TT food, it makes a HUGE difference in your returns.

If you buy something at TT... The worst that can happen is you get your peds back from recycling it... But someone always needs something and will pay a little extra to get it rather than try to loot for themselves. I've tried looting parts I've needed, and it's a hell of a lot cheaper to buy for a little extra than burn the peds hunting for it.

Don't pass any bargains up, and profits won't pass you up.

Mining Basics Part 4: Selling Your Ores

This seems like a logical fourth part to my recent series of posts outlining the basics for all the noobs who are coming into Entropia on a daily basis. I am seeing incredible amounts of new people every time I log in. It takes me weeks sometimes to run into another avatar I've seen before. Seriously!

If you look at the totals on Entropia Tracker, say my mining rank is like 700 out of 3000 or something... And you think wow... 3000 people is that all thats here? But then you realize... That's only people who have hoffed and globalled in the last 30 days that are counted. It took me 6 months to get my first global. Then it took another 6, and after that it dropped to 3, and then I started hitting some kind of a global at least once a month... Until now, where I have globalled virtually every day I've played. So just think of how many people there really are playing that are not counted in the globals and hofs.

Anywho... I am a bit off topic here, but that's ok. This is going to be short and quick.

Markup is crucial to your success in any profession. It is the difference between winning and losing. Mindark is not going to guarantee you will win on every run you do. However, what gives you the opportunity to is markup because markup is directly out of other peoples pockets unlike the TT value of items.

There are several things to consider.

1. Rarity and % markup.
2. How many peds worth of each resource you have.
3. Auction fees.
4. Trader prices.
5. Is it worth more refined or unrefined (This may sound dumb, but I will explain why it is valid)
6. Do I fill orders, or do I just list an auction with a buyout?


So lets start with number one...

If a resource is selling for less than 110%, you are generally going to have a hard time pushing it on the auction unless you know what you are doing, and it is going to take a fairly large stack of the stuff to make it worth doing. For instance...

Oil had orders at 104%. I thought ok, I will try refining my 80 ped oil global and sell it to orders. What I didn't expect was, my refiner broke at least two times, so that cost me 4 peds right there. Then there is a matter of the auction fee of nearly a ped or so. My markup was less than 5 peds. I literally didn't gain anything by doing this.

However, it has a lot to do with what is the value per unit. See, refining decay is based on how many units you are refining. It is costlier to refine Crude Oil than say, Angelic flakes or Dianthus... Ped for ped that is. It wasn't worth bothering to refine the oil and fill orders. But I could have 80 peds worth of say, Alicenies and refined it and sold it on an order of 104% and actually made a few pecs.

Depending on the markup it can be cheaper to actually TT the stuff. But on all items you think are TT food, at the very least talk to a trader to see if you can get ANY markup for.

BUT REMEMBER: If you take something like Dunkel... Assume 5K% markup. A trader MUST automatically deduct around 1500 points off that markup and offer you between 3500% and 4000%. Because even with 3500%, the auction fees would take all the profit and then some. And if you think it is easy to sell something so rare, especially when it's not refined, you can try it. If its extremely high markup and rare, so few people even use it that it would be a risk counting on the fact someone using it would actually see your listing and buy it... It's safer in my opinion to sell it as fast as you can as long as the offer is reasonable. Reasonable, in my book, is markup minus auction fees on rare items. On common ores and matters, the standard few percent discount is reasonable.

#2:  If you have 10 peds of lysterium thats worth say, 105%... You are only talking 50 pecs markup. You wont make money with orders. Potentially, you could list a 9.99 ped lot of Lysterium ingots (333) of them for say, 120% and they will sell becuase lots of crafters will pay a little extra for smaller quantities. But you risk also that you might not sell it and lose the auction fees. So you have two options: Hold your ore til you have about 50 to 100 peds worth, or find a trader. Small markups will make a difference, but only on large TT values.

#3: Auction fees are progressive. The more value the item has, and the higher the markup, the faster the increase in auction fee as you up the price. However something you should know is... The auction fee to list what, 200 peds of Cobalt is like 6 peds or something... But to sell say, 900 peds on auction the fee is only like 12 peds. So after a while, economies of scale kick in and the more you can list at once the cheaper it actually gets for you to list. If you were to list four lots of 200, you would be paying nearly 25 peds in fees, versus saving and filling that 900 ped order. The numbers are just approximations from memory, not accurate... But the principle is what I am trying to explain. It will always be CHEAPER to sell the biggest lot that you can sell at one time,

Fees are good though. Why? Because it prevents people from using the auction as a warehouse like so many online games tend to do. If there were no fees, people would simple list everything at astronomical prices and never have to worry about storage for their stuff again. It might not be a big deal now, but back in the day when there was no storage on the asteroid, it would have been considered a major exploit.

Also, it prevents people from flooding the markets or otherwise manipulating them by buying up all the cheaper listings and relisting at much higher prices. The fees force people to list at prices they reasonably expect will find buyers.

I do notice the more I spend in AH fees, the better quality of loot I get... But I have no concrete proof, only observation from my own situation. But just keep your eyes peeled to see if it's making any difference for you or not. There is a lot we may never know about the game.

4: The reason traders are justified in making profit is simple. Most people do not have more than a few peds in any given stack of ore or resources. If you mine with less than a couple hundred peds, you are going to have a varied inventory when you get done. You will be forced to either tt lots too small to put on auction, or find a trader.

Now, when a trader buys from you, he has to consider how the market is. Are prices heading upward, or downward. Is it in high demand or is it not being used much. Whats the current price.

See... The advantage of a trader is this: If you cant list the stuff you have yourself, you either have to wait til you have more, TT it, or sell to the trader. Would you rather have five piles each of 2 peds of 120% ores and trade terminal them, or go to a trader who would give you say 115% for the ores. It is your choice. You can either lose 2 peds in markup by TTing, or you can go to the trader and let him make a few pecs, and lose only half a ped.

In turn, the trader accumulates the ores til he has sufficient amounts to peddle on the auction house or direct to crafters.Traders however, if they are smart, will take a sufficient cut on the ores so that when they have amassed their piles, that they will still make some money after figuring in the fees and etc.

However, if you have piles of ingots worth over 20 peds, and markup is over say 115% or 120%, by all means sell them yourself, in most cases you will get more than a trader will offer. It's just reality. But the exception to this rule... If it is an Ore that doesn;t move fast... Cobalt is very tempermental. If I list it as the lowest auction buyout, someone always undercuts me. But orders are sometimes 10 points below the lowest auction price. The solution? See what a trader will offer you. If Cobalt is 120% on orders and buyouts are no lower than 130, rather than risk being undercut, you might get a trader to give you 125%.

#5: Yes, I have to cover this... Becuase there are separate categories for unrefined and refined ores and enmatters, differences in the market value arise. In the case of chalmon/devils tail... I once sold 20 peds or so TT value, to orders for 560%. I went and checked the devils tail orders... Devil's tail was ordered at 620%. I would have made more money selling it unrefined. So when you have VERY high markup stuff... ALWAYS check the refined and unrefined orders BEFORE you refine it... You can always refine it later, but you can NOT unrefine an ore!

#6; Filling orders vs. Selling on Auction...

Scenario 1: Your ore's lowest buyout is at 120%. The orders are paying 119%. It is best to fill the order. Because even if you do list for say 123%, it might not sell, and for the 4 points difference, i'd rather have my money now. Also a gap like that generally means the price is going to be dropping so is best to be done with it than stuck with an overmarked up listing.

Scenario 2: Orders are at 120%, but lowest buyout is 130%. This is what I have experienced with Cobalt on a somewhat regular basis. Because the cobalt is virtually impossible to move without filling orders for me, I would opt to take it to a trader or fill the orders. Any other ore though, I would just do a listing at slightly under the lowest buyout if I needed the peds right now. If I wasn't in a hurry, I would find the lowest price listing around the size lot I had, and list just a little bit below that. People are going to always pay a little higher markup for smaller lots of resources.

Scenario 3: Make note of what the lowest auction buyout is, and then ask a trader, if there are no orders. If the trader offers you an amount somewhat close to that figure, do the math and see how much of a difference it is and if it is acceptable, take the trade. Otherwise, see Scenario 2.

I hope this helps clarify some situations and help you understand some of the dynamics at work in the market place. I will go through and clarify and rewrite this over time... Maybe add better examples and make it simpler to understand... But in the mean time, good luck!

ADVICE: To TT or not to TT

There are times when you simply cannot profitably sell something for a markup if it is too low. Take Oil for example. It had a common markup of about 104% on orders or less, and if you competitively list it, you are lucky to even sell it at 105%. But, I was trying to fill an order once... My refiner broke a lot trying to refine a couple hundred peds of crude oil. By the time I was done, the orders were not high enough to cover the refiner decay and the listing fee. In short... TTing my oil was more profitable than auctioning it off.

Generally, I consider anything below 105% to be TT food, unless I have a trader that will buy it from me, or someone in my society can use it. If it is someone in the Society, I generally will sell it to them for TT value, it helps them out, and they will gladly help you out in the future too.

You have to look at it this way too: If you have something at say, 103%, and you are holding it and holding it trying to gather enough to sell... Finally you have thousands of peds worth, or maybe hundreds, and you sell it for your little bit of markup... If you don't feel foolish, you ought to when I tell you... You had no doubtedly deposited so you had more peds to play with because all your peds were tied up in loot, correct? Well... You effectively lost half a percent if you sold your tt food at 103% to a trader, or even on auction. How? Because there is approximately a 3.65% fee deducted from your peds when you deposit to cover the credit card transaction.

So, it is cheaper just to TT the low markup stuff if it means having to deposit.

If you are fortunate enough to have a large ped roll, then never mind me... It is wiser to get any extra you can out of what you have. Feel free to read my posts regarding survivability to find out more on why this makes a big difference.

It is mysterious to me how the auction fees work in Entropia. Some items is possible to fill orders at 102% on auction and still have some slight gain. Other items, you can't pay the auction fee with anything less than 105%... You just have to look closely at what you are selling and what all the costs involved are, otherwise you will find not all opportunities are ge drd le s.
Always remember a loss is a loss no matter how small.

I generally do not recommend TTing anything over 105%... Exceptions are for things that either sell slowly or not at all. If there is no demand, you can't expect to sell it for any markup.

Under 105%, is TT food.

Arkadia: Crafting Contest, and Treasure Coming Soon Hopefully

It would appear that there is currently a crafting contest going on at Arkadia, crafting globals on arkadian blueprints over 100 peds are eligible for one of a series of blueprints. I don't know what kind of prints, but I would assume that they are primarily going to be issued to the winners of the competition. I havn't had a crafting global in so long I am probably not even going to bother!!! But those of you who think you have what it takes might look into it further and give it a shot.

Yes, the auction house is a bit volatile... The crafters aren't around because it's hard for them to procure enough resources to craft with, and without crafters, there is no market for the miners to sell to. Me being on Arkadia right now trying to mine, I end up TTing all my ores becuase I can't wait a week for all my peds worth of stuff to sell. So most of what I have lost up there is due to the fact I can't get markup since there isn't a lot of demand because there isn't a lot of supply.. It is really a vicious cycle.

HOWEVER... All you gotta do is place your orders up there. Most resources HAVE no orders. If you give orders, you will get miners wanting to sell their resources now. And traders, traders of all people should be jumping on this opportunity.

My biggest complaint is there is very little narc, alice, and iron to be found on Ark.. It's not a bad thing to have common stuff on other planets be rare here and vice versa... It creates opportunity, but what we need are people to jump on that opportunity. I would do it myself, and maybe I will... But I am so short on funds at present that I can't even begin to try.

SO with all of that said.. I take that back, that is not my biggest complaint. My biggest complaint is we've been waiting so long for treasure hunting to get here that I hope it is actually going to be in this next update. I can't imagine how much business Arkadia is losing because of this not having been released on time.

Those of you who have suggestions, you need to make sure and let support know what your suggestions are. You might think they don't listen to what you have to say, but if you send them reasonable ideas that are plausible and even beneficial, they do listen. I see many things that I and others have suggested come into play finally. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and the customer is always right... Unless Mindark is wrong, in which case they won't admit it :P That's why if you ever have a support case, MAKE SURE TO SEND THEM A SCREENSHOT OR THEY WILL DENY ANYTHING WENT WRONG!

I will be on Arkadia for quite a while maybe, and any crafters needing materials, feel free to get ahold of me and I can arrange to meet with you to supply you with anything you are needing for crafting. Otherwise, place orders on the auction house and I will look for them and fill them as I always do.

Question of the Day:
If you spend say 300 Peds on an amp or something and use it up, do you think of it as a loss of $30, or do you just think of it as a loss of 300 Peds?

You might ask what importance this has to me, but it does have some. There is a psychological element to the Entropia Universe... Personally, I tend to think of it in terms of Peds.. Spending $30 in a casino and losing it is far more devestating to me than losing 300 Peds in Entropia, but why? Just wondering if it is similar to you guys is all.

I do not believe Entropia Universe is a casino... In fact, to avoid that legality, everything is "skill based", and "skill based" gaming is not gambling... Though you are still risking a stake to try and win a profit... Just a thought... And I highly suspect the reason banks are in fact pawnshops in the game, is because for them to actually allow actual bank type banks, being a real cash economy, it would violate a ton of banking regulations around the world... Just my observations, maybe I am wrong...

Part of what I am trying to do here is to get you guys thinking. If you aren't thinking about things, then your mind becomes dull, and if we keep it sharp, your losses will be much less. If you don't use it, you lose it.

ENTROPIA ABACUS: Trading Utility I Just Released Today!

I am somewhat of a C++ hobbyist... I am learning a great deal about programming with C++ and PHP... But I have traded a lot in the past and with people coming up to me asking if they could buy 10 peds of lysterium or 20 peds of gazzurdite, I wanted to be able to QUICKLY figure out how many ingots I can give them for the amount they have to spend and still ensure I can make a slight profit at least. When I can resell directly, I don't try to charge as much as I can. You can make nice profits and not be greedy at the same time.

An Abacus is an ancient calculator that is by our standards, unusual. My utilities that I am creating do calculations that are unusual as well. Who ever heard of a ped to quantity calculator? :-)

Eventually I will make the interfaces fancier and more modern... I will add more capabilities... I want to corner the market on helping my fellow entropians any way that I can.

I know it is very basic right now, but give it time. I am constantly working on projects, new and old, to see what I can do. You shouldn't have any problem running it in Windows 7, Vista, or XP.

The home page is located HERE. You may download the program for free, and while it is free, you may donate, any amount will help fund my current projects and allow me to bring you higher quality tools. As a bonus, your contribution will allow you to advertise one of your links on my site, that will be placed along side your name and the amount you contributed. Only first names will be posted, as a thank you. This will all go on it's own page soon as I finish building a proper site.

If you haven't checked it out yet, please visit http://abacus.horizon-host.com!

HOW TO: How to Fill or Place Auction House Orders

I still run into people who have been on Entropia for years that have never learned how the Auction house works... They have not yet used the orders for ordering materials or selling resources. So, I thought it would be appropriate to give everyone a quick tutorial on how the Auction house ordering system works.

PLACING ORDERS:

Rules:
You can only place orders for UNLIMITED items.

When you place an order for an item, the FULL TT + Markup is held by the system until order fills. 

If the condition of the item is less than full TT, You receive a refund for the difference in condition when the order is filled.

As of last time I've used the orders, it cost 1 Ped per day that your order runs. If it is a rare item, you need to run for more days sometimes to get it filled. If it is ores or other resources, one day is plenty because if someone raises their orders too high over yours, yours may never get filled unless the market drops.

What it is useful for: Ordering crafting supplies for much lower than you can buy them off auction directly. Obtaining expensive items that you don't want to pay full retail for but reasonably think someone would sell to you at a lower price such as a hard to sell item but they need the PEDs.

How To

In the auction house, there are two tabs at top. One says Offers, the other says Orders. Offers is what everyone is trying to sell. It is where you go to buy things directly off auction, or just list things for sale. You need to click on the Orders tab.

At the bottom of the window I believe it has a button that says either Make Order or Place Order. Click it.

Select your item from the list that you wish to order. It can range from blueprints, to animal oils, to metal ingots or raw resources. Even weapons! But note they are all unlimited. Limited items must be bought and sold at the prevailing market price as dictated by supply and demand.

Once your item is selected, you decide how long you want the order to run. If you are ordering common items such as ores and enmatters, you will want to note the highest order price already listed and the quantity they ordered. The highest order price will get filled first if the quantity the seller sells is equal to or smaller than the ordered amount.

Say there are two orders for Narcanisum.

Order 1    1000 Narcanisum at 140.50%
Order 2     2000 Narcanisum at 139.19%

Scenario 1: If you sell 1500 Narcanisum for 140.50%, it wont fill the order, and will go straight to auction for buyout at the price you chose. You can instead sell it to order 2 for 139.19% or as close as you can get to it, because they have enough quantity ordered.

Scenario 2: You have 500 Narcanisum to sell. Even if you sell it at 139%, it will still go to order number 1 because they have the highest bid, and they have enough quantity left to buy your lot.

FILLING ORDERS:

Rules: See scenario 1 and 2 from last section.

How To:

What I recommend doing is just type in the item you have to sell in the search and click on the orders tab. If any orders show up, those are what people are offering for you to sell them the item and how many they still want. The advantage over auction is, you don't have the risk in worrying if it will sell or not and whether or not you will lose your auction fee if it doesn't sell.

When you find an order you want to fill, you must go to the offers tab. Sell item like usual, except you only put in up to the quantity of item ordered, and you set the buy out price AT OR BELOW the ordered markup. If both of these conditions are true, the transaction will be instantly completed and the PEDs available on your card right away!

That's all there is to it!

It is not uncommon to save 10 to 20% in material costs by placing orders instead of buying straight off the auction. This is a huge benefit to crafters, and it helps other crafters and miners by giving them instant demand if they need to use the peds they just tied up to keep playing. It sucks to have all your peds in auction house waiting for things to sell.

Good luck and may everyone ATH or have fun trying!

Trading: THE Road To Profits

I am an experienced trader and I have learned so many things the hard way I do not wish to give my secrets away... But I will share enough to help you understand and learn to trade.

By itself, Entropia is a negative expectation game. This means that because of decay and the unknown distribution of loots, if no new money were added, the economy would dry up and everyone after enough time would be broke. Fortunately people like myself are happy to deposit a nominal amount each month, which I don't mind.. $50 in Entropia lasts much longer than $50 in a casino... Or in a gas tank lol.

So how do you turn it into a positive expectation game? That is what markup does. Instead of mindark crediting you for tt value of an item, other people will pay a premium for things based on supply and demand. This increases the amount of peds circulating because the more spent in markup, the more that is deposited. But when markup is considered it is possible to suffer very heavy tt losses but make a slight profit.

Items and resources are always going up and down in markup. The real genius to the game is that the TT value never changes. This limits mindark liabilities to the player in a worst case scenario, and solves the problem of calculating loots with a rubber ruler.

The old adage buy low and sell high is king here. Say an ore is 140% markup on the auction. If you find a miner who wants to sell without waiting for auctions to do the job not to mention the fees charged to the miner for the auction, you could reasonably offer 135%... Maybe as low as 130%... But remember, you give someone too short of a deal and you will be ruined as a trader! If you are losing just a few percent on each crafting run, the cheaper prices from buying directly can mean break even or profit!

If you want to trade full time it is important to identify your customers. Who will you buy from and sell to? What is an acceptable profit margin? For a little while I was seeing traders on the asteroid offering two points under market value... It is nuts to buy a 200% ore at 198%... There was no way to compete with that so I had to quit trading. After a while the noons must have slit their own throats as prices later returned to a viable level... Remember it is a 50 ped round trip to asteroid and the only way miners get good markup on ores up there is traders. If not for the trader either the miner ties up all their peds and returns to planet to sell or they TT their ores.

So you got to also factor in other costs such as auction fees... I always strive to buy for no higher a price than break even if I have to let go of my ores at auction prices including the auction fees. If traders can't make profit then they go out of business... Which if someone is willing to pay near market value for something that you can't do, let them. If it is a bad deal for you it will hurt them and they won't be competing for long.

So, with everything said, I wish to highlight some important advice for trading:

1. Do not be afraid to offer TT value on a near TT item...
2. Always buy anything you can for TT... This does not mean screw over your customer eiher though... Always offer a fair price. For ores at 110% to 140% fair is usually 5 points off. As markup goes up, you can knock more points off... Say a 5K% Dunkel Particle... Is best to offer 4K% or so.
3. If a trader is offering more for something than you are paying, and you feel you can't beat their price, then perhaps selling all you have of that item for a quick profit is a good idea.
4. Always check orders... Sometimes you can be profitably surprised :)
5. Do NOT go up to people and initiate trades at random... This will piss people off and a pissed off person won't do business with you.
6. Be kind and courteous at all times...
7. Be very careful of the society you join. Joining one of the notoriously bad ones will give you an instant and epic fail as a trader.
8. Conduct your trades as timely and accurately as possible.
9. Always check prices so you can offer a fair deal from day to day.
10. If prices drop it is best to hold your inventory until it goes back up.
11. Ores run in cycles... They have a normal high low range. Narcanisum ranges from 130% to 170% on average for instance. This means you can identify bargain prices and stock up.
12. Regardless of what prices are you buy with enough margin for profit but if it takes you a long time to flip your inventory be careful.
13. Ask your customers to compare your offer with competitors. Most times they won't bother :) but it gives them confidence in you.
14. Profits are better than luck.
15. Don't get greedy lest you destroy your reputation and clientele.
16. If you think trading is slow, figure out how fast you can sweat and then see how many days it would take to sweat what you just made on one trade :)
17. Always be helpful to noons. They may not have much to trade now but they will remembebyour kindness and reward you with loyalty.
18. Remember... All deals are final and any errors are up to the people Involved. Unless mindark themselves have been harmed by your actions, they will not intervene on any finalized trade.
19. Restrain your spending. Every ped you use is one less ped that can make you money.

I will revise this post in the near future and add more to it so stay tuned!

The biggest advantage to trading is there are no tools to decay or risk to find the loot. And if you have trouble making peds... Just remember to ask yourself what a Ferengi from Star Trek would do :)