Learning to flip items.

Once you have your seed money you're ready to start playing the market. In this post I'll be explaining some steps to get started in flipping items, if you're still unsure after reading I'll list some 'further reading' links at the bottom of this post for more guides/advice on flipping.

What is 'flipping'?

In my Black Market 101 post I mentioned how things can be bought cheaper by placing buy orders and sold for more by listing your own price rather than matching the highest bidder. 'Flipping' is buying items cheaply using buy orders and then selling them at a higher price, making a profit in the process.

It sounds simple enough but of course you can't just look at the difference between the highest buy order and the lowest seller, you need to take the Trading Post fees into account.

What should I invest in?

This is something you'll always be asking yourself as you learn to play the market. Eventually you may settle on some favoured markets that you consistently invest in but first you need to find those markets! There are two flipping methods for making decent money:

1) Buy low profit items that will be bought in bulk. Following this method your money will be made from selling in volume. This method is usually applied to things like consumables and crafting materials where there is constant demand for the items.

2) Buy higher profit items that will be bought one or two at a time. Following this method your money will be made as you make individual sales. This method is applied to things like armour, weapons and trinkets.

Today I'll be showing you my take on the second method, both are viable starting points though and I'll likely do another post in the future on the first method.

Step One: Buying Your Stock.

Our first step is investing in items to sell on. As you get used to playing the market you'll learn what margins between your buy and sell price you're comfortable with but while starting out a good rule of thumb for investment is buy at (roughly) half of the current selling price. This rule allows for the lowest selling price coming down while you wait for your buy order to be fulfilled.

I picked trinkets as my market as I learnt from my crafting that people tend to impulse buy their jewellery, they're reasonably fast moving items. I spent a while clicking through items, comparing the highest bidder price to the lowest seller price and sticking to my rule. A good thing to remember here is that I said 'roughly', you can go a little over half what the current lowest seller is at with your bids.

I found several items like this one. This ring was selling at 1s 58c, but I could order one for 68c. I only ordered one at that price, at this point it's good to be cautious, especially if you're just starting out and even if you're an established trader it's often best to test the waters with a single flip if you're exploring a new market.

At the end of my earning seed money I had 1g 4s 58c to invest. I went through the list of trinkets placing buy orders. I stopped when I only had 9s 9c left on hand. Always make sure you have a few silver left at the end of your ordering stock, otherwise you won't be able to afford to list your items!

Step Two: Wait.

I realise this is a frustrating step as you'll want to see quick results but depending on your market it could take a long time for your orders to fill. So relax and go find something else to do for a bit, it'll be worth the wait.

Thankfully for me trinkets is a fast moving market at times so I didn't have to wait too long (in fact some of my stock was arriving before I'd finished putting in my orders!)

Step Three: Pickup and List.

Here's just a small selection of the stock I picked up, as you can see the price per unit is pretty low in most cases allowing me to make a lot of offers on a variety of trinkets, increasing my chances of getting items to sell.

I listed my jewellery at 1c under the current lowest seller in most cases. If the current lowest seller was only selling 1 of the item I was usually matching their price on rings or earrings (as these items are often bought in pairs). When you get more comfortable playing the trading post you may list your items for a little more and wait for cheaper items to clear out, maximising your profit. However I'd recommend this method for those just starting out to get quicker sales.

Step Four: Wait Some More.

This wait can be even more nerve-wracking when you're starting out, this is the moment of truth where you're waiting to see if your investment will pay off or if your items will end up undercut. Try not to worry too much, sometimes you'll make losses but more often than not your profits will happily cover these. Just go off and do something else for a while and let your money roll in.

Step Five: Pick Up Those Profits!

Whether you're happy to pick up the money as it dribbles in so you can use it right away or you've got the patience to wait and pick it all up in a nice lump sum it's always gratifying to see your money come back to you, bringing extra coins in tow.

There's a lot to learn about playing the market, there a so many markets to explore and tactics to try, there are tools to help you along the way and methods that involve a good memory or a good spreadsheet. But it's all up to you how you approach it. The simple steps above will get you more money, flipping items is as complicated as you make it. Yes, more advanced methods will earn you more profit but not everyone has the time/inclination to pick them up, it's all up to you and what you feel happiest with.

A few more tips:

Repeat successful sales. While listing my trinkets some of them sold almost immediately, I could have just collected my profits and been happy with them, but whiles the market's active it's worth exploiting to it's full potential. To doublecheck what you just sold click on your 'Transactions' tab and then pick 'Items I've Sold' from the drop-down menu.

Click on these items to be taken straight to their trading post listing where you'll be able to place another buy order for one or two more. At the bottom of my example above you'll see the same Amethyst Silver Earring that's in my 'Pick Up and List' section of this post. I bought the earring for 36c and sold it for 1s 9c, that's a profit of 57c on that one item, so of course I wanted to duplicate the success. I went and bought two more of the earring which I bought and sold at the same prices within half an hour.

Don't remove listings. I know it's frustrating to see your item get undercut by someone else, but remember you've already spent money on your listing fee! The market fluctuates a lot, there's a chance those items that are cheaper than yours will clear out at a busier time of day. Of course sometimes the value of items doesn't recover well and you don't want your items gathering dust when they could earn a little money back, but I'd advise waiting at least a week or two to see how it goes before throwing away that original listing fee!

Clear your buy orders. Not all of your orders will get filled, be sure to check the 'Items I'm Buying' section of your transactions once a day, you don't want your money tied up in bids on items that aren't currently being sold/that others have put in higher order amounts on.

My Results:

Following the steps and tips above Roselli ended up with 1g 92s 31c, which is a profit of 87s 73c! That was with minimal repeating of successful sales and only buying one or two of an item at a time, I wanted to approach this cautiously, as though it really was my first time flipping items to give a realistic feel of what can be achieved when starting out.

Further Reading:

Guild Wars 2 Trading Post: Damn this is a Gold Guide. This is one of the first resources I found on flipping items and where I first learned to do it. I just reread it and realised that Marcko's tips must still have been in the back of my mind when writing my guide given some of the similarities in advice. So if you'd like to see flipping explained in a different way this guide is well worth the time.

GW-Market Forums.  I'm an active member of these forums and I've found the community there to be very helpful and supportive, so if you'd like to just ask for advice on starting out or if you'd like to join in on discussions on markets/tactics that may be profitable this is a good place to go.

Making your seed money.

Meet Roselli (and Beaky). I created this little Asuran to help me explain some basic hints and tips to help you make money in Tyria. She is a standard starting character for Guild Wars 2 and I've not given her anything from any of my alts.

So you've run through your introduction quest and you're eager to get out into the world and make some gold, what should you do?

1) Buy harvesting tools.

While you don't have to buy tools right away I've found that doing this increases your earning potential right away. Roselli walked out of her introduction with 72c, exactly the right amount to pick up a Copper Mining Pick, Copper Logging Axe and a Copper Harvesting Sickle. I equipped all three right away and was eager to get going.

So off I went into Metrica Province to start enjoying the game's content.


2) Complete Renown Hearts.

As part of your personal storyline you'll be asked to complete a renown heart. There are NPCs throughout the world who need your help on various tasks, help them enough and you complete their renown heart. Upon completing your first heart you'll receive some mail with a thank you and some coins. The monetary reward isn't huge every bit adds up and you should hopefully have gotten some drops from mobs while completing the task.

While you could go out and find a good spot with lots of baddies to farm drops instead completing renown hearts has another couple of bonuses attached to it. A completed renown heart means that the related NPC becomes a karma vendor, exchanging goods in exchange for karma, some of these can actually be quite useful. Completed hearts also count towards map completion which is always worth aiming for (more on that later).


3) Harvest Everything.

Remember those tools I suggested you buy? Use them. Harvest everything you can get your grubby little hands on. There will always be a demand for crafting supplies so harvesting nodes is easy money for very little effort (especially if you're out questing and passing nodes anyway). A few copper coins for your copper ore may not seem like much but it all adds up! And on top of that you have a chance of picking up something that may fetch more money, while rummaging through some herbs I found some vanilla beans (currently selling for about 1s 50c each) and an unidentified dye, which are always nice to find.


4) Don't get weighed down.

Seeing that little bag in the top left of your screen go red can be an utter nightmare. This means your inventory is full and you won't be able to pick up anything else until you get rid of a few things. I've stupidly ended up in this position a few times so here are a few tips to help avoid this situation:

Get more bags. I know this may seem like an obvious suggestion but it can come in very handy. I know it's tempting to look at bags with as many slots as possible but you're only starting out and you're trying to make money. My advice is to look on the trading post for these:

Aren't they pretty? Just search the bag category on the trading post and order your results by price and these will be the cheapest. Coloured leather bags drop frequently from some group events and can be sold on after they've been used so there are loads of them out there. I bought three of these (a blue, a red and a purple as I'm a girl and decided to vaguely co-ordinate them) for 15c total which increased my carrying capacity by 15 slots.

List on the Trading Post.You can put your items up for sale from anywhere, just open the Black Lion Trading Company panel and start selling. You won't be able to pick up your funds unless you're near a Trading Post but at least the items aren't cluttering up your inventory. More about the Trading Post can be found in my previous entry Black Lion 101.

Sell Junk.While out and about you will pick up items that are, quite literally, junk. Small trophies from kills that aren't worth much but clutter up your inventory. They may not be worth a huge amount but they quickly pile up and every little helps. Every time you pass a vendor of any kind stop and check if you have any of these items. When selling to vendors there's a button at the bottom of the panel labelled 'sell junk' this will sell all of these items in one swift click and you'll be good to go again, less encumbered and with more coins in your pocket.

Deposit Collectibles.I was a little unsure over this one but I thought I'd share it nonetheless as it was something I wasn't overly aware of when I started playing the game. Even though you've just started out you may have a particular crafting profession in mind and want to save some crafting materials, or you may want to list all of your items later rather than putting them on the trading post right now. To put crafting materials somewhere safe just right-click on the item and choose 'deposit collectible' or if you want all of your materials out of your bag click on the little gear and choose 'Deposit All Collectibles'. This puts your items into your collection which can be accessed later through a banker or any crafting table.

5) Take part in events.

As you run around you'll always bump into ongoing events, if you're not in a hurry to do something else it's worth stopping and taking part, especially if you're playing a class with suitable Area of Effect attacks. Many events with have waves of bad guys or at least a decent number of mobs so they're great for picking up a lot of drops in a small amount of time. On top of that you get karma, XP and a small amount of money at the end of the event which is a nice bonus.

6) On to the selling!

So, you've done steps 1-5 for a while and your bags are still filling up, it's time to sell, sell, sell! While I covered some of the basics in my Black Lion 101 post here are a few more tips to consider while doing this.

 Check the vendor price of an item. Before you list on the Trading post check how much you'd get for it from a vendor. If you hold your mouse over an item's icon it'll have a listed value, this is what a merchant will pay for it. On the left is the minimum price I could list a bow I had for. The bow was worth 10c to a vendor but if I listed it for the 11c on the trading post I'd only get 9c after fees. While that 1c difference may not seem like much every coin counts and this difference gets larger at the higher levels so it's a good habit to get into.

Know when to undercut and when to price match. Look at the number of listings for a certain item before determining your listing cost. For items like crafting materials a buyer will buy several in one go so if there's not too many of an item listed at a certain price then it may be worth listing at the same price as the current lowest seller. However if there are lots of an item listed at the current lowest selling price then you want to be undercutting. Listing your item for less, even if it's by just 1 copper, puts you to the front of the queue to have your item sold.

Sell to the highest bidder sometimes. Yes, you're out to make the biggest profit you can but sometimes the difference between the highest bidder and lowest seller is just a copper. Selling to the highest bidder at this point gets you immediate money.

A couple more tips.

If you pick up an Unidentified Dye (or a couple) in your travels, don't identify it. Instead put it right on the Trading Post. If you identify a dye there's a high chance you'll get a common dye that will sell for about 70c but unidentified it'll sell for several silver. I sold this one for 14 silver (I probably could have held out and got that up to 15s but I wanted to complete this guide so went for quicker sales).

You'll also likely pick up a Black Lion Chest or two. These sell for next to nothing but don't throw them away, keep hold of a few (even if you just throw them in your bank). At the end of the first part of your personal story you'll get a key to unlock a chest. A Black Lion Chest will contain random buff items and other such goodies. I advise keeping multiples of the chests as there is a chance your chest will contain another key!

Enjoy your seed money!

Roselli is now level 10, has completed the first part of her personal story and has explored 63% of the Metrica Province. I followed the steps I detailed above while doing this and she now has a chunk of money that could be used for investment, over a gold in fact!

Obviously results will vary based on the market and on luck but these tips should help you earn your investment money.

There are several things you can invest in but I'll get around to that in future posts.

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.