Submitted by Tully Mars, Emissary of United We Fight on Atlantic

The bazaar-encampment system can be one of the most under-utilized and misunderstood systems. In an attempt to drive some business to the bazaars, I thought I would highlight a couple of commodity vendors at the various bazaars.

The good news is, as a customer, you don’t have to understand everything about the commodity brokers. You don’t have to understand commissions and fees and buy limits and sell limits and pricing and such. You don’t have to understand how to initially add items and all the possible bugs with items you add. All you have to understand is how to buy from and how to sell to these vendors.

So a quick lesson…

As you will see in the pictures below, there are multiple columns to deal with. Let’s look at buying from these vendors first. The first column (from left to right) says buy with a button. The second column says price and this is the price that it will cost you per item if you want to buy. The third column says limit, which is the amount for sale on that vendor. The fourth column says commodity and that is the description of the item. If you want to buy a certain commodity, you press the buy button on the corresponding line, the go down to the bottom of the page and enter a quantity. You must have a quantity equal to or below the amount of the “limit” quantity. The amount you enter in the limit quantity also cannot exceed 60,000, even if the vendor has more of them than that. 60k is the quantity limit for one single transaction. So, after you press the buy button and enter quantity in the bottom, then you click trade. It will give you a confirmation screen explaining everything you are doing. If you confirm, the specified amount of money will leave your bank and a commodity deed for the purchased item will be put in your pack.

Now let’s look at selling to these vendors. This feature is one of the major reasons the vendors are desirable for owners and players alike. The fourth column which says commodity is shared by both the buy and sell process, and again just contains the description. The fifth column says price and this is actually what the vendor is willing to pay you for each of the items that you choose to sell to the vendor. The sixth column says limit and this is the amount the vendor is willing to buy. And the seventh and final column says sell with a button. So if you wish to sell to these vendors you must have the items in your pack. They can be in raw form or in commodity form, or both. If you have them in both commodity form and not, the ones not in the commodity deed will be sold first. Click the sell button on the corresponding line, and again go down to quantity on the bottom of the screen. Enter a quantity you want to sell to the vendor. This number must be equal or less than the amount of the item in your pack, equal or less than the amount listed in column six the buy limit, and I believe this must still be equal to or less than 60,000 (but come to think of it, I just assumed there and never really tested that out). To finish the transaction, click the trade button and a confirmation screen will come up. When you confirm, the items will be removed from your pack and the gold or check will be put in your bank.

The first commodity vendor I will review is located in Tram Magincia at Stall E-1 and is run by Aerodice. His vendor is one of the more popular ones because he focuses on imbuing ingredients. Many people sell to and buy from this vendor and his vendor has become a major instrument in the economy of the Atlantic Shard. Perhaps major instrument in the Atlantic economy is pushing it, but he sure has become a major instrument in MY economy. (For the purpose of full disclosure, Aerodice is a guild member and friend of mine.)

So without further ado, here is what he is buying and selling (as of 03 Dec 2011)

As you can see, most everything you could want to use for imbuing can be bought and sold here. His prices beat Luna pricing if you are in the market to buy. His prices are quite reasonable if you are looking to sell, as well, and beat having to run your own vendors. That is the great thing about a well thought out vendor: you can feel comfortable selling to the vendor and making your money, and not feel like the owner is ripping you off. Some items move faster than others and some items might be off on pricing (too cheap or even a little expensive), but for the most part Aerodice does well.

I personally sell items to this vendor, as well as buy from him. I usually break even on the trades I make, but there are many who have made big money. One of the biggest movers I supply is faeries dust and a quick run through the renowned pixie mini champ in the Abyss earns me some serious dough.

The next one on the review list is located in Tram Magincia at Stall B-5 and run by Trapz. Trapz is a newer member of the bazaar circuit, but he has some good deals and money making opportunities for buyers and sellers alike.

As you can see, he does really good for buyers on some items and really good for sellers on some items. Unfortunately he usually doesn’t hit the middle ground on many items. His arrows and bolts and scrolls and many of the bulk reagents are some of the few he seems to have hit a happy medium on pricing. Empty bottles favor the supplier, as he is willing to buy them at 20 gold. His mark up is appropriate to sell to others at 25 gold but many buyers consider this a bit expensive. The recall scrolls definitely favor the buyer at 42 gold, but don’t encourage suppliers since he is only buying them at 25 gold. Some items are ridiculously low for suppliers, like crystal shards at 250 gold and he doesn’t in return have a sell price to offer buyers. But all in all, his is a vendor worth checking out.

The next stall I am reviewing is located in Tram Magincia at Stall J-1 and is run by Crucible. Though the character that opened it is named Crucible, this is in essence run by Sebastian of BMC. He has put this as a supplier-only vendor and you can only sell to this vendor. After you sell him some product, he moves his product to regular vendors to minimize fees and commissions. He has two other commodity vendors in the J section and they are all similar with slightly different items or focuses (but many repeats).

As you can see, he buys a bunch of items. If you throw in his other two vendors, you cover most items that can be put on commodity vendors. The caveat for me is I tend to prefer to supply people who also sell items on these vendors. I don’t feel like tracking down his regular vendors to see what type of markup he is getting on the items I supply. But you can get some good deals and make nice money with these vendors.

Finally, I am reviewing a stall located in Fel Magincia at Stall I-2 run by Thorn Silverblad. Yes, you read that right: there are a few Felucca Magincia bazaar vendors. For the purpose of full disclosure, I must admit that Thorn Silverblad is one of my characters and I run the majority of the Fel Magincia commodity vendors. This vendor is one of my lesser traveled, but I didn’t want to put my main vendors for comparison because (in all modesty) most can’t compete with my pricing because my mark-up/profit-margin is so tight.

One of my claims to fame on this vendor is paying 16 gold for normal leather. This allows brand new players a place to make some gold while training on goats and hinds and harts and bears and bulls and such. Will it make them rich? No, but it sure is nice if they learn a way to make a steady profit in the beginning. I will let you decide on the other prices.

In summary, I hope I have piqued your interest in commodity vendors. Like any vendor system, there are good vendors and bad vendors–when you find a good one, stick with it. I hope to review some more stalls here and there, but even if I don’t get around to it, you at least get the idea. Perhaps some enterprising individual can throw the screen shots in an OCR program or do it the hard way and list out the prices and items in an excel or csv file.

Stop by and say “Hi” if you are ever in the Fel Magincia bazaar area Section I.