Black Lion 101

So, you're eager to make some gold but you don't know where to start? Don't worry you're not the first to feel that way and you won't be the last! Step one is familiarising yourself with the Trading Post and how it works. Just wander up to any Black Lion Trader or click the little lion's head at the top of your screen.

The interface is pretty straightforward though searching for some things can be a little tricky (searches for armours can't be refined by weight so you'll need to look through light, medium and heavy no matter what your character class). If you're new to the game I wouldn't recommend trying to play the market from the word go (though you could if you wanted!). I'd suggest going out into the world, getting a feel for the conent and earning yourself some seed money for future investments. I do have a few handy tips for earning that seed money however which I will detail in another post. For now we'll focus on the basics of the Trading Post.

Buying on the trading post is simple, you have one of two options;

1. Buy imediately from a seller
2. Place a buy order in the hopes a seller will fulfill it.

Buying immediately is straightforward, you simply type in how many of an item you need and click 'buy', you get the item for the listed cost, you just need to pick it up from a Black Lion Trader.

To place a buy order you need to click on 'place a custom offer' rather than buying outright.

This will take you to where you can put in an offer of how much you'd like to buy the item for. There's no guarentee that you'll get your item for this price but as long as the offer isn't too low there's a good chance you'll get it, but it won't be immediate. 

Selling on the other hand is a little more complicated. Your options essentially mirror the two above:

1. Sell immediately to a buy order.
2. List your item at your choice of price and wait for a buyer.

Something to remember with both of these options is fees, selling on the Trading Post isn't free, there are costs involved. When you sell an item you will be charged a non-refundable listing fee of 5% of your total sales price when you list your item and then a further 10% tax will be taken from you if your sale is successful. Keep this in mind when you're selling, the amount you get back will not be your original sale price.

Take this example. I'm listing my item for 1s 55c, but if it sells I'll be getting back 1s 31c (Projected profit 1s 39c minus my listing fee of 8c). Always keep an eye on your fees sometimes it's more profitable to sell an item to a vendor than it is to sell on the trading post!

Selling immediately to a buy order gets you coins instantly and is worth doing if there's a very small difference between the highest bidder and lowest seller. However if the price difference is notable I'd suggest listing your item for a price just under the lowest seller.

Sometimes you'll see a very large gap between highest bidder and lowest seller. In these situations many people place buy orders at the lower price just to sell at the higher one, more commonly refered to as 'flipping', but we'll come to that later.