UOForums Interviews Bob from UOTreasures.

**Adam** · 15th July 2006, 07:31 PM

Bob from UOTreasures.com took some time out to answer some of our broker related questions.

Thanks Bob for a great interview!

Question:

1) How did you get started in brokering?

We started back in 1998. We purchased 1 million gold for $400 from a person in California, after struggling for months to accumulate 10k in the game on our own. We then started selling off gold in lots of 10k on ebay ourselves, and it turned out to be something that people really wanted. We then bought accounts from other players and started selling off the items.

Question:

2) Do you still play the game, or is it all about working the system now?

Yes, some of us still play on the GL shard getting powerscrolls, artifacts and just having a good time hanging out.

Question:

3) How long have you been playing, and brokering?

We started playing UO in early 1998. Started brokering and selling on ebay in late 1998.

Question:

4) Any advice for would-be brokers?

At this point it would be tough to become a broker since most brokers in UO are well established. But the best way would be to always be in honest in your game dealings and to try and establish a name for yourself in game.

Question:

5) Would you like to put to rest the rumors surrounding the gathering of the goods that you sell. It has been said before numerous times that they are obtained illegaly. So question is, how are the goods obtained in such large quantities and spread over soo many shards?

Basically, we have been buying and selling accounts for almost 9 years. Many of the unique items we sell on ebay are sold on consignment for other players. For example, the owner of a well known rares museum on Europa decided to quit the game. She came to us to sell all of her rares for her via consignment on ebay. We charge 25% for these consignments, but that includes paypal and ebay fees which can run as high as 15% alone. Of course, this caused anti-ebayers to post that we were selling duped rares on ebay (despite the fact she was selling one of each item). In addition, if you look at our auctions, we list just every artifact available on every shard. We do NOT have all of these in stock. The truth is we might sell 1-2 of these auctions per day - and we have a very large network of players in game who supply us with these items. For example, on the Catskills shard, we might have a list of 100 people who buy and sell artifacts in game. So if someone buys a spirit of the totem on the Catskills shard, we send out a message to our Catskills suppliers and buy it from whoever has it in the game. If none of our suppliers on Catskills has a spirit of the totem we buy it on another shard and xshard it to Catskills. This is how we have done things for the past 9 years! These large networks of players enable us to get just about any item on any shard when needed. So though it looks like we have an infinite amount of items, in truth these are just all of the items in our store and we are very confident in our ability to get these items quickly as needed. Additionally, with the advent of the xshard program, we are able to move items from shard to shard as needed. As far as gold, we get gold from people who come to us to sell large amounts wholesale. We also get gold from brokering deals for other players. Lastly, we get gold from buying accounts and selling off the items in game and we can also move gold from shard to shard as needed. If all of our auctions sold on ebay at the same time we would be very, very busy. But this has never came close to happening in the 9 years we have been doing this. Hope this answers all of the questions.

Question:

6) How do you maintain levels of gold and other items to meet demand?

See above. We buy accounts, and have a huge network of suppliers that get us the things we need in game. The xshard program also made things much easier.

Question:

7) How much of yoiur time do you devote to brokering? Is it a job or a hobby?

We do this full time and have done so since 2000. Currently, we sell virtual items in 15 different games with more games on the horizon.

Question:

8) What percentage above cost do you charge on the gold and other items you sell? What affects changes in the percentage?

We usually shoot for a 30% profit – this allows us to pay the people who do the work, pay for hosting, advertising, ebay fees, etc. The percentage doesn’t change much, but to remain competitive we have to have prices in the range of other sellers.

Question:

9) Do brokers have any informal agreements amongst themselves about the price of gold? Why or why not?

In the distant past, brokers did work together to keep things stable. However, in the past 6 months there have been many new sellers that have come to ebay with an infinite amount of gold. It is pretty obvious that these brand new sellers did not get these billions of gold legitimately. When UO announced it deleted the 15 trillion in gold out of the game, all of these new sellers disappeared. Coincidence? Probably not.

Question:

10) How has your business changed since you started? What brought about the changes?

In the beginning, we exclusively bought and sold accounts. We bought large accounts from people leaving the game and then broke them up for sale on our website and ebay. As more and more in-game brokers started to exist, we started buying their gold at wholesale rates. This allowed these brokers an easy route to sell their gold from brokering in-game transactions, and gave us a constant source of gold.

Question:

11) Brokers play a critical role in influencing the UO economy. We can't live without you, but can EA/UO live with a third party organization affecting the mechanics of the game? Care to comment?

I don’t think we directly affect the mechanics of the game. We buy and sell items that already exist in the game and distribute them to people who want to purchase them. We do NOT create items in the game in any way, shape or form. We simply provide an avenue for people to buy and sell these items that ALREADY EXIST. Ebaying UO items has been around since 1998. Hundreds of thousands of UO customers have purchased these items on ebay in this time. In fact, some people believe without this real life value of items, UO wouldn’t even be around today. The game mechanics/graphics haven’t changed much since 1997. Are there any other games that have been around since 1997 in an unchanged state that still thrive? The most popular game in 1997 was Duke Nukem and the Nintendo 64 – anyone still play these? Obviously, there is something else keeping UO alive and popular. Additionally, if this wasn’t something that the people playing the game wanted, we wouldn’t still be here after all of this time. Currently, UOtreasures get over 1,000 orders per day across 15 different games. We get over 30,000 visitors per day to our site. Someone needs to tell all of these people that they don’t want to buy these things.

If you pay close attention to the posters who are always complaining about ebay on the stratics forums – you will notice it is the same, very vocal group that post messages over and over again (and have for years). Just because a small group of people have a lot of time on their hands and like to post on message boards, this does not mean they speak for the majority of players. The majority of players do want this service, they vote daily on our websites and ebay with their dollars. Many people cannot play a game every waking moment – they have families or want to go outside every once in a while. Our service allows these people to play the game they love without sacrificing every hour of their free time. If these people were unable to purchase these game items, and were then not able to compete with the people who are able to play all the time – do you think they would keep playing? I don’t think so. This would mean the game would then consist mainly of a small group of fanatical players who don’t do much else but play the game. Doesn’t sound like much fun to me?

As far as affecting the mechanics of the game, there is however another VERY real problem. The scripters and exploiters who manipulate game mechanics to make a quick buck. These exploiters come into a game, drive it into the ground, make as much money as quickly as they can, and then move onto the next game. These people are a real problem for all game companies – but to lump them together with all ebay sellers is ignorant and unjustified. Exploiters who dupe trillions of gold are quite different from honest, well-established sellers that buy from other players.

Question:

12) Were you affected by the most recent UO removal of gold? How?

We were not affected at all. We do not keep large stocks of gold and we simply buy and sell from other brokers at the current market rate. When the gold was removed the wholesale rate went back up, we still keep our same 30% margins regardless.

Question:

13) What steps do you take to give a competitive service against other brokers.

We offer 24/7 delivery and try to offer superior customer service. We are also affiliated with markee dragon brokers for in-game brokering needs. We are also the largest and oldest UO seller around.

Question:

14) How do you stay competitive but in pocket?

We buy items at wholesale rates and sell them at retail rates. The market price of good is affected drastically by exploiters – but this doesn’t affect us in any way except by changing the rates we buy and sell at. Anytime we catch wind of exploits/scripters or other problems in the game, the first thing we do is to contact EA and let them know about it. In the past, honest brokers have been responsible for alerting EA to many of these problems quickly so they can get them fixed. Again, UO sellers are not the same as exploiters, and exploiters are a pain in our !!! just like they are everyone else’s.

I’d like to leave you with my favorite UO selling quote, written by Raph Koster aka Designer Dragon, aka Holocron and Omicron – one of the creators of UO, SWG, and the new MMORPG Tabula Rasa: (Raph Koster, 2000 – 7 years ago )

Quote: