ROCKtropia: Noob questions

not a trader, but I can try and answer some of your questions:

1) How i know in which price, buy the ores etc ?
Well that's the part you need to figure out and the only way to do that is study the marked. The trick is to buy low and sell high, it is as easy as that. But like in the real world, gold might seem to be at a low price so you buy it and of course right after that they find a big new gold vein and prices drop even more.

2) What factors should i look ?
Don't know what you mean here.

3) Which items should i aim to buy mostly? (i guess i cant just buy everything)
The once that can make you the most profit. Basically the same answer as the first one. Study the marked and know what is going on on the planets. Big event coming, than chances are the price of weapons will rise a bit, so you should have bought those a few weeks before the event.

4) What is a "good" budget to start be a trader ?
Al depends on you, with little start capital you will be making little money, but you will also loose little money if things go wrong.

5) When should i travel to Calypso or other planets to sell my goods?
Again the same as the first answer. If for some reason some materials or items are more expensive on one planet then on the others you might wanna sell them elsewhere. Just take in account the money it takes to travel between planets.

6) What formula can i use to understand how low in % i can go and still make some profit ? (for players who want to sell big amounts of ores to me etc and i have to make a difference price)
As long as the cost is less then the income you will profit. So if you know you can sell something at 105% you can buy it at 104.9% and still make a profit. Problem is than when your buyer decides to only buy at 104% you are loosing money.

7) What kind of columns should i need in a spreadsheet in order to keep an eye of my sales? (i guess i have to make one since i cant find anything in the web)
Can be anything you wanna keep track off. I think I would go with. Item name, Item amount, buy price, sale price, buy %, sale %, profit/loss, buy planet, sale planet, buy person, sale person

8) How "orders" can affect my price ?
Orders in auction is usually a quick sale, but are also usually below Market Value

9) What are the rules for advertise your business without spam the trade channel?
Well trade channel is the only way to have direct advertisement. You could use the ingame ad system, but that is not very dynamic and can not be adjusted on the fly if prices drop or go up

10) Any tips in general ?
Basically the same answer I gave before, learn the market, get to know people, get to know whats going on on all the planets.


Good luck with your quest to become a trader !

 

Hey hey :)
Don't have time to answer now, but will try to give it some time for a proper response later today.

Good Luck starting out :D

 

Pricing can be tricky, dont forget to factor in your auction fees....

Lets use for example an ore that has a stable market history of 115% and a high turnover in auction (several K ped a day sold).
It will likely have orders for 110%
By placing mid page on the first page when sorted by lowest buyout first you can probably get 115.5-116% (sales to orders really lower the average history alot, so you can sell for higher than history usually)

Now you can buy it for 110% and the miner will get fast cash for same price as if he sold to an order, but he wont have to pay for the auction fees.

If you pay 111-113% then he is profiting over what he would by selling to orders enough that he should be happy, and still leaving you 2-4% margin even after your auction fees.


Something else to really consider, esp. if you can afford to hold ores for more than a few days at a time after buying, is that different days of the week trend higher or lower for average markup.

I haven't done anything with auction in quite a while, but I remember when I used to grind drones for Gazz (back when they dropped it) that wed-thurs prices were 2-4% higher than the weekend, so I would hold and even buy other hunters/miners gazz until the time of week that its worth more and list it then.

Note: don't cut the margins too close though.... Prices can fluctuate rapidly, and if you only have a 1-2% margin you could find yourself easily in a 2-5% loss overnight by gambling on the wrong item or resource.

 

I mean what areas should i look. The % buyout that this item have in auction house/then the offers. For example if Lysterium lowest buyout in auction house is 111% how much % can i offer in order to be "fair" ?
I would not look at buyout to much as those can be ridiculously high, look at the daily and weekly markup instead, in the item info window of the item

I read that in order to travel safe and not feed my hard earned loot to pirates i have to use a mothership and log off during the flight. How much it cost to travel from RT to Caly? Does the items i carry affect the price i have to pay for mothership and other fees?
Nope, talk to Narfi for more info about space travel.

Another big problem i face my first day as a trader is that since im new every miner, small or big , every crafter small or big is almost "captured" because he have a friend and he sells/buy from him. But i guess i have to fight my way to the top and with time maybe i make my own "regulars" client list
Yep, thats a problem for new traders, you will need to build a client base and still make a profit, good luck.

Thank you very much for your quick and detailed reply.
No problem, happy to help.

 

http://entropiatransport.com/prices/

also I got my post above edited.... internet went down when I clicked 'post' and it jumbled it all up into a mess.