Outsourcing.
Once you have progressed to a point where you are rewarding newbie players with outfits, then you are in a position to outsource some of your more tedious work in gathering. THis lowers profit per unit, BUT has the potential to dramatically increase available stock, thus resulting in greater overall profit.

While you are recruiting your new players and outfitting them, make an offer of part time employment. Sort of like barter, you will outfit them with better than average gear at a fair exchange for whatever commodity you are looking for.
For example, I had 3 newer players who I set up. I offered each a barter system, since gold was hard to get for them. Once they agreed, I gave each a copy of my Ant Quests rune book and in-game written guide (I am a chump for detail), and walked them through the steps to get translocation powders, pet summon balls, and bags of sending. I then set them loose.
Much to my surprise, I found myself with 60K of powder a month!!!!! By trading my gear for the powder, I was able to sell such large quantities at a higher mark-up than average. I also found the regular stocking of bags of sending and translocation powders was a great return incentive for my customers. Talk about a bonanaza!!! The 3 players, until the day I quit (this went on for 10 months or so) still brought me powder, even though the amounts went down as they made other characters, found more interesting things, etc. But as they slowed down, I had more starting, so I was always on the up-slope of supply. And the others starting were recommended to me by the first three!! I had to work even less than I did to start it all.

I then took this idea to other raw materials, arrows, and such. The only thing I never got going for barter was ingots, and that is easy to see why.

Excellent thread...I will definitely be using some of your tips!

And its true, a bit of kindness DOES go a long way. I've had people stop by my shop looking for certain small items (seeds, furniture, stuff like that) that I wasn't selling at the time, and were soooo grateful when I made or gave them the items for free.

Kylana

almost activated an account today. If I do, then I willbe ableto add sooo much more as I re-start. Maybe even get my picture thread going again.

Thats a great idea :cheesy: . LA can always use more vendors and players :grin:

Vepl

Awesome tips! Thankies for the info... it's coming in handy lol.

Actually, I think I might start using my gold on Chessy to buy game time codes and open up another account, so I can have an account on LA. If I do, I will definitely be opening up a small vendor shop :grin:

Kylana

When any of you have time to do some math, could you post if you experience a change in Gold per Week (GPW) from your vendor, and if you think that was because of the tips?

(Visions of becoming the Carlton Sheets of UO Merchanting)

REAL LIFE SUCCESS STORIES FROM REAL LIFE PEOPLE WHO USED THESE TIPS!!!!!
(Would it be, in this case, VIRTUAL STORIES FROM VIRTUAL PEOPLE WHO USED THESE TIPS FOR VIRTUAL SUCCESS?)

Seriously, I am interested in the information though. Since I got card-blocked last night, hearing some feedback will help me fend off the UO jiters.

Actually Paul, I have a question for you. How much do you price 120+ luck items for? I have quite a few I've enhanced, as well as some around the 105-115 range, that I'd like to sell. I don't want to sell too high, but I don't want to get ripped off either, as I tend to break a LOT of good items before an enhancement succeeds. Usually I don't bother with armor and weapons vendors, as I don't have the faintest idea as to how to price things like that, but I've got a lot of good armor backstocked in my house that I'll probably never use, and I'd like to clear some stuff out to make room....(for more stuff, obviously, haha!)

I'm on Chessy, if that helps.

In fact....if any of you legendary shop owners out there would like to visit and take a look at my shop...I'd love some tips from the professionals! What I need, my prices too high/low, etc. etc. The coords are 83o29'S 3o30'W. If you go to Destard and run either east or west around the entire mountain range, you'll find it on the north side of the mountains. Its called the Kawaii House Vendor Shop.

Kylana

I wish I could give you a price range Kylana. I do not play anymore, so I could not even begin to guess. I can give you what I used to use, but you would really have to shop around a bit and see what others sell it for.

Medable 120 was 120k
Non Med was 60K.

It also depends on the other stats. Medable 120 luck with LRC would be worth much more. Around 400k total, depending on the amount of LRC.

Meddable 120+ with 40+ total resists would be worth a ton as well, since it fits better for warriors.

As a general guidline, for plain luck over 120, i used two simple formulas
Medable = luck *1k
Non-Med = luck * .5k

For 105-115
Med = Luck * .5k
Non-Med = Luck * .25K

Another way to use those would be to assemble them into suits, with decent resists. Sell them as a whole package deal. You would not believe the people that jsut want a luck suit. Assemble medable and non-med versions.

Wish I could give more guidance.

Thanks for the tips, Paul! I'll use your formulas and see how they do...and I will definitely try arranging everything into suits too.

Kylana